Barrinha Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Righto, mate. It’s Rusty here, and I’ve had a good look at the charts for Barrinha. The next couple of days are pretty grim—there’s surfable waves, but they’re ordinary, with not much push behind them. The energy is weak, sitting around 145 (combined energy), and the swell is only 3ft from the east at 8 seconds. That short period is a bit of a bummer for shape. Sunday morning is glassy and clean from a gentle offshore, so you’ll get a few fun ones if you’re keen, but don’t expect any gems.

We’ve then got a real gap from Monday afternoon right through to Wednesday morning. Monday morning is still clean and glassy with 3ft east swell, but the energy drops to 101. After that, the wind gets messy—cross-onshore, choppy, and then it gets worse. For a solid stretch (Monday afternoon, all of Tuesday, and up to Wednesday morning), the waves are poor. Tuesday morning sees onshore winds and 3ft of weak east swell, and everything is blown out. It’s a bit of a dead zone, mate. There’s no surf worth paddling for.

Then things start to wake up on Wednesday morning, the 17th September. That’s your standout window. The swell jumps to 5ft from the south with a long, 12-second period, and the energy jumps up to 711 (combined energy). That’s moderate to strong energy, and with a steady offshore breeze, it’s going to be clean and lined up. Barrinha is fairly consistent, but when it comes in like this, it can be a lot of fun. The swell direction is from the south, which suits this spot well. The period is long enough to give proper shape, but not so long that it breaks too straight. This is the one to get excited about—Thursday morning is the best on offer by a long shot. It might be a bit much for beginners at 5ft, but intermediates will be happy.

After that, it fades back to ordinary again. Thursday afternoon is back to 3ft with a 10-second period, and Friday is a write-off with poor conditions. We get another slight bump around Saturday the 20th with 4ft from the east, but the period is a short 6 seconds, so it’s jumbled and choppy with cross-onshore winds. Not worth your time. Then through the 21st to the 26th, it’s mostly tiny or onshore slop. There’s a slight improvement on Sunday the 22nd with 3ft from the east, but the energy is weak (255) and the period is too short to do much. By the 27th and 28th, it’s dropping right off to 0.5ft—basically nothing. The water is about average for this time of year, no real anomaly to speak of.

So, the long and short of it: it’s a pretty bleak outlook for the next 16 days, but that Thursday morning (17th) is the standout—clean, 5ft south swell, long period, decent energy. If you can get out then, you’ll be laughing. The rest is a grind. A couple of the cross-onshore days with onshore winds and short-period swell—like Tuesday and some afternoons—look more interesting for kiting than surfing, honestly. Keep the hopes up for that Thursday, though.

Rusty out.

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