Boucau Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright folks, Rusty here, looking out at the coming swell window for Boucau. Gotta be straight with you – this forecast is a long, flat road before we hit some real juice, but it’s all about timing when it finally arrives.

We’ve got a rough start. The water is sitting at 25°, which is much warmer than normal for this time of year – feels like a bath out there, but there’s nothing to ride. For the first few days, right through Monday the 17th, Tuesday the 18th, and Wednesday the 19th, it’s all tiny, weak, and bumpy. You’re looking at swell under 3 ft with short periods around 6 or 7 seconds, and the energy is almost non-existent, reading between 15 and 62 on the scale. The wind is mostly cross-on or glassy, but there's no power behind it. Total write-off.

Now, things start to stir on Thursday morning the 20th. We get a bit of a pulse – a clean 4 ft swell out of the NW with a much longer 11-second period, pushing the combined energy up to 298. Winds go glassy early, so that window on Thursday morning is your first real look. It’s very ordinary, but it’s surfable. The standout in this first week is easily Friday morning the 21st. That swell builds to 5 ft from the NW, still a decent 10-second period, and we get glassy easterly offshore winds. The energy jumps to 451 – that's moderate, solid, and with those clean conditions, it will be the best wave of the early run. It’s a little under the beginner-friendly size, but for anyone comfortable in head-high surf, that’s the session to point for.

Saturday the 22nd fades a bit in the morning with cross-off winds and smaller 4 ft surf, and by Sunday we’re back to knee-high mush. There’s a gap there of small, ordinary waves through the middle of the week until we hit Thursday the 27th, which is messy.

Then – and this is the big one – we have two serious pulses in the final week. On Friday morning the 28th of August, the bottom drops out with an ESE glass-off and a solid 7 ft groundswell from the NW. The period is a very long 12 seconds, and the combined energy explodes to 1167. That is strong energy. This is groundswell, so it’ll have power and shape, but that long period can make it sectiony at a beach break like Boucau – expect fat, walled-up lines. This is an expert-only wave at that size.

Then hold onto your boards for Monday morning the 31st of August. We get another glassy dawn with ENE wind and an 8 ft lump from the WNW. The period drops to 8 seconds, which is shorter, but the energy is 1022 – still massive. That’s a lot of water moving. Again, for experts only, and the shorter period means it’ll be more unruly and crumbly. If you’re a strong swimmer and know Boucau well, that morning session is the heavy-hitter of the whole 16 days.

So the bottom line: Don’t waste your time this week. The real action is on Friday the 21st for the cleanest, most manageable size. Then if you’ve got the skills, pencil in the 28th and 31st for the big, powerful swells. This is a wait-for-it kind of forecast.

Rusty.

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