Forecast: 2025 Surf City El Salvador Pro
2025 Surf City El Salvador Pro
Wednesday April 2nd - Saturday April 12th
Facing south-west into the South Pacific Ocean, El Salvador has one of the largest swell windows in the world - larger even than Hawaii's view into the North Pacific.
That said, mid-latitude storms are less common in the South Pacific than its northern counterpart, so El Salvador's primary swell source is the Roaring Forties, particularly the zone extending east of New Zealand. The further east and north those storms project the more consistent and larger the resultant energy will be in El Salvador.
Of course, the opposite is also true: storms that form further south and west have less consistency and power. That's an important point going into this forecast.
While not totally inactive, the start of the El Salvador Pro waiting period will feature a very inconsistent, moderate-sized swell generated at the far extent of the swell window.
The swell in question will form to the south and south-west of New Zealand, which is some 13,000km from Punta Roca and hardly ideal for limited-time surfing. Think two or three sets per heat.
A couple of days before the waiting period kicks off next Wednesday, the swell will arrive, generated by the aforementioned polar low that fired up south of New Zealand last Friday. The same low actually generated the rare long-period S/SE groundswell that impacted Australia's East Coast on Tuesday, though it’s the northern flank of the system that generated the swell for El Salvador.
With a travel time of nine days, this swell will lose a lot of size and consistency on its journey to El Salvador. It's due to arrive on Sunday, building through the day ahead of a peak later in the day if not Monday. Very infrequent 4-6ft sets may be seen at the peak of the swell, though come two days later when the contest begins it will be on the way out and a very inconsistent 3-4ft.
Punta Roca during last year's contest (WSL/Ryder)
From here the general trend is slowly down into the end of the week, bottoming out on the weekend. Despite the enormous swell window, the Pacific lives up to its name.
Before moving on: Local winds will be favourable for the opening days with light, locally offshore land breezes making way to weak sea breezes.
The next noticeable increase in size is likely later on Sunday (day 5) but more so Monday (day 6), with a small, tight low firing up to the south of Tahiti this weekend. This looks to be the start of a flurry of stronger storm activity firing up in the medium-range swell window for El Salvador. The first low - i.e the one forming near Tahiti - will generate a pulse of 3-5 foot swell, with the following swells producing waves of similar size; the swell trains possibly overlapping to increase consistency at Punta Roca.
At the end of the waiting period, there is a chance of a stronger, larger swell for the final two days but we’ll have a closer look at this in the next update.
Comments
nice and concise, thank you Craig
Could someone stream the warm ups please? Onya Craigos
Excellent new Youtube drop.
I'm confused, I thought they WSL, were heading to Australia? ...
Got cheap flights via Central America.
You may find yourself, surfing in Central America
This is not Main Break
This is not my beautiful Bells
Hahhaa. Nice one
wow , keep going
you are on to something
letting the waves go by ....water flowing ....onto ....
Sorry Lanko, your OP was hard for me to resist, I think I might have this condition
Witzelsucht (German: [ˈvɪtsl̩ˌzʊxt] "joking addiction") is a set of rare neurological symptoms characterized by a tendency to make puns, or tell inappropriate jokes or pointless stories in socially inappropriate situations
huh. I just thought it just was a german characteristic that they hid by pretending to be surly and critical. I'll be more understanding now I know it is some kinda behavioural jastorf virus..
Free flights and accommodation from the U S , if you fit the description!
Hahaha, underrated comment!
Hahaha , overrated accomodation!
We probably won’t notice though!
All you need is the wrong tattoo, apparently.
All you need is any tattoo apparently,
Very good!
Would El Salvador pick up swell from the eastern side of the South Pacific? From Easter island to Chile sort of area, or are they shadowed by the Galápagos Islands?
galapagos has some shadowing funk effect for some waves.
its a big basin though cent and south America has a great swell window.
Do the Galapagos Islnds get waves?
Yeh the galapagos pumps
Shadowed but you still get the same swells as South America. It turns on from May to October, S to SW. The only other swell is sometimes 4ft of windswell from the offshores of Nicaragua (!) but they're only good for a novelty beachy sesh.
Fuck knows why they're running the comp there in April.
Awesome!! Sounds shit!
The Southern Ocean has been particularly sleepy last few days down this way and looks to be so for another few so can't imagine anything flaring up in their long term outlook. Nothing worth waking up early for.
Bring on Bells and hopefully a massive year of swell. Long overdue.
swellnet crew fished out a tribute to stoke El Salvador WSR...Yew!
