This is a great spot in a fantastic location. It offers a consistent break, good waves and a good atmosphere, and is suitable for surfers of all abilities.
This is a long, wide, sandy beach running up the coast right in front of the community of ocean Beach. If you come here during the week you’ll find it completely deserted, while even a good weekend won’t have any more than a handful of others out. See temperatures will hit highs of about 20° C in summer, and lows of around 12° C in winter.
You need to be coming here when the wind is blowing from the northwest, west or southwest and the swell is coming from south, southeast or east. The swell works at all tide positions, whether rising or falling, and will start building at less than 1m before holding up to around 3m. It’s a typical beach break, right and left, and the waves are hollow but not especially fast or heavy. Length isn’t too bad, reaching up to 150m on most days.
You’ll need a 4x4 to be able to drive here, otherwise it’s at least half an hour’s walk from the Ocean Beach car park. This end of the beach is therefore quite remote and you won’t find any facilities here, so bring your own water and anything else you need. If you want to make it a day trip, it is about half an hours drive to the south of Napier.
There are often shark sightings here, but that’s not uncommon for New Zealand and actual problems from them are virtually unheard of – just take basic precautions.
