Te Ikaamaru Bay Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright, let's get into it. Gotta be straight with you – this is a tough stretch for Te Ikaamaru Bay. We're looking at a 16-day window that's mostly a write-off for paddle surfing. There's a real gap here, with no decent surf on the cards for a solid week or more as we head into the latter part of July.

The water temp is sitting right around 54°, which is dead average for this time of year, so no surprises there.

The first real sniff of anything that might get you out of bed doesn't come until Wednesday the 29th of July. Even then, it's a real struggle. The afternoon sees a bit of a pulse from the NW at 3 ft, with a 9-second period. The swell energy is weak, coming in at 139 (moderate wave energy). The wind is swinging around to a light S/SE, giving us a cross-off breeze, which is the cleanest we'll see all period. The waves are described as "surfable" but very ordinary. It's a session for the hardcore just to get wet, not for a good time.

Then we get a fleeting moment of beauty on the morning of Thursday the 30th. The wind goes totally glassy, dead calm at 0 mph. The swell is tiny, just 1 ft from the NW, period of 8 seconds, but it will be clean as a whistle. The energy is next to nothing (23). It's a true longboard or SUP morning for a few little knee-high sliders if you're desperate.

After that, the wind turns onshore and the swell builds, but it's all messy. We see a 5 ft swell from the NNW on Friday the 31st, but it's cross-on and lumpy. That same NNW swell grows to 8 ft by Saturday the 1st of August, but the wind is a moderate cross-onshore, making it a choppy, uninviting mess. That's expert-only territory with the size, but the quality is poor.

The following week is just more of the same – strong onshore winds (NW) and building swell, up to 8 ft, with strong to very strong wave energy values (606, 693, 886). It's big, it's blown out, and it's going to be a washing machine. Honestly, with that setup of strong wind and messy surf, this looks far more interesting for kite surfing than paddle surfing.

So, bottom line: don't hold your breath. The only standout is that 30th of July morning for a glassy paddle, but it's tiny. The rest is a long, blank run of poor conditions.

Rusty

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