Te Ikaamaru Bay Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Well, I’m not gonna lie to you, this is a tough stretch for Te Ikaamaru Bay. Looking right through the whole 16-day window, there’s nothing here that’d get me out of bed in a hurry. The swell comes up a few times, but the wind just won’t play ball, usually hammering in straight onshore or cross-onshore and blowing everything to bits. It’s a quiet run, and for this spot, a blank spell like this isn’t all that unusual given how exposed it is to those strong NW winds.

Thursday the 3rd kicks things off with a bumpy 6 ft NW windswell, but it’s got a nasty 6-second period and the wind is howling 25 mph onshore. The water’s sitting at 57°, which feels a touch warmer than normal for this time of year, but you won’t care because the surf is just poor. Friday the 4th gets properly nasty – up to 12 ft on the morning, which is expert-only territory if it was clean, but it’s coming with 40 mph NW gale-force wind and a combined swell energy reading of 1451, suggesting strong energy, but it’s all just a frothy mess. That afternoon drops to 6 ft but the wind is cross-onshore and messy. Saturday and Sunday keep the same story: 6 ft to 8 ft, short period, strong onshore winds. Not worth a look.

There’s a flicker of something less terrible on Tuesday the 8th afternoon. The swell drops to 5 ft from the NNW with a 6-second period, and the wind goes light cross-off from the SSW at only 6 mph. The wave comment says "surfable waves but very ordinary conditions." Combined swell energy is 148, so weak to moderate. It’s clean, but it’s not good. If you’re desperate and a beginner, maybe, but don’t expect much.

After that, it’s mostly tiny or blown out through the second week. Thursday the 11th has a very long-period NW groundswell (19 seconds) at only 1 ft, so it’s barely there, and that kind of period at a beach setup tends to break too straight anyway. Combined energy is 138. Wind is onshore in the morning and strong cross-onshore in the afternoon. Not worth paddling out. The 18th of September (Friday) actually has a bit of size – 5 ft from the NW, 6-second period, with a moderate cross-off wind from the SSW in the afternoon, giving you clean conditions. Combined energy is 129. That’s probably the best on offer for the whole run, but it’s still just ordinary at best. If you have to go, that afternoon might give you a few half-decent ones.

Honestly, if you’ve got a kite, these strong onshore winds and that 12 ft day might look more interesting than a paddle board. For the rest of us, it’s a waiting game.

Rusty.

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