TEAHUPO’O, Tahiti (Tuesday, August 14, 2013) - The waiting period for the 2013 Billabong Pro Tahiti begins tomorrow, August 15 and Surfline.com, official event surf forecasters are calling for a new southwest swell to fill in at Teahupo’o on the opening day of the waiting period.
Below is the official forecast from Surfline.com
Overview:
A modest, mid period SW swell will build in Thursday before easing slowly on Friday. A smaller SW swell is possible for Sunday afternoon. The long range now looks a little more promising and we’ll be watching for the development of a south swell for around the 24th.
THURSDAY 15th: Modest, mid period SW swell builds Swell/Surf: Head high surf, with the better sets 1-2’ overhead. Very west in direction, with some rights and almost peaky at times. Wind/Weather: Light ENE/NE in the morning trending light/variable in the afternoon
FRIDAY 16th: Holding/easing, mid period SW swell Swell/Surf: Head high, with sets 1-2’ overhead and strongest in the morning. Still a few larger waves then. Wind/Weather: Light/variable wind. Potential for a weak sea breeze at times.
SATURDAY 17th: Smaller leftovers from the SW Swell/Surf: Shoulder high, leftover sets to head high+. Wind/Weather: E/ESE trades gradually rebuilding, but still fairly light 7-12kts.
SUNDAY 18th: Small, new shorter to mid period SW swell picks up in the PM Swell/Surf: Waist-shoulder, occ. larger in the morning. Not much power. Possible head high+ waves building in the afternoon, but again shorter period and lacking power. Stay tuned, dependent on how storm behaves. Wind/Weather: Moderate E/ENE trades 8-15kts.
MONDAY 19th: Small, shorter period easing SW swell Swell/Surf: Shoulder-head high if storm behaves as currently forecast. Limited power. Wind/Weather: Potential shift to northerly wind and chance for heavy rain later in the day. Stay tuned.
A mid period WSW/SW swell (220-240 degrees) will build on Wednesday, is strongest Thursday, and then holds/eases on Friday. This is from a small storm of moderate strength recently located near the North Island of New Zealand. This swell will offer surf in the head high+ range with sets up to a couple feet overhead Thur/Fri AM. Max sets during the day will be even better at times. Smaller leftovers take over by Saturday.
A smaller, shorter period WSW/SW swell will likely follow it up for the afternoon of Sunday the 18th from another very modest strength storm now developing near New Zealand. This will offer contestable, but lower quality, waves if the storm behaves as forecast in the next couple days. Stay tuned.
Going further out, the long range charts are looking more promising today than what we have seen the past couple days. The period between Monday the 19th and Thursday the 22nd still looks quite slow with a mix of small SW or S swells (Thursday the 24th looks to be the best of those days with a very modest SW swell).
However, we will be watching for a stronger storm to develop to the south of French Polynesia 5-7 days out, which would put a modest to medium size S swell at Teahupoo around the 23rd-24th. We’ll have more details on this potential swell over the next few days so stay tuned.
Wind: A weak pressure gradient will be in place over the region Thursday through Saturday as an area of low pressure slides by well south of Tahiti and high pressure drifts to the southeast. Wind will be generally light for the first three days of the waiting period as a result (see day by day breakdown, above, for exact details).
Trades will be rebuilding by the end of the weekend with a possible shift to northerly flow by Monday. Late Monday and Tuesday could also see some periods of heavy rain. Stay tuned.
