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Surfing
Waiheke Island is on Auckland's east coast and is a sheltered island with sheltered beaches and reef breaks that in general has inconsistent surf.
Although Waiheke is known for its beautiful white sand beaches on the northern side, it is not normally associated with being a surf spot however this does not mean you cannot get some very good surf here. The 2 beaches best suited for surfing are on the northern side of the island - Oneroa and Onetangi. Onetangi the more consistent of the two with Oneroa's surf being dependent on weather conditions. There is no viable surfing on the southern beaches as they tend to be tidal.
Spring and Summer provide the best surfing conditions on Waiheke.
The best wind direction is from the southwest. The beaches tend to receive distant groundswells and the ideal direction is from the northeast. The beach break provides left and right handers as well as left and right hand reef breaks.
The best time to surf Waiheke is around high tide, this also tends to be the best swimming time.
The very best surfing can be found when there is a tropical cyclone (the bigger the cyclone the bigger the surf) in the Pacific, usually 2-5 days after this passes through the pacific you will find some of the very best surfing Waiheke has to offer. On these days you can expect large swells at Oneroa and Onetangi - up to 3-5 meters have been recorded.
Note: As swimming at Waiheke is generally extremely safe, there is no Surf Lifesaving Patrol so use caution on days like this.
The surf tends to be 1-2m at best (often none) which makes Waiheke a safe place to learn to surf and swim , however the surf is to inconsistent to allow surf schools or a one off random trip without checking the weather. In general if other Auckland beaches (especially Orewa or Red Beach) are experiencing good surf then Waiheke will be as well.
You can check out the Waiheke surf forecast here.
Below are some images captured when Cyclone Ivy (a relatively small category 1-2 storm) passed through the Pacific near Vanuatu.
