The South Jetty Surf Forecast and Surf Report

G'day, Rusty here. Look, I've been staring at the charts for The South Jetty, and I gotta be straight with you… it's a tough stretch ahead. The water is way warmer than usual for this time of year, sitting at 78°F, which is a pretty big anomaly, but that's about the only notable thing happening for a while. The 16-day window starts with a real lull. For the first week and a half, from Sunday the 5th of July right through to the 12th, the surf is tiny and mostly messy. We're looking at wave heights barely pushing 1ft to 3ft, with short periods, and cross-onshore breezes making a mess of things. It's gonna be a battle just to get a boggy little roll.

There's a flicker of something on Saturday the 11th of July afternoon. The wind goes glassy, and while the swell is still only 2ft from the E, the energy (55) is weak. I wouldn't call it a standout, but if you're desperate, it's about the closest you'll get to a surfable wave in that first week.

Now, the second week gets more interesting, but for the wrong reasons for us paddlers. Monday the 13th of July sees a jump in swell height to 5ft from the E, with a moderate cross-shore wind. The combined energy ticks into three digits at (201), which is a sign of some real push. But the wind is all wrong. This setup is gonna be lumpy and bumpy, and honestly, that's looking more like a kite session than anything for a surfboard.

Tuesday the 15th of July holds around 2ft from the S, but cross-shore winds are still on it. Then we get into Thursday the 16th of July, with a tiny 1ft S swell but finally some offshore wind from the WNW. It'll be clean, but there's nothing to ride. The energy (12) is barely a ripple.

The best of a bad bunch looks to be Saturday the 18th of July. The swell is 5ft from the S, with moderate energy (387) for the morning. But it's still cross-shore, so it won't be clean. The period is short at 7 seconds, so it'll be a bit fat and sectiony.

Then Sunday the 19th of July drops the biggest swell of the whole run at 7ft from the S, with strong energy reading (836). This is proper size, getting into expert-only territory for sure. The problem is it's cross-onshore, making it a bit of a messy beast. With a short period of 8 seconds, it's likely to be stormy and hard to manage.

Truth is, there are no true standouts here. It's a long, flat, or messy run at The South Jetty. Keep the board in the car just in case a window of clean, tiny surf opens, but don't hold your breath. The conditions are against us this time.

Rusty.

Read more