Ala Moana Bowls

Surf Guide

Inarguably Town's most coveted -- and famous -- high-performance wave, Ala Moana has a clearly formed and obvious lineup. Ala Mo' is a long left, with a few different tube sections and a range of takeoff spots, but it's at its most focused and perfect when a solid S swell detonates on the outside bowl section. The seabed next to the reef was dredged for Ala Wai Harbor, thus the man-made interference bends swell and refracts it. And even though really big sets are still referred to as Pole Sets, the pole that once indicated such incoming bombs is now gone.The Ala Moana Bowls left can hold solid size and breaks off toward the harbor channel, but Bowls also offers a shorter right on smaller days that will usually end as a closeout section on the very shallow inside reef. As you head west across Magic Island into Ala Moana Park, there are numerous quirky, crowded and hard-to-catch reefbreaks, including Tennis Courts, Big Rights and Kewalo Basin. All of these waves work best on the same swell as Waikiki, though tide and local knowledge definitely comes into play here.