Westward Ho Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright mate, Rusty here. Let’s have a proper look at what Westward Ho! has got brewing for us.

Straight up, this is a grim outlook for the next week and a half. The finder is a ghost town for most of the period, and the wave energy is pretty weak. We’ve got a long stretch of poor conditions with onshore and cross-onshore winds that are going to keep things messy. The water's sitting at 66°F at the start, which is much warmer than usual for this time of year – a bit of a tropical surprise for Devon.

For the first week, from Saturday the 29th of August right through to the afternoon of Sunday the 6th of September, it’s all "poor surf conditions." The swell is a mix of weak SW and WSW windswell, mostly under 7ft, but the wind is a nightmare. On Saturday the 29th, we’ve got a 3ft SW swell with a short 6-second period and only 71 units of energy, all cross-shore. It’s not worth paddling out. The middle of the week sees a bit of a bump – Monday the 31st hits a 8ft W swell with 950 units of energy, but it’s cross-onshore and lumpy, so it’s more of a washing machine than a wave. That kind of size with that wind is only for the nutters, and even then, it’s grim.

There’s a glimmer, though. The only standout in the whole 16-day window is the morning of Monday the 7th of September. We’ve got a 6ft swell from the west, with a period of 10 seconds and a solid 546 units of energy. The wind is glassy, coming from the NNE at just 3 mph. That’s the cleanest window we’ll see. The swell direction is WNW, which is bang on the optimum for Westward Ho! The sets will have some shape, but with a 10-second period, it’s a mid-range groundswell, not too long. The water temp will still be mild, but we don’t have an anomaly for that date. This is the one to aim for: a decent-sized, clean morning with no crowds mentioned, so it could be a nice, quiet session. But don’t get too excited – the afternoon goes straight back to poor conditions with a cross-onshore breeze.

After that, it’s back to the doldrums. The rest of the second week, from the 8th to the 13th of September, is a write-off. Swell drops to under 4ft, periods are short, and the wind is all over the place – onshore, cross-on, and strong. The energy values are pathetic, often below 100. There’s a brief moment on the morning of the 9th with a clean cross-offshore wind from the ESE, but the swell is only 4ft from the WNW with a 6-second period and just 117 units of energy. It’s small, weak, and the period is too short for any real power. Not worth the wetsuit.

So, to sum it up: the only window worth paddling out for is the morning of Monday the 7th of September. Everything else is a hard pass. The gap between the last poor day and that standout is a few days of nothing, and after it, it’s more of the same. If you’re desperate, you might find a kite in the windier, lumpier days, but for the surfboard, save your energy for that one glassy morning.

Rusty.

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