Saturday, September 30, 2017

6.30am Hookipa is flat to waist high and clean.
1.5

Sturday 9 30 17 morning call

Before I forget, a couple of announcements.
1) We have lowered the price of the GoFoils at Hi-Tech to $1450 for the Maliko and $1350 for the Kai.

2) My friend Yves forgot his 7.0 Jimmy Lewis Destroyer at Hookipa a few days ago. Please call him to identify the color if you found it: 280-1272.

Another day of rest for me, but I managed to do a bit of windfoiling during my second successful lesson. I have another one lined up and it's happening. I'm more and more convinced I got the right gear to learn and the stoke for the student is pretty much guaranteed.

The windsurfers hit the waves at Hookipa in the afternoon. Photo by Jimmie Hepp from this gallery.


4am significant buoy readings.
South shore


W
2.5ft @ 10s from 148° (SE)

SW
1.3ft @ 12s from 149° (SE)

SE
1.4ft @ 12s from 150° (SE)

The above readings are the windswell created by the southern hemisphere trades and that direction  should be blocked by the Big Island (shadow line around 160). As a result, the south shore should be pretty flat today.

North shore
NW
2.5ft @ 10s from 285° (WNW)

Waimea
1.5ft @ 9s from 356° (N)
0.8ft @ 11s from 297° (WNW)


Pauwela
4.1ft @ 8s from 81° (E)

Small WNW energy at the NW and Waimea buoys, but we're blocked for that direction (Pauwela shadow line around 305). As a result, the only energy registered by Pauwela is the windswell and that's what's on tap today. Stay tuned for the beach report, but it's gonna be small, weak but hopefully clean waves.

Wind map at noon shows light easterly winds.


North Pacific shows the low that is starting to aim some winds towards us, but the strongest wave production is modeled to happen in the next days. Related swell should rise on Monday and peak on Tuesday at around 5f 11s from 332 according to Surfline.


South Pacific shows a couple of decent fetches: one in the Tasman Sea and the other SSE of us and aiming east of us, but we should get some angular spreading in a week or so.


Morning sky.

Friday, September 29, 2017

8.30am Hookipa has shoulder high medium period waves. A bit of wind on it.
2.5

Friday 9 29 17 morning call

Day of rest for me yesterday. I could have sailed the conditions showed in the photo below by Jimmie Hepp from this gallery, but it was too choppy for my taste.


6am significant buoy readings
South shore

W
1.2ft @ 13s from 195° (SSW)

SW
1.2ft @ 13s from 45° (NE) (wrong direction, it's from the south instead)
Slivers of southerly energy at the outer buoys, there should be still something to ride on the south shore, even though I heard yesterday was minimal. Flat to knee high is my guess.

North shore
N
2.8ft @ 10s from 15° (NNE)

Waimea
3.3ft @ 9s from 352° (N)

Pauwela
3.3ft @ 9s from 350° (N)

Enjoy the northerly waves today, because tomorrow they're gonna be much smaller. As reported from the beach (see below this post), earlier this morning Hookipa was shoulder to head high and relatively clean. Kinda.
Wind map at noon shows easterly trades which, as we know, can get quite stronger than the forecast and gusty.


Fortunately after today the low that will create Monday's NW swell will kill the trades for a few days until some strong trades will pick up again in a week. The calm will coincide with the swell everybody is already waiting for which Surfline predicts to peak Tuesday morning at 5.4f 11s from 334.


North Pacific shows the low that, as I pointed out yesterday, is moving slowly to the ENE and will be responsible for the swell above mentioned. It's starting to have a little fetch of wind oriented our way. Not much yet, but it's modeled to get stronger and better aiming at us.


Finally some hope in the South Pacific with a more favorably oriented strong fetch. The map on the right shows a little patch of strong winds oriented directly towards us, but overall we should get plenty angular spreading also from the swell generated by the winds oriented to our east. Make a mental note of next Friday for some action on the south shore. North shore is gonna be totally blown out anyway, as we just said.


Morning sky.

6.30am beach report before call also today. Hookipa has shoulder to head high medium period waves. Wind is light.
3.5

Thursday, September 28, 2017

Thursday 9 28 17 morning call

Yesterday was almost a carbon copy of the day before for me: SUP foiling, longboard (while teaching a lesson), windfoiling and work. I need some rest.

In the afternoon the windsurfers hit what looked like fun waves at Hookipa. Photo by Jimmie Hepp from this gallery. Should be bigger today.


5m significant buoy readings.
The Surfline page where I get the buoys readings is down, I went to the NOAA source and read what I report below, but those readings are the sum of the energy of all the swells hitting the buoys, so they can be deceiving. Once you separate each swell (like Surfline does), the related individual values will be smaller than that. Anyway, that's what's available today, so we'll live with it.

South shore.
Didn't even look, because I knew I wouldn't find any sign of remaining southerly energy. Remembering the fetches, I think there should still be something in the knee high range.

