Focene or Baraonda Surf Forecast and Surf Report

G’day, Rusty here, and I’ve taken a good hard look at what’s on the cards for the Rome coast. I won’t sugarcoat it – the next sixteen days are a quiet stretch for Focene. The entire window is a real struggle to find anything worth paddling out for. There’s a long gap from now through the first week of the run with nothing but tiny, weak dribble and poor surf conditions. The first sniff of any real size doesn’t show up until Tuesday the 18th of August, and even then it’s messy.

The beginning is a write-off. Thursday the 13th and Friday the 14th give you flat, near-zero swell with the odd 0.3 ft to 0.7 ft from the NW or WNW, and periods of 3 to 4 seconds. That’s barely a ripple. Saturday the 15th is a tiny 1.0 ft from the WNW with a 3-second period, and while the morning wind is offshore from the E at 6 mph, there’s simply no energy to work with. The combined swell energy is a measly 2, so you’re just bobbing around. Sunday the 16th and Monday the 17th are even worse with nothing or 0.7 ft.

Then we hit Tuesday the 18th of August. The morning shows a building swell of 3 ft from the SW at 5 seconds, but it’s cross-onshore from the SSW at 9 mph, making it choppy. The afternoon gets a bit more push with 4 ft from the WSW at 6 seconds, and the combined energy jumps to 136, which is moderate. But it’s still a messy cross-onshore chop with a risk of thunderstorms. Not the clean, lined-up wave you’d want to chase.

Wednesday the 19th has a cleaner morning with offshore ESE wind at 6 mph and a 2 ft swell from the WSW at 6 seconds, but the energy is only 39. It’s small and weak. The rest of the week and into the next just rolls through the same pattern: tiny pulses of 0.7 ft to 2 ft, mostly with onshore or cross-onshore winds. The standouts just aren’t there.

The best of a bad bunch is Tuesday the 26th of August. The morning has 4 ft from the SSW at 7 seconds with onshore wind from the W at 9 mph, giving a combined energy of 127. That’s moderate energy, but that onshore wind is going to chop it up. The afternoon is a touch better with 3 ft from the SW at 6 seconds and a light cross-shore breeze from the SSW at 6 mph, with energy at 69. Still, it’s not a standout.

Because it’s a beach break, and the swell is small and the wind is often messy, this setup looks more interesting for kite surfing than paddle surfing for most of the period. The water temperature is about average for this time of year, so you won’t need a thick wetsuit, but you’ll need patience.

Bottom line: there’s nothing here that’s worth getting excited about. The forecasts can change, but right now, I’d keep the board in the car and wait for a better day.

Rusty.

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