Direction: Right

Level: Upper intermediate to Advanced

Best wind: South

Best swell size: 4 – 12ft

Best swell direction: North East

Best tide: Mid tide. Low tide is fine but a little shallow. At high tide its quite fat & hard to catch but also working during bigger swells.

Best for: Experienced surfers looking for a fast drop, thick wall, and hollow barreling end section.

Crowd factor: Medium.  When Rock Island is working well you can expect to see quite a few boats when you arrive at the spot.  However, if the swell is really big there won’t be to many people crazy enough to surf there.  Also if the conditions aren’t quite right a lot of people stay away so that may be a good time to surf uncrowded but tricky waves. I often surf Rock Island when it’s windy and usually there’s no people and I still have a great time.

Kind of wave: Rock Island can a tricky (difficult) wave to surf.  The wave moves pretty fast and the drops are steep.  If you make a wrong move (falling on the drop, gettting caught inside) you’ll end up down in the wash out and it’s a frustrating & long paddle back out to the channel.  

But having said that, Rock Island can be a perfect, long, right-handed wave with both hollow (or barreling) sections and stretches of wide-open face to carve around on.  With good conditions you can ride through three totally different sections.   Rock Island is at its best from head-high to double-overhead.    It gets even bigger at times but you really gotta know how to surf to go there if it’s that big.  If the swell is small then there’s not much going on at Rock Island, but as long as there’s over a meter or so of swell there’s decent sized waves to be had. Truly an awe-inspiring and world-class wave in a breath-taking setting.