Halawa Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, surfers, Rusty here. Let’s get into it. We’ve got Halawa on the radar, and I’m not going to sugarcoat it – the next couple of weeks are going to be a bit of a grind for paddle surfing. It’s going to take some patience to find a window.

The whole period is dominated by cross-shore and cross-onshore winds. That’s never a good look. To make matters worse, those winds are fresh, sometimes strong, and they’re kicking up a lumpy, chopped-up mess. We start off with next to nothing, just some weak, short-period leftovers on Saturday the 22nd and Sunday the 23rd. The energy is there but it’s disorganized, with the swell coming from the west and northwest at around 1ft to 2ft. It’s pretty poor, to be honest.

Then we get a pulse of easterly windswell on Monday the 24th, with a 6ft swell but a period of only 6 seconds. That’s not going to do us any favors at a reef/river break like this. It’s just going to be a jumbled mess with that fresh cross-shore breeze. The energy reads 335, so there’s some push there, but it’s all over the place.

The pattern keeps repeating itself. We see more of this short-period easterly energy on Wednesday the 26th (5ft) and again on Friday the 28th (5ft-6ft), with the wind staying cross-shore and lumpy. All these poor surf conditions are just not what we want to see.

We’re looking at a long stretch of this. It’s not until the end of the month that things start to pick up in size, but not in quality. Monday, August 31st sees the swell jump to 8ft with a period of 8 seconds, and the energy climbs to 656. But it’s still cross-shore. And it’s still not good. The morning after, September 1st, is bigger again, but with rain showers and more cross-onshore wind. This isn’t surfable for us; it’s just a wall of chop.

The real letdown is that even when the size is up, the wind stays stubborn. We get a brief moment on the morning of Thursday, September 3rd, when the wind turns cross-offshore and the conditions clean up. The swell is a solid 8ft at 8 seconds, and the energy is strong at 682. That’s the closest thing to a standout we’re going to see, but it’s short-lived. The afternoon turns to a cross-shore mess again, and a risk of thunderstorms doesn’t help. That clean window on the 3rd is the only real look we have in the whole sixteen days.

After that, it’s more of the same. The first week of September brings more easterly windswell, with sizes between 7ft and 8ft, but the period stays short and the wind just keeps blowing onshore and cross-shore. The energy is strong, into the 500s and 600s, but with that quality, it’s just a washing machine. The water temp is sitting at 80°, which is bang on average for this time of year, so no surprises there.

The final nail in the coffin is the weekend of September 6th and 7th. We’ve got a severe gale forecast with winds up to 50 mph. That’s totally blown out. There’s no way anyone’s getting out there on a surfboard. That setup looks more interesting for kite surfing than paddle surfing, to be honest.

So here’s the deal: the only real window to keep an eye on is the morning of Thursday, September 3rd. It’s a promising one, but it’s a long way out, so treat it with caution. The rest of the run is just a waiting game. This spot can be fairly consistent, so it tends not to stay this poor for long. Stay patient, keep checking the forecasts.

Rusty out.

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