La Preciosa Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Righto, pull up a stump and let’s have a look at what’s cookin’ for La Preciosa over the next couple of weeks. I gotta be straight with ya – the next ten days are lookin’ pretty ordinary. There’s a real flat spell on the cards.

We’re kickin’ off from Sunday morning, the 23rd of August, with a tiny little pulse of 1ft from the ENE. Combined energy is real weak at 33. Winds are blowin’ offshore, so the water’s clean, but there’s just no grunt in the water. That theme sticks around for days. Monday through to Wednesday of that first week are all flat or near-flat, with swell barely ticklin’ 0.3ft or 3ft with real short, crummy periods. It’s a big old gap with nothin’ to get excited about.

Thursday the 27th starts to show a little bump, with moderate wave energy kickin’ in at 187, but the swell is still weak and short period. Still, the water’s clean with a moderate cross-offshore breeze. It’s not until Friday the 28th that we finally see something borderline worthwhile – around 4ft from the east, with energy hittin’ 287. The wind is still cross-off, but the surf quality is only marginal. Saturday the 29th pushes up a bit to 5ft from the east, energy at 318. It’s still just hanging in the marginal zone, and the wind is consistent, so you might get a couple of workable ones if you’re desperate.

Now, Sunday the 30th holds steady at 5ft, but the real standout window is coming. Monday the 31st of August is the first true bell-ringer. The morning sees a 4ft east swell with a long 14-second period, and combined energy jumps to 815 – that’s a solid groundswell pushing in. The wind is light and cross-offshore, which spells clean conditions. Then Monday afternoon, it doubles down: 10ft from the east, period 13 seconds, and energy rocketin’ up to 2587. That is a *proper* amount of water moving. This is expert territory, not for the faint of heart. The break is La Preciosa, a reef setup, and it’s exposed to this swell direction – N is the optimum, and we’re getting E, but the power is there. Crowds can sometimes be an issue, but on a Monday with big swell, you might get some room. The water temperature is about what you’d expect for this time of year, nothing unusual to report.

That Monday arvo pulse is the pick of the whole outlook. Tuesday the 1st of September still has plenty of size: 7ft in the morning with good energy at 852, and lighter winds. It’s still in that expert range though. Wednesday the 2nd of September morning sees the swell drop back to 4ft, but crucially, we get offshore wind from the ESE. The energy is moderate at 243, and the forecast says “expect good surf conditions.” This is another solid session, clean and lined up, but smaller than Monday. After that, it starts to fade again quickly, with the energy dropping and the periods shortening from Thursday the 3rd onward.

So overall, the first week is a write-off. The action starts from the 31st of August with a big, powerful groundswell that’s best left to the experts on the Monday arvo, and then a smaller but cleaner window on Wednesday the 2nd of September morning. Don’t bother paddlin’ out before that unless you’ve got a longboard and a good imagination.

Rusty.

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