Le Petit Train Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Right now the surf at Le Petit Train is pretty much dead. We’re scraping the bottom of the barrel – weak, short-period swell and winds that just won’t give us a break. Most of this stretch is either too small or too chopped up to waste your time. Water’s at 74°F, which is nearly 3°F warmer than normal for this time of year – that’s a big deal around here.

Wednesday the 16th is a washout – 1.2m at 7 seconds, cross-shore breeze, energy at 210. Nothing to work with. Thursday and Friday are a little bigger – 1-1.4m – but the period’s still short and the wind’s messing it up. You’d be fighting chop all session.

Then Saturday morning the 19th, the stars line up. Glassy – 5 km/h northeast wind – and the swell holds at 1.4m with a 13-second period. Energy jumps to 669. That’s the clear standout of the whole two weeks. It’s not big, but it’s clean, and that long-period groundswell will have some real push. Sunday and Monday mornings are okay too – light cross-off winds, 1.3m at 11 seconds, energy in the 379 range. But Saturday is the one.

After that, it fades hard. Tuesday the 22nd is down to 0.8m, and then we hit a proper dead stretch from the 23rd through the 27th. There’s a tiny pulse on the 23rd with a 16-second period, but it’s only 0.9m and the wind is on it. By the 26th, we’re looking at 0.7m and energy down to 86. Sunday the 27th is the absolute worst – 0.4m at 8 seconds. That’s a puddle. That’s a solid five-day gap of nothing worth paddling for.

Then a bit of life comes back on Monday the 28th – 1.0m at 12 seconds, energy back up to 348-591, but it’s onshore and choppy. Tuesday the 29th is better – 1.4m at 12 seconds, light cross-shore early, energy at 628. Still marginal, but surfable.

Then it gets bigger, and uglier. Wednesday the 30th builds to 2.1m in the afternoon, and Thursday the 1st of October is pushing 2.2m at 11 seconds. But the wind is cross-onshore the whole time, and it’s going to be a mess. There’s a lot of energy – 1107 on Thursday morning – but it won’t be clean. That’s more of a stormy slop than a surf. At that size with that wind, you might as well rig up the kite. It’s not a paddle surfer’s wave.

So, to sum it up: Saturday morning the 19th is your window. Glassy, clean, 1.4m from the WNW. That’s the pick of the fortnight. Sunday and Monday mornings are backups. Everything else is either flat, blown out, or too rough to enjoy. The big swell at the start of October has power, but it won’t be surfable with that wind. It’s a waiting game, and that Saturday is the one to hit.

Rusty.

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