Baleal Sul Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, Rusty here, and I’ve got the lowdown on Baleal Sul. Gonna be honest with you, this is one of those stretches where Mother Nature just isn’t playing ball for surfers. The whole 16-day window is looking pretty grim for a proper paddle session.

The real story here is the lack of any decent, rideable surf. The swell sticks to small, weak pulses, and the wind is almost always a problem. For the first week and a half, we're talking tiny waves – all under 3 ft – with a weak wave energy. The combined swell energy barely gets into triple digits (the best we see is 131), so there’s just no power behind them. The water temp is sitting at 65°, about 2° cooler than average for this time of year, so it's a touch cool but nothing wild.

Let’s walk through it. Wednesday the 8th is a write-off: 3 ft from the NNW at a short, weak 5 seconds, with a messy cross-on wind. Thursday through Saturday the 11th is more of the same – knee-high junk. Saturday morning the 11th actually goes glassy with a 2 ft NW groundswell (11 sec period), but the wave energy is still weak (109) and the swell is too small to do anything with.

Sunday morning the 12th is the closest we get to something. It’s glassy again, with a 2 ft NW swell, and the energy bumps up to 131. It’s technically surfable, but it’s ordinary, just barely a 1-out-of-10 kind of morning. If you’re desperate for a log and a paddle, that’s your best bet, but don’t expect any real waves.

After that, the rest of the first week and into the second week is a total dud. We drop back to tiny 1 ft swells with no energy.

Now, here’s the kicker. Around the 19th of July, things get chunky, but it’s no good for surfing. The swell jumps up to 7 ft, then 8 ft, and even hits 10 ft on the 20th and 21st. The combined energy becomes strong (over 1000). Sounds good, right? Wrong. The wind is a solid 16 to 22 mph onshore from the N or NNW the whole time. With Baleal Sul being a sheltered beginner beach break, that onshore wind will ruin it completely. It’ll be a messy, blown-out, choppy mess. At that size and with that wind, this setup looks way more interesting for kite surfing than paddle surfing. It’s strictly for experts who don’t mind getting hammered, and even then, the quality will be terrible.

Bottom line: keep your expectations on the floor. The only semi-decent window is that glassy Sunday morning the 12th for a tiny, ordinary surf. Other than that, this stretch is a blank run. It’s a pretty normal situation for this area when the wind locks in from the north like this. Forecasts can change, but for now, don’t bother waxing up.

Rusty.

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