Three Peaks Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, this is Rusty, and I’ve got the outlook for Three Peaks. Gotta be straight with you – it’s a rough stretch ahead. The next 16 days are looking pretty grim for decent waves here. We’re talking about a long, long wait before anything even remotely rideable shows up.

The water right now is much warmer than usual for this time of year, sitting at 67°, which is about 6° above the norm. That’s a real oddity, but it won’t help the surf.

The beginning of the period is a write-off. From Monday the 3rd of August straight through to Saturday the 8th, it’s all poor surf conditions. The wind is either onshore, cross-on, or just messy, and the swell is tiny and weak. The combined swell energy is barely a whisper, with values like 96 (on Monday afternoon) and then dropping to a pathetic 14 by Saturday morning. The swell is small, short-period, and blown out. Kite surfers might find something to do in the 4ft to 6ft swell on the 4th and 5th with the 15 to 18 mph winds, but for a paddle surfer, it’s hopeless.

We finally get a tiny glimmer of hope on Sunday the 9th of August. Sunday morning brings a clean, cross-off wind from the ESE, and the water is glassy. The swell is still only 3ft from the WSW with a 7-second period, and the combined energy is a weak 68. The report says it’s "surfable waves but very ordinary conditions." It’s a score of 1 out of 10. For a beginner, on a fairly consistent break like Three Peaks, you might be able to catch a few tiny ones, but don’t expect anything with any punch. The crowds are sometimes there, so you might have company for the small dribblers.

Then we go right back into a deep freeze. From Monday the 10th of August all the way to Saturday the 15th, it’s another week of basically nothing. The swell drops to 0.3ft, the energy is down to single digits, and the wind is either onshore or cross-off but with no wave to work with. It’s just a flat spell.

The only other potential highlight is a very long way off – Tuesday the 18th of August. The morning shows a glassy, calm wind with a 3ft swell from the west at 6 seconds. The combined energy is still only 84, and it’s described as "surfable waves but very ordinary conditions." Again, a score of 1. That’s the best we’ve got, and it’s still pretty ordinary. The period is short, so it’s not going to be a clean, lined-up wave.

The best on offer? There’s no standout here. The only two days that are even surfable are Sunday the 9th and Tuesday the 18th, and both are just barely rideable. If you’re desperate, Sunday morning with the clean, glassy conditions might be the least bad, but you’re still looking at weak, small waves. For a beginner, the 3ft swell on the 18th with glassy conditions could be a safe, easy session, but don’t expect any power.

The rest of the 16 days is a big gap of flat, blowy, or just tiny junk. It’s a blank run that’s pretty normal for the area when the swell just doesn’t show up. Forecasts can change, but right now, I’d leave the board in the car.

Rusty.

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