Woolgoolga Back Beach Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright folks, Rusty here. Let's have a good hard look at what Woolgoolga Back Beach has got cookin’ over the next couple of weeks.

Right off the bat, I gotta be straight with ya – this is a tough run. The first solid week or so is a write-off for any decent surfing. We’ve got a lot of windy, messy days to sit through. The swell shows up, but the wind just trashes it. For the beginners out there, this stretch is nothing but frustration, and even for the crew with a bit of experience, it’s a ‘stay on the sand’ kinda week. This beach is exposed to the south-east, and that’s exactly where the wind and swell are coming from, so it’s just a messy, lumpy crossroads for a long while. The combined swell energy is moderate but comes with poor conditions; we see 249 for the morning of Sunday the 13th, but it’s crossed up and small, and it just gets uglier from there.

The low point hits mid-week, Wednesday the 16th through to Friday the 18th. The swell gets thumping – we’re looking at 10ft from the SSE on Thursday the 17th with a combined energy of 1642, which is strong wave energy – but the wind is howling onshore out of the south at 18-28 mph. That is just pure, raw, onshore slop and lumpy chaos. That’s not for surfing, that’s for watching from the car with a coffee. For the experienced ironmen, maybe, but for the rest of us, forget it. The combined energy does drop back to 696 on the morning of Saturday the 19th, and there’s a glimmer.

The standout of the entire outlook, and really the only one worth circling on the calendar, is the morning of Saturday the 19th of September. That’s our highlight. The swell drops to a manageable 5ft, still from the SE, with a period of 11 seconds (groundswell). And look at that wind – a glassy, light north-northeasterly, just a slight air moving. Clean conditions, with a combined energy of 696. For a beach break, that period isn't super long, so it should have a bit of shape to it without getting too straight. It’s not huge, but it’s the only time the stars align for a proper clean, organised wave. The crowds are listed as "sometimes," which at a spot like this for a clean window, means there’ll be a crew out, but it shouldn’t be a zoo.

After that little burst, the wind messes it up again for a few days. The following week has a few moments that look promising on paper, but with a grain of salt. The morning of Thursday the 24th shows a 3ft swell from the SSE, 10-second period, with a clean cross-off breeze (combined energy 253). That’s a small one, but clean. Then on the morning of Friday the 25th, the wind actually goes offshore from the north-west, which is the magic direction for this place. The swell is small at 4ft from the ENE with a short 7-second period, but it’s clean with an energy of 263. The morning of Saturday the 26th is similar – 4ft with a clean cross-off (combined energy 219), but the period is short again at 7 seconds. These are all just small, clean windows in the second week – nothing to get overly excited about, but definitely better than the first week's trash. Long-range and a bit uncertain, but worth checking the cam if you're local.

So bottom line: suffer through the first week-and-a-half of wind and chop, then keep the morning of Saturday the 19th as your target. The second week offers a few clean, smaller days to keep hope alive, but don’t expect any barrels.

Stay patient,
Rusty.

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