Surf spot guide · Auckland & Coromandel, New Zealand
Rare, Kirra-style rights that grind along the sandbank at the Kaipara Harbour mouth on a low incoming tide.
High Waves
Large waves up to 2.2m expected at Pouto. Peak conditions around 9:00 PM.
Exercise extreme caution when entering the water. Strong currents and large waves present. Warning valid until 9:00 PM.
Pouto lies well inside the entrance to the huge Kaipara Harbour, and now and then a big SW swell on a low incoming tide lines up Kirra-style rights that grind along the sandbank. When it happens, the wave is genuinely special - long, mechanical rights peeling for 200 to 500 metres with the kind of shape that rivals the best sandbar points anywhere. The spot fires so rarely that catching it requires either luck or obsessive forecast monitoring. SW swell is the trigger, and NE winds provide the offshore. The harbour mouth setting means rips are genuinely strong, and the isolation demands self-sufficiency. Localism is flagged - the handful of surfers who know this wave guard it jealously. Around the corner, a dead-straight beach runs north toward Dargaville and can work in small swell with a NE wind; Bayly's Beach is the easiest way in. It is an excellent wave, and on its best days Pouto is one of the most remarkable sand-bottom waves in New Zealand.
Long mechanical rights grinding the Kaipara sandbank for five hundred metres.
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Sometimes crowded when it fires. Localism present. Rips strong at harbour mouth.
Rare Kirra-like sandbar
Auckland & Coromandel
Reliable beachbreak, with a sweet left point when the swell comes from the NE, and peaks running off into the distance along Pakiri Beach.
Auckland & Coromandel
Consistent NE-facing rivermouth producing quality lefts and a bonus right, aided by a rock spit on the Northland coast.
Auckland & Coromandel
Transient rivermouth sandbar with punchy a-frame peaks and a standout low-tide right on the north bank.
+2 MORE →Low incoming tide is the window. Big SW swell trigger. Rips very strong at harbour mouth. Bayly's Beach around corner for small-swell alternative.
HAZARDS · KNOW BEFORE YOU PADDLE
Free car park and roadside parking available. Located deep inside the mouth of Kaipara Harbour. Nearby Bayly's Beach offers alternative access for smaller swells.
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