Surf City El Salvador Pro - Forecast Update
We're just over three days away from the start of the Surf City El Salvador Pro waiting period, and, considering the size of their swell window with swells being generated up to a week before they arrive, we have quite a good idea of what's in store for the entire event window.
The waiting period runs from the 9-18th, with El Salvador being sixteen hours behind Australia, meaning the first possible heat to be run would be at 1am Saturday morning Eastern Standard Time.
In general, the waiting period looks to be filled with ebbs and pulses of swell from the South Pacific Ocean, hovering in the 3-4ft range, with a few better pulses likely to be in the mix.
Currently, a large S/SW groundswell is on the build, with it due to peak tomorrow (Tuesday) morning El Salvador time, easing slowly through Wednesday and Thursday.
For the opening day of the waiting period, we can expect to see a very inconsistent, background SW groundswell providing 3-4ft sets along with light, local morning offshore winds and afternoon south-southeast sea breezes.
Our better pulse of more southerly-angled swell for the second day of the waiting period is on track, generated by a strong low that formed west of the Chile coastline over the weekend.
This low looks to have been a touch stronger than forecast last week and as a result we should see good sets building to 4-5ft during the day (a little undersized early), then easing back from the 3-4ft range on day three.
Winds look to play out similar to Friday, with local morning offshore breezes giving way to afternoon sea breezes on both Saturday and Sunday.
With the swell expected to bottom out in the slow, inconsistent 2-3ft range through Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, we're likely to see competition get under way during the first three days of the waiting period.
The surf should start to pick up again into Thursday thanks to the arrival of the first in a series of inconsistent, long-period S/SW groundswells, generated in the Southern Ocean, along the polar shelf.
The first for Thursday is being generated by a fetch of W/SW gales to the south-east of New Zealand today, with the fetch projecting east, followed by a secondary slightly stronger, but rapidly moving, front.
The first of these back to back pulses of groundswell, should build to an inconsistent 4ft Thursday next week, followed by the secondary pulse during the following Saturday.
Local winds through the end of the waiting period (when these swells arrive), look more favourable and lighter into the afternoons but we'll continue to monitor this.
Comments
Does Costa Rica receive same swell sources
Yep, though likely with a touch less size if from the more distant, polar sources. Swells off South America would perform will if east of the Galapagos swell shadowing.
Thanks Craig heading there next week
Awesome, let us know how you go.
CR - such an awesome place, amazing memories. Certainly a rich coastline.
Though it does make decisions tough.. West or East... ok West... North or South... argh! Hope its lights up for you, whatever you decide.
Never been to that region, wanted to go for years, would appreciate a candid review Fraser on crowd levels, maybe a trip for an this aging surfer is well overdue
Nice one Craig, fired the trusty old westerly storm track up, should be heaps of waves.
What size is it in the headline photo? Looks fun as.
Costs Rica !! Looks a dream destination
https://lushpalm.com/surf-in-costa-rica/
With that forecast and smaller number of surfers wouldn’t one expect to run while contest in first 3 days?
Probably split it over both weekends for viewership and numbers on the beach. Maximise their profits, or should we say losses...
Awesome ,
Excited to watch this one. Though I am far too busy to find the time.
I'm glad they are getting waves though. The storm from Chile might over perform. Fingers crossed.
starting to amp up for this craig - any update??
No change for me here, guessing they'll start off today.
Thirty minutes of footage of Punta Roca shot over three days featuring CT surfers . Not sure exactly how representative of wave quality this is but even on the so-called 'epic day' it's kinda ordinary. Sectiony would be the main complaint.
Click through to YouTube for time stamps of the various days.
Always looks like ordinary rock-runner days at the Point here to me.
People say it's fun to surf though.
I reckon El Tunco up the beach a bit is better, haven't surfed that for years and i was a fair bit worse than so could be wrong.
Las flores down the coast a bit is a nice spot
Definitely a poor man's Lennox.
No barrels to be seen, even on the bigger day.
Surely the WSL can find a better wave in central America. There are literally thousands of good, consistent options. Mexico, south pacific coast for example.... Point barrels as far as the eye can see. Safer than here too.
Doesn't appear to be about wave quality - it's about governments and money. And it seems this location is the result of Fernando A getting matey with the El Salvador president who is trying to create Surf City El Salvador.
https://elsalvadorinfo.net/surf-city-el-salvador/
Yeah nah. Looks like fun if it was in your region but wouldn’t travel for it.
I don’t really think ‘CT quality on account of how sectiony it is.
Looks like better waves before the comp again?
Not to worry - Jun 12 - 18 - Krui Pro Ujung Bocur, Krui, Indonesia.
Ujung is just a left hand version of the above.
Better time zone though. Squeeze in a few heats after the boy goes to bed (or during work). Watch the up and comers.
2-3ft glass here this morning. Punta Roca is probably a bit smaller. I wouldn't see it running as it's the smallest day of the last week. The forecast doesn't look great though. WSL curse continues.
Also I wouldn't call the wave sectiony although more S than SW might make it section more and it definately barrels off the top of the point. I know because I've dodged a couple! Not worth pulling in when there's 200-300m of wall to play with. It's never going to live up to a firing East coast point though if that's your frame of reference.
My complaint about the wave is that it's lully, crowded and the three sections never connect up in my limited experience. Even if they did the other two sections are pretty crappy.
I feel like what you described is a sectiony wave.
I’d take your word for it given you’ve surf it but I guess the clips and last years comp make it look fairly B grade, as you mentioned, when comparing to the points on the east coast of Oz, Mexico etc
Where would you like to see the comp at in that wave rich zone?
Apparently there's good waves to the east, more hollow, packed with travelling Brazilians. Ideally they'd hold events at different waves around depending on the swell. There are some swell magnets around and then there's Punta Roca that needs a fair swell to work. The other issue is winds are only good generally from sunrise to 9-11am. Not the world's best comp wave by any stretch, but good for the recreational surfer. It's one of those places where you can surf decent waves nearly everyday, year round.
Sounds fun mate. Hope you’re enjoying
Off for the day.
Looks like fun but a mongrel to get out if u mistime it!
Thursday their time (early Friday AEST) looks like finals day, with an inconsistent long-range S/SW groundswell due to fill in. It looks slow and to 3ft to possibly 4ft.
They could do Wednesday but it looks a touch smaller.
Looking forward to J bay. They could probably axe the whole Sth American leg of the tour imo.
Whole leg?
There’s only one South American contest.
But if you meant El Salvador as well, I reckon move it to Puerto with Barra as backup for big swells.
Both waves get extreme social media coverage anyway.
Yeah man , isn’t Brazil part of Sth America? and next comps there…
Yeh, Brazil, one comp in South America.
As I said.
Can we expect a forecast shortly for Rio? Although I can probably guess what the surf's gonna be like in Rio anyway!!!