Tres Palmas (Rincon) Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, grab a coffee and listen up. Rusty here.

First up, we're looking at a pretty bleak picture. The whole 16-day forecast is a total dud. There's nothing that'll get your heart racing, I'll tell ya that now. It’s gonna be a long stretch of flat to near-flat conditions. The first week is basically a write-off with nothing worth recommending at all, and the second week doesn't bring any relief. This is not a time to be excited.

The only wave even on the radar is a famous one, Tres Palmas (Rincon). This is a deep-water reef break that needs serious size and a solid west-northwest swell to even blink. It’s an inconsistent spot that only fires under very specific conditions, and right now it’s just sitting there like a sleeping giant with a stomach ache. The combined wave energy is mostly in the low single-digit range, from a high of 12 (on August 31st) down to zero most other times. That’s about as weak as it gets.

The water temperature is sitting at 85°F, with an anomaly of plus 1°F, which is pretty much normal for this time of year in Puerto Rico. No surprises there.

Look, there’s no way around it: the swell direction is all from the north or north-northeast, which is totally wrong for Tres Palmas. It needs the classic winter north-west pulse. The wind windows are glassy, sure, like Saturday morning the 22nd with a 0.7 ft wave from the north-northeast (8 seconds period, combined energy of 6), but that’s surf for a splash pool, not a reef. The same goes for the 31st of August morning – 0.7 ft, 11-second period, glassy wind. That’s not surfing. That’s floating. And on September 2nd, we see a couple of glassy windows, but the swell is still a miserable 0.7 ft.

Plenty of glassy mornings through the end of August and into September, but with zero swell to speak of. It’s a complete flat spell.

Just to be clear: if I were a kiter, I wouldn't even bother. There's no wind, no waves. It's a ghost town.

So, what’s the call? Save your wax. Don’t bother checking the cameras. This is a 16-day long dry spell. For a place like this, it’s not abnormal to have these long flat runs, but it doesn’t make it any easier. Forecasts can change, and sometimes a sneaky swell pops up, but right now? There’s nothing.

Rusty.

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