Te Ikaamaru Bay Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, let’s talk about Te Ikaamaru Bay. This 16-day run? It’s a write-off, plain and simple. There’s no surf on offer right now, and the whole window looks pretty much dead. Water temp is 55°F, which is about normal for this time of year, so nothing weird there.

The first few days are flat. Wednesday the 5th and Thursday the 6th, nothing. Friday the 7th brings a tiny bit of NNW swell, 3ft to 5ft, but the period is only 4 to 5 seconds and the wind is howling onshore out of the NW at 25 mph. That’s not surf, that’s just chop. Saturday the 8th is a bit smaller, still messy. Sunday the 9th sees the biggest swell of the run—6ft to 7ft from NNW with a 6-second period—and the combined energy jumps to 263 and 275, which sounds like something, but it’s all windswell and rain showers. Onshore NW wind at 19 mph. It’s going to be a lumpy, blown-out mess. Not worth paddling out unless you enjoy getting thrashed.

Monday the 10th drops back to 3ft with an 8-second period, and the wind eases a bit, but it’s still cross-onshore. The energy is moderate at 121, but the quality just isn’t there. Tuesday the 11th is tiny, 1ft, and the wind is all over it. Wednesday the 12th kicks up again to 4ft but with a 5-second period and strong cross-onshore winds at 28 mph. Messy. Thursday the 13th is small and junky, with a brief 1ft NW swell at 11 seconds in the afternoon, but it’s buried under fresh cross-onshore wind. Friday the 14th through Sunday the 16th sees a shift to southerly cross-offshore winds, which cleans things up, but the swell is tiny—0.3ft to 3ft, mostly short-period junk. The energy is weak, under 100. It’s clean but flat. Nothing to get excited about.

Then from the 17th to the 19th, it’s basically flat again. A little glassy moment on the 18th morning, but zero swell. The 20th shows a tiny 0.3ft groundswell from the NW with a 15-second period, but that’s it. Combined energy of 9. That’s a whisper.

To be honest, there’s not a single standout session in this whole run. The best you could say is maybe Sunday the 9th has some size, but it’s all wind and rain, and for a beginner-friendly spot like this, anything over 5ft is already too much, and this is 7ft with a 6-second period—that’s just a washing machine. The setup at Te Ikaamaru Bay, being fairly exposed and with that cross-off wind later in the week, might look more interesting for a kite surfer than a paddle surfer, especially on those bigger days.

Look, this is a rough stretch. The area just doesn’t have the consistency right now, and when the swell does show, it’s poor quality. But forecasts change, and it tends not to stay this bad for long. Keep an eye on the 20th—that long-period pulse, even if tiny, shows there’s some life out there. But don’t rearrange your life for it.

Rusty

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