Castelejo Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright folks, Rusty here. Let’s take a hard look at what’s on offer at Castelejo over the next couple of weeks.

Right off the bat, I gotta be straight with you – the first 12 days are a write-off for any sort of decent paddle surfing. From Saturday the 29th of August right through to Wednesday the 9th of September, it’s a brutal run of cross-onshore winds, lumpy and choppy conditions, and the wave comment on every single session is either “poor surf conditions” or “marginal.” We’ve got moderate to fresh breezes out of the north and NNW all day, every day, just tearing the place up. The swell hanging around isn’t terrible in size – around 3ft to 6ft from the NW – but it doesn’t matter one bit when the wind’s wrecking it. The combined wave energy fluctuates between weak and moderate (127 to 535), but with that onshore flow, it’s all just messy whitewater. Honestly, if you’re keen on getting wet in that first week and a half, you’d be better off with a kite than a surfboard.

Things finally, *finally* start to look up on Thursday, the 10th of September. The wind swings around to the ESE and SSE, turning cross-off and then offshore – gentle breezes, clean conditions. We’ve got a 5ft NW swell, 8-second period, with a combined energy of 226 to 235. It’s not huge, but it’s clean, and that’s all we’re asking for. This is our first proper window for a session.

But the real standout, the one you want to circle on your calendar, is Friday, the 11th of September. This is the best of the whole 16-day run. The morning brings a clean 4ft swell from the WNW, but with a 15-second period – that’s proper groundswell energy, packing a punch (combined energy of 690). And the wind? Perfect. Light ESE offshore at 10 km/h. Then the afternoon session goes full magic: 4ft WNW swell, still a very long 14-second period, combined energy of 664, and the wind goes glassy – 5 km/h from the south. If you can get out there on Friday the 11th, do it. That’s the window. Keep in mind with that long period, the sets might have some bigger lulls between them, but the shape and power should be worth the wait. Castelejo is a beach and reef setup, and with those long-period WNW swells, it could line up nicely.

Saturday the 12th sees the northerly wind return, ruining the party with cross-onshore and onshore flow, and the conditions drop back to poor. The energy drops to 385 to 450. It’s another gap.

Then Sunday the 13th of September offers a final decent look: a clean morning with light easterly cross-offshore wind and a smaller 3ft WNW swell, 10-second period. It’s not the punch of Friday, but it’s clean and surfable.

So, to sum it up: the first 12 days are a total dud, then we get a couple of good windows on Thursday the 10th and especially Friday the 11th (that’s the one). Sunday the 13th is a lighter option to round it out. Crowds at Castelejo can be an issue sometimes, so if you can get out on that Friday, you’ll be stoked.

Rusty.

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