Whangamata Bar Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright folks, Rusty here, checking in on the local surf scene. We’ve only got one spot on the radar for the next 16 days, and it's going to be a grind. Let's get into it.

We’re looking at Whangamata Bar, and I’ll be honest with you, it’s a pretty bleak picture for the immediate future. There’s a massive dry spell on the cards. After the first few days, we’re looking at a solid week to ten days of almost nothing worth paddling out for. The water temp is sitting right around 59°F, which is exactly normal for this time of year—nothing special there.

The first real chance of anything rideable doesn’t roll in until Tuesday, the 18th of August. Tuesday morning offers a tiny 2ft swell from the east, with a short 9-second period, and combined energy is weak at just 66. It’s clean, with a light cross-offshore breeze, and the report calls it “surfable but very ordinary.” A 1 out of 10 score tells you everything you need to know. That’s about as marginal as it gets.

After that, it’s a long, painful wait. From Wednesday the 19th all the way through to Saturday the 29th of August, the swell drops to almost nothing—we’re talking 0.3ft to 2ft, with period mostly below 10 seconds and combined energy so low it barely registers over 70. The winds are often clean or offshore, but there’s simply no energy to work with. It’s a flat spell, plain and simple.

Now, if you’ve got patience, there’s a glimmer of hope toward the very end of the run. Sunday, the 30th of August, things start to wake up. Sunday morning, we’ve got a 4ft swell from the north, with a short 7-second period, but combined energy is moderate at 203. It’s glassy calm, which is a big bonus. The afternoon gets a bit punchy—7ft from the north-northwest, 8-second period, and combined energy jumps to a strong 694. That’s the biggest pulse we see. But with a northwest direction and a cross-shore wind, it’s going to be messy and lumpy. The report calls it “marginal.” For a beach/bar setup like this, that kind of size and short period with cross-shore wind is more interesting for kite surfers than paddle surfers. It’s not beginner-friendly—over 8ft, it’s firmly in the expert-only zone.

Monday the 31st of August tries to hold on with a 5ft east-northeast swell, but it’s rainy and windy, so the quality sounds poor.

So, the standout, if you can call it that, is the Sunday the 30th afternoon window. It’s the biggest swell of the whole period, but don’t expect a classic. It’s a long-range call, so take it with a grain of salt. Consistency is a problem here—Whangamata Bar is described as “inconsistent,” and this run proves it.

Stay patient, and keep an eye on the longer-range outlook. It’s a tough stretch, but it won’t stay this way forever.

Rusty.

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