Port Waikato-Sunset beach Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, surf’s up... or it’s gonna be, anyway. Let’s break down this 16-day window for the West Coast. The early part has some fun, clean waves, but we’ve got a wild and woolly stretch in the middle that’s gonna test your commitment. Then things settle down again toward the end.

The standout early on is Tuesday morning. It’s got a good 7ft of southwest swell rolling in with a solid 14-second period. That’s proper groundswell, and the water’s still holding at 58°, which is about normal for this time of year. Wind is a light SSE cross-off, and the surf is gonna be clean. This is your window if you’re an experienced surfer looking for a genuine session.

Wednesday morning sees the swell bump up to 8ft but the wind picks up to 16 mph from the south. It’s cross-off, but that breeze is gonna make things a bit more challenging. After that, the quality drops off. By Thursday morning, we’ve still got a clean 7ft SW swell with light winds – another good option, but the energy is a bit lower than Tuesday.

Then things go a bit flat and messy Friday and Saturday. The swell drops, and we get onshore westerly winds. Not worth your time. Sunday the 23rd is a write-off with strong WNW winds and 10ft of short-period, junky swell.

Now here’s the big one. Monday the 24th, we have a massive 12ft SW groundswell with a 16-second period. Combined energy is a huge 10647 – that’s an extraordinary amount of power. However, the wind is a cross-onshore westerly, and this swell is predicted to be way too big for this break. This is strictly for experts, and even then, it’s going to be a washing machine out there. The energy stays high for the next few days, but the winds aren't cooperating, and it stays too big or junky.

We do get a brief reprieve on the 30th and 31st. The swell backs way down to around 3ft, but the winds turn offshore or glassy. You’ll get some small, clean, long-period waves – perfect for a longboard if you just want to get wet without the fight.

Looking further ahead to the 1st of September, we’ve got another pulse of 10ft, but it’s short-period and coming from the NW, which is a poor direction for here. It’s still too big and not clean.

So, the two true standouts are Tuesday morning the 18th for the best combination of size and quality, and Thursday morning the 20th as a slightly smaller but still clean backup. Everything else in this window is either too big, too messy, or too small. Port Waikato (West Coast) is fairly consistent, so this isn't a permanent state, but it's going to be a wild ride for the next couple of weeks.

Rusty

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