Onjuku Surf Forecast and Surf Report

G’day, Rusty here. Let’s get straight into it for Onjuku.

It’s a bleak start, I’m not gonna sugarcoat it. Saturday the 11th and Sunday the 12th are write-offs – the wind is howling onshore at 12 mph, swell is up around 7 ft but it’s a ropy, ugly mess. Just save your energy.

A glimmer finally shows up Monday morning the 13th. The wind swings offshore from the NNE at a light 6 mph, and it goes clean. Swell is a small 3 ft out of the SSW with a period of 13 seconds – that’s a groundswell, so there’s some decent shape in the water. The combined swell energy is weak (354), but for a fickle spot like Onjuku that’s inconsistent, this is your window. The water temp is pretty average for this time of year, nothing unusual.

Tuesday the 14th is rideable but ordinary – smaller, dropping to 2 ft, the period drops too. Then we hit a real dry spell. Wednesday 15th through to Tuesday the 21st is basically a wasteland of tiny, weak, onshore slop. Swell heights hover around 2 ft to 4 ft with short periods and poor wind. Kite surfers might find something in the cross-shore breeze, but for a paddle surfer? Forget it. The combined swell energy for that whole stretch is mostly in the low hundreds to just above a hundred, so very weak (82 to 304).

The next proper standout appears on Wednesday the 22nd. The morning looks promising – a clean 3 ft SE swell with a long 15-second period, and a light cross-offshore breeze at 9 mph. The combined energy is moderate (451). This is the best you’re going to see in this whole outlook. Keep in mind, a long period swell like that will be best handled by the points and reefs, but on a clean day with those conditions, even an exposed beach like Onjuku can turn on.

Now, Thursday the 23rd gets chunky – the morning pumps 10 ft from the SSE with a 15-second period (combined energy 3264!) but it’s under a moderate rain deluge with a fresh 19 mph cross-off shore. That is big and clean, but 10 ft is expert territory only. By Thursday afternoon the swell drops slightly and the wind cranks to 25 mph. This is raw, heavy, and not for the faint-hearted.

Then Friday the 24th is a nightmare. The swell is still around 5 ft to 6 ft, but the wind is a near gale at 37 mph. It may be offshore, but you won’t be able to paddle into a thing. That’s a hard pass. Saturday the 25th and Sunday the 26th are still rough, onshore and messy or just marginal.

The one true standout here is Wednesday the 22nd morning. Get there for a clean, long-period SE swell. Everything else is either tiny, blown out, or way too heavy.

— Rusty

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