Playa El Palmar Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, Rusty here again. Gonna be honest – it’s a tough stretch at Playa El Palmar. We’ve got a solid 16-day window, but you’re looking at a real dry spell. The first recommendation doesn’t come for a while, and even then, it’s not exactly pumping.

We start with a big gap of nothing worth paddling for. From Monday the 14th right through to the afternoon of Wednesday the 16th, the swell is tiny – we’re talking 0.7 ft to 2 ft on the West swell, with short, weak periods. The combined energy is pathetic, barely getting into double digits (15 to 68). It’s a total washout. Thursday the 17th and Friday the 18th are no better; the swell stays small and the period drops off, making for weak, bumpy waves. The wind is all over the place, so it’s not clean either.

Now, Saturday the 19th looks interesting for a hot second, with a super long-period West swell at 16 seconds, but get this – the wave height is only 0.7 ft. That long period is just a tease; there’s no power behind it. The wind cranks up hard from the East at 28-31 mph, making it near-gale offshore. It’s clean, but you’d be fighting a gale just to stay in the lineup. Not worth it for nothing.

We hit another dead zone right through to Thursday the 25th of September. Finally, on Friday the 25th, we see the best of the whole outlook. Playa El Palmar gets a pulse of 1 ft West swell at 15 seconds – that’s proper groundswell period. The combined energy hits 75, which is the highest number we see in this whole forecast. The wind is a fresh offshore from the ESE at 19 mph, keeping it clean. Now, 1 ft is still small, but that long period will give it some shape and push. For a sandbar, it might just offer up a few fun, clean little walls. This is your standout moment, if you can even call it that. It’s not big, but it’s the best we’ve got.

After that, it fades again. Saturday the 26th through Tuesday the 29th of September drops back into the 0.3 ft to 1.0 ft range with weakening energy (1 to 32). The wind stays mostly offshore or cross-offshore, so it’s clean, but there’s basically no swell to ride.

Look, overall, it’s a sparse run. There’s no real juice. The water temp sits at 70°, which is about 2° colder than normal for this time of year – you’ll feel that chill. Honestly, with the persistent strong offshore winds and the tiny, gutless swell, this setup looks way more interesting for kite surfing than actual paddle surfing. You’d need a serious change in the charts to get anything going here.

Rusty.

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