The Ultimate Guide to Seal Rocks Surf
Our guide to Seal Rocks surf highlights just how jaw-droppingly-beautiful this part of the NSW coast is, and why you can come here to find swells and offshores working almost all year round.
An introduction to Seal Rocks surfing
We cannot overstate how nice it is up at Seal Rocks.
Not all that far from Sydney or Newcastle but super quiet and super beautiful, this series of white-sand beaches and rainforest-dressed headlands is one of our favourite places to escape to on the Mid-Coast.
We won’t pretend that’s because the surf is epic. It’s not really.
There are point breaks north of this that can rival the finest in the world, at Crescent Head, Port Macquarie, and others. Seal Rocks just has a mellow vibe about it, along with some well-angled beaches that can bend just about any wind/swell combo into something clean and offshore.
The settlement itself is real small; little more than a few coast cabins poking out from the eucalyptus woods. But it spreads across three main beaches and provides access to a few more running north and south, all of which have surf potential.
On a NSW road trip? A few days here is a must, as much for the beaches and the views as the surf.
Downsides? It’s a bit sharky and the waves aren’t the uber-long right walls you might be used to from the east coast.
We might use affiliate links in this post. Basically, you click em’ and we get a little something from your booking or purchase. They help us keep offering more and more in-depth surf guides to awesome places all around the globe. So, thanks for that!
This guide is just one part of our complete guide to surfing in Australia, and our guide to surfing in New South Wales
Seal Rocks surf at a glance
The good…
The bad…
What’s in this guide to Seal Rocks surf?
Where is Seal Rocks?
Seal Rocks is a small town on the north side of the Sugarloaf Point, which pokes out of the New South Wales coastline about 17 miles south of the town of Forster and something like 95 miles northeast of Newcastle, the main urban center of the region.
What’s important on the surf front is that Seal Rocks the town faces due north, where S winds are offshore, but it also has access to beaches that face south (AKA opposite offshores/prime swells).
You’ll have to drive to get here. Usually, people do it as either a weekend getaway from Sydney or as part of a bigger NSW road trip.
Coming from the south, take the A1 coast highway and veer off towards Boolambayte. Coming from the north, you can do the same (it’s faster) or take the scenic Lakes Way through the incredible Booti Booti National Park and Forster town.
Looking to rent? Use RentalCars. We’ve used them for Aus and European trips and just like the way they let you cancel up to something like 48 hours before travel on most bookings. Plus, the price is often right 😊…
Seal Rocks surf spots
We think Seal Rocks can legit include the beaches of Booti Booti and Pacific Palms to the north, along with the wilder bays to the south.
Expanding our guide to include them means you might need to drive 30 minutes in either direction to hit all the spots listed below but that’s good to know because they each work in different tide, swell and wind situations.
Seven Mile Beach
If you take the scenic route into Seal Rocks via Forster then you’ll cruise the coast road all the way down Seven Mile Beach. It’s not quite seven miles but it is looong. Also, it’s right inside the Booti Booti National Park.
Stop at the south end near the Beach House Café, which does a great brew by the way! Go through the dunes there and you can get nice protected beach peaks that are wedgy and great fun in the winter, as the SW winds bristle over mellowed-out SE swells.
Boomerang Beach
One of the great spots of the Pacific Palms area, Boomerang Beach can offer up the best banks of any spot north of Seal Rocks.
They usually settle after the winter season’s bigger swells, so tend to be decent throughout spring and summer and then get churned up a bit again as the wilder weather sets in.
Boomerang usually has a bit of a crowd when it’s at its best: 5-9 foot and W offshores blowing.
Blueys
Blueys has a punchy right hander running off the Boomerang Rocks. It’s very consistent since it picks up lots of NE-W swell. The middle of the bay will start going as a bowly shorebreak for some mini rides in the summer months too. Nice and accessible. Usually not too busy.
Cellitos
Cellito Beach draws in the S swells to its rocky head and produces some bombing left handers with a fast take off.
There’s often loads of movement in the water, so you’ll good paddle fitness and the wave is quick and usually pitching, so leave it to the seasoned intermediates and up.
Down the bay a little is Sandbar Beach. Some list that as a separate spot and we can see why as it’s totally different but they are within eyeshot of each other, so we whack em together.
As the name implies it’s a traditional sandbank wave there. Nice, fun peaky and bowly, good for all levels when it’s smaller and the wind is west, otherwise it can get a touch messy.
Number One Beach
Highly exposed to any NE-E swell but protected from the dominant winter S pulses, Number One Beach can be a beauty in the peak of July and August. The dominant southwesterlies breeze perfectly offshore, grooming the lines into glass as they bend into the bay.
