Friday 3 31 17 morning call

Double south shore session yesterday for me, second one on a short board at Thousand Peaks, which I rarely do over there. But, as you can see from the photo/video below, it was really fun. I love tapping into those light offshore conditions. If it happens to you too, know that it's not gonna last long (might turn 30 knots offshore anytime), so enjoy every single minute of them.


Here's the wave I took the photo from.


Here's my Jimmie Hepp's photo of the day from this gallery documenting another intense day of windsurfing action at Hookipa.


Kai Lenny announced on his facebook page (and I'm sure in a bunch of other places) that he just completed his first Big Island to Maui crossing on a foil. 50 miles foiling. Unlike the photo, the page has some footage showing that the crossing was made on a SUP board. Or with a paddle, at least. Doesn't really matter, he's pumping most of the time. As weird as it may sound, next time I see him, I'll ask him to show me his quad muscles.


3am significant buoy readings
South shore
Lanai

2.5ft @ 14s from 206° (SSW)

1.7ft @ 8s from 172° (S)

1.1ft @ 9s from 205° (SSW)

1.1ft @ 7s from 173° (S)

 

Nice 14s reading, there should be waves also today. The shorter periods might introduce some disturbances, but fortunately they're much smaller. Check the webcams and my beach report, I'm gonna leave in the dark. No interest in blown out Hookipa these days, if there's cleaner alternatives.

 

North shore
NW101

12ft @ 17s from 303° (WNW)

Hanalei
6.9ft @ 18s from 308° (WNW)

Waimea
3.1ft @ 20s from 308° (WNW)

Pauwela
4.3ft @ 9s from 86° (E)

3.4ft @ 6s from 82° (E)

2.6ft @ 12s from 324° (NW)

0.9ft @ 20s from 317° (NW)

 

Below are the graphs of the four reported buoys. I put two red arrows on NW101's one to indicate the sharp rise from 1f to 12f in 12h. One foot an hour can be definitely called a sharp rise. I circled the rises at Hanalei and Waimea (this last one, according to Pat Caldwell, shouldn't be blocked by Kauai). Check the Surfline Pipeline webcam if you want to see some bombs. Might be one of the sessions of the winter, thanks to the easterly, offshore winds.

 

According to GP's rule of thumb 16h @16s +/-1 and viceversa, at 20s a swell takes about 12h to get from the NW buoys to Maui. The rise I pointed out was from noon to midnight and in fact we see the first readings locally about midnight. Even though the actual dominant direction is not as west as the previous swell (hence, not as blocked), my intuition (and the analysis of the fetch history below) tells me to still expect less size and a less steep rise locally.

The WW3 output is even more conservative calling for the first 1f 21s reading at 9am (kinda wrong already), and for the peak to happen after midnight at 8f 16s. It does seem that instead it's gonna happen sooner than that, but I wouldn't expect much at all in the early morning. IMO, the rise will be most noticeable in the afternoon. Hookipa should be fairly small at dawn with only 2.6f 12 leftover from the previous long lasting swell + windswell.


The collage of the wind maps below (from the left, March 27, 28, 29 and 30) shows that the storm started in front of the souther half of Japan, just like the previous one. It then moved closer to us and a little more north, so I expect this swell to be long lasting too: all the way into Wednesday, when a fresh new NW swell is forecasted to peak at 7f 14 from 332 at 2pm.

The iWindsurf Hookipa sensor reads 8 (5-12)mph at 5am and the forecast is for another strong/gusty easterly trades day. Check the MC2km maps when they get updated.

Some clouds and a little rain brought by the wind, but overall it should be another gorgeous day.


Current wind map shows:
1) the fetch that generated today's big WNW swell now pretty weak
2) a small, not well oriented N fetch
3) the windswell fetch
4) a strong fetch off the east coast that will send big waves to the Canary islands, Morocco and the rest of that African coast. Nothing to do with us, but I saw it and my fingers went to circle it automatically...