Halawa Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, Rusty here, switching to feet and miles per hour for you lot. Let’s break it down.

The surf window kicks off on Wednesday morning, July 29th, with a real solid offering at Halawa, a reef/river setup. That first session is the one true standout of the whole 16-day run. After that, it’s a long, dusty spell of poor conditions with barely a ripple worth paddling for until the first week of August, when some size comes back but the wind just wrecks it.

Wednesday morning, July 29th, is your one true window. Halawa is pumping with a 6ft swell rolling in from the NE, period of 9 seconds, and combined energy reading a solid 612 (moderate wave energy). But the real magic is the wind – glassy, dead calm at 3 mph from the NNE. That’s as clean as it gets. For a break that’s fairly consistent and exposed to the swell, with an optimum direction of NNW, this NE swell is a little off-angle but still delivers. The water temp anomaly is about average for the time of year, so nothing weird there. Keep in mind, Halawa is a reef/river setup, so that long period energy (9 seconds) will wrap in nicely, and the clean conditions will make it look way better than the number. It’s an intermediate-level wave at this size (under 8ft, so not just for experts), and crowds are only sometimes an issue. This is the highlight. Savor it.

Wednesday afternoon, the wind swings onshore to a cross-shore 9 mph from the E, the swell drops to 5ft, and the energy dips to 399. The surf is already getting lumpy, and the score drops to marginal.

From Thursday morning, July 30th, right through to the end of the forecast, it’s a grim stretch. Thursday and Friday see strong cross-shore winds between 19 and 22 mph, with swell heights dropping to nearly nothing. The combined energy falls to 24, 12, even single digits by Saturday. It’s basically flat or too choppy to ride. This gap of several days with no recommendations stretches through the end of July and into the first few days of August.

Sunday morning, August 2nd, a new pulse of swell shows up – 8ft from the ENE at 8 seconds, energy hitting 773. But the wind is still a fresh cross-shore at 19 mph, and the conditions are lumpy cross-chop. That’s a messy combo. The size is getting up there, but with that short period (8 seconds) and bad wind, the wave quality is poor. It’s really more of a kite-surfing setup than a clean paddle session.

Monday through the rest of the first week of August offers some waist-to-chest high swell (5ft to 6ft), but the ENE winds stay in the 12-16 mph range, keeping a constant cross-chop on the face. The energy stays moderate (449 to 659), but the period never gets long enough to overcome the wind. By Wednesday, August 5th, the size drops under 4ft, and it’s back to small and sloppy.

The second week is a low-energy grind. From August 6th onward, winds are stuck at 16-19 mph out of the E or ENE, with swell between 2ft and 6ft, but the period is mostly short (6-9 seconds). The energy values hover between 120 and 402, but the constant cross-shore wind and chop just trash any chance of a clean wave. The only oddball is a tiny 2ft WNW groundswell on the morning of August 13th with a long 16-second period, but it’s a ghost – not enough size to do anything with, and the wind is still cross.

So here it is: Wednesday morning, July 29th, is your best bet – glassy, clean, chest-to-head-high surf at Halawa. Everything after that is a waiting game. A lot of wind, a lot of chop, and not much to get excited about. The setups here are more interesting for kite surfing than paddle surfing for most of the latter period.

Rusty.

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