La Nartelle Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright folks, Rusty here. Let's take a good, hard look at what's on the table for the next couple of weeks at La Nartelle. I'll level with you straight up: it’s a tough stretch. The bones are there, but we're going to have to be patient.

The forecast starts now, and for the first week and a half, it’s a real desert. From Wednesday, July 8th right through to the end of the day on Thursday, July 23rd, there’s just no surf to get excited about. The water temp is sitting at a very unusual 78°, which is a clear 7° warmer than average for this time of year – weird, feels more like a bath than the Med. But the waves? Forget it. For days on end we have flat spells, weak little windswells under 1 ft with periods of only 4 seconds or nothing at all. Any time we do see a tiny bump, the wind is either cross-on or onshore, making it a choppy mess. Even the glassy mornings don't have any swell to surf. It’s a proper blank run.

This is one of those periods where the area just goes quiet. It doesn't stay poor for this long often, so forecasts can change, but right now, we’re in a dry spell.

Then, late in the window, we finally get a glimmer of hope. On Monday the 20th of July, the pattern shifts. It’s still tiny, but the wind finally turns in our favor. We’ve got a fresh offshore breeze from the West at 19 mph, and it's clean. Swell heights are only creeping up to 3 ft from the East, with a short 4 to 5-second period. The combined wave energy is weak – just 21 in the morning and 31 in the afternoon. It still says "poor surf conditions" in the data, and honestly, it’s going to be small and a bit gutless with that short period, but that offshore wind makes all the difference. For a surfer who doesn’t mind scratching for knee-to-waist high runners, that Monday is by far the best shot we’ve got.

That Monday morning and afternoon are the true standouts. It’s not big, and the quality won't be world-class, but clean, offshore conditions on any wave are a win after this much flatness. The story doesn’t change much for Tuesday the 21st: the wind holds offshore from the West-Northwest at 19-22 mph, but the swell drops even smaller (0.7 ft to 1 ft) and the energy back to nearly nothing. From Wednesday the 22nd onward, it goes quiet again.

So, there you have it. A long gap of empty water, then one day of promise with that sweet offshore wind on the 20th. It’s a waiting game.

Rusty.

Read more