Fernando de Noronha, Brazil, SOUTH AMERICA

Abras, Marc Fenies

 

The Surf

Surprisingly, Fernando de Noronha’s main source of swell is not from the S like most of Brazil, but from the North Atlantic lows that provide Europe with its surf. These swells have to march thousands of miles south, helped along by favourable winds and ocean currents. The island has had a colourful recent history, having been used as a battlefield, jail, air base and weather station, but has now become a tourist heaven for divers and surfers. It is never under 2ft during Dec-Feb, and swells last for 5-6 days. Like Hawaii, the island is the summit of a huge underwater volcano, rising 4.3km (2.7mi) from the ocean floor. The surrounding deep water and lack of continental shelf allows the swells to hit with unimpeded speed and power, jacking up wave heights in the process. The SE-facing side of the island is too steep and mountainous for any surf, whereas the NW oriented coastline has perfect topography and offshore winds. The steeply sloping beaches make for some fast barrels, which sometimes tend toward the straighthander category, but are perfectly suited to bodyboarders and tube junkies.

When to Go

Low pressures sitting off the North American east coast generate plenty of 2-12ft NW-N swells between Nov and March. As these systems move towards the Azores, the swell arrives from a more NE direction, helped by the prevailing NE trades and Canaries Current, but slightly hindered by the Cape Verde islands shadow. Fernando de Noronha is also exposed to tropical depressions as they head from Africa to the Americas and will send an off-season swell if they develop into hurricanes quickly enough. South swells hit between April-Oct, but due to onshore winds and steeply rising beaches, they don’t produce good quality waves, however, it will always be 1-2ft at this time. Wind patterns are extremely stable, SE is the predominant direction varying from 41% in April to 70% in Sept, when it's not blowing SE it will almost certainly be due E. In fact for 94% of the time it blows from one of these two directions. This means perfect offshore conditions on the NW-facing surf coastline. There are some slight variations at the end of the dry season, (Feb-April), when there may be NE and S winds. The semi-diurnal tidal range maximum is 2.34m (7.7ft) and affects the waves a lot, with low tide required for some reefs, while the beachbreaks are usually happiest at mid.