Surf Forecast Surf Report
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Tahunanui bar Surf Stats

All swells

(any wind direction)

Good Surf

(light / offshore wind)

This image describes the variation of swells directed at Tahunanui bar through a typical March. It is based on 2964 NWW3 model predictions since 2009 (values every 3 hours). The wave model does not forecast wind and surf right at the coast so we have chosen the best grid node based on what we know about Tahunanui bar. In the case of Tahunanui bar, the best grid node is 36 km away (22 miles). The rose diagram shows the distribution of swell directions and swell sizes, while the graph at the bottom shows the same thing but lacks direction information. Five colours illustrate increasing wave sizes. Blue shows the smallest swells, less that 0.5m (1.5 feet) high. These happened 64% of the time. Green and yellow illustrate increasing swell sizes and highest swells greater than >3m (>10ft) are shown in red. In either graph, the area of any colour is proportional to how commonly that size swell happens. The diagram implies that the dominant swell direction, shown by the largest spokes, was NNW, whereas the the dominant wind blows from the WNW. Because the wave model grid is offshore, sometimes a strong offshore wind blows largest waves away from Tahunanui bar and away from the coast. We group these with the no surf category of the bar chart. To avoid confusion we don't show these in the rose diagram. Because wind determines whether or not waves are surfable at Tahunanui bar, you can load a different image that shows only the swells that were expected to coincide with glassy or offshore wind conditions. Over an average March, swells large enough to cause good for surfing waves at Tahunanui bar run for about 7% of the time.

Also see Tahunanui bar wind stats

Compare Tahunanui bar with another surf break

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