I spent the whole day over there and in the afternoon was joined by my friend Russ. This is a video that documents his first attempt at foiling. He's not an experienced SUP surfer, but he's a decent surfer, an excellent windsurfer and overall an extremely fit guy. This sport is so difficult to learn that even when John John Florence tried (on a surfboard, I guess), it took him three hours to stand up on a wave.
But let's not forget how difficult were our first surfing or windsurfing sessions. The difference is that when learning windsurfing on a big board, it's hard to capsize the whole thing and land on the dagger board... Russ was wearing an impact vest (which protected him from a hit) and commented:"next time, helmet for sure". We have plenty of both in stock at Hi-Tech.
I'm not trying to discourage anybody, just trying to set the right expectations for a very slow learning curve. Once you learn though, it sure looks fun to be able to do things like these.
But when the waves are good, I will still go surfing. This video came up next to Russ's on youtube and I feel like posting it. I haven't chosen the destination for my April trip yet, I'll wait last minute and book a continent or another based on the forecast. Sure wouldn't mind a good forecast to go back to this wave.
4am significant buoy readings
South shore
Lanai
2.4ft @ 9s from 171° (S)
1.8ft @ 14s from 203° (SSW)
The 14s reading is still the south swell, check the webcams.
North shore
NW101
5.5ft @ 13s from 288° (WNW)
3.9ft @ 10s from 310° (WNW)
W. Hawaii
3.1ft @ 13s from 288° (WNW)
Hanalei
5.7ft @ 13s from 303° (WNW)
Waimea
4.2ft @ 14s from 312° (NW)
Pauwela
4.0ft @ 9s from 72° (ENE)
1.3ft @ 15s from 317° (NW)
New WNW swell is on the rise all day today. But, as you can see from the first two buoy reported, 288 is a direction that is heavily blocked for Maui's north shore. That explains why the Pauwela buoy is not being hit as much as the upstream ones. The picture below has the graphs of (clockwise, starting from the left upper corner): NW101, Hanalei, Waimea and Pauwela.
I circled in red the rises of the swell and you can easily tell the difference in steepness.
It should be west enough to hit the Kihei coast though, even though at the moment there's no confirmation of that at the Lanai buoy. First spot check will be Hookipa, so stay tuned for the usual beach report (which I didn't have time to do yesterday).
I'm pretty surprised by the westerly direction of this swell. Below is the map of March 10, the day in which the fetch was the strongest. As you can see from the great circle ray map, for me that's more like 310 than 288.
Should be another stunner.
NAM3km map at 2 shows ESE trades east of Hookipa. This is a situation that could potentially offer some opportunities of wind related sports.
Completely different though, is the prediction of the HRW model on Windguru. On it, the wind direction in the afternoon is around 55. What can I say? Check the MC2km maps when they get updated, but more importantly check the iWindsurf sensor (if you have a subscription) or the Mama's webcam to see if wind/kite surfing will happen up the coast.
Current wind map shows:
1) elongated but not impressive NW fetch
2) strong but oriented toward south America fetch. I drew possible angular spreading lines, but it's more a hope than anything else.
Goodness, I almost forgot to mention that today the new 2017 WSL season will start. It is in fact the start of the waiting period of the first contest at Snapper Rocks in Australia. First year of a surfer from Italy on tour, Owen Wright back from a long injury, John John ready to defend his title, Kelly shooting one of his last bullets, Jordy trying to finally snatch a title... can't wait to see how it goes!
1 comment:
I think there are some brazilians compiting too...
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