They look wonderful, of course, framed by the rugged cliffs in the background, all tufted by lush green forests. The wave is usually smaller than others in the Seal Rocks area because the sets refract and then widen to stretch out along the whole sand.
It’s generally great for longboards and some bigger-volume setups but can also be shortboarded if you like small-wave hotdogging in a gorgeous setting.
There’s a right on the south end of the beach and an A-frame in the center, though huge patches of seaweed gather at the latter and we don’t like that in such a sharky region.
Boat Beach
Boat Beach gets the least amount of swell of all the Seal Rocks spots because it’s tucked behind a rugged rock stack that fragments off Sugarloaf Point to the south. Sometimes there can be a right on the eastern end, which will drift into the sand and create a shorebreak.
Usually it’s still, especially in summer, when Boat is the best place to swim and spot local sea life – we came face to face with a car-sized stingray last time we were about.
Lighthouse Beach
The first beach in Seal Rocks proper that faces due southeast after you’ve gone to the far side of Sugarloaf Point, Lighthouse Beach does well with any N-wind, NE-swell combo, which is when you can see lines bending around the headland and glassing up for 100m or so off the rocks.
I mean there’s almost always swell around here, but the shape of the NSW coast means it can be a bit of a storm magnet and the wind wrecks everything. Quite sharky. Quite rippy. Nah, scratch that – ULTRA rippy.
Treachery Beach
Treachery Beach is another bay around from Lighthouse over the Treachery Headland. It’s very nice indeed, with white-tinted sand and turquoise waters that are famously a spot for dolphin pods.
The banks here are often blasted to nothing by big winter S swells so won’t hold anything over about 6 foot. They do like a smaller swell or wrap-in NE swells, however, which makes this a nice summertime hangout for minimalers and small-wave surfing.
Yagon
Remote Yagon is a postcard vision of the NSW coastline as it should be: Blonde sands, sky-blue seas, a backing of dunes and coastal eucalyptus. It’s lovely.
The waves are okay-ish but also suffer from too much swell in winter and will max out easy. For somewhere protected in the summer then great, plus those NW are tight offshore, so the wedges stay clean and can even hollow out. Usually not busy at all.
There’s a local campground. Watch out for the usuals: Rips, sharks.
Where to stay when surfing in Seal Rocks?
There actually aren’t all that many places to stay in Seal Rocks – it’s a small village!
We’d highly recommend trying to bag somewhere in town, though. There’s nothing quite like waking up and walking out your front door to see the turquoise waters of Boat Beach lapping against the shores below.
Here’s where we’d book and why…
- Sea Shack – A stunning house right on Boat Beach with big outside deck spaces and floor-to-ceiling windows with some fantastic views. Book this if you’re traveling as a fam.
- Surf Shack at Boat Beach – Perfectly located just above Boat Beach, this charming NSW coast home can sleep up to five. You’ll be a walk from the main sands but a short drive from Number One Beach (our fav place to surf around here). The space is verrryyy cool, with epic views of the cerulean waters below and its own wrap-around balcony.
- Seal Rocks Lighthouse Cottages – Recently refurbished by the heritage people who run the Seal Rocks light, these little boltholes are wonderful. They’re where the old lighthouse managers would have stayed back in the day, so retain a classic charm. But they’re stylish to the T, with elegant white and grey interiors and gorgeous patios overlooking the vast Lighthouse Bay.
When to surf in Seal Rocks?
Seal Rocks has surf all year round. In fact, one of the great selling points of the town is that it has beaches that face both NE and SE, so you can basically chase winter and summer swells no matter the month, and usually find somewhere that’s blowing offshore.
The best season is autumn through to winter, as that’s when consistency ups in the Tasman Sea with SE swells pushing up from the roaring lower lattitudes. Yes, this time also suffers from bigger swirling winds around the Sugarload Head, but given the variety of bays and beaches and angles in Seal Rocks, you can often get a clean peak even with strong winds brushing across most beaches, so it’s a solid place to surf in the peak of winter.
Summer can often be flat in key locations like Boat Beach and Number One Beach. However, there are options for when its really small and you need extra exposure, like at Lighthouse Beach or Cellitos and the Pacific Palms to the north, which tend to do better in summer since they like big NE pulses or E swells and work nicely with NW offshores.
We might use affiliate links in this post. Basically, you click em’ and we get a little something from your booking or purchase. They help us keep offering more and more in-depth surf guides to awesome places all around the globe. So, thanks for that!
