Zicatela Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright folks, Rusty here. Let’s have a look at the next 16 days for our local stretch.

Right off the bat, we’ve got surf on offer starting Thursday morning, July 30th. The overall pattern is a slow, steady decline from a decent, fun-sized swell into smaller, cleaner conditions, before a promising pulse of longer-period groundswell shows up later in the second week. The standout window is definitely the first morning, and then there’s a real interesting one to keep an eye on about a week and a half out.

Zicatela is the only game in town, and it’s an exposed beach break that needs a solid SSW swell to fire. The water is sitting at 87°, which is a touch warmer than normal for this time of year.

Thursday morning, July 30th, is the pick of the early days. We’re looking at a clean 5ft SSW groundswell with a 14-second period, and the wind is dead calm – glassy perfection. The energy is moderate at 881, so there’s plenty of push. It’s a bit overhead, but with that period and direction, it should be lining up nicely. This is a true standout for the whole forecast.

Friday morning, July 31st, is still very good. The swell drops a touch to 4ft, SSW, 13 seconds, and it’s glassy again. The energy is a solid 634. It’s still clean and fun, but not quite the peak of Thursday.

From Saturday, August 1st, through the next week, the swell slowly fades. We get some nice glassy mornings, like Saturday morning (3ft, 13s), Monday morning the 3rd (3ft, 15s), and Wednesday morning the 5th (2ft, 15s), but the size gets pretty small. The afternoons are mostly a write-off with onshore or cross-onshore breezes and poor conditions. The week of the 4th to the 10th is a bit of a slow grind with small, clean but weak waves.

Now, hold on to your board shorts. The morning of Friday, August 7th, it starts to get interesting again. We see a 3ft bump, but with a 18-second period – that’s a very long period groundswell. The energy jumps to 634, and it’s glassy. This is a proper groundswell, and at Zicatela, it could be a bit tricky because the long period can make the beach break sectiony and close out. But if you pick your peak, the power will be there. This is the second standout window, but it's a bit of a wildcard because of the period.

The following week, from August 9th through the 14th, we’ve got a few more promising mornings. The morning of Saturday, August 8th, has 4ft, 16-second swell with glassy conditions (754 energy). Then Monday morning, August 10th, sees 3ft, 13s with calm winds (536 energy). The morning of Wednesday, August 12th, is a solid call with 4ft, 18-second swell and glassy winds (808 energy). Thursday morning, August 13th, also has 4ft, 16-second swell with light winds (763 energy). These are all clean, but the long-period groundswell will be the dominant feature, so keep that in mind for the beach break.

Overall, the best bet for a clean, powerful, and reliable session is Thursday morning, July 30th. The second standout, which is more promising but less certain due to the very long period, is Friday morning, August 7th, and the mornings around the 12th and 13th also look like they could fire with that same groundswell energy.

Rusty out.

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