Town Has Been Pumping, and There Is More on the Way

In case you’ve been living under a rock and haven’t noticed, Town has been pumping over the past few days. The summer’s first real south swell filled in this weekend, and it was a doozy. Actually a series of overlapping swells, this run of waves started Saturday with head-high sets at Town standouts like Ala Moana Bowls, and then built as the weekend continued. Sunday evening saw sets pushing five foot, and Monday morning saw the peak of the swell with the largest waves pushing into the double overhead range.

The amazing thing about this swell is that it wasn’t just a one-and-done event. The waves continued to pulse all day Tuesday, and Wednesday is looking to be yet another day of fun surf with sets still hanging in around head-high at the swell magnets. With favorable wind (light and variable giving way to NE and ENE trades every day, this has been a great run for Oahu’s south shore!

The most exciting part? We are only getting warmed up. The long-range forecast shows a lot of activity in the South Pacific, which means groomed, long-period swell for us. The rest of the week should be in the small but fun range, then, after a short break, another pulse of solid swell looks likely to fill in Wednesday of next week. Then the big news is that we are looking at yet another swell for the weekend of May 26—and this one could be even bigger than the one we just enjoyed! Preliminary numbers are topping out at around 5 feet at 16 seconds, whereas the swell that is just now on its way out peaked at around 3.8 at 16. While it might not be one for the record books (like the swell a couple of years ago that dislodged the Bowls buoy), it is definitely looking spicy. Time to put away the logs and grovelers and break out the big boards!