La Barra Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright folks, Rusty here. Let’s have a look at what’s on offer at La Barra for the next couple of weeks.

Right off the bat, I gotta say, it’s a pretty grim stretch for the most part. We’re looking at a long gap of flat, onshore, or just plain messy conditions before we see anything that might get a bloke out of bed. The first bit of real surfable energy doesn’t show up until the last few days.

For the first week, from Friday the 24th of July right through to the end of the month, it’s mostly small, weak, and wind-affected. We’ve got some tiny leftover swell – knee-high at best – but the wind is all over the shop. Friday morning the 24th gives us a tiny 2 ft S'ly swell, but it’s accompanied by a light breeze. The water temp is sitting at 52°, which is about average for this time of year, so nothing to complain about there. Still, the wave energy is barely registering, and the forecast is just ‘ordinary’. It’s a hard pass for me.

The weekend of the 25th and 26th is more of the same story: small, weak swells, and the wind keeps shifting around, never settling into a clean offshore. Monday the 27th is a write-off with waves barely a ripple. We see a bump in size on Wednesday the 29th with a 4 ft SSE swell, but it’s a short-period, wind-blown mess with a 15 mph south wind, making it choppy and ugly. Not worth a paddle.

The real drag continues into the first week of August. Thursday the 30th and Friday the 31st are similarly poor. The only glimmer is that Friday afternoon sees a 5 ft E'ly swell, but it’s getting hammered by a 19 mph cross-offshore wind. It’s clean, but that wind is a beast.

Now, we finally get a bit of grunt. Saturday the 1st of August sees a jump in combined swell energy, with a 5 ft E'ly swell, but it’s onshore and choppy. Not great, but the power is there. Sunday the 2nd of August morning is a bit of a tease: 3 ft from the ESE with a light breeze, but the ‘marginal’ forecast puts a damper on it. The real increase in energy comes from a longer-period S'ly swell that afternoon, but it’s cross-onshore.

The standout across the whole period looks like it might be Monday the 3rd of August. We’ve got a 3 ft SE swell with a 10-second period, and the wind is light and cross-shore from the east. The combined energy is moderate. It’s not huge, but it’s the most decent wave we’ve seen in a while at La Barra (point/river). The direction is from the SE, which is straight out of the optimum S direction for this spot, so it’ll wrap in nicely. The tricky part is that the afternoon gets a bit messy with a 16 mph cross-onshore, so get on it early. Crowds are *sometimes* an issue here, so a Monday morning session might be the quietest you’ll get.

The rest of the second week is a bit of a mixed bag. Tuesday the 4th and Wednesday the 5th are small and weak. Thursday the 6th of August sees a bump of 5 ft to 6 ft from the S, but it’s short period (7 seconds) and cross-onshore, so it’ll be a closed-out, lumpy mess. That’s expert-only territory for the size, but the quality is poor. The final weekend, the 8th of August, offers a 3 ft ESE swell with a gentle offshore wind from the NNW. It’s a clean, small day, but nothing to write home about.

So, there you have it. A long dry spell, then a brief window Monday the 3rd of August morning for a clean, middling session. The rest is either flat, blown out, or too messy. Hold tight.

Rusty.

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