West Wittering Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Hey folks, Rusty here. Let me be straight with you – this is a tough one. We're looking at a 16-day window for West Wittering, and to be honest, there's nothing on the table that's going to get the pulse racing. The whole period is marked by "poor surf conditions" with no standout sessions, so we're in a real dry spell.

The water temperature is sitting at a very unusual 71°F, which is "much warmer than normal" for this time of year – a full 9°F above average. That's a real anomaly, but unfortunately, the swell just isn't cooperating.

We start off on Thursday afternoon, the 20th of August, with a messy WSW wind blowing at 19 mph straight onshore. There's a 3ft swell from the SW, but it's a short, weak 4-second period with weak combined energy (21), and with that onshore wind, it's not worth bothering with.

Friday the 21st offers a glimmer of hope in the morning. The wind swings to a cross-offshore NNE breeze at 12 mph, cleaning things up, but the swell has dropped to a pathetic 0.3ft from the South. The periods are long at 10 seconds, but with combined energy at just 3, it's effectively flat. Friday afternoon goes glassy with a light WSW breeze, but again, with 0.3ft of swell, it's a total washout.

This pattern continues for days. We see a week-long gap with nothing worth paddling out for. From the 22nd through to the 28th of August, the swell is either non-existent or tiny, with most readings showing zero or barely 0.3ft. The wind windows are often cross-offshore or clean, like on Monday the 24th with a strong 25 mph easterly keeping things clean, but there's just no swell to work with.

We finally see a slight pulse on Saturday the 29th. The afternoon brings 4ft of SW swell, which is the biggest we'll see, but the period is a short 4 seconds and the wind is a fresh cross-onshore W breeze at 19 mph. Combined energy is moderate at 55, but that wind is going to chop it all up. It's a poor effort.

The biggest combined energy comes on Sunday the 30th of August morning, with 4ft of SW swell (6-second period) and a reading of 91, but it's being hammered by a fresh SSW onshore wind at 22 mph. Same story for the afternoon – 2ft swell, 45 energy, but still onshore.

We then fall back into a pattern of tiny 0.3ft to 1.0ft waves with messy winds right through to the 3rd of September. The last glimmer is on the morning of Friday the 4th of September. We have 3ft of SW swell with a 6-second period, moderate energy (54), and the wind is a light, cross-offshore NNE breeze at 6 mph. That's the cleanest the conditions will be, but 3ft with a short period on a beach/groyne setup like West Wittering is just not going to produce anything rideable. The setup here looks more interesting for a kite surfer than a paddle surfer on most of these days.

Honestly, this is a blank run. With an "inconsistent" rating and no quality forecasts in the whole 16-day window, it's one of those periods where you don't bother checking the forecast. It won't stay poor forever, and forecasts can change, but for now, the boards are staying in the van.

Rusty.

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