Hanamizu River Surf Forecast and Surf Report

G’day, Rusty here, checkin’ in with a look at what’s on offer at Hanamizu River.

Right off the bat, there’s some proper swell on the way, but the winds are gonna make you work for it. The river mouth setup here is fairly exposed, and the bulk of the energy is coming from the S to SSW – that’s not quite bang-on the optimum SE direction, so the waves might not set up as well as they could.

Friday 10th July kicks things off with a chest-high 6ft swell from the S, with a long period of 15 seconds. That’s proper groundswell, meaning heaps of push, but some long lulls between sets. The combined wave energy is strong, sitting at 1410. The morning has a light SSE breeze, but it’s straight onshore, so the face is gonna be bumpy. By the arvo, the wind swings S and picks up to 12 mph, cross-onshore. It gets messy real quick.

Saturday 11th July – a touch bigger at 7ft from the SSW, period out to 16 seconds, and the energy pushes up to 2368 in the morning. That’s a lot of water moving around. But the wind is still a cross-onshore light breeze in the morning, and by afternoon it’s picking up to moderate cross-onshore again. Choppy, not clean. This swell is over 5ft, so it’s getting a bit much for beginners.

Sunday 12th July is where it gets interesting. Morning is cloudy with a light cross-shore wind from the SW at just 3 mph, swell still a solid 6ft from the SSW, period 16 seconds, energy at 1547. Then in the *afternoon*, the wind goes cross-offshore from the WSW at 6 mph, and the surf is described as “clean”. Swell drops slightly to 5ft (SSW, 16 sec, 1208 energy). That afternoon session is your standout for the whole week – the combo of groundswell energy and a clean, cross-off breeze is gonna make for some lined-up waves. The water temp anomaly is unremarkable, so it’s about average for this time of year.

From Monday 13th July onwards, the ocean switches off. Monday morning has just 3ft from the SSW, period drops to 13 seconds, and energy slumps to 287. Wind is a light cross-off, so it’s clean but tiny. Monday arvo, glassy with 3ft and 184 energy – pretty weak. Then Tuesday to Friday, swell continues to fade to knee-high and below, wind is mostly cross-onshore, and the scores tell the story: poor or ordinary conditions.

There’s a long, flat gap from Monday through to maybe Thursday 24th July. On the 24th, Friday morning, a tiny bit of life – 1ft, but the period goes back to 13 seconds (groundswell), energy only 83. Not worth paddling for.

Then on Saturday 25th July we see a pulse of 4ft from the SSW, 13-second period, energy at 411. But it’s still cross-onshore, so the conditions likely won’t let it shine. South-facing exposure on a river mouth, with that cross-onshore wind – it’s going to be choppy.

So to wrap it up: The best and pretty much only decent surf is Sunday 12th July afternoon. That 5ft SSW groundswell with a clean cross-offshore breeze is your window. After that, we’re looking at a long gap with mostly flat, onshore junk until near the end of the month. A long period swell over 5ft is often better at a reef or point, but at a beach/sandbar like Hanamizu River, it can break a bit straight – even so, that Sunday arvo is still the pick.

Keep your eyes on the sky, and remember – forecasts for anything more than a week out are just a whisper.

– Rusty

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