Playa Varesse Surf Forecast and Surf Report

G’day, Rusty here. Let’s be real – this sixteen-day stretch for Playa Varesse is a long, flat wait. The whole first week and a half is a write-off. Tiny swell, mixed-up winds, and the forecast just keeps saying “poor surf conditions.” You’ll be staring at a lake-like surface from Saturday the 29th of August right through to Friday the 4th of September. The best you’ll see is a blip of 2 ft, 10-second east swell on Friday morning the 4th, with a clean offshore breeze from the WSW. The combined energy is a meagre 78 – weak stuff. It’s surfable, but barely. For a beginner spot, even that’s not much to write home about. The water temp is sitting at 50°, which is a touch warmer than normal for this time of year, so at least it won’t be freezing.

Then, Sunday the 6th of September morning is where it finally gets interesting. A jump to 4 ft from the SSE with a 9-second period, offshore wind from the SW, and a combined energy of 296 – that’s proper moderate energy. The afternoon cleans up even more with a light breeze and 5 ft SSE swell. This is the standout, no question. It’s clean, it’s got some push, and the wind is your friend. Because it’s a beach break, that short period (9 seconds) is just fine – the waves will be punchy and fun, not too fat. Crowds are *sometimes* an issue here, so get on it early. Anything bigger than 5 ft can be a handful for beginners, so if you’re learning, respect the Sunday afternoon size.

Monday the 7th sees the swell drop back to 4 ft from the SE, but the wind turns cross-shore, and the energy stays high at 418. The conditions are marginal, with a light cross-shore ripple. It’s still surfable, but not as crisp as Sunday. After that, the onshore wind and onshores take over again, and the quality fades out. The second week has some bigger groundswell pulses – like 4 ft SE at 14 seconds on Tuesday the 8th with a huge 706 energy, but it’s blowing onshore from the NE, so it’s a messy, blown-out mess. Same story for the rest of the week: plenty of energy in the water, but the wind just ruins it. For a beach break, long-period swell like that (14 seconds) will just dump straight and close out, especially with the onshore wind. Not for paddle surfing.

Bottom line: you’ve got a full week of nothing, then one gem of a Sunday morning and afternoon on the 6th of September. After that, it’s mostly wind-affected. If you’re a kite surfer, the second week has plenty of wind and wave energy, but for a paddle surfer, it’s mostly a miss.

Rusty.

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