North Shore residents affected by coastal erosion braced themselves Monday for what could be the largest ocean swell in a decade.
Jimmy Manard, 43, took two days off work to prepare for the swell. He bought 700 feet of plastic tarp that he planned to lay today along the oceanside of six homes near Rocky Point to protect the land beneath the homes from eroding.
"It’s going to be pretty nasty," he said. "We’re going to try and stop it this time."
Last month Manard had to cut away a bedroom and a deck from his house after a swell eroded the land beneath.
This swell could bring waves in the 40- to 50-foot range when measured by the face, heights that could top those of January 2004, when a similar weather pattern created giant surf, said National Weather Service forecaster Sam Houston.
He said the swell will be a "significant event," lasting two days and continuing through several tidal cycles, which could bring coastal inundation, waves breaking over roadways, and erosion.
Anyone concerned about coastal erosion should take precautions, and beachgoers should stay off the sand, he said.
"These waves can break across the whole entire beach," Houston said.
The conditions that are generating this surf are similar to those that brought giant surf in January 1998, February 1986 and December 1969, the weather service said.
Despite the huge surf, organizers of the Quiksilver in Memory of Eddie Aikau big-wave competition decided not to hold the event because the surf is expected to be of poor quality.
The event has taken place only eight times in its 29-year history and was last held Dec. 8, 2009. It is held when wave face heights reach 40 feet at Waimea Bay. The event period runs through February.
National Weather Service forecaster Matt Foster said a storm about 1,500 miles to the northwest of the state is generating the monster swell. Waves will also be larger than 20 feet for west shores, he said.
"The problem is it’s going to be coinciding with a front coming through, so there’s going to be strong winds on top of it," he said. "It’s going to make (the surf) a little more choppy and mixed up."
Tonight the front will bring strong wind from the northwest with sustained wind of 20 to 25 mph and gusts of 40 mph over Kauai and Oahu. It will make its way east across the state through Wednesday, Foster said.
Surf will begin rising tonight and build rapidly after midnight, reaching warning levels by daybreak Wednesday.
The swell will peak Wednesday and slowly decline Thursday, but a second swell will keep surf above advisory levels through Saturday, and a third swell will build surf up to advisory levels again Sunday, the weather service said.
