Explore / Brazil · Santa Catarina
Florianópolis.
Now
· updated 14 hours agoEarly-week 2-3m southeast swell at 10-11 seconds builds under light to moderate wind, peaking Monday dawn as a 3m south-southeast pulse at 10-11 seconds under blown-out southwest wind. Mid-week eases to 1-2m southeast with moderate northeast wind, before a fresh 2-3m south pulse at 7-10 seconds arrives Sunday under blown-out south wind. Looks like Monday dawn under light southeast wind will be the best window.
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About Florianópolis
Florianópolis is the capital of Santa Catarina and Brazil’s southern surf hub, an island city fringed by east-coast beach breaks open to the South Atlantic. Joaquina, the open beach with the dune at its north end, is the spiritual home of Brazilian surfing. Praia Mole, a few kilometres north, is the hollow crescent tucked between two headlands. Barra da Lagoa, just past Mole, is the school-zone strip.
The working window is April through September, when cold fronts off the roaring forties push south to south-east swell onto the east coast. The east beaches need 0.8 to 3 m at 9 s or longer. Northwest is offshore; north is clean. South wind shuts the coast down. The classic day is a south-east swell with north or north-west wind behind a passing front. July is the statistical peak.
Water runs 17 to 20 °C in August, 24 to 28 °C by March. A 3/2 covers winter, boardies and a rashie the rest. Joaquina and Praia Mole both want intermediate ability on size; hollow takeoffs and rip currents that build through a long-period swell. Crowds thin on weekdays, packed on weekends. Canto do Gravatá, the south corner of Mole, wakes up on heavy southerlies and runs as a local peak. On a soft or onshore day, the south-end beaches (Matadeiro, Pântano do Sul) wrap cleaner.