Rocky Point

Surf Guide

In the Off-The-Wall class when it comes to photo action, Rocky's is not at all in OTW's class as a hoax. It's a flat curving reef that is about 250 yards wide and it's perhaps the most consistent wave on the North Shore, breaking up to six feet-plus in any winter swell direction. Rocky's somehow satisfies even its most frightening crowds with a range of waves -- from soft walls to clean barrels to crazy shorebreak air sections. While Rocky Point was Heavy Local Spot Number One in the 1970s, today the only real crazy days happen in contest season, when small days turn into the surfing's most vicious recorded photo sessions. Dozens of photographers and filmers can be found at one time on the rock/sand beach, shooting away at a crowd of over 130 local grom rippers, Brazilians, Australians, mainlanders, Europeans, and just about everyone else. Rocky's provides several different takeoff points in different conditions. We'll begin from the west side, close to Pupukea: 1. A series of peaks, mainly rights, in north-to-northwest swells, which sometimes end in a closeout, but often hold up for nice walls and tubes. 2. A clearly defined right wall/left peak combination in west-to-northwest swells, with the left sometimes peeling almost across the length of the reef. 3. A good quality walling left peak forming in west swells, outside the middle of the reef which barrels or peels down toward the northern channel. (This is the prime Rocky's wave.) 4. A sharp, wedging left (and sometimes right) pitching off the northern fringe of the reef. 5. A sucky shorebreak reform left farther inside which is super fun for airs and small barrels. Click here for Surfline's Rocky Point Spot Check with Flynn Novak