Sunday, November 30, 2008

Big waves + three hot dogs eating contest.

I'm going to start this Sunday post with Uncle Pat's forecast summary: "calendar shows fall although the surf says winter."

Have a look at this photo from yesterday's surf contest at Sunset beach (Oahu) and you'll see what he means.


The live webcast is on as I'm posting (hey, my computer can multitask, just like me!). I just watched aussie veteran Mark Occhilupo (42) advance in his heat together with young Maui surfer Dusty Payne (19).

This is the weather map of Sunday morning.


As you can see a deep low is up there pushing waves our way. The front is almost completely occluded already and that means that the low is not going to move much. Actually that other smaller low on the left is going to join in and give life to a situation which will give us huge waves pretty much all next week.

Here's how Uncle Pat explains it:"The jet stream has set up a large equatorward loop in the central north Pacific. This is the Aleutian low, a feature seen in climatology based on the persistence of low pressure in a broad area straddling the dateline between 35-50°N latitude. The synoptic, or daily changing large scale pattern, of the coming days shows a family of extratropical cyclones forming off Japan then tracking east to reinforce the mother low pressure area just south of the Aleutians."

Check the website of the Eddie Aikau event at Waimea, 'cause it may easily be held. Tuesday and Thursday are my best guesses.

Last, but not least, here's a stellar performance of my friend Darian.


He who won a bag of goods at the Second Wind's sale by winning a three hot dogs eating contest. Good job...

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good vid and an outstanding effort. Quick question - This was in Maui, right? Why is the winner dressed like he's in frickin Colorado? Did it get down to the mid 70s(F not C) or something chilly like that?

cammar said...

70 degrees, rain and north wind yesterday made for the coldest day of the fall so far.

Knowing Darian, he had probably just got out of the water kitesurfing...

Anonymous said...

Had to laugh at the cold weather gear too! Had a great SUP session on Cape Cod yesterday. Absolutely balmy with water and air in the mid 40's.

Then changed into my maui-built t-shirt and some shorts and took the wife shopping. Felt good to cool down after heating up in my wetsuit.