Third Reef Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, this is Rusty. Let’s have a look at what’s coming up for Third Reef.

The next sixteen days start off slow with a few little windows of clean glass, but honestly, it’s a bit of a mixed bag for a while. The standout moment here is the Saturday afternoon session on the 15th of August. That’s the best we’ve got on offer. The swell is small at 3 ft out of the SSW with a very long period of 17 seconds, running off a solid 679 (moderate wave energy). But the real story is the wind: it’s going glassy, dead calm from the NW at 5 km/h. That’s going to make the lineup smooth as silk. It’s a reef break exposed to the WNW, which isn’t exactly the optimum direction for a SSW swell, but the quality of the conditions should make up for it. The water temp is about average for the time of year.

Sunday the 16th looks nearly as good, also with a 3 ft SSW swell and glassy conditions in the afternoon. Again, it’s a light air situation with NW winds at 5 km/h, giving you those same clean, smooth faces.

The following week gets a bit messy. The swell picks up on the 22nd of August (Saturday) with a 5 ft NW swell hitting that afternoon, and it’s glassy again, but the period drops to 8 seconds – that’s a short-period, weak windswell, not a proper groundswell. It’s going to be on the choppier side and pretty inconsistent quality-wise. The combined energy reading (487) is moderate but the short period makes it less appealing for a reef. For the rest of that week into the end of the month, the wind is mostly cross-onshore and the surf quality is poor, with a lot of chop. There’s a bigger spike on the 26th (Wednesday) afternoon with a 7 ft NW swell, but the wind is still cross-onshore, so the shape will be messy. By the 27th and into the 28th, waves get up to 7 ft and 6 ft, but the wind stays cross-onshore with a moderate breeze, making it rough. That’s expert-only territory due to size, but the conditions don't cooperate.

The last few days of the window show a bit of a switch back to a longer period SSW groundswell on the 28th afternoon (3 ft, 18 seconds, 1158 strong energy) and again on the 30th (3 ft, 13 seconds), but the wind remains cross-onshore or cross-shore, so it’s still marginal at best.

If you’re not fussy, the clean windows on Saturday and Sunday the 15th and 16th are your only real bet. Beyond that, it’s mostly cross-onshore chop and short-period windswell, not worth getting excited about.

Stay stoked.
- Rusty

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