Small Swell Coming, But Shark Incidents Give Pause

By Carlos Rock

A shark close to shore at a beach in Lahaina. Photo: Carlos Rock.

Finally, a small 3 to 5-foot east swell is expected to come in by Friday to end the longest dry spell for surfers this summer — but with the recent spate of shark attacks, there may be few takers.

The swell is also accompanied by an increase in the trade winds which should see the swell increase in size a bit (fingers crossed).

The south side should see a small bump from the east swell also. A 1 to 3-foot southeast wrap-around swell will hopefully provide some waves for popular spots like the Cove and Lahaina Harbor, but no guarantees that there will be waves.

However the recent lack of waves hasn’t proven to be all that bad due to the alarming amount of shark attacks happening in Hawaii, particularly here on Maui. The lack of waves have kept a lot of people out of the water and many more are now reconsidering even taking a quick dip to cool off.

Many people are left wondering why the sharks have been more aggressive than normal during the past month. There have been too many attacks this month in Hawaii, and some of them where the sharks have ventured very close to shore to attack.

If you’re game, the east swell should provide some fun surf this weekend, but exercise extreme caution when entering shark territory.

Be safe out there.