Praia das Macas Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Been a quiet run here for a while, and honestly, this stretch of coast at Praia das Macas has been a tough one to love for most of this outlook. The onshore wind has just been relentless – day in, day out, cross-on from the north-northwest and northwest – keeping things choppy and messy. That run of poor quality kicks off from Sunday the 19th and doesn't really let up all the way through. The swell hanging around is mostly short-period windswell (6-7 seconds), small in the 2ft to 4ft range, and delivering weak energy (mostly two-digit values like 52 to 143). It's not offering much for a paddle surfer, honestly. Even as we get into the end of next week and the following weekend, around the 26th and 27th of July, the swell does pick up – hitting 6ft to 8ft – and the energy jumps into the three and even four-digit zone (355 to 955), but the wind stays onshore and lumps it up. That kind of combination might get a kite surfer interested, but for traditional surfing, the quality isn't there.

The first real standout in this whole long-range forecast looks like it could be the morning of Wednesday, 29th July. We finally get a break in the wind. The breeze swings around to a light northeast, coming in as a cross-offshore, and the surf is looking clean for the first time. The swell holds at a solid 5ft from the NNW with a 9-second period, carrying a moderate 413 energy. That's a proper size with a workable period, and the clean conditions could offer some decent lined-up waves for a few hours. It's only a brief window though – by the afternoon the wind is back onshore again.

Then, the best chance for a true session looks to be Thursday morning, 30th July. A solid east-southeast wind is blowing offshore at 12 mph, which is a beautiful change for this spot. The swell is 4ft from the north-northwest with a 9-second period, delivering a healthy energy of 352. This is about as clean and groomed as it gets in this forecast period. Keep in mind, this is a beginner-friendly beach break, so that size is perfect for learning, and the offshore wind should really tidy up the faces. Crowds are sometimes a thing here, but with conditions this good mid-week, it might be worth a look.

After that, the window fades. By the 31st of July, the swell drops back below 3ft and the energy weakens right out. The wind stays problematic through to the end. The long-range into the first few days of August shows a shift to a westerly swell, which isn't hitting the beach well, and the period is long (10-12 seconds) but the size is tiny – we're talking 1ft to 2ft. The energy is low, and the onshore wind kills any chance of quality. There's a real dry spell there from the 31st right through to the 3rd.

So, truth is, there's only two pockets worth chasing here: the cleaner window on Wednesday morning the 29th for a messy-but-improved session, and the outright standout, Thursday morning the 30th of July with offshore east-southeast wind and a clean 4ft NNW swell. That's your pick of the whole outlook.

Rusty.

Read more