High surf and swells

I work at a Bed and Breakfast over looking Honolii beach. This past weeks, I have seen awesome waves at Honolili. My curiosity has grown from wathcing these awesome waves.

My questions:

How Winter Swells are created?

When do they start coming?

How long do they last?

During my research, I have learned that winter swells are waves with long wavelengths. They are generated a thousand miles away from the beach. They are created by tropical storms and by from trade winds. The swells created by storms will, majority of the time, travel in groups. Swells will be created by determining the strength, distance, and amount of time its been blowing on the ocean surface. If the wind is strong, blowing from 45-55kts, and is less than 1000nmiles awayfrom Hawaii, for a long period of time, we will have swells.

I have found that swells (high surfs) is year round. As long as there is trade winds of storms out in the ocean swells are generated. For winter swells, this occurs from September through May. In summer, the swells start from June and lasts through August.


The high surf occuring at Honolii, are caused by trade winds. 10 feet and higher waves!!!

Helpful links:

These are the links I used to find my answers...

Hawaii Tribune Hearald: http://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/articles/2007/01/07/local_news/local01.txtherald.com/articles/2007/01/07/local_news/local01.txt Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swell_(ocean) Storm stuff: http://www.stormsurf.com/page2/tutorials/terms.html Surf Storm: http://www.stormsurf.com/page2/tutorials/wavebasics.shtml