Tuesday, March 31, 2015

31 3 15 morning call

 
To be someone that writes a blog claiming to know where and when to go, I've been doing a lot of miles for nothing lately...

Yesterday I thought that Hookipa would suck (and I was right at least on that!), so I drove south in the dark. Lahaina was small (maybe good for longboard or sup but I'm testing shortboards), so I kept driving to the bay where I saw ONE shoulder high wave at the cave and nothing else for the next 20 minutes, drove all the way back and surfed a horrible head and a half Middles. The windswell lumps coming sideways where pretty significant and the next section was closing out on you automatically.
I managed to stand up 5 times without doing a single turn and I consider that a standout performance.

Oh well, I tried. When the waves aren't good, they aren't good. But then at noon I had a very fun session at a spot right in the neighborhood. Sometimes you don't have to look that far away to find what you're looking for. Sometimes it might be just right were you are. That is the one problem when you leave in the dark: can't check the local waves, can't check the webcams for the remote waves.

Instead, this is Keanu Nakamura who obviously had the right board (and skills) to enjoy the small waves in lahaina yesterday. Photographer Jason Hall has come up with a long pole mount for his gopro and we're seeing some new angles here.


This morning there's a nice break in the wind and Hookipa might actually be not too bad. Expect a photo report soon.
Let's see what's at the buoys:
Pauwela went down a lot, but that's better than nothing.
6.4ft @ 9s from 86° (E)           
2.5ft @ 12s from 335° (NNW)
2.2ft @ 14s from 323° (NW)           
1.4ft @ 4s from 86° (E)
 
Lanai shows still some sign of life for the south shore
2.4ft @ 13s from 213° (SW)
2.1ft @ 7s from 168° (SSE)
1ft @ 9s from 181° (S)
0.8ft @ 5s from 165° (SSE)
 
Later on the wind will pick up and it will be sailable again. This is the NON updated (it seems that they wait for me to be done with my post to update it!!), at 1pm which seems to be the windiest one. Notice the original sideoff direction. That means gusty.
Even if not updated, I still prefer this map to the windguru-like charts, because it shows the wind in the rest of the island. Some people look for the wind, some other try to escape it. Plus you learn how the wind hugs the mountains and what every single wind direction does.
 
 
Wind map still pretty lame with a couple of tiny fetches NW of us that won't do much.
Let me borrow a couple of uncle Pat's classic sentences:
"This pattern should give way to a spring minimum of north Pacific surf. "
"A smidgen of swell is possible locally mid to late Saturday making for low-end conditions."
That sums it up and yes, you can call me a grumpy haole bitching for no surf these days...
 
 

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