Thursday 3 9 17 morning call

Just one morning session at Hookipa yesterday (conditions went from a glassy 7.5 to a light trades bumpy 4 in the usual blink of an eye) and no action photo of the day, so here's the lovely Noelle showing one of the two Maliko GoFoil's available for sale at Hi-Tech. If you want one, you have to buy also one of those electric bikes too. Just kidding, but check them out.


4/5am significant buoy readings
South shore
Lanai
3.5ft @ 15s from 304° (WNW)
Plenty wrap at the buoy, but from 304 (less west than the previous swell). Check the webcams to see what that does.

North shore
NW101

13.2ft @ 15s from 342° (NNW)

Waimea
10.1ft @ 15s from 325° (NW)

5.5ft @ 13s from 322° (NW)

Pauwela
6.6ft @ 17s from 334° (NNW)

4.2ft @ 11s from 347° (NNW)

2.2ft @ 10s from 346° (NNW)

1.6ft @ 8s from 353° (N)

 

The swell came up well before sunset yesterday. It was one of those cases in which the medium period sets from the front and/or first day of the fetch arrived before the long period ones from the back and/or second day of it.

The graph of the three reported buoys below shows some solid numbers. Pauwela only peaked at 8f 17s though and my explanation for such a big gap with other ones (Hanalei peaked at 15f, Waimea at 12), is that the fetch was in a close, but not too close position. With the fetch in such position, the decay in size while the swell travelled along the chain of islands was relatively big and noticeable. Imagine the fetch was in the usual NW Kamchatka corner, all the islands would have received much more similar (and smaller) sizes.

Anyway, with 6.6ft @ 17s from 334° (NNW) the Bay will be firing for the "Legends" contest. Despite the fact that my camera hasn't arrived yet, I might go try to take some photos. Also because, with the exception of a couple of spots, the north shore is going to be too big.

 

The other reason why I might go is to celebrate a day off. My last full day off was January 22nd. I know, I only work half days, but some days I also teach lessons or do surf guides, so you can understand how good it will feel to be completely off for an entire day. I do feel like adding that not a single time in the last month and a half I felt like that was a burden. I love my job and I love the flexibility that we have in our team to allow the other mates to take time off when needed. Which, in my case, is coming up pretty soon (April).

Direction range narrowed quite a bit.


Satellite shows we're out of yesterday's rain.


NAM3km map at 2 shows a light onshore flow. MC2km maps are back, check them out later when they update them.



Current wind map shows small fetches all scattered around, none of which deserves a number/description. Situations like this translate into a relative small day with mixed directions at the buoy in a few days (Sunday).