La Derecha de Almaciga Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Right, I’ll be honest with you, looking at the next 16 days for this stretch, it’s a real tough one. The name of the game here is wind – and there is a lot of it. The same persistent NNE breeze blowing onshore pretty much the whole period kills any chance of decent surf. We’re looking at a classic case of not much to get excited about, especially for paddle surfing. The one spot we’ve got to work with is La Derecha de Almaciga, a beginner-friendly reef break that’s exposed to the NW swell, so it gets hit by everything.

We start off Wednesday the 29th of July, and it's not pretty. We've got a modest NE windswell coming in around 3 ft to 4 ft, but it's coming with a short period of 6 to 7 seconds and a howling 16 mph NNE wind straight onshore. I can't tell you about the water temp anomaly for this spot, but with these conditions, it doesn't matter. The energy in the water is weak to moderate, but the surf quality is just poor. The wind sticks around like a bad guest through Thursday and Friday, with the swell building a touch to around 5 ft to 5 ft. The combined swell energy climbs, but with those winds, it's all chop and no shape. The period stays short, under 8 seconds, so weak, crumbly waves.

Into the first weekend, Saturday the 1st of August is a no-go. Swell holds around 5 ft, but it’s the same story – onshore wind from the N. The energy is actually moderate but it’s all messy. Sunday sees a drop in swell to 3 ft, and a brief shift to a cross-onshore wind from the NNW. The forecast calls it “gentle cross-onshore and fairly choppy,” which is about as unappealing as it sounds.

Here’s the kicker. From Monday the 4th of August right through to mid-month, the swell really starts to crank. We see 6 ft to 6 ft, solid NE windswell, and by the 10th of August we’re looking at 7 ft to 8 ft. The combined energy numbers become telling: we jump from moderate to strong, hitting the 600s and even a massive surge on the 12th of August. That's very strong wave energy. But – and it’s a huge but – every single one of these days is marred by the same relentless N to NNE wind blowing onshore at 9 to 16 mph. The period stays short, between 6 and 8 seconds. What we have here is significant swell, poor surf quality, and strong wind at an exposed reef.

For a beginner-friendly reef break like this, with a 8 ft NE swell hitting it under a 16 mph onshore wind? The setup looks way more interesting for kite surfing than paddle surfing. There is absolutely no standout window in this entire forecast. The conditions are just consistently poor. It’s a blank run of 16 days, and honestly, for this area, that’s a more normal pattern than getting a clean window. Forecasts can change, but right now, I’d leave the board at home.

- Rusty

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