Onjuku Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright folks, Rusty here. Let’s have a good hard look at what’s coming our way at Onjuku. I gotta be straight with you – the next week and a half is a tough stretch. We’ve got a serious gap in quality surf coming up, so don’t get your hopes up too high until we hit the end of the forecast period.

The story for the next week or so is pretty grim. From Monday the 24th of August onwards, it’s a whole lot of cross-onshore wind messing things up. The wave energy is moderate at best, but the wind just kills the quality. Monday morning starts off with a 3ft SSE swell, but it’s got a light cross-onshore breeze on it, so it’s not clean. The wave energy is only 944, so nothing special. That afternoon and into Tuesday and Wednesday, the wind picks up to a fresh breeze, making for lumpy, choppy conditions. The swell height bumps up to around 5 to 6ft, but with that wind, it’s just a mess. Not a good look for a paddle surf.

Thursday and Friday don’t offer any relief either, just more of the same – moderate to fresh cross-onshore winds with messy, poor surf conditions. The combined energy drops off a bit, sitting in the low hundreds, which tells you how weak and wind-affected it all is. There’s a solid 9-day stretch here where the best you can hope for is “surfable but very ordinary,” and that’s being generous. Honestly, if you’re a kiter, the strong cross-onshore winds on Monday the 25th at 18 mph and Wednesday the 26th at the same speed might look more interesting than anything for a surfboard.

We do get a slight window on Saturday the 29th and Sunday the 30th of August. The wind finally turns offshore or cross-offshore, and the conditions clean up. But the swell is tiny – only 2ft to 2ft – and the energy is weak, down around 128-187. It’s clean, but you’ll be working hard for small, weak waves. Then we’re back into poor conditions for Monday the 31st and Tuesday the 1st of September.

Now, look ahead. The real standout, and I mean the *only* standout in this whole 16-day window, is shaping up for a few days out. Wednesday the 2nd of September shows some promise. The afternoon session has a light 3ft swell from the ESE with a 10-second period and a gentle cross-offshore breeze. The conditions are forecast to be clean. The energy is low at 216, so it’s not a big day, but it’s the first time in a long time we get genuinely “good surf conditions” in the data.

The next big one to circle on your calendar is Saturday the 5th of September. The morning is where it’s at. We get a solid 6ft ENE windswell with a short 9-second period, but the wind is cross-off and the conditions are clean. The combined energy jumps to 1050, which is a moderate, punchy amount of energy for a beach break. That’s your best bet for some decent, clean waves, even if the short period will make it a little sectiony. It’s the biggest, cleanest swell of the whole run. But keep in mind, 6ft is pushing it for beginners.

After that, Sunday the 6th of September gets hammered by a strong breeze with onshore winds, and it falls apart again. The rest of the second week just fades back into poor conditions with moderate cross-onshore winds and weak energy.

So, bottom line: the first week is largely a washout. Saturday the 5th of September morning at Onjuku is the only true standout. It’s not perfect, but it’s the cleanest, biggest swell we’re going to see. The rest is just waiting and hoping the forecasts change for the better. Stay salty, and keep an eye on that Saturday.

Rusty

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