La Puntilla Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, Rusty here, let’s take a look at what’s heading our way.

Alright, listen up. The outlook for the next 16 days is a bit of a mixed bag. We’ve got a consistent, long-period groundswell from the SW that’s been running, but it’s been kept in check by mostly cross-onshore winds, so the surf has been pretty marginal through the first week. The water is a warm 65° at La Puntilla, which is 5° warmer than normal for this time of year – that’s much warmer than usual, so you can leave the steamer at home.

The first real standout is a specific window on Tuesday, 8th September. The morning shows a clean 3 ft of SW swell with the wind turning onshore, but the real magic is the Tuesday afternoon session. The wind goes glassy – dead calm – and the swell holds at 3 ft from the SW with a 14-second period. The combined energy is moderate (400), and with the wind totally off, the wave quality will be clean and smooth. This is the best bet of the entire forecast period for a proper, dialed-in session at La Puntilla. It’s a point break that’s consistent and exposed to the SW swell, which is exactly the direction the swell is coming from. Crowds are possible there sometimes, so keep an eye out.

After that, the swell hangs around through the following days, but the wind turns more cross and cross-onshore, dropping the quality. The wave heights stay small, between 2 ft and 4 ft, and the energy drops from moderate to weak (under 300) by the end of the first week. The second week looks pretty bleak – the swell persists but the wind is consistently onshore or cross-shore, with speeds picking up to 12 mph on the 16th of September. The surf quality is almost all poor, so there’s not much to get excited about.

The long-period swell (15-18 seconds) we see early on is a classic groundswell, which means it’s full of energy but can be tricky at beach breaks. At a point like La Puntilla, it should line up nicely, but the short windows of clean conditions are the key. For the rest of the 16 days, we’re looking at a lot of choppy, cross-shore junk. Honestly, a few of those days in the second week, with 4 ft swell and 12 mph cross-shore wind, this setup looks more interesting for a kite surfer than a paddle surfer.

Stay patient. The glass-off on Tuesday afternoon is the one to mark on the calendar.

Rusty.

Read more