La Saladita surf seasons — when to come, month by month

Templo Saladita · September 2026 · ~5 min read

La Saladita breaks year-round. The question isn't whether there will be waves — it's what kind. The numbers below come from five years of swell reanalysis at the point itself, 2021 through 2025.

The season in one table

"Real south-swell days" counts days with swell over 1.5 m at 14 seconds or longer from 175–215° — the combination that lights the point up properly. They are rare everywhere; that is the point of counting them.

May to October — the size

Southern-hemisphere swell season. Mean swell runs 1.27 to 1.48 m, roughly double the winter baseline, and September is the biggest month in the record at 1.48 m. This is when the left runs longest and the rides get absurd. It is also the wet season: expect warm rain, green everything, and afternoon storms that usually clear.

December to February — the glass

Swell drops to 0.71–0.83 m and the south-swell days effectively stop. What you get instead is the smallest, cleanest, most forgiving version of the wave, with dry days and light mornings. If you are learning to longboard, or you want to surf four hours without getting worked, this is the window most people underrate.

March, April and November — the shoulders

Swell is building or backing off, periods are long (12.0–12.1 s in March and April, the longest of the year), and crowds are thinner than either peak. April in particular is an underrated month: near-winter cleanliness with the first real pulses arriving.

What the period column is telling you

Period matters more than height at a long point. A 1.0 m swell at 13 seconds carries far more energy down the point than a 1.4 m windswell at 9 seconds, and it peels rather than closes out. That is why the winter numbers look small and the winter surfing doesn't.