11 21 16 morning call

This is what I wrote to a friend to describe my wonderful day yesterday: "Went to Hana, drove painfully slow, loved each single tree and bridge, surfed twice, listened to some good music... On my own pace, with no commitments with anybody, met some friends on the way, with the flow, never felt not even remotely close to doing or saying a thing I didn't want to do or say. Such a perfect day!"

Here's my road to Hana driving technique:
As soon as I get someone behind me, I pull over and let them pass. As soon as I get someone in front of me, I slow down and let them go ahead out of my field of vision. Unless it's really busy, this way of driving allows me to do the whole thing like if I was the only car on the road. All I see is pure nature, not polluted by the vision of other cars and not conditioned by the behavior of the other drivers. The equivalent of surfing or sailing by yourself.


An old friend of mine visited Maui last year instead. He went to Hana with his wife and commented: "oh my god, what a stress that road was! So many cars and it was so hard to pass them!"
Hopelessly conditioned by the city life rhythms even in vacation. I felt sorry for him.

Here's some kids sharing a wave at Hamoa.

Dege O'Connell and Tanner Hendrickson check out the windswell at Koki.


Tanner paddled out and shredded.

Meanwhile the windsurfers were enjoying some good conditions at Hookipa. Photos by Jimmie Hepp from this gallery.
This is Browsinho on a wave that sure doesn't look like windswell instead...


...and that's because it wasn't! The north swell got up to 4-5f 13s and if you remembered the fetches of the past few days (related maps reported below) you would have not been surprised. See the distance between waves?


...same swell I surfed...


...and same swell that was hitting the Bay. Photo from Dusty Payne's instagram.


4am significant buoy readings
NW
7.3ft @ 8s from 83° (E)

N
6.2ft @ 8s from 89° (E)

5.4ft @ 12s from 29° (NNE)

Pauwela
7.6ft @ 8s from 72° (ENE)

4.1ft @ 12s from 12° (NNE)

 

The maps below are from Nov 17 and 18 and they shows the source of the NNE swell at the N and Pauwela buoys today. The fetch moved more east and aimed more at a point east of us, so expect the swell in the water to do the same.




Current wind map shows:
- a fetch in the NW corner. It's well oriented towards us, but it's not going to move much towards us because of the blocking action of the high pressure SE of it. We'll see how it looks tomorrow.
- a fetch north of us that is now aiming at the mainland's west coast. We'll be lucky if we get some angular spreading off it, but it looked better yesterday. 5-6f 15s swell from around 338 on Wednesday. More practice opportunity for the pro surfer ladies at the Bay
- the windswell fetch
- a lovely out of season fetch down under. It's aimed at Central America, but we should get some angular spreading in a week. Before that, a small pulse from that fetch in the Tasman Sea on Nov 15-16-17 should arrive around Wednesday/Thursday.


NAM3km map at noon shows strong easterly trades. Notice the easterly direction that will hopefully leave the spots in the Kahului area windless in the early morning. Plenty options on a NNE swell down there.