Sunset Beach (Oahu)

Sunset Beach is on the North Shore of Oahu in Hawai'i and known for big wave surfing during the winter season. The original Hawaiian name for this place is Paumalū. It is home to the Duke Kahanamoku Classic surfing competition, the O'Neill World Cup of Surfing competition, and is occasionally the site of the Quiksilver Big Wave Invitational.

Like many beaches on Oahu's North Shore, Sunset Beach is considered dangerous for inexperienced surfers, due to extensive coral formations near the surface that present the risk of serious injury. Conditions for swimming change depending on the particular location and season. Generally speaking, the water is flat as a lake in the summers and has waves in the winters. All the surfing contests take place in the winter around December and January, that being the time of the biggest and best waves for surfing. Swimming conditions change from spot to spot along the beach. There is usually a place to swim somewhere, except during stormy weather.

Surfing areas of Hawaiʻi
  • Banzai Pipeline
  • Holualoa Bay
  • Hoʻokipa
  • Jaws
  • Kahaluʻu Bay
  • Mākaha
  • Makapuʻu Beach
  • Pūpūkea
  • Sandy Beach
  • Sunset Beach
  • Waikīkī
  • Waimea Bay

Coordinates: 21°39′59″N 158°03′19″W / 21.66639°N 158.05528°W / 21.66639; -158.05528


Famous quotes containing the words sunset and/or beach:

    The freedom of indifference, the indifference of freedom, the will dust in the dust of its object, the act a handful of sand let fall—these were some of the shapes he had sighted, sunset landfall after many days.
    Samuel Beckett (1906–1989)

    If Los Angeles has been called “the capital of crackpots” and “the metropolis of isms,” the native Angeleno can not fairly attribute all of the city’s idiosyncrasies to the newcomer—at least not so long as he consults the crystal ball for guidance in his business dealings and his wife goes shopping downtown in beach pajamas.
    —For the State of California, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)