Surf and fishing report - from Shaun @ NIR

 

The swell has started to brew in the Northern Pacific. The Pohnpei surf season is underway with Pohnpei Surf Club already reporting the first west swell which hit 30 September 2008. 

  

Pohnpei offers a great balance and variety of waves for intermediate and advanced surfers, not just pit hungry pros. Pohnpei Surf Club have capped the surfer numbers to twenty for your enjoyment! That means NO CROWDS and MORE WAVES.  

 

PSC – Ultimate Boy’s Toys!

The crew at Phonpei Surf Club have decked themselves out with all the latest boy’s toys. Including a brand new jet ski for express dawn surf reports, stand up paddle boards for cruising around, new speedboat and heaps of fishing gear.   

 

 

 

Historical Surf Images

One thing is for sure during early season. Phonpei gets the least winds and get to surf the East, Northeast, Southeast, Southwest and possibly even the outer atolls. Not only do the conditions get really clean during early season, the winds also shift from trade winds (NE) to Southwest, bringing the east side alive. Early season swells can come from typhoons to the West, from North Pacific lows off Japan or trade winds swells from the East.

Take a look at a few images of October, November & December from the 2007 season. Phonpei Surf Club has availability for surfers in both October, November and December 2008. Please contact our friendly travel consultants toll free on 1800 611 163 or info@worldsurfaris.com to book your spot to the best surf trip of your life!  

October 2007

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

November 2007

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

December 2007

Weekly report

Once again another warm and sunny week in Samoa.

For more info on Sa’moana Resort click here

Monday. High tide 7:30am First stop was at Pebbles which was a little funky in the medium size swell with some great barrels scored before the call to move onto a more user friendly option. So Coco’s was it with solid double overhead sets rolling through. As the wind came up and the tide dropped out they moved down to Boulders to finish off the day. Being nicely protected from the wind some nice clean waves were coming through on the sets at close to double overhead.

Tuesday. High tide 8:12am An early morning boat back at Coconuts was the first stop. The swell had dropped considerably but was still solid at head and a half. The wind came up fairly early so they moved back to Pebbles which is offshore in the SE winds, and was its hollow self throwing out barrels however sets tended to be inconsistent on the dropping swell.

Wednesday. High tide 9am Strong winds and rough seas meant no boat trip for today. Instead a few waves were had down at Village Lefts but with the strong SE winds and the swell from the SW (VL is best on a SE swell) meant trying conditions.

Thursday. High tide 9:56am The winds had dropped overnight and the morning boat trip to Inside Siumu was clean and about head high with some fun sections, perfect for smashing out a turn. Second stop was Pebbles where shoulder high barrels were pushing into the strong ESE offshores.

Friday. High tide 11:03am Wakas was the focus today but strong ESE winds made a mess of the shoulder high sets. Some nice looking waves were spied at Village Lefts on the way home and a fun session in the head high sets proving sometimes you don’t need to go far to score good waves.

Saturday. High tide 12:21pm A late morning surf at Village Lefts in the rising S swell with some solid head and a half to double over head sets coming through. Some good waves were scored and a close out section made for challenging conditions and wave selection important. With the swell building an afternoon trip to Boulders was the call where classic overhead barrels were scored in what was undoubtedly the session of the week, and all the guys came back frothing and telling those of us who didn’t go how good it was.

Sunday. High tide 1:37pm Stoked on yesterdays surf a return to boulders was on the cards for Sunday morning. Unfortunately the swell had dropped overnight making for a slow session with a long wait for the set waves. On the tide they headed back at Pebbles which was throwing out some super quick barrels in the strong offshore conditions. It wasn’t the easiest place to surf but the crew managed to tame the beast with some late take offs and nice barrel riding skill.

For more info on Sa’moana Resort click here

Everything is looking good for this up-coming season at the Pohnpei Surf Club (PSC, Caroline ISlands).
One of the main early seasons characteristics in Pohnpei is the lack of winds. Talk about clean conditions.
During this time of the year, August until late November/mid December the winds in Pohnpei die down. Absolutely glassy conditions, light winds and the SW wind days which bring alive all the NE, E and SE sides.
Based on our experience we are looking forward to a good early season. Our last two early seasons were not as good as the two previous ones so we are due for a good one. As winds go, they are already dead!
Late July I took a flight to Guam, just over 1.000 miles from Pohnpei. It was a beautiful day. The ocean was so glassy that you could see the reflection of the clouds from all the way from up there. Not one white cap for one thousand miles.
When we think we have seen it all, we found another 7 passes and really nice bends on the reef never surfed before.
There is a stretch of coast we just did not bother to much with, one for being past where we usually surf and because it was to far to just check the surf. There is no where you can go by land to have a look and it would take more then one hour boat ride just to check it. Well, things have changed.
The Pohnpei Surf Club has just got a brand new top of the line Honda Jet Ski and when it come to check the surf you can’t beat the speed of a ski. As the boats are heading towards the first spots, the ski will be checking the other ones when conditions require.
All these new found passes and reefs work from around now to mid/late November. During peak season trade winds completely blow out all that side of the island. This is one of the most pristine, untouched, unfished and unsurfed areas in Pohnpei.
The other good news are we have got a new and bigger boat. It is a 34 foot Yamaha Boat with a 130 HP four stroke Honda motor, stereo and lots of shade. Our fleet has now 5 boats. Two 26 ft, one 27 ft, one 30 ft and one 34 ft long boats. We sure don’t use all of them on the same day but you can be sure you won’t run out of boats in case one breaks, or in case we need to rescue a broken boat.
One other new good addition the the Pohnpei Surf Club is a quiver of surfboards for guests to use and four brand new Naish Stand Up Paddle Boards ranging from 10′4 to 11′6 ( http://www.naishsurfing.com/en/products/stand-up.html ). If the surf gets flat you can go explore the area and some beautiful reefs, or try to catch a few waves around PSC area like at the light house. Don’t worry. We won’t be crashing a prefect line up with a bunch of these but you sure are to have fun with one of them.
The fish has been biting. With these glassy conditions you can go full speed to places we usually don’t because of the choppy conditions. Lot’s of GT’s, red snappers and the occasional maori rass! We just got two on the 30 to 50 lb side.
Surfing, fishing, diving, kiting, paddling, the stand up paddle boards and the jet ski. There is no better way to enjoy Pohnpei.

Allois

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