Monday, December 25, 2006

Christmas post

We had a few days of extreme sunshine with total lack of clouds and wind.
I'm not going to get into the details of all the great surfing sessions I had... I'll let the photos speak instead. These ones were taken on the 23rd at Hookipa.






A few teams were towing in in front of Mama's. Go paddle, you pussies! (I'm just jelous...)


The following two show Francisco Porcella at Lanes.




Today it started sunny again, but I felt tired (not used to go to sleep at midnight anymore...) and I wasn't pulled towards the ocean. "Luckily" it started to rain and it turned into a perfect day to spend some quality time at home. A book, a nap, a dvd (eheheh)...
The rain was so thin and drizzling that it looked like snow. I tried to capture that, messing with the focus and the shutter time. Didn't succeed, but here's an interesting one. Click on it... needles in the air.


Here's a couple of old boards I don't use often...


Lastly, an exciting look to the coming days.

The NOAA is forecasting a close to 25 feet face swell on Thursday. Surfline forecasts a peak of 16 feet open ocean heights at 15 seconds Thursday night... enough for Jaws, for sure.
Curious to see the storm that will send that swell, I went to mywxmap and ran the 6 days loop. I saw the storm, but that's nothing compared to the one that will completely take over the north pacific in about 5-6 days from now. There it is.



That means that in 9-10 days from today (January 3rd-4th) we'll receive an extra-large NW one. Maybe even in the giant category. I'll let Pat decide that...

PS. James Brown, may you rest in peace. Thanks for writing that song about me, by the way...

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

You said it, may Mr. Brown rest in peace. Every time I read your blog I learn something new, but I was quite surprised to read that he wrote 'I can't stand myself' about you!

Looks like some epic weather approaching you guys, better be fit and ready! Looks like you won't be needing your Drops (fixed it yet?). So you showed us your 'new' board, what would the board you would use in the upcoming conditions?

Over here, nothing epic coming our way, but finally some wind at the end of this week (20-25 knots), temperatures still high at 10 degrees.

cammar said...

Eheh, I knew somebody would have searched for other JB's songs to attribute to me...

Here's a main difference between Maui and the Nederlands. Maui sits at about 21 degrees north latitude, Holland sits at about 52 degrees.
The big winter storms that hit Europe from the Atlantic usually hit Holland too and you guys get the strong wind.
The big winter storms in the north Pacific, instead, usually miss Hawaii by far.
That means that that huge storm you see in the map probably won't influence Hawaii weather (in terms of wind and rain) at all. It will just send a giant swell. How the wind is when a swell arrives is usually not related to the storm that generated the swell. Unless the storm decides to take a trip towards southern latitudes to visit Hawaii and that's when in addition to the swell, we get strong south (Kona) wind, and after the passage of the front the wind turns north. So far, nothing like this this winter (unfortunately... I absolutely love big days with the Kona at Kanaha).
In other words, you can't say how the wind will be when that swell will arrive around Jan 3rd... just because the Jan 3rd weather map is not available yet. Could be strong trades, light trades, no wind at all, Kona... anything! It will depend by the pressure gradient around the islands that day.
So, ultimately, you can't say I won't need the Drops. Which, by the way, is still very wet. I'm afraid I'll need to wait a month or something like that before I can fix it...

Good luck with your sailing, 10 degrees is not too bad...

Anonymous said...

Best day so far that was, welcome clean, glassy, peeling, waves! we were waiting for you....

all about to change tomorrow though right?

Anonymous said...

hi man, writing english this time..
just to tell you that I hope you'll score some big waves on this giant swell which is coming.
I live in Liguria and a smaaaaler one is coming here,to..
It's waited for tomorrow afternoon and january the 1st at its best. A good year is starting! Buon Anno Gianpaolo.
nico

cammar said...

Meesh, not sure about which tomorrow you mean. It's so stupid that there's not a clear date on this comments!

Nico, forse era meglio che continuavi con l'italiano... e sto' a scherza'! :-)
Buon anno e buone onde a tutti i surfisti italiani. Vita dura... tanto rispetto.

Anonymous said...

'mmazza ma sai che fatica scrivere 'sta roba in inglese... con un pro come te a giudicare... ehehehhe TU si che ci pigli per davvero.
Eh si, non hai progredito come sperato nel WS stando a Maui, ma nella lingua almeno si!
PS: ho appena letto il tuo report su WN dell'ultima Aloha classic e, a parte la gara, ho molto apprezzato le tue ultime considerazioni sul fatto che ci si diverta di più o di meno a seconda del proprio livello in acqua... Beh io almeno, non ti considero matto: anzi! Finalmente qualcuno con cui sono sulla stessaq lunghezza d'onda... Complimenti ancora.. beh non mi diloungo oltre, d'altronde questo è il tuo blog, mica un forum!
scrito il 31-12 ore 11:50 am (e così sei cuntento) ;-)
ciao bello