North shore.
NW101
4f 10s NNW

Waimea
2f 11s N

Pauwela
2.6f 11s NNW

The fetches of the previous day (check yesterday's collage) indicate that there should be a bump in the wave size today and the beach report (which today is below the call), indicates just that.
Hookipa was solid head high.

Wind map at noon. Of course, if it will be sunny it will be windier than that. Yesterday it was.


North Pacific has a NNW weak fetch just south of the Aleutians. The low I indicated with an arrow is modeled to move east, get stronger and generate a swell predicted by Surfline to peak at 5f 11s on Tuesday morning.


Only weak winds oriented directly towards us in the South Pacific. A very strong fetch is oriented instead towards central and south America. I drew the amount of angular spreading we will need to benefit of those waves. That's like 90 degrees off the original direction, so it's unlikely to happen, IMO. And even if it does, we might easily be blocked by the Big Island. Next week keeps looking grim on the south shore to me, despite the more optimistic opinion of much more accredited meteorologists like Pat Caldwell.


Morning sky with some upwind clouds brought by the trades.

6am beach report before call today. Hookipa has consistent head high medium period waves. Wind is light.
4

Wednesday, September 27, 2017

6am ukumehame has inconsistent knee high clean waves with the occasional bigger set. Didn't look at Hookipa.

Wednesday 9 27 17 morning call

Three disciplines is not a bad achievement on a work day.


I started out with SUP foil surfing in some lovely conditions on the south shore shown by the above photo by Jason Hall.
I continued with an unplanned nose riding solo session in Lahaina.
And I ended in full glory with a very planned windfoiling session in North Kihei.

Below is the unedited video of 14 minutes of continuous foiling action. If you got absolutely nothing better to do and no plans for the rest of the day, you can try to watch it all and find the beauty of it. It was pretty easy to do that for me, but I'm the one who was on the other side of the board, so I could easily recollect how majestic the whole experience was.

I  had at least 6 more minutes to go when I overfoiled (I was overpowered on a 3.0), came down  and decided to quit the filming. That means that in just one reach out and one in, I got to practice the foiling feeling for 40 minutes. The equivalent of, what do you think, a whole month of SUP surfing? Probably more than that, but the point is that if you are a windsurfer and you want to learn how to SUP or surf foil, do yourself a favor and learn how to windfoil first.

The skill you'll learn will not transfer 100%, but it will transfer a good 75%. Enough to completely skip what's been called "the scary phase" of the learning curve. That's my experience, at least.

If I inspire just one of you to give this thing a try, I'd be stoked. Enjoy the view.


3-4am significant buoy readings
South shore

W
1ft @ 17s from 188° (S)

SW
0.8ft @ 17s from 45° (NE) -- wrong direction indication

SE
1.7ft @ 17s from 142° (SE)

Lovely long period energy at the outer buoys. The 45° indication at the SW buoy is obviously wrong, but so are the ones at the other two buoys. We know that this swell comes from the Tasman Sea. That's where the fetch was in the maps of Sept 19 and 20 (the ones on the left and center in the collage below).
I have a lesson at 7.30, but I'll try to hit the water at 6 for a short session before that, so stay tuned for the beach report.
Remember: Tasman Sea swells are very inconsistent by nature.


North shore
NW101
3.5ft @ 9s from 324° (NW)

Waimea
2.5ft @ 9s from 348° (NNW)

Pauwela
3.4ft @ 8s from 62° (ENE)
2.2ft @ 11s from 334° (NNW)
 
Below is the collage of the fetches maps of Sept 23, 24 and 25. They show the fetch that made the NW energy we have on tap on the north shore today. The waves should be bigger than yesterday. I won't be able to check Hookipa, but my guess is belly to shoulder high with occasional head high sets.


Wind map at noon shows windfoiling potential both on the north shore and in north Kihei. I have a feeling that the wind will actually be stronger than that. I hope I'm wrong.


North Pacific shows the same very weak NW fetch of yesterday. The wind in it is barely 20 knots, so the waves it will generate will be of a short period that won't grow much more than 8-9 seconds by the time they reach Maui... if they ever make it. We'll see in 3 days. Notice how this fetch is weaker and a little more distant than the one in the collage above, which means the waves will be smaller.


The fetches map on the right shows a wide dark blue area that indicated 20 knots winds oriented towards us. In this case the distance is too much for those little waves to make to our shores, so I haven't even circled that area. 4th day in a row without wave generation from the south.


Morning sky pretty damn clear again.

Tuesday, September 26, 2017

7am ukumehame has knee to occasionally waist high clean waves. Hookipa looked waist high and clean from the distance.

Tuesday 9 26 17 morning call

3 hours SUP foiling session yesterday in excellent conditions. Today I'm gonna try the front foot strap, stay tuned for the feedback.


