Porto da Cruz Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, Rusty here. Let's have a look at what's on the menu for Porto da Cruz over the next couple of weeks.

Honestly, it's a pretty grim stretch for a wave. This is a north-shore reef break that needs a clean northerly swell and offshore wind to really fire, and we're just not getting that for most of the run. The water's sitting at about 77° which is a touch warmer than normal for this time of year, but you'll be floating around waiting for a lot of nothing.

We start things off on Thursday the 13th of August morning with a tiny 3 ft swell from the ENE with a short period of 5 seconds. The combined energy is weak at 69, and with a 15 km/h cross-onshore breeze from the north, it's just a messy, poor surf situation. Not worth paddling out for.

That theme holds right through the rest of August. We get a bump in swell size around the 16th and 17th, reaching 6 ft and 6 ft from the NNE, with a period slowly climbing to 9 seconds and the energy getting into the moderate range (376 and 442). But the wind stays persistently cross-onshore, making it choppy and poor. Thursday the 21st of August morning doesn't even look any different. 4 ft, 8 seconds, and still cross-onshore.

The only real glimmer in this whole forecast is the morning of Tuesday the 25th of August. We're looking at a 5 ft NNE swell with a 7-second period. The combined energy hits 405, so there's some moderate power in the water. The key thing here is a light cross-offshore breeze from the west-northwest, cleaning things up nicely. That's the one morning where the break might actually have a workable, clean surface for a wave. Everything else around that date is still messy or poor.

Then we roll into the very end of the run on the 28th of August. The swell pumps up to 8 ft from the NNE with an 8-second period, and the energy jumps right up to a strong 881. But the wind is still cross-onshore. That much swell with a short period and the wrong wind is just a washing machine. It's a marginal call at best, and only for the most experienced crew. The size alone pushes this well out of the beginner zone, and with a beach and reef setup like this, it's probably more interesting for a kite surfer than a paddle surfer.

So, the honest truth? There's one standout morning on the 25th for a quiet, clean session. The rest of the 16 days is a gap of poor to marginal conditions. You're waiting for a break in the wind, but the swell never really aligns with the conditions we need for this spot. This sort of blank run is normal for Porto da Cruz when the trade winds lock in.

Rusty.

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