Friday, February 22, 2019

Friday 2 22 19 morning call

A longboard and a SUP foiling session for me yesterday.

Bernd Roediger took second place in the APP SUP contest at Sunset Beach a couple of days ago. Today he was testing gear at the harbor and put up an excellent display of different kind of skills. How's his ability to switch stance and still paddle like a machine while on the foil?


Finn Spencer glides one under the eyes of his brother Jeffrey.

Bruddah forgot-his-name was ripping.

Norm riding one of his shapes.

Randy on a gem.

Yasu.

Ralph Sifford told me he reads the blog regularly. I hope that inspired him to start learning SUP foiling. Whatever it was, I can see a grim on his face that means: "already hooked".

The inventive Brett Lickle came up (in collaboration with Jimmy Lewis who shaped the board) with an electric foil with a Wavejet motor pod, designed to catch the wave early pump up and foil without the drag of the motor like the other electric foils. Obviously, that propulsion should become zero as soon as the board lifts, but the drag will be zero too. The question is about the added weight of the board, the use of the Maliko 280 seems to indicate the need of big lift, but that might also be because of the small size of the waves on the south shore used for the test. Interesting nonetheless.


5am significant buoy readings
South shore
Barbers
1.2ft @ 14s from 211° (SW)

Lanai
1ft @ 12s from 240° (WSW)
0.9ft @ 14s from 208° (SSW)
 
The one foot at 12s at Lanai could be still coming from the cyclone Oma by Vanuatu, but that other foot 14s at both Lanai and Barbers probably comes from the Tasman Sea fetch that is highlighted in the maps of Feb 14, 15 and 16 collaged below. Wherever they come from, the will make for more small waves on the south facing shores. Unfortunately, I keep not having reports from there.


The lack of a webcam in Lahaina doesn't help (please contact Ozolio if you have the possibility of hosting one). Ala Moana looks pretty flat, so my guess is nothing more than knee high.


North shore
Waimea
3ft @ 11s from 351° (N)

Mokapu
5.7ft @ 10s from 73° (ENE)

Pauwela
6ft @ 9s from 67° (ENE)

Waimea is the only buoy that registers a northerly reading different from all the other buoys, that instead only show easterly energy. That is because it's more protected by NE of Oahu, as shown in the map below. As you can see, Mokapu instead is on the east side, and even though exposed to the 351 direction registered by Waimea, only shows the easterly energy. We can say that Waimea shows the N because it has nothing else to show. The position of the buoys is obviously important to understand why they show what they show. A convenient larger scale map with the buoys position is offered by link n.0 of the GP's list of meteo websites.


Pauwela is also open to both those direction and only shows 6f 9s from 67, as that's the predominant energy in the water. Hookipa will have some waves too, but they should be smaller than the easterly exposures (which are once again the safest call), as its shadow line to the east rests around 65 degrees, as described in the epic post Buoys to Maui travel times and Maui's shadow lines.

Wind map at noon. Shoud be pretty calm all morning with clean conditions everywhere.


North Pacific has a sliver of NW fetch (red circle), which is backed up by a larger fetch that is oriented just SE of us. We might get a bit of angular spreading from it, but overall another day with very little wave generation for Hawaii. That will reflect into three days of marginally small waves (Saturday, Sunday and Monday). Surfline has 6ft 11s from 328 on Tuesday, but we haven't seen the fetch for that just yet. A much bigger NW swell is predicted to pick up Wednesday, peak on Thursday at 13.7ft 15s from 328 and gradually decline the next couple of days.


South Pacific has a remote fetch in the Tasman Sea.


Morning sky.

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