Atalaia (Molhes) Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, listen up, grab ya board. It’s Rusty here, and I’ve been staring at the charts for Atalaia for the next couple of weeks. Let’s just say it’s a mixed bag, but there’s a couple of windows that will be worth paddling out for.

First thing you gotta know – there’s a real dry spell coming our way. After a bit of action over the weekend, things go pretty quiet from Monday the 1st through to roughly Wednesday the 9th. It’s not going to be completely flat, but those conditions are going to be rough – poor surf with onshores and chop. Best to save your energy for the clearer windows.

Now, let’s get into the good stuff because there *is* some on offer.

The first real standout you should circle is Friday morning, August 28th. I’m talking clean surf, a nice little 5ft ENE swell rolling in with an 8-second period. Combined swell energy at 270 shows moderate energy in the water. The wind is light and cross-offshore, which has the surface looking clean and inviting. That’s your classic “drop everything and go” kind of morning at Atalaia (Molhes). That 5ft is perfect for the intermediate crew – not too big, but enough to get some fun ones.

Then we have another juicy window right at the end of the month. Monday morning, August 31st, is looking glassy with a 4ft E swell and a 9-second period. That’s another clean one with good energy at 268. But for my money, the standout of the whole run is Thursday morning, September 3rd. This is where the charts really light up. The swell jumps a touch to 5ft from the SSE, and the period lengthens to a proper 10 seconds. The combined energy is up at 547, which is the strongest we’ll see in this whole forecast window. That longer period is key – it brings in better shaped, pushier waves, and the WSW wind is dead glass. This will be the best combination of size, shape, and clean surface all week. If you can only get out once, this is the morning.

Now, the other few days in between are a bit of a mixed story. Saturday the 29th has surf, but the winds go onshore and murk it up. The 30th is small and poor. Tuesday the 1st and Wednesday the 2nd have some promise, especially Wednesday morning, Sep 2nd, which is glassy with a 4ft SE swell but it’s a longer-period (12s) groundswell. Be careful on that one – it’s not the best for a beach/jetty setup; sometimes that long period just makes it sectiony. The energy jumps to 427 there, so it’s got grunt, but it might be a little shifty.

After that 3rd of September, it’s a long, slow grind. The swell drops out, winds get messy, and the forecast just looks poor. There’s not a single decent option from the 4th through to the 12th. For the most part, it’s small, onshore junk. The 12th of September actually has some size – 5ft – but it’s coming with 15 mph SSE winds and a short 6-second period, which is a recipe for closeouts and windblown chaos. I’d skip it.

So, bottom line: get on the Friday morning session on the 28th and the Thursday morning on the 3rd of September. That’s your best bet for quality waves at Atalaia. The rest is filler.

This is Rusty, signing off. See you in the water.

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