Thursday 2 16 17 morning call

I surfed the same spot at dawn and at 1pm yesterday. The first session was fun (I gave it a 7), but the second was exceptional. The perfect mix of tide, size and amount of light offshores made for conditions that I ranked 9.5. I've seen the place better only 3-4 times before.

I also got the feeling I got the best hour of the day (also in terms of a very light crowd), because it didn't look quite as good later on. I had one wave (a clear 10), in which a section looked like Cloudbreak at high tide. And I'm definitely not going to mention the spot, otherwise you guys would laugh at my comparison...

I will tell blog reader Michelle instead, because she's been there many times (so she can laugh harder at my comparison) and because she just sent me a generous donation through the paypal donate button on the right. Thank you very much sistah!!!

As I guessed from the buoy readings (what a convenient thing to have, uh?), Hookipa was still pretty big. Young ripper Savanna Stone drops in a solid DOH+ bomb at The Point. Photo by Jimmie Hepp from this gallery.


Yesterday's amazing Lanes action inspired Klaus Simmer to pull up an old photo of him back in the days (around 38 years ago). The gear did improve a bit in the meantime, but in the end, we're still doing the same awesome thing. Photo by Dan Cohen.


4am significant buoy readings
South shore
Lanai
3.7ft @ 14s from 273° (W)
Decent wrap at the buoy, check the webcams to see what makes it where.


North shore
NW101

7.9ft @ 13s from 316° (NW)

5.1ft @ 10s from 323° (NW)

 

Waimea
7.5ft @ 13s from 331° (NNW)

3.2ft @ 9s from 337° (NNW)

 

Pauwela

5.9ft @ 13s from 318° (NW)

3.7ft @ 12s from 319° (NW)

2.8ft @ 10s from 321° (NW)

 

Swell trending down in the NW graph below, but direction becoming more northerly (red arrows), so the result will again be in a mild decrease locally throughout the day. 6f 13s is a size that I might possible decide to surf Hookipa, but only if clean. Which unfortunately won't be because of the wind, as discussed below. The first half of February offered many days of excellent surfing conditions. The second half is looking pretty bad instead. At least on the north shore.

Current wind map shows a very wide but also pretty weak WNW fetch, which will translate in a day or two of relatively small waves over the weekend, before another solid 10+f swell will hit late Sunday, this time from a NNW direction. Starting tomorrow we will start seeing the low that will generate that, but instead of pointing that out, today I feel like marking the high pressure that will be responsible (once it moves all the way north of us) of a temporary return of the trades next week.


NAM3km map at 7 shows enough wind to effect the shape of the waves (especially after being spoiled by 4 days of Kona).


The 1pm map shows winds that should be enough for most wind propelled sports.