Crowds in Fiji

[Jakaul]

I'm heading to Fiji in a week for 12 days, Coral Coast first week and then thinking of going over to the Mamanucas but am wondering how the crowds are at Cloudbreak, Wilkes etc. Not sure if I would be better doing the resort thing (?) or organising boat transports and battling crowds.

Anyone surfed over there recently?

[brendo]

i was told a few resorts on islands are closed from being wiped out by cyclone couple months back.
i surfed a right on coral coast out from the fijian last year. it was pumping, but by the time i organised bro inlaw and boat, we kinda missed the best of it. its a looong paddle across lagoon. the boat just dumps u, then comes back after however long u tell em. i thought that was pretty scetchy, if you get hurt, u r in trouble. my bro inlaw got rolled across reef last wave, and had his whole back tiger pawed. lucky the boat had just shown up....

[Lolo]

Not Sure on the Coral Coast options but for the Manamucas it depends on the wind conditions a lot and swell size. You're early enough in the year that you won't get hammering trades all the time which tend to concentrate the crowds to the breaks that can handle the wind. Wilkes, Swimming Pools and Tavi Rights are all good waves in the right conditions. Namotu Left can have its day but they're few and far between that it gets good.

If you get a still day and enough swell the crowd will spread right out and you can get nearly empty waves away from the premier spots. Trades force everyone to Cloudbreak and/or Restaurants depending on the swell size, as they are really the only waves that handle the wind. CLoudbreak you can still get a lot of waves with a big crowd, Restaurants can be a shit fight.

But there's always plenty of people around. Tavi and Namotu are both open after Cyclone Evan,permanently full and cater to 60+ people between them most of whom are there just to surf, so an insta-crowd can turn up anytime once a few of their boats rock up. Then there's boats from the mainland and other resorts in the Manamucas with extras on top of that.

SO yeah, crowded but definitely worth a trip out for sure.

[Donweather]

Very high potential of another cyclone in the vicinity of Fiji in the coming week or so, with the MJO pushing out in the Western Pacific.