This week, the North Shore is heading into a very active period of storms and swell. And while that's great for building hype in the lead up to the start of the Championship Tour, the constant bombardment of swell before the Billabong Pro Pipeline doesn't necessarily bode well for the event itself.

You see, the longer the activity continues, the greater the chances of it going quiet come the start of the waiting period.

This is unfortunately the case for the start of the Billabong Pro which kicks off in just over ten days, on the 29th of January.

Leading up to the start of the waiting period there are two significant swells inbound; the first an extra-large swell building rapidly Sunday and easing slowly Monday, ahead of another oversized swell late Wednesday, peaking Thursday morning.

Though this is a forecast for the Billabong Pro, it's worth mentioning that the first swell will meet the Eddie Aikau threshhold, and with light winds to boot - but that's another conversation.

Following the storms linked to these swells, the North Pacific is due to go very quiet thanks to a robust, oblique-angled blocking high, stretching from north-east of the Hawaiian Islands, all the way to the Marshall Islands in the west.

Under this setup storms forming off Japan will quickly be deflected away to the north-east and kept well beyond striking distance of the islands. Therefore, weak, low-period background swells from the north-west are due through the opening days of the waiting period.

The good news is that the blocking pattern is expected to start breaking down through the second half of the waiting period, so hopefully we see the North Pacific firing up again before things come to a close on the 10th of February.

We'll provide further updates once the outlook for the second half of the event window becomes clearer.

Click for Swellnet's North Shore forecast and WAMs