Saturday, January 03, 2015

1 3 15 morning call

4am main swell buoy readings:

NW
7.6ft @ 9s from 352° (N)
6.2ft @ 8s from 348° (NNW)
4.2ft @ 17s from 311° (NW)

Waimea
8.7ft @ 9s from 279° (W)           
2.1ft @ 3s from 322° (NW)
2.1ft @ 18s from 312° (NW)

Maui north shore (indicative of what's in the water on Maui's north shore)
4.7ft @ 6s from 316° (NW)
4.1ft @ 9s from 354° (N)
1ft @ 20s from 325° (NW)
2.5ft @ 11s from 343° (NNW)

West lanai Maui north shore (indicative of what's in the water on Maui's south shore)
10.4ft @ 8s from 248° (WSW)
0.7ft @ 20s from 287° (WNW)

Big post today, with a bit of the old blog taste.
I feel like starting with celebrating yesterday, since it was another epic day all around. The photo below shows the surfing conditions at Hookipa that were excellent thanks to the light Kona.


This other photo below shows the windsurfing conditions at Lanes that were excellent too pretty much for the same reason: the light Kona wind. The sailor is Morgan Noireaux and that, I believe, is a backloop off the lip which is an extremely hard move to do. Photo by Jimmie Hepp (facebook page link).


I enjoyed both thoroughly clocking in 3h of surfing and 1h windsurfing, before going to work at 2pm.
This morning my body is sore and that's why today I'm gonna rest. Well that and today's poor conditions that I am about discuss here after...

Let's start with the buoy readings. I always put them all the way at the top, but since you guys never read them, I have to point out to them again.
4f 17s from 311 at the NW buoy is a beautiful ground swell that we are not going to enjoy much because of the local wind/weather.
2f 18s from 312 at Waimea and 1f 20s from 325 at North Maui are readings that are PERFECT to understand how a swell propagates and eventually refracts.
The first sets of a swell that is generated far away are the longest period ones (since they travel faster), but they usually are smaller in size. That's what we see at the Maui bouy. Waimea shows 2 seconds less in the period and one foot more in size because of course the 20s sets have already passed under it. And lastly, the NW buoy is already "down" to 17s but "up" to 4f.
I had to use the quote thingies "" because, if you read the article on surfline about the wave period that I posted a couple of days ago (especially the shoaling part), you will now know that the longer the period, the more a wave grows when it hits a shallow bottom.
Once again, beware of formulas that tell you how much a wave will grow based on its period, I've been observing them for 14 years and it depends greatly on the break.
I just give you an example: a 4f 20s set at Jaws will generate waves that can easily be 15-20 feet faces.
A 8f 10s one, won't even break. Good luck at finding a formula that predicts that.

But I digress.
If we go back to the buoy readings, we'll see a bunch of other swells with different periods all pretty much from the same NW to N quadrant.
That's the locally generated waves that will unfortunately ruin the shape of the long distance long period ones.
Not a big waste, since the local wind would have ruined it anyway, as the wind map below shows.
The wind in fact will be from NW and that's a dreadful direction for the north shore of Maui (and the rest of the Hawaiian islands too).





   
So the summary is: today is gonna suck. But not for everybody.
If you're a sponger in Kihei, you might have a blast riding the healthy shore break that windswell created by the Kona wind kindly left behind (10.4ft @ 8s from 248° WSW at the Lanai buoy).
7.15am webcam snapshot below confirms that. Windswells episodes like this don't last long.
The wind even went offshore! Damn, too bad I got to work at 9... oh yeah, I was supposed to rest this morning.


In contrast, look how messy Hookipa looks, thanks to a pic just sent me from a reader (thanks, I don't even need to get out of the house). Time stamp around 7am.




Before I leave you, I'd like to post the trailer of an action packed movie that will be at the Iao Theater in Maui this Wednesday January 7th at 6.30pm. The movie is called Addicted to life.



ADDICTED TO LIFE -- NUIT DE LA GLISSE 2014 -- MOVIE TRAILER from Nuit de la Glisse Films on Vimeo.

And this is the link where you can buy the tickets online.

Have fun in the sun everyone!
 

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