Sitting right below the famous volcanic crater, Diamondhead beach is easily accessed via a well-paved path that can be followed from the side of the main road. 

As someone from San Diego, I am all too familiar with having otherwise perfectly good surf days ruined by strong offshore winds.  What surprised me about Diamonhead and the east side of Oahu in general was the idea of sideshore winds that can gust and howl strong as high as 20 mph but not cause waves to crumble over. 

The other curiosity was the fact that different beaches in relatively close proximity to another could have completely different directional winds hit them by vitrue of the extreme curvature of the island landscape.  The same day at Diamonhead when winds were blowing fiercly directly from the east side of the break, a few miles over at Kuhio Beach in Waikiki the same trade winds gently skated over the surface and provided perfect offshore conditions.

To get an idea of how mighty the winds were at Diamonhead, check out the pic of this windsurfer tearing up the water:

But with these conditions, just a few hundred yards down the way I was able to find half-way decent open faced rights that were breaking with at least 3-5 ft faces. 

Back in San Diego, I can only imagine how great it would be on days when the winds get up high that if a beach gets completely blown out, I could just drive down around the bend a couple miles and find another beach with solid, open rights.