3-4am significant buoy readings
South shore

W
1.2ft @ 17s from 259° (WSW)

SW
1.7ft @ 12s from 219° (SW)

Couple of days ago I posted the collage of the fetches maps of 16, 17 and 18. They all had small fetches in the Tasman Sea and the related swell is what we've been surfing on the south shore the last couple of days. Below is the collage of 19, 20 and 21 and they show a new fetch in the same area.
This is to say that the 17s reading at the W buoy COULD be a sign of the new energy, while the 12s reading at the SW buoy most likely is the residual energy of the older swell. Stay tuned for a beach report.


North Pacific
NW001
2.2ft @ 11s from 319° (NW)

Waimea
0.7ft @ 13s from 281° (WNW)

Pauwela
3.1ft @ 8s from 51° (ENE)

Still NW energy at the NW buoy, but somehow it doesn't get registered by the local buoys. I did see some waist to chest high waves yesterday at sunset at Hookipa and I will have time to look at it before leaving this morning so I will post a report later.

Wind map at noon shows potential windfoiling action in north Kihei.


North Pacific shows a wide but weak NW fetch.


Third consecutive day of nothingness in the South Pacific.


Third consecutive day of no clouds.

Monday, September 25, 2017

6am ukumehame has waist to belly high clean waves. Didn't look at Hookipa

Monday 9 15 17 morning call

Yesterday was a 10 for me and that was all thanks to the foil.
Well, first I had some business to take care of.


After that, I went SUP foiling. Like my student above, I'm at such a beginner stage that if I manage to catch a wave and ride it on the foil without falling, I'm stoked! And I did that many times yesterday.
Below are some shots of the other fellow foilers.




After that, I figured that the wind was probably too light on the north shore and I had the intuition of going to check the wind in north Kihei. I rigged a 2.8 (underpowered at times) and had an absolute blast. I had one reach from outside Maalaea to the beach in Ohukai, all the way on the magic carpet. I didn't time it, but I think it was like 5 minutes.

At sunset I went to sip a very deserved beer at Hookipa and I admired Cody Kerbox's skills. He was catching small waves and pumping his wait out again still on the foil.


It looked like he had so much fun that I had to ask him how was it.


4am significant buoy readings
South shore

SE
1.3ft @ 14s from 188° (S)
That's the only reading I could find at the buoys, but we know from the fetches (check yesterday's collage) that there should be waves also today. I have another early morning business appointment and I'll try to post a beach update.

North Shore
NW001
2.7ft @ 10s from 6° (N)

Waimea
2.9ft @ 10s from 337° (NNW)

Pauwela
2.3ft @ 10s from 349° (NNW)

Still waves at Hookipa, probably waist to shoulder high. 

Wind map at noon shows pretty much no wind.


North Pacific has a small NW fetch.


South Pacific got absolutely nothing.


Morning sky calls for another stunning sunny day.

Sunday, September 24, 2017

7am ukumehame has inconsistent waist to occasionally chest high clean waves. Hookipa looked waist to shoulder high and clean from the distance

Sunday 9 24 17 morning call

The NW waves at Hookipa were pretty nice when I did the early morning beach report, but the conditions deteriorated pretty quickly when the wind picked up. I took this photo after my short session.


The first thing I notice when I go to Italy to visit my family is how still (and somehow boring) the sky is. In Maui, the clouds are always moving and here's the perfect little cloud with a few of her friends to express my gratitude and appreciation for another wonderful aspect of Maui's nature.


In the afternoon the windsurfers hit the waves at Hookipa, photo by Jimmie Hepp from this gallery.
I went for another exhilarating wave windfoiling session instead in which I went down the line for the first time without really knowing what the foil was going to do... so much fun!


4am significant buoy readings
South shore
W
2.1ft @ 13s from 274° (W)

SW
2.1ft @ 14s from 295° (WNW)

SE
1.5ft @ 14s from 194° (SSW)

The directions at the outer buoys are all over the place, but I never trust them. Those weird westerly readings at the W and SW buoys are, in my opinion, the result of the interaction of the SW energy (correctly indicated by the SE buoy instead), the windswell and the NW energy. I can say that because I analyze the fetches every morning on this blog and I don't remember any west fetch that would generate energy arriving today.

Instead, I do remember a fetch in the Tasman Sea that lasted a few days and below is the collage of the fetches maps of Sept 16, 17 and 18 that show it. That means that there will be a small south swells for a few days. I will post a beach report later.

North shore
N
3.6ft @ 10s from 319° (NW)                      
1.6ft @ 14s from 343° (NNW)
 
Waimea
1.1ft @ 14s from 310° (WNW)

Pauwela
3ft @ 8s from 52° (ENE)
1.9ft @ 11s from 23° (NNE)                      
0.6ft @ 14s from 321° (NW)
 
Anotherr bunch of perplexing directions also at the northerly buoys. We'll fix that by looking at the Pauwela wave spectrum that tells us that there is still energy from the NW plus the windswell. Waves were a solid head high at Hookipa at Sunset.

Wind map at noon shows light trades.


A couple of small and almost insignificant fetches in the North Pacific.


Not even that in the South Pacific.


Morning sky looks pretty clear and another stunning day is on its way.