Tawharanui Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Hey everyone, Rusty here. Gotta be straight with you – the next couple of weeks at Tawharanui are looking pretty grim. We’ve got a long stretch of tiny, weak surf ahead, and honestly, there’s nothing here that gets me excited to paddle out. Let’s walk through it.

The forecast kicks off Sunday the 19th of July with nothing but 0.7ft dribble from the east, blown out by a moderate offshore wind, and the water temp is sitting at 59°F, which is pretty much normal for this time of year. That combo of flatness and wind means zero for the surfer. That tiny swell hangs around all through Monday and Tuesday, barely cracking 3ft by Tuesday morning, but with a short, weak period of just 6 seconds and a messy cross-shore wind. The combined energy is only 68 – that’s pathetic. Tuesday afternoon is a bit better with a light breeze, but the waves are still poor.

Wednesday the 22nd through Friday the 24th? More of the same – ankle-biters between 0.7ft and 3ft. The only real change on Friday is a stronger cross-offshore wind and a tad more height, but the swell period is a terrible 4-5 seconds. Lumpy, weak, and frustrating. The combined energy stays down in the 20s to 40s, which just confirms it’s not worth suiting up.

Saturday the 25th and Sunday the 26th? Still no good. We get a bump to 4ft on Sunday morning, with a strong offshore wind and combined energy hitting 133, but the period is still a short 6 seconds. That’s a choppy, blown-out mess that only a kite surfer might enjoy. Not for us.

From Monday the 27th all the way through the final records on Monday the 3rd of August, we are looking at mostly 0.3ft to 2ft slop. Every single entry in the data reads "poor surf conditions." There are windows of glassy conditions on the 23rd and 28th, but with absolutely no swell behind them. The combined energy across these days rarely gets above 50. It’s a dead run.

The only flicker comes on Saturday the 1st of August. We get a 6ft swell from the northwest blowing in the afternoon, with a fresh cross-offshore wind and combined energy of 311 – that’s moderate to strong energy. Still, the period is only 6 seconds, and it’s Tawharanui which is a beach-and-reef setup, so that short-period northwesterly swell is going to be messy. It’s too big for beginners at that height, and the quality just isn’t there. Not a standout by any stretch.

But honestly, there is no standout session here. The whole 16-day window is a write-off. Tawharanui is a spot that can give, but this run is flat and blown out. We’ll have to wait for the next forecast to give us anything worth riding.

Stay patient,
Rusty

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