Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Windswell went down a bit: chest to shoulder. 20 guys at pavils at 6.30

9 0 15 morning call

Plenty action on the north shore yesterday.
Both surfers and windsurfers had their fair share, since the windswell waves got a bit more organized.

Photo below from Jimmie Hepp shows that. Still short period, but more defined sets. Sailor is Colin Baker.


Buoys
5.6ft @ 8s from 50° (NE)
5ft @ 9s from 47° (NE)
3.8ft @ 11s from 44° (NE)
 
Barbers
3.2ft @ 7s from 137° (SE)           
1.4ft @ 13s from 193° (SSW)
1.1ft @ 18s from 198° (SSW)

Windswell kinda steady. I like the "new" 11s component, probably from the very back of the fetch. But it is gonna be smaller tomorrow, so don't waste it today.

Windy, but not as windy as yesterday. MC2km map below is at noon.




Hey, that's a proper N fetch! That is going to bring us a N swell on Sunday/Monday. The wind will do interesting things, but it's too early to talk about it.
The NW fetch is not gonna do much, since it's rapidly going to move behind the Aleutians.

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

9 29 15 morning call

An intense day of action for me yesterday started with a surf session at the point. That's how the waves looked.

Shortly after that I went windsurfing and this is a photo taken by Jimmie Hepp.
Hitting the lip of a 8s period wave is SO MUCH easier than hitting one of a long period wave.



After that I went surfing brown waters again like yesterday. Considerably smaller, but still fun.
I don't like wasting time in my days off. At least, when there's waves.

Buoys
Pauwela
6.4ft @ 8s from 36° (NE)
2.5ft @ 6s from 46° (NE)
1.3ft @ 12s from 347° (NNW)

Barbers
 
2.7ft @ 6s from 126° (ESE)
2.7ft @ 9s from 177° (S)
1.2ft @ 14s from 195° (SSW)
1ft @ 11s from 187° (S)

Windswell dropped yesterday, but now it seems to stay steady at the Pauwela buoy.



Windy and rainy. That is unfortunately the pattern we're gonna have to face the whole week.
At least the windswell will come with it, but what a difference with how September started with those glassy, hurricane swell filled sunny days!

For a change, the maui county @2km map is updated early in the morning. Here's the noon map.

 
 Not much on the active fetches front. You can see the two I identified. Windswell one is weak now so I didn't even circled, but it's gonna get strong again.

 

Monday, September 28, 2015

Solid head high set hits pavils

9 28 15 morning call

Double surf session yesterday.
The morning one at Hookipa was mostly paddling training, the afternoon one was in beautiful head high brown water waves. Surfers Matt Mercado and Tide Rivers got two beautiful barrels. It was a lot of fun.

Buoys
Pauwela
8ft @ 8s from 49° (NE)
1.4ft @ 3s from 68° (ENE)
 
Barbers
3.4ft @ 6s from 123° (ESE)
2.6ft @ 9s from 168° (SSE)
1.5ft @ 12s from 174° (S)
0.4ft @ 22s from 178° (S)
 
Windswell went down a bit as the graph below shows, but at 8f 8s it's still pumping.
 
 
 
 
 
Strong trades in the forecast again, but once again, the clouds/rain will make them go up and down.
 
 
That big storm SE of us disappeared, but look at how many clouds are around us anyway.
 
 
 
 
 
The main fetch for today is still the windswell one, even though there are a small south one and a small north one. This last one is going to move and contribute to the formation of a bigger north fetch in the next couple of days. Pretty big (7f 12s on surfline) N swell for the weekend.
 



We know that the long term forecasts are unreliable, but this one is so peculiar that I want to share it anyway. We'll check if it happens or not. Two big storms west of us will very slowly move east and provide us with continuos energy from W-SW for a whole week.
 
 
 
I'm loving these unusual patterns. They bring a touch of variety and inspire me to get creative with finding the right spot. Happy hunting everyone!

Sunday, September 27, 2015

9 27 morning call

Surfed and sailed Hookipa yesterday, all over the place windswell, but I'm glad there were waves and I didn't have to drive south.
We're talking 2 minutes vs 35 without even considering the gas...
 
Jimmie Hepp even found a bit of sunshine for a photoshoot. This is Andres Martinez with a beautiful and powerful Hot Sails Maui KS3.
 
 
 
Buoys
Pauwela
7.1ft @ 9s from 29° (NNE)
4.4ft @ 11s from 5° (N)
2.8ft @ 6s from 46° (NE)
 
 
Barbers
2ft @ 8s from 154° (SSE)
1.8ft @ 5s from 126° (ESE)
1.6ft @ 12s from 182° (S)
1.5ft @ 7s from 135° (SE)
 
 
NNE windswell is still up with a bit of a N reinforcement. They both come out of the fetch below.

 
 
More wind today, but look at the cloud cover. That means that it will be up and down with the squalls of rain.
 


 
That storm SE of us is not moving, we'll keep an eye on it.

Saturday, September 26, 2015

9 26 15 morning call

Went south yesterday and took these pics.
 
 
This is photographer Jason Hall doing what he likes best: finding barrels.
 


