Tauranga Bay Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright folks, Rusty here. Let's have a good look at the charts for Tauranga Bay over the next couple of weeks. It’s a bit of a slow burner, but there are a couple of moments that’ll get the heart rate up. The water’s sitting at 61°F, which is about normal for this time of year, so a decent steamer is still the go.

The week starts off a bit messy. Tuesday afternoon is pretty average, with a small 5ft swell but a cross-off wind that’s making things lumpy. Not worth rushing out for.

Wednesday morning gets a little bigger, pushing 6ft, but that easterly wind is side-shore and making a mess of it. The better call is Wednesday afternoon. The wind drops right out to a light breeze and it cleans up, with a 4ft NNE swell. It’s not big, but the conditions should make it worth a paddle.

Thursday and Friday are a bit ordinary. The swell drops right back to under 3ft, with the odd glassy patch, but it’s all a bit lackluster. You’ll get a wave but nothing to write home about.

The weekend is pretty tiny. Saturday and Sunday are small, with swells barely pushing 2ft. There’s clean conditions, but there’s just no push to it. You’ll be floating around more than surfing.

Now, here’s where things get interesting. Monday the 17th is the standout of this run. The swell fills in to 5ft from the ESE, with a period of 9 seconds. What really sells it is the wind – a clean, gentle offshore breeze from the south all day. The combined energy is a solid 377, which is a strong pulse of wave energy. It won’t be too big, so it’s still manageable for a lot of folks, but it’ll be the best shape and power we’ve seen all week. This is the day to get on it.

After that, it fades again pretty quickly. Tuesday the 18th has some fun lines with a long-period 16-second swell, but it’s barely 1ft. Not really surfable. There’s a little kick on Wednesday the 19th with a 4ft ESE swell, but the wind turns cross-shore in the arvo and kills it.

From the 20th onwards, it’s a waiting game. The swell just keeps dropping out. We see a few pulses of energy from very long-period swells (12-16 seconds), but the height is just so tiny – 0.6ft to 2ft – that there’s nothing to ride. The energy readings are real weak, dipping down into the 15-30 range. For a spot like this, this kind of flat spell is pretty normal. It’ll be a case of watching the charts and hoping one of those long-period pulses gets some size to it. It’s a quiet stretch, but it never stays flat forever.

Alright, keep an eye on that Monday. That’s your window.

Rusty.

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