Tuesday 5 31 22 morning call

Lahaina 6.49 pm yesterday was showing clear signs of the amplitude of the new big south swell.

Second episode of the quest for the ideal wing downwinder foil setup was filmed Saturday. This time I compared Armstrong 725 vs chopped 725. Full gear description on the youtube page.

4am Surfline significant buoy readings and discussion.

South shore
Barbers

2.7ft at 15s S 190º

1.3ft at 18s S 190º

SE
4.4ft @ 19s from 239° (WSW)

SW
4.7ft @ 17s from 180° (S)

W
3.5ft @ 19s from 188° (S)


3am reading at Barbers was 3.4ft 20s, and looking at the other reported buoys, I think that was more reliable than the 4am reported one. Doesn't really matter, it's going to be a big swell. Below are the maps of May 23 through 27 showing the strong fetch that generated it. Lots of angular spreading involved, so possibly the consistency won't be as remarkable as the size.

Below is the Surfline forecast calling for a peak of 4.8ft 18s mid day. Biggest south swell waves I've experienced in my 21 years in Maui was a 4ft 20s swell that made for triple overhead Dumps and four times overhead plus at La Perouse. I don't think this swell will be as big over there, as the fetch is less of a direct aim and I don't see much of a shore break on the Wailea webcam.

And after I wrote all that, Lahaina doesn't seem any bigger than the sunset screenshot above. Check the Lahaina and Kihei webcam if interested, for size, conditions and consistency.


North shore
Hanalei
3ft @ 9s from 322° (NW)

Waimea
2.6ft @ 10s from 323° (NW)

Mokapu
3.5ft @ 7s from 83° (E)

Hookipa still had close to nothing yesterday, so I'm quite puzzled where the small NW energy at the upstream buoys went. The only way to justify that is that it died on its way to Maui, but Oahu is only 100 nautical miles away, so that doesn't make sense. Years of observations and still some mysteries that make no sense... got to love non exact sciences! Anyway, I surrender to the evidence and call for Hookipa flat to waist high.

Wind map at noon. The other ones can be found here.


Fetches map (circles legend: red: direct aim, blue: angular spreading, black: blocked, yellow: possibly over the ice sheet) from Windy.

North Pacific (about 4 days travel time from the NW corner of the North Pacific):


South Pacific (about 7 days travel time from east/west of New Zealand):


Morning sky.