North Shore.
Now
· updated 13 hours agoNorth Shore sees a week of building north-northeast swells under moderate to strong east-northeast winds. Early week holds steady 1.5-1.9m NNW swell at 12-14s with moderate wind, peaking Sunday dawn at 2m under light ENE wind. Mid-week eases to 1.6m NW at 13-15s with moderate-to-strong east wind, then builds again late week to 1.8-2.0m N/NW at 9-22s under moderate east-northeast flow. Looks like Sunday dawn will be cleanest.
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About North Shore
The North Shore is 11 km of Oahu’s north coast from Haleiwa to Sunset, the most concentrated stretch of high-consequence reef breaks on earth. The headline is Banzai Pipeline, a left tube over a flat lava reef at Ehukai Beach. Backdoor breaks right off the same peak. Sunset Beach, Waimea Bay, Off the Wall, and Rocky Point line up within walking distance. The Pipe Masters has run since 1971 and is the centrepiece of the Triple Crown of Surfing every December.
Pipeline season runs November through February, when North Pacific storms send long-period north to north-west swell straight at the reef. A typical winter day is 1.5 to 3 m; the outer reefs and Waimea switch on past 5 m. Trade winds blow east to north-east, offshore at most breaks through the morning. Glass-off is dawn. The trades fill in by mid-morning and turn the lineup sideshore. Summer is flat. The trades blow hard. The whole coast goes swimming beach.
Water sits at 23 to 25 °C in February, 26 to 28 °C in September. Boardies and a rashie cover the year. The reef is the hazard, not the water. Pipeline breaks over a tabletop of lava with caverns inside; a wipeout drops you onto live coral. Sunset is a deep-water peak with currents that pull west. Crowds are the second hazard. Locals run every peak; hierarchy is strict. If you haven’t surfed Pipe before, sit at Rocky Point or Haleiwa and earn your way over.