5 8 17 morning call

I already did a couple of beach reports this morning, you'll find them below this call.
Not much to report from yesterday, here's my lovely coworker Tasha showing a full carbon KT foil surfboard that we have for sail at Hi-Tech.


7am significant buoy readings
South shore
Surfline forecast calling for like a foot 15s, Lahaina webcam showing exactly that.


North shore
NW101
6.2ft @ 13s from 309° (WNW)

4.7ft @ 10s from 311° (NW)

Waimea

5.3ft @ 13s from 311° (NW)

 

Pauwela

4.9ft @ 8s from 73° (ENE)

3.4ft @ 14s from 317° (NW)

2.5ft @ 12s from 317° (NW)

 

Below is the graph of the three reported buoys. I got the prediction of the rise of the swell pretty good till sunset yesterday (there were head high sets), but after that the swell never really got over 4 feet here in Maui. It went to 8f at the NW buoy and 6 in Oahu. As I point out in the Buoys to Maui travel times and Maui's shadow lines post, the shadow line for the Pauwela buoy is around 300 (Hookipa 305). This swell seems to have an original direction of around 310, so you would think that it doesn't get blocked.

But I calculated the shadow lines based on the emerged eastern tip of Molokai. As I try to explain in that post, that's not exactly correct, because the swells will feel the bathymetry of the bottom also offshore. I say this because the only thing that could explain a 2f difference between Oahu and us is some kind of refraction.

 

Anyway, more than the size, the problem in Maui is the windswell that this early morning was clearly ruining the shape of the waves. I might be spoiled by the Mentawai perfection I just experienced, but the 4 I gave to the conditions from the beach seemed a little high after I surfed. It was getting better when the sun came out though. Swell should stay pretty steady throughout the day, with the period coming down a second or two.

Here's a beautiful wave at Pipeline, as I was typing this. 20 guys out.


Today the trades should be too offshore for sailing, but I've seen stranger things.


Same same.


Current wind map shows:
1) an extremely weak north fetch
2) a windswell fetch
Not a good day of wave generation for us.