Zarautz Forecast

If you are new to surfing and want to learn how to read the wave forecast for the next few days in Zarautz Surf, you will learn it!

Windguru Zarautz

First of all, you will need a website to look at the forecast and the most famous one is Windguru. Almost all websites give you the same information, therefore we will use the example of windguru so that you learn to read well when to go surfing in Zarautz and when not to.

How to know if there are going to be good waves in Zarautz

As soon as you open the page you will see a bunch of numbers and arrows for each hour and day. Here, what interests us will be the fields that affect the waves. For example, the cloud cover field does not interest us since it will not affect the waves.

Therefore, the fields that we will look at will be these: Wave (size/meters), Wave period (sec), Wave direction, wind direction and wind speed.

Wave (size/meters) :

For Zarautz the ideal size of the waves is between 1 meter and 1.5 meters. If it exceeds 1.5 meters, the waves tend to close quite a bit since the sandbank is not adapted to that size of waves. If the forecast reads 0.8 or 0.9 there may also be nice waves but that will depend on the period as we will learn now.

Wave period:

The period is the time (in seconds) that elapses between the crests of two consecutive waves passing a fixed point. That is, if the period is large, the wave will have more strength since it has more time to form that wave. If the period is small, the waves will be less strong and the conditions will not be as clean. Therefore, if the wave size is 0.8 or 0.9 meters and the period is small, the conditions for surfing in Zarautz will be poor. And vice versa, if the period is long there may be very good waves.

Wave direction:

In Zarautz there are two possible directions for the waves to enter: from the north and from the west. The best thing for Zarautz is that the swell enters from the north, since the waves will enter cleanly without anything preventing the swell from entering cleanly. That way, if you see that the arrow is straight looking down, it is a very good sign.

On the other hand, if the direction points west, that is, if the arrow is pointing to the right, that means that the swell that arrives will not enter Zarautz cleanly and therefore there will not be what it indicates in the size of the waves. . Zarautz needs the waves to come in from the north just as Portugal needs them to come in from the west, the best thing is for the swell to come in from the front.

Wind direction and speed:

The direction of the wind will make the wave clean or bumpy. If the wind is Offshore, that is, the wind goes against the wave, South wind in the case of Zarautz, that will make the wave perfect for surfing. On the other hand, if the wind is Onshore, a north wind, that will make the wave not so clean and arrive with bumps.

But everything will depend on the speed of the wind, the lower the speed, the cleaner the wave will be. If the speed of the south wind is high, there may be good conditions since the offshore wind is ideal for surfing. But if the north wind comes at high speed, that will cause the waves to enter the shore dirty.

If you've made it this far, you're already an expert at reading the Forecast! But not everything is done since the tide and the season of the year can cause the forecast to change!

Tide:

The ideal tide for surfing in Zarautz is between medium and high. At low tide the waves do not usually open much since the sandbank is not ideal for that tide.

Season:

The wave forecast may vary depending on the time of year. The waves will not be the same in summer and winter even if the forecast in numbers is identical. In winter, autumn and spring the waves will come with much more force than in summer, that way, if in summer it marks 1 meter there will surely be less than what the Forecast indicates.

If you have understood everything explained and if you are already able to read the Zarautz Forecast , you will surely be able to read all the waves in the world!