Ponto Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright folks, Rusty here. Let’s take a look at what’s on the table for the next couple of weeks.

Right off the bat, I gotta be straight with you: the start of this period is a bit of a letdown. We’ve got swell rolling in, but it’s pretty messy. The first real look we get is Saturday morning, September 5th, at Ponto. The water is sitting at 74°, which is a solid 6° warmer than usual for this time of year – that’s a real treat for the skin. We’ve got a 3ft SSW swell with a 16-second period, which is a nice long-period groundswell. The combined energy is moderate at 1043, and with a light W wind blowing straight offshore, it’s gonna be clean. The problem? The forecast is calling it marginal, likely due to a bad tide. Still, for a river mouth, that long period SW swell can set up really well. Those 16-second intervals mean good shape and energy, but you’ll be waiting for the sets.

Saturday afternoon sees the wind shift to a cross-on, and the quality drops off fast. Sunday the 6th is a write-off with a cross-shore wind and chop building. We get a bump in size to 6ft on Sunday morning, but that NNW wind at 12 mph is gonna make it a messy, cross-shore mess. Honestly, it’s not worth paddling out.

From Monday the 7th through to the end of the first week, the trend is downward. The swell drops from 6ft to 4ft, and the wind stays stubbornly cross-onshore, making everything choppy. The combined energy drops from 1303 down to 548, so the ocean is losing its grunt. By Wednesday the 9th, we’re down to 2ft waves with a decent period, but the wind is on it. It’s all marginal at best.

Then we hit a real dry spell. From Thursday the 10th onwards, the wave heights shrink to under 3ft, and by the 12th, we’re looking at 2ft or less. The energy drops into the low hundreds and even below 200. The wind stays light and mostly offshore or cross-on, which is a tease. The swell period stays long, sometimes hitting 22 seconds, but with barely a foot and a half of wave height, it’s just not enough to push. The forecast scores are all zeros. This is a stretch of poor surf that lasts from the 11th of September right through to the end of the window on the 20th.

So, the one and only standout window is Saturday morning, September 5th. That’s the best on offer. The offshore wind, the warm water, and that long-period SW groundswell hitting Ponto’s river mouth could produce a few clean, lined-up waves for the patient surfer. It’s a beginner-friendly spot, so it’s not going to be terrifying, but the tide will be the key. After that, you’re looking at a solid 10-day gap of flat or poor conditions. Keep your board waxed, but don’t get your hopes up for a while.

Rusty.

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