Surfing on the Big Island has one major issue. During the Winter swells, we’re in the shadow is the other Hawaiian Islands. When the North Shore of Oahu (Pipeline) is pumping, we only get the part of the swell that wraps around the other islands to our North. Knowing swell direction, timing and size are key to knowing when to hitup the lighthouse in Kohala, Kawaihae or the river mouths along the Hamakua Coast.
In the Summer, the swells beging coming from the South and we’re golden. No other islands in our way. But the Swells out of the South are less frequent and mostly smaller. At least we can get them directly from any South facing shore.
The great part about living on an island is when swells come from multiple directions. There’s literally more waves than surfers. Now if we could just get everyone to spread out on these days, we’d be golden. That’s another story. So are Tsunamis, like the one that came strolling through last night. The tide only rose about 5″ but there were a lot of surfers camping on beaches last night.
Today is one of those days when surfing the Big Island is truly a beautiful thing. The waves are 4-6′ almost everywhere, except here in the middle of the woods, where I wait for a client call.
Here’s some links so you can be your own wave forecaster:
Hawaii Surf News has become somewhat, the local standard: http://www.hawaiisurfnews.com
Stan at Orchidland Surf (Downtown Hilo) is the guy on the radio giving the updates. Here’s the link to his report page:
http://www.surfolhawaii.com/surfreports/index.php Although not as comprehensive as Hawaii Surf News, this is an important report because it’s popular. Because it’s broadcasted on the radio, many people listen. This helps us predict which points will be crowded because if the numbers are too high, everyone will go where Stan says it’s good. By checking multiple sources and following swells more closely (friends on site with cell phones) we can escape to potentially less crowded spots. When Stan’s numbers are too low, like during an approaching swell, we can hit the easy spots before the crowds come. You get the idea.
Check Kona Boys for more accurate numbers on the West Side. Tel: 808.328.1234
The Navy has an old, kinda crummy swell map. Many tech-savvy surfers have used this site for a long time. Other sites now map the same bouy data but I kina like the simple .gifs the Navy outputs. Don’t worry about too much about the security warnings but do read the dates and times: This is the link.
Finally, we’ve got another grouping of surf links at bigislandfun.com (shameless prop). Check us out over there for more than just swell predictions: http://www.bigislandfun.com/surfing/surfing.htm
It’ll take some practice to understand what the predictions, bouy readings and current numbers mean. You’ll also need to understand the various breaks (reefs/river mouths etc) to know where to go. It’s one thing to know there are waves but it’s another science to know where to get in the water. This kind of science only comes with local knowledge, experience and the willingness to venture beyond the parked cars at the beach parks.
On the Big Island you can still sit by yourself in perfect waves in the morning and go ride Mauna Kea on the snowboard with your friends in the afternoon. Lucky we live Hawaii.
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