Cabarete Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, let’s be real here. I’ve looked at the next sixteen days for our stretch of coast, and I’ve got to tell you, it’s a tough one. We’re not looking at a run of clean, pumping surf at all. In fact, the first few days are just a write-off. It’s all cross-onshore wind, choppy, and messy. That combo of an onshore breeze and short-period swell is just going to be a battle against the whitewater, not a fun session.

The first proper window of anything that even resembles a wave shows up on the 31st of August, Monday morning. There’s a pulse of energy coming in, with the swell building to 5ft, and the combined energy jumping to 388 – that’s moderate wave energy for sure, a bit of life in the water. But, the wind is still cross-on from the east, and it’s marked as poor surf conditions. It’s going to be a grindy, bumpy day, and the period is only 8 seconds, so it won’t have much push. The afternoon sees the swell jump up to 7ft with stronger energy at 763, but with that same cross-on breeze, it’s going to be a messy, lumpy onshore mess. For most of us, that size and that wind is just not worth the paddle out unless you’re a masochist.

Then it drops back down again, but the wind stays stubbornly onshore. We’ve got a stretch from the 1st to the 5th of September where there’s surf, but it’s small, in the 2ft to 4ft range, and consistently cross-onshore. The energy readings are mostly in the low triple digits, or even below 100 on the 3rd and 4th, which tells you it’s weak, gutless stuff. It’s the kind of surf that looks like it might be fun if the wind was offshore, but it’s not. It’s just chop on top of barely-there waves.

Around the 6th and 7th of September, the wind finally eases off and goes more onshore from the ENE, which is a little better, but it’s still not clean. The light breeze on the 7th, with a swell of 3ft and a period of 9 seconds, is about as good as this window gets. It’s not going to be epic, but the lighter wind might make it a bit more playful for the longboard crew. Still, the energy is only moderate at 154, so it’s not going to be a standout day.

The tail end of the window, from the 9th to the 11th of September, the wind is back to cross-on from the east, and the swell drops back to 2ft to 3ft. There’s a little bit of longer period swell on the 9th and 10th at 10 seconds, from the NNE, but it’s weak and the cross-on wind will just crumble it.

Honestly, for Cabarete (the local region here), this is a real lull. The reef here needs some decent swell to show its teeth, and this entire 16-day outlook shows we’re just not going to get it with any form of decent wind. If you’re desperate, the 7th of September morning looks like the most promising – a lighter breeze and some clean-ish lines. But don’t plan any trips around this. The whole setup is more interesting for a kite-surfer than a surfer right now. We just have to be patient. Forecasts change, and this run of poor conditions won’t last forever.

Rusty.

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