Etretat Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, surfers, Rusty here. Let’s be straight with you. It’s a tough stretch ahead for Etretat. We’ve got a long, flat, and messy run on the cards, and for the most part, the ocean’s just not gonna give us anything to work with. Don't get your hopes up, but there might be a tiny flicker of life right at the end.

The next week is basically a write-off. We’re looking at a solid block of days with nothing but small, weak, and wonky waves. The wind is all over the place, mostly onshore or cross, and what little swell is out there is just too small to do anything with. The water's running a warm 69°, which is a solid 6° warmer than normal for this time of year—that’s pretty unusual and feels like a warm bath, but it’s not helping the surf.

Friday the 21st and Saturday the 22nd are flat and stormy-looking, with a fresh cross-onshore breeze chopping things up. It’s just ugly. We go through the weekend and into the start of next week with nothing but ankle-high slop and bumpy conditions. There’s a brief moment Tuesday morning the 25th with glassy conditions, but the swell is basically a non-event, only 0.3ft. Not worth paddling out for.

The wind goes offshore from Thursday the 27th, but the swell stays tiny, so the reef’s just not going to show its face. It’s clean, but empty. That theme continues right through to the end of the month—clean, offshore winds, but no power behind the waves. It’s frustrating, I know.

Now, here’s where things get interesting. On Friday the 28th, a pulse of swell shows up. The models are showing a 7ft W groundswell, with a moderate 332 combined energy. The wind is a strong offshore SW, which for Etretat means it will be clean but with a lot of push. That’s a standout, but it’s also a caveat. That size and period (6 seconds) won't be a classic. It’s more of a rough and tumble, hard-to-paddle-into kind of day. If you’re an expert on a step-up board, it might be your only real chance. It’s not for the faint-hearted.

After that, it fades back into the flatness for the first few days of September. There’s another pulse coming in around Wednesday the 2nd with 5ft to 6ft of cross-shore junk, but the wind is a sideshore mess, so the quality won't be there. Then again on Friday the 4th, we see 6ft of windswell, but it’s buried under a fresh cross-onshore blow, making it lumpy and hard work.

So, the long and short of it is this: the only real window of opportunity is that Friday the 28th. It’s the only day with any kind of size, but it’s gonna be a battle. Everything else is either flat, messy, or too small to bother with. The run of poor conditions is long and drawn out, but that's just the way this stretch of coast can be.

Stay sharp, keep the board waxed, and maybe wait for the next proper swell. This isn’t our week.

Rusty out.

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