Wainui Beach • Statistics for August

August: Late Winter, Still Plenty in the Tank

August is a transition month, but you wouldn't know it from the surf. Average height is a strong 6.5ft (1.9m), period sits at 10.7 seconds, and ideal wind frequency is 52 percent. The swell distribution remains heavily weighted toward S and SSE, but the E/ESE components are still alive, keeping the target E through SSE window at around 44 percent. This means Wainui continues to receive solid, powerful groundswell from the Southern Ocean while retaining enough east in the swell to hit the beach head-on. The wind story is still good: WNW, NW and NNW combine for just over 37 percent of all wind, and onshore E/SE/SSE winds stay below 9 percent. Water temperature reaches the annual minimum at 13.5°C, with air temps around 9.6°C. August may lack the raw intensity of June and July, but it delivers exceptionally clean, rideable surf - a great month for surfing longer sessions and hunting those big, glassy southern heaving lines.