Saturday 1 12 19 morning call

I'm back on the island and here's the post that starts the 2019 season of the blog. As usual, I'll do my best to share my knowledge and my stoke. Thanks everyone for the support.

Photo of the day goes to Jason who took advantage of a footstrap to punt some airs on his foilboard. Photo by Chris.


I missed out on an absolutely epic north swell, but I just couldn't find a way to be back early enough for it. Below a random Pauwela reading in the night of the 9th. Swells of that size, period and direction happen once every 5 years, imo. Even more than that if you add the fact that there was no wind and no other swells in the water. And when it happens, every spot on the north and west shores works. Haven't seen many photos of it, but I know it was a special one. Hope you guys enjoyed it.


4am significant buoy readings
South shore
No indication of southerly energy at the buoys.

North shore
NW101
6.2ft @ 21s from 318° (NW)

Hanalei
3ft @ 13s from 331° (NNW)

2ft @ 12s from 332° (NNW)

1.8ft @ 22s from 325° (NW)

Waimea
3.9ft @ 13s from 347° (NNW)

1.5ft @ 25s from 324° (NW)

Pauwela
3.9ft @ 13s from 357° (N)

2.5ft @ 10s from 358° (N)

1.9ft @ 11s from 351° (N)

I missed out on an epic N swell, but I got back just in time for the rise of an XL NW one. Below are the graph of NW, Waimea and Pauwela buoys and the Surfline forecast. At midnight, NW was reading 4f 20s and by applying GP's rule of thumb for the travelling time 16h at 16s (+1h -1s and viceversa for different periods),

we can expect that energy (minus the dissipation for the extra travel time) to be in Maui around noon. Consequently, I drew with a red dotted line to show how I think the swell will rise locally: very little during the early morning and very noticeable during the afternoon. As indicated by the forecast, the XL day will be tomorrow. Pretty good missed opportunity to run the Eddie, Jaws will see some action for sure.
This morning we'll still have 4f 13 from the N to play with and the lack of wind in the early morning (see 8am wind graph below) should make for excellent conditions. I will report from Hookipa before 6.30am and to say that I'm excited is an understatement.


The Windguru table shows that we're in for a good run of big waves and excellent conditions. Cheers to that.


Wind map at 8am shows no wind or light sideoff for the whole north shore.


Wind map at non shows some trades filling in at Hookipa. It might be one of those cases in which the model overestimates the wind though.


North Pacific has a strong NW fetch. No shortage of waves this week and for the rest of January.


South Pacific has a decent distant S fetch. We might see something out of it in a week.


Morning sky.