None of the sessions was particularly worth mentioning from the surfing point of view, but they were all equally enjoyable just because... they were surf sessions in Maui! Something that most surfers in the world won't ever have the pleasure of experiencing. Often we forget how lucky we are to live in such a gorgeous place.
Take Honolua for example. It was tiny, with a waist high set every 20-30 minutes, but I bet there's plenty people in the world that would have loved to be out there. The water was incredibly clear and you could see the reef through it, which I did from the nose of my longboard on that single perfect small wave I caught. I'm having a love affair with small waves lately.
In the afternoon, as usual when the trades are blowing, the windsurfers hit the waves at Hookipa and this is a photo by Jimmie Hepp from this gallery. It's been a pretty amazing streak of sideoff gusty windy days and I almost feel sore for those guys. One of the reasons I'm not attracted by windsurfing anymore (at least with strong wind), is how taxing it is for your body (compared to surfing, at least). But most of the sailors are younger than me, they can handle.
4am significant buoy readings
South shore
Lanai
1) 2.6ft @ 8s from 170° (S)
2) 1.8ft @ 11s from 268° (W)
3) 2.2ft @ 14s from 234° (WSW)
Interesting readings at the Lanai buoys, let's dig in to them.3) 2.2ft @ 14s from 234° (WSW)
1) I looked at the maps, but couldn't find the source of this windswell
2) this is the tenacious and stubborn westerly wrap on its last breath of life. It started Sunday, that's five days. Thanks a lot, I surfed it ever single day.
3) this is a brand new swell. The Surfline forecast was (and still is) calling for 1.7f 14s from 195. The fact that the buoys shows 234 instead could be due to two possible reasons:
a) the above mentioned west wrap is influencing the oscillation of the buoy and making the direction detection more west than it would be if swell n.3 was the only one in the water
b) the swell is actually not the one forecasted. Below is the map of March 24 that shows a small fetch in the Tasman sea that could (specially if the winds were a bit stronger in reality) be the one that generated it. Fetch n.2 is much stronger, but also more far away and that more southerly pulse should start arriving tomorrow.
In the end, who cares (other than me, I mean), check the webcams to see what size we're talking about.
North shore
NW101
4.9ft @ 13s from 309° (WNW)
Hanalei
7ft @ 13s from 319° (NW)
Waimea
5.1ft @ 14s from 323° (NW)
Pauwela
4.3ft @ 14s from 320° (NW)
2.7ft @ 7s from 79° (ENE)
2.6ft @ 9s from 69° (ENE)
2ft @ 11s from 324° (NW)
Below is the graph of the four reported buoys. Hanalei has the biggest number of this pulse of a very long lasting swell. In Maui the increase wasn't as noticeable (as I wrongly predicted), because it happened after dark (red circle in the Pauwela graph).
4.3f 14s (plus everything else you see in the readings) will provide more overhead waves all day to play with. No sign of the new large WNW swell, which will hit Friday and so we'll talk about it tomorrow. No beach report today, I have a work appointment at 6am.
Woodie is back to work, but no updated at this time, so check the MC2km maps later for the most reliable wind forecast. I psoted the HRW model yesterday, today it looks just the same, so another strong and gusty easterly trades day. Hookipa sensor shows 4(2-8)mph from 101 at 5.20am, but I feel stronger gusts outside my window.
Another stunner is on its way.
Current wind map shows:
1-2) close and nearby NW fetches both associated with the low that produced tomorrow's swell. Still making some waves for us, thank you very much guys
3) windswell fetch
I found this video yesterday. Sunday March 26 was the first and biggest day of this powerful WNW swell and that's how Mason Ho utilized its power at Pipeline.
PS. No time at all to review anything this morning, sorry about the eventual mistakes
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