This is the Surfline 5 days wave forecast for Oahu's north shore. Saturday afternoon and Sunday will be epic sailing for Maui's north shore (and not only) reefs. I already know where to go sail.
I'm going to spend a few words on the wave forecast on windguru, since I get that question very often. Windguru is a wind forecasting website, not a wave one. The info about the wave forecast they add can be very misleading if you don't know what it is.
They just report the biggest swell in height forecasted for that day. The problem is that sometimes (actually most times in Hawaii) that's not necessarily the biggest waves that will show up on the reef!
Example: imagine that one day there will be a 6 feet, 8 seconds from 90 degrees windswell and a 5 feet, 15 seconds from 330 degrees ground swell. WG will indicate only the first one which will create mushy, weak, barely shoulder high waves at Hookipa, while the second one will generate solid, powerful logo high sets.
So if you are looking for a accurate wave forecast, you need a site (there's many) that gives you ALL the swells that are forecasted for a day. Surfline is one of them.
My site of choice for wind forecast and reports, instead is iWindsurf.com.
But the main suggestion for anyone who wants to try to understand wave forecasting is to learn how to read a weather map. It's an extremely easy thing, and I'm shocked by the amount of surfers/windsurfers who still don't know what an isobar is...
Actually, it's a sign of our times.
"Here's the forecast, you don't need to try to know what's behind" is like "Here's the news, you don't need to know what's behind".
That's how governments keep control of the public opinion through the media and keep our brains lazy...
Allright enough of that, happy sailing everyone!
4 comments:
True, true! Many windsurfers don't have much of a clue when it comes to reading weather maps. I admit, I only have a fraction of a clue. How about posting a quick and dirty tutorial for your readers! I, for one, am eager to learn how to predict good wind and swell too. Thanks!
-RPM
Funny, I wanted to provide you with a link and I googled "how to read a weather map with isobars" and this is the first one that came up: http://www.actionsportsmaui.com/how_to_read_a_weather_map.html
Funny, because I know those guys quite well...
Read that and the main concept is that the closer to each other the isobars, the stronger the wind. If the isobars are straight and long and they occupy a wide area of ocean, the more the fetch (area where the wind is blowing) will be favorable for surf production.
Hope that helps. I thought about doing a post like that, but it would be too difficult without drawing arrows and stuff...
Maybe I'll do a video one day!
interesting that the weather chart you show is created and published at great expense by the government. The same one you say is trying to control us by making us not think.
... it's to make us to think to weather intead of politics :)
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