You can see that the weather was overcast and that there was a nice onshore breeze blowing. It was threatening to rain all day until about 3pm when the clouds cleared to blue sky. I could see that it was raining in the mountains behind Patong but we stayed dry on the beach.
Note the breaking waves and the red flags flying to warn against swimming. There was a rip current just off shore. That's normal at this time of year. In high season the sea is generally flat as the find comes from the east not the west.
I was surprised at how many people there were around Patong considering that September is one of the quieter months. Weekends are always busier because locals hit the beach and weekenders from KL, Singapore and Bangkok fly in but even so I remember that five or so years ago the beach would've been virtually empty in September.
