Banzai Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, what’s the story, crew? Rusty here. Gotta be honest, looking at the whole 16-day window for the North Shore, it’s a pretty lacklustre run. We’re dealing with a long stretch of small, weak, onshore junk. In fact, you’re looking at about two weeks of barely anything worth paddling out for. The combined swell energy stays weak, mostly sitting between 29 and 103 (moderate), but the quality is just not there. The wind is a constant issue, chopping everything up.

Let’s start with Monday the 14th. Banzai’s showing tiny swell at 2.6 ft from the SE with a short 7-second period. That’s not doing anything on that reef. The wind is a light cross-onshore, but the wave comment spells it out: poor surf. This same sad story repeats through the whole week and into the next. We’ve got 2.0 ft to 3.0 ft swell, all short period (6-7 seconds), and the wind is either onshore or cross-onshore from the ESE or SE every single session. Even when the wind drops to light on the 19th and 20th, the swell is too weak and short to make anything of it.

There’s a slight uptick around the 20th of September with combined energy hitting 103 (moderate) from the ESE, but it’s still just 3.0 ft with a 6-second period – that’s windswell, not groundswell. It’s messy.

Now, the only blip on the radar comes way out on Sunday the 27th of September. We finally see a jump in swell height to 4.6 ft from the SE, with the period stretching to 8 seconds. The combined energy jumps to 345 (moderate to strong), so there’s some actual juice in the water. The morning looks clean with a light ESE onshore wind, but that’s still onshore. This isn’t a standout by any means, but it’s the best we’ve got in the whole window – a small bump in energy after a long, flat, and choppy spell. Don’t get your hopes up for pristine Banzai barrels, but if you’re desperate for a wave, that Sunday morning might offer something a little more pushy than the rest. Still, the direction (SE) isn’t ideal for that spot, and it’s over a week away, so treat it as a promising but very uncertain prospect. Monday the 28th drops right back down to 3.3 ft and weaker energy (103).

So, the honest truth: there’s no real standout here. It’s a two-week dry spell with one blip of moderate energy at the very end. Banzai is an exposed reef that wants a big, long-period swell from the south to really work, and we’re just not getting that. For anything over 5.0 ft, you’d need to be an expert here, but we don’t even get close. The water temperature anomaly isn’t given, so we can’t call anything unusual there, but the vibe is flat. For the beginner crew, the swell never gets over 5.0 ft, so it’s too small to be scary, but the onshore chop will make it a frustrating paddle.

Stay patient, boys. It’s a waiting game.

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