That's how the shots look like.


We were surfing together and I had my mouth mount and this is as good of a shot as I got. What a difference, uh?




Thanks Jason for the inspiration, I might have to get myself a gopro stick.
Let's move on to some other kind of beauty.

This guy got the bomb of the day.

Stylish longboarder at the other peak.

If Uluwalu point was sticking out at sea a bit more, it could be as good as J-Bay.
Blog readers, if every time you pass by there you stop and throw a rock out at sea, maybe one day it will... let's call it the Turning Uluwalu Point Into J-Bay Project. We only need a couple hundred yards...

There she is again, now with a wet look.
 
 
 
Today's call starts with... the buoys, of course.

Pauwela

7.8ft @ 8s from 59° (ENE)
1.1ft @ 12s from 20° (NNE)
 
Barbers
2.5ft @ 6s from 132° (SE)
1.6ft @ 14s from 201° (SSW)
1.4ft @ 9s from 184° (S)
1.2ft @ 7s from 157° (SSE)
 
 
Windswell went up a lot (8f 8s) and windswell is what we're gonna get in next couple of days thanks to that narrow fetch NE of us. All the others I circled, are not gonna do much.
As an alternative, 1.6ft @ 14s on the south shore are much better than nothing.
 

Little update on the position of that storm.

 

And that's how horribly windy it is forecasted to be today. When the wind is forecasted to be this strong, it's never good, not even for windsurfers and kitesurfers, because it packs a lot of rain with it and as result it goes up and down with it.
No matter what you do, never get excited about a strong wind forecast in Maui. Well, maybe if you do SUP downwinders is the only exception.


Oh, I got a couple of boards for sale.
First one is a beautiful 6.6 Doug Haut. You'll find it at Hi-Tech Paia for $275 with pretty much brand new EA fiberglass fins.






Second one is a Firewire Vanguard 5.9, 35l.
I snapped it in two pieces while I was testing it on a big day (what an idiot!). Had to buy it and had Paige Alms fix it. She did an amazing job. Perfect rocker and board still very light.
I'm just trying to make some of the money back and sell it for $225. Only the fix was $150.
This one is in my rack, so shoot me an email if you interested.







 



 


Friday, September 25, 2015

9 25 15 morning call

I heard of some waves on the south shore yesterday, while the north shore was completely flat.

Let's start where every morning call should start: the buoys.

Pauwela
3.4ft @ 6s from 61° (ENE)
3.3ft @ 8s from 77° (ENE)
0.9ft @ 5s from 67° (ENE)
0.6ft @ 14s from 55° (ENE)
 
Barbers
1.9ft @ 7s from 152° (SSE)
1.7ft @ 8s from 162° (SSE)
1.6ft @ 15s from 192° (SSW)
1.2ft @ 10s from 193° (SSW)
 
Windswell still tiny, I'd rather take 1.6f 15s.
But this morning I'm even more analytical than usual, so here's a bit more for you guys. We'll talk windswell first.

Today's wind map shows a weak fetch down south and a weak NE one very close. There's a little low SE of us that is going to get closer to the islands and will help increase the wind strength.
 
 


That little low is actually a fairly big storm.

That means that not only the wind is going to get ugly strong, but also the cloud cover and rain will increase, as shown in the windguru table below.

This map is forecasted for 11am on sunday and you can see where the low moved and how much stronger the NE fetch will be. So Sunday/Monday big messy NE windswell on tap for north and east exposures.

 
 
Back to today, I'd rather take 1.6f 15s of south swell I was saying. Let's see where that is coming from. Below is the wind map of 7 days ago (the 18th). The fetch was pretty much straight south of us, but not too big nor strong.
What does 1.6f 15s coming from all the way down there does on our south shore? Inconsistent knee to waist high with very occasional even bigger sets, I'd say. That's also what I'm seeing on the webcam.
Well, you guys have all the info. Happy choosing what to do and where to go.
 
 

Thursday, September 24, 2015

9 24 15 morning

Tiny and weak everywhere yesterday (with the only exception of the Lahaina harbor maybe).

More of the same today.

Buoys
Pauwela
3.7ft @ 8s from 87° (E)
1.6ft @ 4s from 76° (ENE)
1.3ft @ 5s from 76° (ENE)
 
Barbers
2ft @ 11s from 192° (SSW)
1.6ft @ 8s from 164° (SSE)
1.4ft @ 6s from 140° (SE)
1.3ft @ 16s from 206° (SSW)
 
 
Since there's no waves, I'm gonna answer a question I receive quite often: the buoys position.
If you go on the surfline page linked on the right together with all the other sites I use, you can find this map I snipped below. I hope it helps.
 


No waves we said, what about the wind. For a change, MC2km is updated this morning and this is the map at noon. Notice how small is the pink area of 15-20 knots, so I would not expect particularly strong wind.

 

The future doesn't look too bright either. I marked a few fetches just for the sake of it, but they're not gonna do anything for us for the usual reasons: too small, weak and/or far away.

The next rideable waves should be generated by that fetch NE of us forecasted to set up on Sunday.
Messy windswell is going to be just fine after 4 days of nothingness. Hang in there.