Pontal do Peba Surf Forecast and Surf Report

G’day, it’s Rusty here. I’ve got to be straight with you: the next couple of weeks look pretty bleak for a proper paddle. There’s nothing on offer that’s going to get the blood pumping until the very tail end of the window, and even that’s a long-shot promise, not a sure thing. Let’s run through it.

Right now, through the 18th and 19th of August, there’s swell running at 6ft to 7ft, but it’s all coming from the southeast with an onshore wind that’s just shredding any chance of a clean face. The energy is moderate at best, with combined readings around 651 to 797, but it’s messy. The period is short, only 8 seconds, so it’s just wind-blown slop. Pontal do Peba is going to be a washing machine, not a surf spot. Not worth the wax.

We go through the 20th to the 23rd, and it just gets smaller and choppier. Swell drops from 5ft down to 2ft, with the energy falling off a cliff from 610 down to a weak 79. The wind is cross-onshore and the period stays stubbornly short. This is the dead zone. We’re looking at a solid four to five days with nothing to recommend. If you’re a kitesurfer, the cross-onshore breeze and bumpy waves on this beach setup might actually be more appealing than for us wave hunters, but for a paddle surfer, it’s a blank.

From the 24th to the 25th, there’s a slight bump back up to 4ft to 5ft, but it’s weak, short-period ESE windswell, with energy only in the 149 to 240 bracket. Still onshore. Still poor. The pattern is firmly stuck.

Now, here’s where it gets a bit more interesting, but I’ve got to be honest about the downsides. The 26th and 27th of August shows a big jump in period – we’re talking 15 to 18 seconds, which is proper groundswell energy. The combined energy spikes hard, especially on Thursday afternoon the 27th, hitting a strong 1745. But the swell height listed is small, only 3ft to 4ft, and the wind is a cross-onshore 25 km/h from the east. The direction is from the south, which actually lines up with the optimum here, but that onshore breeze is going to chop it up. This long-period swell is notorious for breaking too straight at beach breaks like Peba. It needs a point or reef to really work, and we don’t have that here. So while the energy is there, the quality will be lacking. It’s the least bad of the lot, but it’s still a poor surf conditions call.

Then we roll into the 28th through the 31st. The long-period energy fades back to 6-7 seconds, and the swell is back to being small and weak, 3ft to 5ft, but the wind stays cross-onshore, chopping everything up. Energy readings are weak to moderate, between 226 and 482. Honestly, it’s more of the same.

The last few days of the window, the 1st and 2nd of September, we end on a whimper. Swell around 4ft to 5ft, short period, onshore flow. Nothing here.

So, the long and short of it is: I don’t have a standout for you. Not one clean, glassy, rippable day in the entire 16-day outlook. The only true anomaly is that late-August spike in long-period energy on the 26th and 27th, but it’s small and wind-blown. It’s a promising idea, but it’s a long-range call that I’d be cautious about. The water temp is about average for this time of year, so no surprises there. Keep the board in the car, but don’t rush to the beach. It’s a tough stretch, but this kind of run doesn’t usually last forever. Forecasts can change.

Rusty, signing off.

Read more