August is the top of the temperature curve. 18°C is as warm as this coast goes, which is warm enough that a shorty is a real option for a couple of weeks and warm enough that the sea stops being the deciding factor in whether to go.
Everybody else has worked that out too. The Welsh school holidays run through the month, Llangennith's car park fills by ten and Langland, being one small bay, gets genuinely crowded. Three miles of sand absorbs it better than a bay does, which is the argument for the west end even on days it is smaller.
The swell stays modest until the end of the month, when the first proper Atlantic lows of the autumn start to show. The last week of August on an early swell, with the water still at its maximum, is the closest thing to a free lunch this coast offers.
