Saturday, December 10, 2016

12 10 16 morning call

Long post today, I'm gonna start by embedding this video of one of Mishka songs (tonight's concert at Charley's reminder at the end of the post). Nothing to watch, so just start it and the read the post, with a lovely and apt soundtrack. The song is entitled Coastline journey, which is pretty much what we do daily here. I particularly like a line at the beginning:"I've been seeking head high and above, right now a ripple would be fine."


Two sessions and another awesome day of surfing on Maui's north shore yesterday.
I took these photos between 4 and 5 and the waves had gone down quite a bit compared to the morning, but the cleanness was still there. I might have underscored the last couple of 7's I gave the morning conditions, I elaborate on that at the very end of this post.

Looks like Ian Gentil.

Looks like Tio Juan instead.

If someone drops in on you, you might as well accept the reality and celebrate with him...
Which is pretty much what Matt Kahn says in this powerful teaching video called The End of Victimhood: if someone does or says something bad to you, you reply "thank you!" and add a compliment and a blessing to end the chain of abuse that that bad thing originated from.
Yes, Maui does weird things to you (like me watching a spiritual 1 hour 15 minutes video) . And if it doesn't, that's even more weird.

Dream bottom turn section. Guy was ripping.

Tanner Hendrickson on a gem.

Mean turn.

Sometimes you have to settle for the vision.

Looks like Yoav.

Seems like that front foot pad's working. I didn't like mine (and took it off), because I was missing the sturdy contact between ribs and board, specially when paddling for a wave. But it's very personal.

Imai De Vault.

Always happy to take a photo of a friend, specially if it's a good energy guy like Scott Trudon.

Tanner.

The sunset was pretty spectacular and unexpected.

4am significant buoy readings
South shore

No southerly energy at the buoys, check the webcam to judge yourself the degree of flatness.

North shore
NW
6.8ft @ 12s from 14° (NNE)

N
2.9ft @ 11s from 333° (NNW)

Hanalei
4.2ft @ 12s from 353° (N)

Pauwela
2.7ft @ 11s from 335° (NNW)
2.3ft @ 10s from 341° (NNW)
 
The reason for the high NNE energy at the NW buoy is illustrated in the current wind map below. That energy is aimed west of us and we'll eventually only get a fraction of it, thanks to the angular spreading. Hanalei is reading 4 feet of that, Pauwela 2 to 3. I drew the (short bodied in this case) cockroach's antennae on the current wind map below so that you can understand why the directions are different in different places. First though, here's a reminder of the buoy position, that you can also find in this post labeled "buoys" in the labels section of the blog.
 

Current wind map shows a distant WNW fetch and a tiny but much closer one related to that low north of us. It's been there three days already and it won't move much in the next few days. It would be an excellent source of waves, but unfortunately the strongest wind circulation is aiming west of us. That's why the NW buoy has such big numbers. But the angle will get better for us at one point and as a result will be a NNE swell that Surfline calls for 7f 12s from 25 on Wednesday.

Long but weak fetch in the Tasman Sea and I highlighted in black the contour of the North island of New Zealand that will block most of the generated energy. See how narrow is that corridor between it and Fiji is?


NAM3km map at noon shows some moderate Konas. Early morning is going to be California glass again instead.


Conditions have been so good all day also thanks to the cloud cover. The less the sun heats up the land during the day, the less onshore breeze will be generated. Looks like we're gonna have another of those high clouds day (image 5am).


I have no interest/skill in forecasting the rain, so I'm just gonna say that I see a lot of it south of us in this 5.35am radar image and that it's moving up. Check yourself links 6 and 8 for updates on that.


A reader left a comment two days ago (thanks!) linking the video below and I'm going to reply with the explanation of my ranking of the Hookipa conditions.
First, the scale is the following: 0 for flat, 10 for as good as it gets (I've seen it a few times in 15 years, so I know what it looks like).
Second, what influences the score is: the shape, size and consistency  of the waves . If there's a perfect wave every half an hour, it can't be a 10. Same if it's more consistent by only waist high.
I also don't take into account the crowd. Sometimes I might mentioned if it's empty or packed, but otherwise I only score the conditions. AND, my score is not based on Pavillions, but more on Middles and The Point.

The reader asked me to rank the conditions in this inspiring video below that he linked. He was obviously joking, but even if he wasn't, I couldn't really do it, because I have no idea of how good the waves get on those lakes. I'm guessing it's probably a 10 every time that there's waves! Love the improbable surfing community that they were able to set up over there.

Btw, I was thinking about setting up a similar metereology workshop sometimes in Spring here in Maui. I haven't thought about the title yet, could be something like "Maui wave prediction workshop" with a subtitle like "learn the tools to daily pick the right surf spot for your ability/preference". If anyone has an interest in that, please leave a comment/send me an email. Because it implies extra work, I won't even start if I don't see enough interest. Thanks!

On Days Like These We Must Surf from Jake Kovnat on Vimeo.


And here's the banner for tonight Mishka's concert.

No comments: