Club del la Playa Surf Forecast and Surf Report

G’day, it’s Rusty here. Gotta be straight with you: the next couple of weeks are looking pretty average for most of us. There’s a lot of wind-affected, choppy, and generally unsatisfying surf on the menu through the end of August. But if you’re patient and pick your spots, there are a couple of moments where things tidy up enough to get a few decent ones.

The early part of the run, from Monday 17th through to the start of the weekend, is pretty much a write-off here at Club del la Playa. We’ve got cross-onshore winds blowing through the whole stretch, with everything from light rain to heavy downpours, and the surf is mostly junk—pulses of 2ft to 6ft with short, weak periods and choppy faces. The energy is all over the shop too, mostly sitting weak to moderate in the 46 to 217 range, though the swell kicks up a bit on Thursday afternoon but gets completely torched by a fresh breeze. Not worth paddling out for anything but a fight.

Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd bring a bit more size, but it's completely ugly. The swell pushes up to 7ft on Saturday and up to 10ft on Sunday morning, but the wind is blowing hard—22 to 31 mph—so it’s a mess. There’s some serious energy in the water on Sunday morning (combined energy at 2091), but with a near gale blowing cross-onshore, it’s blown out. If you’re into kite surfing, this might be your window; for paddle surfing, forget it. Monday 24th sees the wind ease off and the swell drop back to 5-6ft, but it’s still lumpy and onshore, and the period is a short 11 seconds—nothing that’s going to make you smile.

After that, we hit a lull. From Tuesday 25th through to Friday 28th, the surf gets smaller and weaker, dropping to around 2ft to 4ft. There’s a brief break on Tuesday morning where the wind almost dies, but it’s still cross-onshore and the swell is weak. By Wednesday and Thursday, we get some clean, cross-offshore winds, but the swell is tiny—2ft to 3ft—so even though it looks pretty, there’s nothing to ride. This is a dry spell that lasts a good four to five days with nothing worth getting excited about.

Now, the one real standout in this whole window is the end of the run. Sunday 30th August is the pick of the bunch. We’ve got clean, cross-offshore winds from the ENE, light breeze, and the swell starts to push up through the day, hitting around 4ft on the afternoon with a period of 10 seconds, and the energy jumps up to 282. That’s decent. It’s not huge, but it’ll be clean and lined up, and with the offshore wind, it should be peeling nicely down the point.

And then, look ahead to Monday 31st August—that’s the one to circle. We’ve got a proper groundswell arriving, coming from the ESE with a 12-second period and around 5ft of swell. There’s some decent energy in the water (713 on the morning), and with light winds, it’s going to be about as clean as this stretch gets. The caveat is that it’s a slightly longer period, which can sometimes make beach breaks a bit straight, but on the point section at Club del la Playa, it’s going to have some real push and shape to it. That’s your moment. After that, Monday afternoon and Tuesday dip a little in quality with a bit more cross-onshore, but that Monday morning is your standout.

Water temp right now is feeling about average for this time of year—nothing unusual, just your standard late summer water. For a break that’s a mix of beach and point, with the point being more exposed to the south, you’ll want to work the lefts off the point when the swell is coming from the SSE and ESE. Crowds are sometimes an issue here, but given the mostly average conditions, I doubt it’ll be packed for most of this run.

All in all, if you’re happy to wait, the 30th and 31st are your best bets. It’s a long stretch of nothing for a while, but it tends not to stay bad for long around here, and forecasts can change. Keep an eye on that last day of the month.

Rusty.

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