ISA Surf City El Salvador
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXkKtoq0CbTH8hC8vaTdd3eWaGBL5CA_3
https://isasurf.org/event/2022-el-salvador-isa-world-juniors-surfing-ch…
#1 swellnet El Salvador CT Forecasts / Comps Gallery
2022
https://www.swellnet.com/news/swellnet-dispatch/2022/06/09/forecast-sur…
https://www.swellnet.com/news/form-guide/2022/06/17/el-salvador-pro-day…
https://www.swellnet.com/news/form-guide/2022/06/18/el-salvador-pro-day…
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2023
https://www.swellnet.com/form-guide/2023/el-salvador-pro
https://www.swellnet.com/news/form-guide/2023/06/11/el-salvador-pro-202…
https://www.swellnet.com/news/form-guide/2023/06/17/el-salvador-pro-202…
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2024
https://www.swellnet.com/news/form-guide/2024/06/06/forecast-surf-city-…
https://www.swellnet.com/form-guide/2024/el-salvador-pr
https://www.swellnet.com/news/form-guide/2024/06/10/el-salvador-pro-202…
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El Salvador Surf Politics 2022-25
6th June 2022 (Intro...Links - Subscription)
https://stabmag.com/features/el-salvadors-170-million-dollar-bet-on-sur…
(Possible) Alt Back Up Pod...
https://stabmag.com/news/stab-podcast-the-truth-about-wax-the-crosby-co…
13th June 2023 World's Coolest Dictator
https://www.sportspolitika.news/p/the-worlds-coolest-dictator-wants
6th Feb 2024 El Presidente
https://www.theinertia.com/surf/el-salvador-president-nayib-bukele-wins…
23rd Nov 2024 Unsavory side of Surf City
https://www.elsalvadornow.org/2024/11/23/the-unsavory-side-of-surf-city…
18th March 2025 : How Surfing turned El Salvador from Murder Capital to Tourism Haven
https://www.palatinate.org.uk/how-surfing-turned-el-salvador-from-murde…
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World Surf Reserve
https://www.instagram.com/savethewavescoalition/p/C53nXgORrf7/?img_inde…
16th Nov 2024 {Dedication}
https://www.savethewaves.org/oriente-salvaje-el-salvador-dedicated-as-n…
19th Nov 2024 Surfer / Intertia
https://www.surfer.com/news/el-salvador-world-surfing-reserve-oriente-s…
https://www.theinertia.com/surf/oriente-salvaje-el-salvador-13th-world-…
21st Nov 2024 Sports / Tourism
https://elsalvadorinenglish.com/2024/11/21/el-salvador-becomes-13th-wor…
5th Dec 2024 Surf Industry
https://surfindustry.org/blogs/industry-press-release/oriente-salvaje-e…
22 Jan 2025 El Salvador / ISA 6 events / 3 year Partnership
https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1151438/el-salvador-global-surf…
you been using AI chat for all the dribble you have been posting the last 2-3 years correct....
According to many who know, the two best months for surf and local conditions in El Salvador are April and November -
The larger swell for the end of the waiting period is still on track. Second to last and final day.
So unlikely to run Day 1 given the huge inconsistency in that swell and what’s supposedly on offer at the back end of the waiting period.
wsl karma is so bad , I didnt even have to read this to know that the were going to get skunked.
when was the last good forecast?
Abu Dhabi
まやらわさはな
Are days Australia days or El Salvador days?
El Salvador. Basically midnight out time is morning their time. So tonight midnight will be their Monday morning.
eww
Tough timezone for freeride76
The warm up sessions look fun yesterday.
Thanks for the forecast Craig, amazing to think that swell travelled some 13,000km from NZ to Punta Roca.
Hope the pros get some more nice waves, before coldwater Bells...
With the oceans so active, anything could happen.
Fuzzy future forecasts predicted from NOAA; 28th March 2025
"Hundreds of workers have been fired from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, including meteorologists at the Weather Service.
More cuts by the Trump administration are reportedly on the way."
https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/wabe-forecasting-cuts-leave-some…
"Forecasters, Watson said, depend on information from lots of sources: NASA and Department of Defense satellites, Federal Aviation Administration weather stations at airports, Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Geological Survey flood gauges and international weather stations maintained by USAID. Many of those agencies are facing their own cuts, too, which he said will also have an impact on forecasting."
Maybe Australia, Japan and Euopes satellites, planes, ships & foreasters, will keep an eye on things for the next 3 years....
Nice conditions..
Anyone know who's song that is from 4.30m mark (Skin of my Teeth.??)
Intro & Chorus (from U2); verses (from Hoodo Gurus)
Played by HUXTON CREEPERS - Skin Of My Teeth
Thanks heaps bbb
I knew it sounded familiar, just couldn't put it in place.
The Huxton Creepers were a fav band of mine back in the 80's, saw them at the Uni bar with The Sparklers ...(Mel and Jeremy Oxley's band)
Lead singer was in a couple of bands. Ahh those were the days without any exaggeration Golden Era of weekend parties and great pub bands around Melbourne.
Influencers
Scientific observations
Take shelter or take action, big days ahead.
Anyone know who the female surfer in the blue bikini is?
Just watched some warm-up footage, fuck me , seriously that lad from Burleigh heads, I my opinion in 4ft or so right point surf as good as Ewing,
Another shitshow.....
Hi Craig, is the next bump still on track for today?
Yeah a slight uptick, and very long-range. Thursday through Saturday look much better.
Copy that
Thanks
The groundswell for the end of the period, mainly tomorrow afternoon through Friday and Saturday looks good, with the polar low linked to it projecting a sustained fetch of gale to severe-gale S/SW winds towards Central America.
This should provide 6ft to occasionally 8ft sets at its peak mainly later tomorrow and Friday, easing Saturday.