Tawharanui Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, Rusty here. Let’s have a look at the next couple of weeks for Tawharanui.

Honestly mate, it’s a pretty quiet stretch. The whole 16-day window is filled with tiny, weak swell and mostly cross-off winds. There’s no proper standout session, nothing to get the heart racing. You’re looking at a lot of days where the waves are just too small to really bother with.

The water’s sitting at 58°, which is about what you’d expect for this time of year—nothing unusual.

For Wednesday morning, September 2nd, we’ve got a tiny 1ft NE swell with a 9-second period, but the energy reading is a weak 13, and the west wind is blowing cross-off. It’s clean, but it’s tiny. That theme carries on for days. Thursday and Friday are more of the same: little 0.7ft to 3ft bumps, short period, and moderate breezes. The wave quality is poor across the board.

We do see a bit of a pulse on Monday, September 7th, with a 5ft N swell and a 7-second period. The combined energy jumps to 256, which is moderate, and the wind is cross-off from the WNW at 22 mph, keeping things clean. But with that short period and the size getting up to 5ft, it’s messy and not well-shaped for this beach-and-reef setup. It’s still a no-go for a recommendation.

The next slight bump comes Friday, September 11th, with a 6ft NNW swell and a 6-second period. That’s a strong offshore breeze from the WSW at 25 mph, making it look clean but hard to paddle into. The energy’s up there at 489, but the quality’s still rated poor. The swell direction is NNW, while this spot really prefers NE, so it’s not doing Tawharanui any favours.

After that, it’s back to tiny 0.7ft and 1ft swells with long periods of 12 to 14 seconds. Clean conditions pop up here and there, like on Saturday afternoon, September 12th, with a 4ft SE swell and an 8-second period, light offshore wind. The wave comment finally says “surfable waves but very ordinary conditions” and it only scores a 1. It’s the best on offer, but that’s a low bar.

For the rest of the second week, it’s all small, long-period ENE and NNE swells with clean but weak conditions. Nothing worth planning a day around.

So, if I’m being straight with you—and I always am—the best on offer is that Saturday afternoon, September 12th, at Tawharanui. It’s a 4ft swell from the SE, period of 8 seconds, light offshore wind from the WSW. The combined energy is 194, so there’s some push, and it’s clean. It’s still very ordinary, but if you’re desperate for a paddle, that’s your window. Don’t expect much.

Stay keen, but keep your expectations low for this run.

Rusty

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