Playa El Palmar Surf Forecast and Surf Report

G’day, Rusty here. Look, I’ve got to be straight with you – if you’re hanging out for a wave over the next couple of weeks, you’re in for a frustrating stretch. There’s not a single session in this outlook that I’d call worth paddling out for. The first surf recommendation shows up on the morning of Friday the 3rd of July, but I wouldn’t bother. The whole 16-day window is just one long, flat, or blown-out run with nothing to get excited about.

Let’s start with Playa El Palmar. The only break in the report, and it’s a sandbar setup that’s fairly exposed to swell. Right from Friday morning the 3rd, we’ve got a tiny 0.7ft W swell with a period of 9 seconds, weak energy (6), and while the wind is offshore from the ESE, it’s blowing a near gale at 31 mph. Hard to paddle into, and the surf quality is poor. That theme just keeps going. Saturday the 4th and Sunday the 5th offer the same tiny 0.7ft swell, with strong offshore breezes that make it clean but impossible to surf properly. The combined energy barely cracks double digits.

Through the rest of the first week and into the second, the swell never gets better. Monday the 6th drops to 0.3ft with weak energy (2), and by Wednesday the 8th we see a 1ft short-period WNW windswell at 4 seconds – poor. There’s a slight bump in energy on Friday the 10th, with 3ft W swell at 6 seconds, and combined energy hitting 58 – still poor conditions, though. Winds are cross-onshore from the SW, making it choppy. That’s the biggest swell of the whole outlook, but it’s raw and messy.

Nothing changes into mid-July. By the morning of Wednesday the 15th, we finally get glassy conditions from a light SW breeze, with 2ft W swell at 7 seconds (energy 41), but the word from the data is “poor surf conditions.” It’s small, weak, and just not working. Thursday the 16th morning offers a clean 2ft W swell with a light offshore ESE breeze, energy at 52 – best of the bunch, but still poor surf quality. Winds are light and clean, which is nice, but the waves are too small and weak to make a session worthwhile. The final days, through Saturday the 18th, follow the same pattern: small, onshore or cross-onshore, poor.

Because Playa El Palmar is “fairly consistent” by nature, this blank run stings a bit – it doesn’t usually stay this flat and unappealing for so long. But I can’t sugarcoat it: there’s nothing here. Not a single standout, not one session I’d recommend. Hang your wetsuit up for a week or two, mate. Forecasts can change, but right now, it’s a write-off.

Rusty

Read more