Praia das Macas Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright folks, Rusty here. Let me tell you what’s going on in our little corner of the surf world. I’ve combed through the charts and honestly, it’s a bit of a flat spell for us. We’ve got Praia das Macas on the menu, but the ocean just isn’t playing ball for most of the next two and a half weeks.

The outlook stretches from now right out to late July, but don’t get your hopes up too early. The first wave of any real size shows up on Sunday, July 12th, with a small 2ft W swell pushing through. That morning, with a light breeze from the south swinging cross-offshore, the surface is clean. But it’s tiny, with only moderate wave energy at best (140). You’d be scratching for a wave, but at least the water temp is about average for the time of year. It’s a beginner-friendly spot, so if you’re learning, this is about as good as it gets right now.

After that Sunday morning, it’s a long grind. From Sunday afternoon all the way through the week and into the next, the wind turns bad. It stays cross-on or onshore nearly the entire time, blowing from the NNW or N, and the swell direction never really matches what this place likes. The wave heights go up and down, but the conditions are always written off as just “poor.” The combined energy bounces around, but the quality is always junked out by the wind. There are no days where the wind goes offshore or glassy, so the whole stretch from the 12th through to the 27th of July is basically a write-off for good surfing.

The best you could argue for is Saturday, July 25th. The swell picks up to 5ft from the NNW with a period of 7 seconds. That’s still a short-period wind swell, and the combined energy climbs to 213 – moderate stuff. But the wind is still cross-on from the NNW at 12 mph. It’s too messy to call it a standout. That size (5ft) might be pushing it for the beginners this spot usually suits, but the onshore wind is the real killer here. It’ll be lumpy and choppy.

Honestly, this is a tough stretch. There are no real standouts, just a one-morning window of clean but tiny surf on the 12th. After that, it’s a gap of consistent onshore wind and poor conditions right through to the end of the period. For a beach break setup like this, when the wind is this persistent, it’s more setup for kite surfing than for a nice paddle session. We just have to wait for the conditions to line up.

Stay patient, mates.

Rusty.

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