Kewalos Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, let’s see what’s cookin’. The next sixteen days have a lot of nothing special, with a decent stretch of poor to marginal surf. The first real good day doesn’t show up until the start of September, so you’re gonna have to sit tight.

The first record is for Saturday, August 22nd, at Kewalos. We’re lookin’ at a 0.7m swell from the SW with a long 16-second period, but the wind is a cross-offshore breeze at 35 km/h, so the surface is clean. The combined wave energy is moderate at 506. The water temp is 80°, which is about normal for this time of year. The crowd factor is "often," so you won’t be alone. The swell is small, so it’s a session for the advanced crew on the reef. The surf quality is poor, so not a goer, really.

Through the rest of August, from the 22nd to the 31st, the pattern stays the same: a cross-offshore wind from the ENE, mostly 30 to 40 km/h, with swell heights from 0.7m to 1.8m. The swell period is often short, down to 6 or 7 seconds, which makes for weak, mushy waves. The combined energy is in the low to mid hundreds. The surf conditions are flagged as poor or marginal. The only slight uptick is Monday, August 31st, when the swell hits 1.7m from the ENE with a period of 12 seconds, and the combined energy goes to 1038. Still just a marginal call.

The best window of the whole outlook is Wednesday, September 2nd. The morning at Kewalos is lookin’ sweet. We’ve got a 0.8m swell from the S with a long 17-second period, and the wind is glassy from the S at just 5 km/h. The combined energy is moderate at 443. The surf quality is flagged as good. This is the real standout. The light wind will keep the reef glassy, and that long period will bring some nice lines. The afternoon is the same, with a 0.8m S swell at 16 seconds. For a small day, this is the pick.

Thursday, September 3rd, is back to small, unexciting stuff. The swell stays around 0.6m to 0.7m from the S, with a period of 15 seconds. The wind is light but mostly cross-onshore, so conditions are ordinary. The combined energy drops to 188 in the afternoon. Not worth it.

The last few days, September 5th and 6th, show a building swell. Saturday, September 5th, has a 1.3m swell from the E in the morning, building to 1.7m in the afternoon, with a 16-second period. The combined energy jumps to 1415 in the morning and a very strong 2133 in the afternoon. The wind is clean cross-offshore. This is a promising setup for the reef. Then Sunday, September 6th, we see a 3.0m swell from the ENE with a 14-second period. That’s big, powerful stuff, with combined energy of 3652 and 3424. This is only for the experts. The wind is a moderate breeze at 25 km/h, cross-offshore, so it’ll be clean but heavy. That’s a proper groundswell, and being a reef, it’ll handle it, but it’s gonna be a serious session.

So, the standout is Wednesday, September 2nd, for the glassy, clean conditions on a small, long-period S swell. The weekend of September 5th and 6th is the second standout for the size and power, but it’s one for the experts only.

Rusty.

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