If oceans ever got exhausted, the Pacific would be sputtering on fumes right about now. A super active early July culminated in the biggest SW swell of the season at Teahupoo last week, and that same swell continued to march onto Hawaii’s South Shores, the West Coast of Central America, Mexico and California. Alaska surfers are still undoubtably stoked.
Hole in one at Ala Moana. Photo: Jack Bober
For background on this particular run of good-epic, we hit up Surfline Forecast Schaler Perry, who had this to say: “The southwest through central South Pacific has been a damn good place for strong storms over the last several months. It’s been a great season for Hawaii’s south facing extremities, French Polynesia has been terrifying at times and the Americas have been doing just fine.”
“The angle of this swell was really good for Pleasure Point,” said Pete Mel. “Sewer Peak had a few sessions where it is as good as it gets. For some reason the sand is all gone off the reefs and it’s been perfect. Good to be home during times like this. I’ve been fortunate to be around when the swell’s been up.” Photo: Nelly
“This installment of the Southwest Pacific Goes Wild started on the 4th of July, as an impressive low slid east out from below New Zealand. The system expanded and tracked south of French Polynesia and reached peak intensity in the central South Pacific at 930mb on July 7th with an area of 1030mb high pressure to its north. A second low was following quickly behind, taking advantage of the excited sea state while reaching peak intensity of 931mb below French Polynesia a day later.”
Mark Healey. Photo: Rick Briggs
“The trip to Nicaragua was a bit unique for me because it was set dates in advance, which I normally don’t do,” said Mark Healey. “I like to go when I know my likelihood of scoring is high, but it was such an epic crew that I couldn’t miss it. Lo and behold, we ended up scoring. We checked an outer reef around first light and it was barely breaking. A little deflated and coming to grips with the idea that the swell may have peaked during the night, we took a boat ride down the coast a bit and rolled up to this reef. An eight-footer hit the reef and looked like Pipeline with no one out. We scrambled to get out leashes on as another bigger set showed. Ended up surfing for six hours. Unfortunately I broke my 6’6” pretty fast and was down to my 5’7” for most of the day. It made things spicy.”
Davey Boy Gonzales, Ala Moana. Photo: gOnzo
Perry continues: “In a season that has spread the love for areas that prefer a good bit of west in their South Pacific swells, this two-step has been our favorite to date — and went bananas for different reasons depending on locale. For instance, the second southwest swell sent Tahiti into glassy XL perfection and the South Shore of Hawaii into its largest surf of the season-to-date.”
Meanwhile, in Costa Rica….Video: Matt Kurvin
Billy Kemper and Bianca Valenti won the Puerto Escondido Cup on Monday, but plenty of other visitors like Chumbo scored some of the best, peakiest Puerto seen all season. Photo: Lucano Hinkle
“While in the Americas, it was the initial south-southwest swell having another, longer-period southwest swell build overtop it to seal the deal. For Puerto, this was the special sauce for peaky shape. It made Baja and Southern California flash on tropical consistency. And there was plenty of west to do the deed north of Point Conception. Add in great local conditions everywhere and, well, here we are.”
Teddy Navarro tucks inside a beloved Orange County cylinder. “Good swell in California when it got here,” he said. “All the south swell spots were on.” Photo: Sean Evans
LOLA.
Swell Signature (focused on SoCal):
Storm Location and Track: A strong, complex series of storms developed in the southwest through central South Pacific on an easterly track July 4th-9th.
Storm Wind: Large areas of 40-45 knot+ wind.
Storm Seas: Satellite confirmed seas of 35 feet+ (both storms).
Swell Travel Time to Southern California: Eight-ten days.
“This last swell was the first time I rode a real shortboard and actually got barreled in 396 days,” Andrew Jacobson (who suffered a serious injury at Cloudbreak last year) laughed. “It felt so good to surf real waves and start to get my confidence back. Still not 100 percent, but I’m getting there day by day.” Video: Hunter Martinez
Lowers is what Lowers does. And Eric Geiselman is as Eric Geiselman does. Photos: Jeremiah Klein
Early long-period lines march into La Punta, Puerto Escondido at the beginning of the swell. Photo: Edwin Morales
Everyone knew the West Coast was gonna pump, even Mick Fanning, who put in an ultra-rare appearance at Lowers on Wednesday. Photo: Jeremiah Klein
Nicaragua, meanwhile, has been pretty much pumping non-stop. Here’s Mateo Blevins and one fine example. Vid: Jose Garcia
It wouldn’t be summertime in SoCal if kids weren’t hucking themselves towards the HB Pier. Nolan Rapozo. Photo: Joe Foster
And it also wouldn’t be summertime if we didn’t end a swell story with a golden South Orange County runner. Photo: Jeremiah Klein
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