Hawaii To Get Supersized Helping Of Surf For Thanksgiving
Turkey, football and big surf. Thanksgiving in Hawaii is something special, and more often than not, it tends to coincide with solid swell events. This Thanksgiving holiday a large northwest swell is bearing down on the North Shore of Oahu and other exposed, north-facing coastlines throughout Hawaii, and it could bring surf an upwards of 20 feet when it peaks on Thursday and Friday.
Big wave surfers have been glued to the forecast models over the last few days as the swell event continues to develop. According to weather and wave charts, the new swell begins to fill in quickly throughout the second half of the day on Thursday before potentially peaking overnight and holding through Friday. The swell is expected to be too big for most spots, including Pipeline and Haleiwa, while big-wave venues could be pumping.
“Thursday through all of Friday, this swell will have most normal spots too big and washed out, making it a big wave/offshore reef-only affair,” reports Surfline forecaster Jonathan Warren. “Those big-wave spots that can handle this swell are looking at sets running 20-35+ feet on the face, occasionally bigger for select reefs. Maui’s Pe’ahi will be strongest early Friday morning and with sets pushing up to 30-45+ feet.”
The swell is expected to be fairly consistent and enjoy clean conditions. Keep an eye on Pe'ahi, as well as Waimea Bay on the island of Oahu and less celebrated outer reefs spots that only come alive during the biggest winter swells.
This season we’ve already seen a solid session at Pe’ahi, as well as other big-wave sessions at Maverick’s on the West Coast and Ireland across the pond in Europe. As El Niño takes hold this winter, hopefully this is the start of a very fruitful big-wave season. Who knows, maybe a world record or two will be broken.
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With more than 25 years of writing about surfing, the ocean and action sports, Jake Howard continues to share stories, profiles and issues that shape the surfing world. One of the premier subject-matter experts in the field today, he's savvy in the ways of print, digital and social media, his breadth of work is expansive. Getting his start writing Surfline surf reports and recording the phone reports for 976-SURF in the late '90s, Jake served as the managing editor for Surfer Magazine in the early 2000s before moving on to launch RedBullSurfing.com and cover surfing for ESPN and the X Games. Over the years, Jake has also enjoyed time behind the edit desk at The Surfer's Journal, as well as the World Surf League, where he worked as the Senior Editor for a number of years. Beyond producing editorial content, Jake has served as a digital marketer and copywriter for iconic surf brands such as Quiksilver, Roxy and Rip Curl. Writing thousands of pages of copy for Surfline, he has deep SEO experience as well. The surf columnist for the San Clemente Times, Jake continues to dedicate himself to the culture and history of the sport through his involvement with the Surfing Heritage and Culture Center in San Clemente.