Ohara Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, let's get into it.

The ocean’s been in a slumber for the last few days, and honestly, for the first stretch here, it’s a bit of a bust at Ohara. We’ve got a little bit of swell around the 3ft mark, but it’s coming in short and weak, with the energy sitting down around the 146 to 271 mark. The wind is staying cross or just plain messy in the mornings, so we’re looking at a whole lot of wind chop and poor conditions. If you're desperate for a paddle, Tuesday afternoon looks the most that’s on offer, but the waves will be nothing to write home about.

Things stay pretty marginal through Wednesday and Thursday morning, with weak, short-period swell and not much in the way of clean faces. The energy is startin’ to build Thursday, with a reading of 379, but it’s still not enough to get the heart rate up.

The Turnaround: Thursday Afternoon Onwards

Alright, but here’s where the tide starts to turn. Thursday afternoon, we get a proper shift. The wind straightens out into a cross-off, the sea glassies up, and we’ve got a clean 3.5ft of east swell. The score’s finally above zero. It’s still not big, but at least it's surfable.

Friday gets a bit smaller, and then Saturday, we’ve got a new SW wind starting to groom things with some solid 3ft waves and really clean 10-second period swells. The energy is starting to climb, with readings around 275 to 307.

The Main Event: Sunday the 23rd Through Tuesday the 26th

Then, hold onto your boardies, because the first real standout of this window is Sunday, August 23rd afternoon. The wind goes proper offshore out of the south, and the swell settles in. We're looking at around 3ft, but here's the kicker: the period jumps to 16 seconds. That’s a true groundswell, and the energy meter just jumps to 581. This is where the ocean starts waking up.

It ain't massive, but it’s clean, lined-up, and the SE direction is exactly what Ohara loves. This is the one to get on if you can.

And then the big one. Monday, August 24th through Wednesday, August 26th is the true standout window of this whole forecast. The swell pulses up and holds. We're talking 5.5ft on Monday morning, building to a solid 8ft by Wednesday afternoon. The period stays in that sweet 14-16 second zone, and the energy readings are huge – we're seeing values from 1639 up to a massive 2849. The wind stays light offshore or clean cross-off the whole time. This is clean, powerful, grinding surf. Ohara is an exposed spot, and this is the kind of swell that will have it firing. It’s still for experienced surfers, though, with those sizes.

The Fallout: The 27th and Beyond

Now, for the last part of the run, it gets messy. From Thursday, August 27th, the swell just explodes. We’re talkin’ 10ft plus. The energy numbers are off the charts – hitting four to five thousand. But it’s simply too big for this break; it’s going to be a washing machine out there. The wind turns onshore with a chance of thunderstorms, and it’s really only for the most extreme big-wave specialists, and even then, it looks like a paddle-out survival mission more than a surf.

After that peak, it backs down through the 30th, but the surface gets messy again with fresh winds, and while there’s some clean energy on the 30th afternoon, it's a far cry from the flawless conditions earlier in the week.

The whole run finishes with a massive spike in energy on Monday, August 31st, with a 19-second period and a 10ft swell – again, way too much for this spot.

Bottom Line: The best of it, the real standout, is Monday the 24th through Wednesday the 26th. Get on it early, get on it clean. The Sunday afternoon session is a nice warm-up with that long-period groundswell, but the main event is those three days. After that, it’s too big and too messy.

Alright, stay stoked.

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