El Anclote Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, this is Rusty, and I’m looking at the next couple of weeks for El Anclote.

Right off the bat, the water here is seriously warm – we’re talking 89°F, which is a solid 4°F above what you’d normally expect for the time of year. That’s a pretty wild anomaly, so you won’t need a thick wetsuit, that’s for sure.

Now, the surf outlook... it’s a mixed bag. The first run of days, from Sunday the 19th through to Thursday the 30th of July, we’ve got small swell on the table pretty much every day, but honestly, it’s nothing to get overly excited about. We’re looking at waist-high stuff mostly, around 1ft to 3ft. The key here is that towards the end of July, the quality takes a step up. The real standout window looks like it kicks off on Saturday the 26th of July and carries into Wednesday the 29th.

For the best bet, I’m pointing you to El Anclote itself. The SouthWest swell is pumping in, and the combined energy gets up around 394 (moderate) on the Saturday afternoon and stays strong, hitting 397 (moderate) on Monday the 27th. The direction is right on the money, coming from the SW, which is the optimum direction for this reef. But the real beauty is the winds. Saturday morning the 25th and Sunday morning the 26th are looking absolutely glassy – flat calm, zero wind. That’s the kind of clean, smooth face that’ll have you grinning. Later in the same week, Wednesday morning the 29th is also glassy with more good energy (383).

Heads up, the sets come in at 18 to 21 seconds, which is a long-period swell. That means more power in the wave and longer waits between sets. At a reef break like El Anclote, that’s a good thing – the waves will stand up better. But just know that at a beach break this long period can make things a bit straight-walled. Not an issue here.

Crowds are listed as "sometimes", so on those glassy mornings, expect some company, but it’s not a zoo.

The rest of the time is a bit ordinary. We hit a proper dry spell right after the 30th. Thursday the 30th afternoon is okay, but from Friday the 31st of July all the way through to Monday the 3rd of August, the energy drops off hard, down to 99 and even 77. Those are weak numbers. The swell is tiny, 1.0ft to 2ft, and the winds turn onshore or cross, making it messy. The first week of August looks like a total write-off for anything worth paddling out for.

The cleanest windows in that first week? Sunday the 20th and Monday the 21st of July have some gentle offshores from the NW, but the swell is just too small (2ft to 2ft) to make it a standout.

So, for the next two weeks, you want to focus your time on that last weekend of July into the start of the last week. That’s where the magic is. The rest is for sitting on the beach.

Rusty.

Read more