West Wittering Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, Rusty here. Let's be honest: the next two weeks at West Wittering are mostly a dud. There's hardly anything for a paddle surfer for the bulk of the forecast. The water is a very unusual 71°F, which is a whopping 8°F warmer than normal for this time of year – feels like a bathtub, but it won't help the waves.

For the first eight days, from Friday, August 14th, right through to the morning of Friday, August 21st, it's a flat spell. The combined swell energy is barely a whisper, sitting in the single digits (6 and lower) for days on end, with plenty of zeros. The swell that does show up is tiny, 0.3ft to 1ft, with short, weak periods. The wind is all over the place, mostly onshore or cross-onshore, chopping up what little texture there is. It's a total write-off. There's a brief window late on Friday the 21st and into Saturday the 22nd where the wind goes clean, but there's simply no swell to work with – zero energy.

We finally get a pulse of energy on the 27th of August, but it's not great. Thursday afternoon sees a 4ft swell from the south, but a period of only 5 seconds and a cross-shore breeze means it's bumpy and weak. The combined energy is only 63 – weak.

The real tease comes on Friday, August 28th. The morning shows a 4ft SW swell building, but the standout is the afternoon: a 6ft swell from the SSW with a period of 8 seconds, and a clean, fresh offshore wind from the NE. The combined energy jumps to 330 (moderate). That's the one. For a few hours, it's the best we'll see.

Saturday, August 29th, keeps the clean conditions with a cross-offshore wind, but the swell drops back to 4ft from the SW with an 8-second period. The energy is still moderate (205 in the morning, 191 in the afternoon). It's rideable, but after the Friday peak, it's a step down.

This is a beach/groyne setup, and the swell is a short-period windswell, so it’ll be a bit fat and close out on the bigger sets. For the standout Friday afternoon, it's around 6ft – that's a bit much for beginners, and the strong offshore wind will make it a battle to get out. For the experienced crew, it's the only game in town.

Other than that Friday afternoon and Saturday, the whole 16-day outlook is a quiet, flat, and windy affair. Sometimes that's just the way it goes here.

Rusty.

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