La Barra Surf Forecast and Surf Report

G’day, Rusty here. We’ve got a pretty solid run of surf on the cards at La Barra (Uruguay) over the next couple of weeks. The water’s sitting at 87° – a touch warmer than normal for this time of year, so you’ll be feeling that slight extra warmth. The overall picture is a consistent pulse of SSW groundswell, with clean conditions on offer most mornings.

The standout session is Tuesday the 7th of July in the morning. We’re looking at a 4ft SSW swell with an 18-second period – that’s proper groundswell energy (combined energy of 1167). The wind is dead calm, glassy as, so La Barra will be clean as a whistle. This is a river/jetty setup, so that long period will really wrap in and give you some nice shaped lines. It’s exposed to the swell, and the optimum direction is SSW – exactly what we’re getting. It’s a solid intermediate level, so beginners might find it a bit much, but for the experienced crew, this is the pick of the forecast. Just a heads up: it can get crowded sometimes.

Monday the 6th of July afternoon also looks very good. A 3ft SSW swell, 20-second period (very long period), with glassy conditions from a light S breeze. Combined energy is 1057. Again, the river mouth will handle that long-period energy well. That’s a great warm-up session.

The pattern continues through the week. Wednesday the 8th morning holds another glassy window with a 5ft SSW swell (16-second period, combined energy 1044). Again, clean and offshore ESE winds. Thursday the 9th and Friday the 10th start with glassy mornings too, though the swell gradually eases from 4ft down to 3ft, and the period drops from 15 to 15 seconds – still decent energy.

Saturday the 11th and Sunday the 12th mornings both have glassy or calm conditions, with the swell holding around 4ft to 3ft, periods 16 to 14 seconds. Combined energy sits in the 600s, which is solid. These are worth an early paddle.

After that, there’s a bit of a drop-off. From Monday the 13th onwards, the swell size backs off to under 3ft for most days, and the afternoons get chopped up by cross-on or cross winds. A few mornings still look glassy and rideable, like Tuesday the 14th (2ft, combined energy 281) and Thursday the 16th (3ft, combined energy 354) – these are small but clean, good for a longboard or a foiler. The long-range standouts don’t arrive until Monday the 20th morning with a 2ft, 17-second period glassy session, and Tuesday the 21st morning with a 3ft, 15-second period glassy window. Those are promising but less certain this far out – check the forecasts closer to the day.

So to wrap it up: the best on offer is Tuesday morning the 7th of July – glassy, 4ft SSW groundswell, long period, pumping at the river mouth. Monday afternoon the 6th and Wednesday morning the 8th are also crackers. After the first week, it gets smaller and more hit-and-miss, but there are still a few clean morning windows for the keen ones.

Rusty.

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