Playa de Gaztetape Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright folks, Rusty here. Let’s see what the Basque Country has in store for us over the next couple of weeks.

Right off the bat, I gotta be straight with you—this is one of those outlooks where you’re better off checking the wind on a kite than paddling out. We’re looking at a real flat spell to start. For the next little while, we’ve got a gap with no real surf on offer until Saturday morning the 1st of August, but even that’s a tough sell.

So, your only real spot on the radar is Playa de Gaztetape. It’s a beginner-friendly, consistent beach break that’s fairly exposed to the NW, which is what we need. The water’s running at 76°, a full 5° warmer than usual for this time of year—that’s proper warm, almost feels like a bath compared to normal.

Let’s run through it day by day. Friday the 31st of July is a complete write-off. Tiny 2 ft to 2 ft of NW windswell with poor conditions, light onshore breeze, and the combined energy is just a weak 33 to 53. Not worth getting wet.

Saturday morning the 1st of August is the best you’re gonna see in the near term. We’ve got a glassy 2 ft of NW swell. The combined energy is still weak at 71, and the period is short at 8 seconds, but it’s clean. The report says “surfable waves but very ordinary conditions,” and I’d agree. It’s small, it’s weak, but it’s the only window where you might actually catch a few foamies without the wind ruining it. Afternoon goes back to poor.

Sunday the 2nd and Monday the 3rd drop back to tiny 1 ft to 2 ft junk. Monday morning does go glassy again with a 10-second period, but the energy is a paltry 37, and the size is barely there. Not worth the drive.

From Tuesday the 4th right through to Wednesday the 12th of August, it’s a grim run. Swell stays between 1 ft and 3 ft, periods are all over the place but mostly short. The combined energy never cracks three digits, staying in the teens to low 60s. Winds are mostly onshore or cross-onshore. There’s a few glassy mornings in there, like Tuesday the 4th, Sunday the 9th, and Wednesday the 12th, but the swell is just too weak to do anything with. The report pretty much calls every session "poor surf conditions."

There’s a slight uptick on Thursday the 13th of August with a 3 ft NW swell, but the period is a choppy 5 seconds and the wind goes cross-shore, so it’s messy. Friday the 14th of August has the biggest swell of the whole run—3 ft from the WNW, glassy in the morning with a combined energy of 59. Again, that’s a 5-second period, so it’s weak windslop. It might look okay from the car park, but on a board it’ll be frustrating.

To wrap it up, there are no standout days here. Zero scores above a 1 in the whole 16-day forecast. The only time you might squeeze a smile is Saturday morning the 1st of August—2 ft of clean, glassy surf for the absolute beginners. For the rest of it, the setup looks far more interesting for a kite surfer than a paddle surfer. Small waves and onshore winds just don’t mix for us wave riders.

Stay patient, keep an eye on the charts, and don’t force it.

Rusty.

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