HONOLULU — News of the epic swell drew droves of surfers to the South Shore over the weekend as traffic backed up in Waikiki and Ala Moana. Tourists and locals alike gathered like bees to honey to watch the waves pulse.
“This is a historic swell,” said NOAA meteorologist Liam Tsamous, to Spectrum News Hawaii. “And we haven't had a south swell this big in a very long time."
“I heard it was the biggest swell since 1995 [according to my] friend, who was a beach boy,” said Mason Beutel, 39, of Honolulu, a long-time Oahu surfer.
Wave talk was everywhere and a normally serene South Shore was atypically frothy with white crests visible from miles away.
Beutel went out on Saturday at Big Rights at Ala Moana, and was impressed. “The waves were pumping; it was really good. As the day got on, it got bigger and bigger. I surfed in the morning and it was overhead, then I surfed again right before dark and by that time it was double overhead and by then there had been enough hype about this swell and fear had disseminated so there weren't a lot of people going out. It was too big for what they're used to in town. So, it was good Saturday night, really good. And it wasn't crowded.”
According to Tsamous, swells as memorable as this get their start a few days before: “This particular swell originated in the southern hemisphere as an extratropical storm, which is a storm that’s not from a hurricane or typhoon.
Tsamous says it’s more akin to the storms we get in the Pacific Northwest, where an airmass may collide with a much larger one inside.
He also specified that though many believe the swell is the result of the former tropical system Darby, it is not. “I want to make that clear. [They are] completely unrelated.”
Overall, the consensus seems to be it’s been a great summer on the South Shore, according to both expert and athlete.
“It’s been an epic summer for waves,” commented Beutel.
“We have gotten a couple other good swells too,” said Tsamous, who coincidentally is both a meteorologist for the NOAA Hawaii and a surfer from Orange County, California. “So I could definitely understand why [he] would say that. We've had several decent sized advisory-level swells, meaning 10-feet or higher. It's been a good summer set for surfers on the south shore.”
Nuy Cho is the executive producer of Spectrum News Hawaii. She writes the surf report and covers other general news. Read more of her stories here.
