- bigger (head high peaks with some overhead ones)
- cleaner
- less crowded.
But in the sunset session I put in the water for the first time a 7.7 single fin that I recently bought and man, that thing sure rides differently. My experience with single fins on a surfboard is pretty much non existent, so I have to completely figure that one out. Cool.
I don't have action shots from yesterday, but seen the amazing 5 days of surfing we just had thanks to that long lasting N swell, here are three shots by OneMore Foto showing some top Maui surfers ripping one of the many spots that lit up on the west side. This is Friday and I believe that was the biggest day of that swell.
Granger Larsen.
Dusty Paine (this shot is insaine).
Kevin Sullivan.
You guys will remember that on Sunday another big swell (this one from the WNW) added on top and since it was going to be windy, the day before I called for a busy day for the lifeguards at Kanaha. Well it sure was and some of the rescues were quite critical.
Thanks a lot to the Maui lifeguards, but my warning was more for the windsurfers that shouldn't have been out there.
Over estimating your own skills while at the same time under estimating the safety aspect is an incredibly common mistake that I see around all the times. Doesn't take a big dangerous swell for that to show. Even on a head high day at Kanaha you see SUP surfers that shouldn't be out there putting at risk the safety of everybody else. I could understand that a bit more if Maui was a place with no other easier spots, but a 20-30 minutes drive from Kanaha takes you to the south shore (either Kihei or Lahaina) where you can find some the best possible beginner waves on Earth.
When I started SUP surfing back in 2004 (I claim to be SUP surfer n.4 in Maui, after Laird, Kalama and Loch), I did three months of training at Launiupoko before risking a session at Lowers with that big and heavy 12.6 of mine. Today I see people out there with no surfing experience whatsoever.
Part of the problem is the rental shops that don't try to steer them towards the south shore, so this is a message to them too.
Not much surf leftover for today. Maybe some occasional 1-2 feet 10-11 seconds still from the N or NNE. That's my guess of what the Pauwela buoy would be reading today. I could start posting my guesses every morning and call them Giampauwela readings...
The West Hawaii buoy is reading around 3ft @ 12s from 270° (W) from that fetch I pointed out on March 19th's wind map. You might want to check the Kihei's webcams and while you're at it, also check the Lahaina ones to see if the little southerly energy also in the water is only knee high or more. I got my favorite webcams listed in the under-utilized "webcams" section of this blog.
Where is the West Hawaii buoy? The position of all the buoys is discussed in the post labeled "buoys" in the under-utilized "labels" section of this blog. You can find it all the way down, after the under-utilized "archive" section of this blog.
There's so much stuff on this blog which I've been running since 2005, that's why I'm never gonna change platform.
Wind map shows a mild NW fetch and a wide but weak easterly windswell one that should keep some low period energy going to the east facing shores.
MC2km maps not updated yet, this is the windity map at noon. I would recommend to check your (very low) chances of wind related sports action on the MC2km website later: link n.17 of the under-utilized "GP's meteo links" list on the right of this blog.
Let's close with another much more exciting windity map: Sunday morning should look like this. Related swell forecasted at 11f 15s from 318 mid Wednesday the 30th by Surfline. Everybody is going to call this the last big swell of the winter, or Jaws' closing day and that cracks me up. You can eventually call an opening day of a season, but for the closing day, nature has the final word. She always does.
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