Sunday, March 29, 2015

3 29 15 morning call

Full day of work for me yesterday (pretty much 6.30am to 5pm), but I managed to squeeze a sunset session at Hookipa on a longboard and that was fun.

The SUP lesson was a success. The SUP lessons always are. It's amazing the amount of mistakes I see people doing out there... sometimes I got to stop myself from paddling over and pointing them out!

Got another early lesson this morning, so don't expect a photo report from Hookipa. But with a Pauwela reading of 4.3ft @ 8s from 84° you don't need a photo report, do you?
It's small, pure windswell. Can be fun anyway.

Just as it can be fun to figure out the other buoy readings. Today there's all kind of stuff going on (or not).

Let's take the NW and Waimea buoy graphs for example. For Oahu, this morning NOAA says:"Surf along north facing shores will be rising to 10 to 14 feet with occasional higher sets in the afternoon".
It doesn't really say when it will be rising, but if they mention occasional higher sets in the afternoon, you would think that it will pick up during the morning.

Well, I'm gonna guess that is more like a late morning.
In fact, the new swell only picked up during the night at the NW buoy (I circled the part of the graph) and it's now finally reading 5ft @ 15s from 314° at 5am.

Nothing yet at the Waimea buoy of that swell, but notice that less than a foot readings of 20 and 18seconds that have been recorded for the last 24h. Nothing to do with the new swell, that must be what arrived from that fetch off Japan 3-4 days ago. You guys can scroll down and check it out on the wind map in the previous days posts, if you care.

That also mean that for Maui it's gonna be a late afternoon deal.
 



But there's plenty more interesting stuff at the buoys today.
Lanai is still reading 1.7ft @ 13s from 177°, which means that I'm gonna have perfect south shore waves for my students again.
But the interesting one is from Barbers Point: 3ft @ 16s from 154° (SSE)
Remember cyclone Pam? It first caused some serious damage in the island of Vanuatu, then it moved just east of New Zealand and generated that beautiful south swell of last Tuesday. And then it aimed it strong winds more towards south America and below is my friend Moolar enjoying the swell in Pacasmayo (Peru).
I think that could be the angular spreading of that. Now, where is it gonna hit in Maui and why the Lanai buoy doesn't register it, I haven't a clue. But sure I'll look for waves. Which is what I do anyway, but it's nice to know that there is something to possibly score out there.





The wind map is a bit depressing with no fetches directed straight to Hawaii in the north pacific. Those two Highs are going to merge, we're gonna have a windy week (very easterly and gusty) and only windswell.
Fortunately, there's a nice little fetch down under, so hopefully the south shore will save our souls.
I see the change in the season happening and I don't like it.
 

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