La Chocolatera Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright folks, Rusty here. Let's have a look at what's on the cards for the next couple of weeks.

Right off the bat, I gotta be straight with you: this is a tough stretch. We're looking at a long gap with nothing really worth paddling out for. The first decent chance doesn't show up until Friday the 4th of September, and even then, it's more about getting wet than getting good waves. The pattern is a slow, drawn-out decline in swell energy, with onshore winds messing things up most of the time.

Let's start with that Friday morning, the 4th of September. La Chocolatera (Ecuador) will have some 5.2ft swell from the SW, and the period is a solid 16 seconds – proper groundswell. The energy is strong, about 1302. But the problem is the wind is straight onshore from the SW at 9 mph, so it's going to be bumpy and hard to surf. The guides are calling it marginal at best. Not the day to get excited.

Saturday the 5th of September is much the same story. 4.9ft from the SW with a 15-second period, energy around 1007. The morning has onshore wind again, and by the afternoon it swings to a cross-onshore from the WSW at 9 mph, making for a choppy surface. Still pretty ordinary.

We get a slight window Monday the 7th of September. The morning has a lighter 3.3ft SW swell with a 13-second period, and the wind is onshore but light at 6 mph. The energy is moderate at 613. It's still marginal, but with the lighter breeze it'll be less bumpy than the weekend. It's the best of a bad bunch, but we're scraping the barrel here.

After that, the swell drops right off. From the 8th of September right through to the 18th of September, the swell size is mostly under 3.3ft, the energy drops into the low hundreds, and the wind is generally onshore or cross-onshore. A few mornings on the 11th, 15th, and 16th of September have that light 6 mph breeze, but the swell is just too small and weak to bother with. There's a very small, very long-period swell on the 17th and 18th of September (21 seconds and 20 seconds), but it's only 1.6ft – not enough to do anything with, especially at a point break where long-period swells need some size to stand up.

So, the hard truth is there are no standout days in this forecast. The one and only break on the list, La Chocolatera, is inconsistent at the best of times, and these conditions are just not cooperating. The water is way warmer than normal for this time of year, sitting at 78.8°F, which is a big anomaly of 10.4°F, but that doesn't help the waves. It's a quiet spell for the region.

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