Atalaia (Molhes) Surf Forecast and Surf Report

G’day, it’s Rusty here, and let’s be straight with you: the next couple of weeks are a proper mixed bag for the Atalaia stretch. We’ve got some windows of clean, contestable surf, but there’s also plenty of chop, cross-shore junk, and a few days where you’d be better off waxing the kiteboard than the shortboard. The early part of the run is, honestly, pretty flat and ordinary. Don’t get too excited about the first few days.

Wednesday and Thursday (the 5th and 6th) are all about tiny, weak waves. The swell is only around `2ft` out of the east, with a short period of just 7 to 8 seconds. It’s surfable on a longboard, but the energy is low—we’re talking `87` and `80` on the combined energy scale. Wednesday morning is glassy though, which is a major plus, and Thursday morning has a clean look with a light offshore touch. It’s not going to be a classic, but if you’re desperate for a paddle, the mornings are your friend. The afternoons get a bit crossed up.

Friday the 7th sees the swell nudge up to `3ft` from the ENE, but the period is still short. The morning is clean with a light offshore and looks like the best of this early batch. The energy is still weak at `93`, so it’s more about getting wet than getting barreled. The afternoon turns poor as a cross-onshore breeze picks up to `12 mph`.

The weekend is where it gets messy. Saturday the 8th has a new SE swell filling in with a much longer period of 12-13 seconds. The energy jumps up to `238` in the afternoon, which is moderate, but the wind is all over the place. Saturday morning is poor with a cross-shore, but the afternoon goes glassy with `2ft` of swell. That glassy afternoon is the one window, but it’s tiny. Sunday the 9th is a write-off: `4ft` of swell but a howling `12 mph` cross-onshore breeze making it choppy and poor. The energy is strong at `453`, but the quality is junk.

Into the new week, Monday the 10th is poor, Tuesday the 11th is poor with a short-period, wind-affected `4ft`. Wednesday the 12th is marginal, and the same goes for the 13th and 14th. The swell is there, but the wind keeps ruining the party. The energy on the 14th is solid—`358`—but it’s raining and cross-on. Not worth the drive.

Now, here’s where things start to get interesting. Saturday the 15th of August, the afternoon is looking like the standout of the whole period. The wind drops to a glassy calm, and the swell picks up to `5ft` from the ENE. The energy is `396`, and the comment says it all: “expect good surf conditions.” This is your day. The combo of clean conditions and a decent push of swell makes it the pick of the bunch. Get on it.

Sunday the 16th is marginal again, with a cross-on breeze. Monday the 17th has a clean, offshore morning with `4ft` of ENE swell, and the energy is a bit weaker at `218`, but it’s still surfable. Tuesday the 18th has a morning clean-up with `3ft`, but the afternoon sees a big jump in swell to `6ft` from the SSE with a period of 10 seconds. The energy is massive at `843`, but the wind is straight onshore, making it a gutless, blown-out mess. That’s more of a kite-surfing setup than a paddle-surfing one.

The last two days, the 19th and the 20th, have some promise. Wednesday the 19th morning is clean with a cross-off wind and `4ft` of SE swell, period 11 seconds. The energy is `329`, and it’s rated as good. The afternoon turns poor though. Thursday the 20th morning is the final decent window: clean, `3ft` of SE swell, and `321` energy. Again, it’s a morning session.

So, bottom line: the water temp is about average for this time of year, so nothing weird there. The standout is clearly the Saturday afternoon session on the 15th. The secondary pick is the morning of the 19th. Everything else is a bit of a lottery, and the longer-range stuff is promising but less certain. Keep the expectations low for the first week, and save your energy for that Saturday glass.

Rusty.

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