El Sardinero - Primera Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright folks, Rusty here. Let’s have a look at what’s on the cards for the Sardinero stretch over the next couple of weeks. I gotta be straight with you – it’s a pretty quiet run. The waves are struggling to get going, and the swell is mostly small and weak. The overall energy is low, with combined swell energy values sitting mostly in the teens and twenties (22-25), which is just a whisper. There’s a long gap of poor conditions, so don’t get your hopes up for a quick fix.

We start off on Tuesday, July 14th, with nothing doing. The waves are only 2ft from the north, with a short, weak period of 5 seconds. The wind is on it or cross-on, so it’s messy. This flat spell continues right through until the end of the week. Wednesday the 15th sees the swell drop to just 0.7ft, and Thursday and Friday aren’t much better with that same tiny 2ft to 2ft north-northwest swell. The wind is a mix of cross-off and cross, but it doesn’t matter when the waves are that small. Saturday the 18th is a total washout with energy dropping to single digits (9). The whole first week is a write-off for real surfing.

The second week doesn’t look much brighter for a while. From Monday the 20th through to Wednesday the 22nd, the swell does bump up to around 3ft, but it’s a short-period, onshore wind swell from the east-northeast. The wind is pumping at 12-16 mph, making it choppy and blown out. The combined energy is still only moderate (78-87), which is weak for the size. The water temp is about average for the time of year.

Finally, we get a little glimmer on Friday, July 24th. The morning session at El Sardinero - Primera is the only real standout in the whole 16-day forecast. The swell is 3ft from the northwest with a period of 8 seconds. The combined energy hits 123, which is the strongest we’ll see. The wind goes glassy, absolutely dead calm. That’s the magic window. The waves will be clean and small, but it’s the best we’ve got. The break is fairly consistent, but it’s sheltered, so it needs that specific northwest swell to work. Expect crowds as it’s often busy here. After that, it fades back to small, weak surf for the rest of the weekend and into the following week. The early part of the final week (July 27th-29th) shows a bit of energy (123 again on the 27th) but the swell is only 3ft and the wind is cross or cross-off, not glassy. The last day, July 29th, has a glassy 2ft, but it’s too small to get excited about.

So, to wrap it up: the only time to even think about paddling out is first light on Friday, July 24th, for some clean, tiny waves at Sardinero. The rest is a long, flat wait.

Rusty.

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