Tuesday 1 31 17 morning call

Yesterday the search for a good surfing spot was a hard task. I took my surf guide customer to the spot I surfed the day before, but unfortunately the size was a bit too much for it. We tried, but too many closeouts. No good surfing, no charge, no worries.

On the way back I checked the Kahului harbor that had waves, but plenty wind and nobody out. The west side had plenty wind too and Honolua was big and not perfect (if not at times). There just weren't many options yesterday, but the hunt was fun. We'll try again today, and it looks just as challenging.

In the afternoon I windsurfed on the west side. I asked Levi a score for the conditions while I was rigging around 3pm and he gave me a 7. What I sailed was barely a 5, I guess it was better earlier. That's also what it looks like from this photo of Ferdi by Jimmie Hepp from this gallery.


The good news is that I was toasty in my 4/3 (still cold fingers though). Taking it off felt a bit like this. Maybe I should get those tools.


5am significant buoy readings
South shore
Check the webcams, Lahaina had some energy from the wrap yesterday.

North shore
NW101
7.9ft @ 12s from 11° (NNE)           

4ft @ 8s from 20° (NNE)

3.5ft @ 10s from 18° (NNE)

N
12.3ft @ 13s from 330° (NW)

7.9ft @ 10s from 344° (NNW)

Pauwela
9.3ft @ 13s from 333° (NNW)           

3.9ft @ 10s from 351° (N)

 

Numbers came down a bit, but once they're up in the 10f range, it doesn't really make a whole lot of difference: it's still big out there. Below are the graphs of the three buoys I reported. Notice how the direction started NW at the NW101 (all those red arrows I drew) and then slowly but steadily veered to the north and now it's coming from NNE. Same thing is going to happen locally.

 

The N and Pauwela buoys have been pretty steady from that point of view, so expect the swell to start becoming more and more from the N throughout today and tomorrow. That should be no surprise for the ones of you who make an effort to remember the position of the fetches that I circle daily in the "current wind map" section below.

Now, that applies to the "main" 13s component of it. But notice how the 10s period component at Pauwela and N is already coming from a slightly more northerly direction. Those were generated towards the head of the fetch, while the 13+ more towards the back of it. So the 10s energy hitting the buoys in any moment, was generated at least half day or more later than the 13+ which had to travel more. And that explains why the 10s part is already coming more from the north. The 13+ will follow. Love this stuff.

 

Unfortunately, just like yesterday, the problem today will be the wind. No good surfing on the north shore and it looks even windier on the west side. If you can handle the size (plenty DOH), Honolua would have the best shape, but not perfect either because of the stormy nature of this swell, due to the proximity of the generating fetch.

 

Current wind map shows:
1) solid, classic NW fetch. Related swell forecasted by Surfline to pick up on Friday and peak Saturday at 8f 15s from 307 at 2pm. Really good wind (i.e.: lack of thereof) those days.
2) the father fetch of the current swell moving ever so slowly to the east.

Btw, in Italian we don't really have a word for fetch, so we use the English word fetch. But since every word/object has a gender (in that language, I mean), we had to come up with one for it and it's male. "Il fetch", instead of "la fetch" to say "the fetch". Swell is female and it would be "la swell". I'm sure you're thrilled to learn this fundamental piece of information.


MC2map at 7am seem to show decent wind in the Kahului area, but unfortunately the iWindsurf readings are not in line with it: it's blowing 20mph at 5.30am.




MC2km map at 1pm shows wind conditions similar to yesterday.