Makaha Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Right off the bat, I gotta be straight with you—Makaha (Oahu) is looking at a pretty grim stretch for the next couple of weeks. We’ve got a lot of days where the ocean is just gonna be a mess of cross-shore wind and weak, short-period slop. The water’s running right around average for this time of year, so no wild temperature surprises, just a whole lot of meh.

Friday, September 11th kicks things off with a bit of a tease. We’re looking at 5ft of south swell, but it’s short-period at 8 seconds and the wind is all wrong—cross-on from the SW at 6 mph. The wave energy is moderate at 633, but it’s gonna be bumpy and hard to enjoy. Saturday and Sunday drop off even more, with the swell fading to 5ft and then 4ft, and the wind stays messy. The cross-shore breeze on Sunday afternoon at 12 mph is gonna chop it right up.

By Monday, September 14th, we see a shift. The swell direction swings to the SW and the period jumps dramatically to 18 seconds—that’s proper groundswell. But the height is only 3ft, so you’re hunting for the odd lump. The energy is still moderate (740), and it’s more lined up for a reef like this, but those long-period swells can be tricky here. It might offer a few clean ones in the morning before the onshore kicks in.

The rest of that week is a slow bleed out. Swell holds at around 4ft to 3ft with those long periods (14-15 seconds), but the wind is consistently cross-on or cross, turning everything into bumpy lines. There’s the occasional “marginal” call, but honestly, you’d be fighting for scraps.

We hit a real dead zone from about Saturday, September 19th through to Tuesday, September 22nd. The swell drops to 2ft to 3ft, and while the period is still decent at 12-18 seconds, the energy falls into the weak range, and the winds just keep messing with it. The 20th and 21st have some short-period SW swell, but it’s not doing anything for this spot.

Towards the end of the run, around Thursday, September 24th, there's a tiny pulse of long-period SW energy (22 seconds at 1ft). It's something, but it’s minuscule and still cross-on. Friday the 25th and Saturday the 26th stay poor—small, messy, and just not worth paddling out for.

Plain and simple: there’s no standout day in this whole 16-day window for Makaha. The bigger swells are too windblown, and the clean ones are too small. If the wind ever straightens out to offshore, it would change things, but right now, you’re better off finding something else to do. This setup with moderate wind and cross-shore chop might actually look more interesting for the kite crew than for us paddle surfers. Keep the board in the car, but don’t get your hopes up.

Rusty

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