The Rivermouth Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Gather ’round, folks. Rusty here. We’ve got a full sixteen-day window ahead for The Rivermouth. This break is a tricky one – a sandbar setup that’s rare to see offering anything proper. It likes a good, solid SSW direction to fire, and we’ve got that in the mix, but there’s a heap of waiting to do before anything good shows up.

Right now, and for the next few days, it’s mostly a write-off. Tuesday the 1st of September through to Thursday the 3rd are all poor. The swell is small, mostly 2 ft to 3 ft, and the wind is cross-onshore, messing things up. The water temp is sitting at 59°, which is pretty normal for this time of year – nothing unusual there.

Things start to twitch on Friday morning the 4th. That morning we’ve got 3 ft of SSW groundswell (18-second period), and the wind goes glassy. Glassy! That’s a major positive. The combined energy hits 923 (moderate wave energy), and the forecast says “expect good surf conditions”. That Friday morning slot is the first real standout in the whole outlook. It’s a real gem.

The swell hangs in there for the weekend, but the wind gets a bit cross or cross-on, so the quality drops to marginal. Saturday morning the 5th has 3 ft at 16 seconds, but the wind is cross-on again – frustrating stuff.

Now, here’s the best of the best: Monday the 7th of September and Tuesday the 8th. Monday morning kicks off with the swell shifting a touch more S, hitting 4 ft at 17 seconds, and the wind is glassy. That afternoon, the swell bumps up to 5 ft, period 15 seconds, with a clean cross-offshore breeze. This is solid head-high groundswell, proper energy in the water (881 combined energy), and it's going to be clean. This is the highlight – the stand-out session of the entire sixteen days. Tuesday the 8th is also excellent: 4 ft SW groundswell in the morning with glassy conditions, then 4 ft in the afternoon with that same clean cross-off wind. That’s two days of proper, clean waves at a break that almost never offers anything.

After that, the end of the second week goes quiet again. A little bump on the 11th (Friday), but the winds are onshore. By the 15th and 16th, the swell swings around to the WNW with a short, weak period of 8-9 seconds. That’s small, disorganised, and barely surfable – about 3 ft to 4 ft with combined energy under 360. For a break that is rare to work at all, this is a total flat spell, and that’s pretty normal for The Rivermouth.

So, to sum it up: there are a few days of proper, glassy clean waves on the 4th, 7th, and 8th of September. The 7th and 8th are the true standouts. The rest is for the kites or the walk. This break is rarely breaking, so when it does, you have to be in the water.

Rusty.

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