Sunday 5 5 19 morning call

A longboard session for me yesterday. No photos of the day, here's a random shot from the Maldives Surfing Association from a contest recently held over there.


5am significant buoy readings
South shore
Lanai

3.9ft @ 6s from 266° (W)

2.1ft @ 5s from 277° (W)

2.1ft @ 11s from 188° (S)

1.5ft @ 15s from 195° (SSW)

There are two ground swells at the Lanai buoy, but there's also the windswell from yesterday's Kona. What counts the most is the fact that the actual NW wind is getting into Lahaina. Below is the webcam showing onshore sloppy conditions, together with the Hookipa webcam that shows just the same (just bigger). Tough day to find some clean waves, the wind maps showed that the Ukumehame area might be the one more sheltered by the wind, but you never know until you go...

North shore
NW101
8.1ft @ 10s from 346° (NNW)

Hanalei
9.6ft @ 9s from 322° (NW)


Waimea
7.6ft @ 8s from 319° (NW)

Pauwela
5.4ft @ 8s from 325° (NW)

Pretty solid short period NW energy at all the buoys, but the active wind will be on it pretty much all day.

Wind map at noon.


North shore has a weak and distant NW fetch.


South Pacific shows the fetch I was anticipating yesterday. It's a good one, but it's really remote. We'll see in a week what we get.


Morning sky shows the counterclockwise rotation of the local low.

6.30am hookipa is waist to occasionally chest high and pretty windy already.
Overall a 2, with little gems in the rough.

Saturday 5 4 19 morning call

Two longboard sessions for me yesterday. I don't have a photo of the day. I could have used one of Kai Lenny or Andrea Moeller who both won XXL awards or of Sunny Garcia who, on the opposite side of the man/mind made highs and lows, tried to kill himself instead. Despite the biggest respect and appreciation that I have for what they do/did when they're in the water, I'll stick to the waves and post this photo that came up in my Facebook memories. That perfect wave behind me is Macaroni's and the two posts describing my 2017 Mentawai trip are here, in case you're looking for something to read.


4am significant buoy readings
South shore
No need to look at the buoys, the south shore is junk today, due to the Kona wind.

North shore
NW101
3.9ft @ 10s from 347° (NNW)

Hanalei
3.1ft @ 12s from 327° (NW)

Waimea
2.5ft @ 11s from 320° (NW)

Pauwela
2.2ft @ 12s from 335° (NNW)

2.1ft @ 10s from 42° (NE)

1.3ft @ 7s from 50° (NE)

1.2ft @ 3s from 172° (S)

North shore will be the only place where to possibly surf today (although relatively small), as long as you hit it before the Kona gets too strong. Below is the wind map at 8am that already shows too much of it. Will report from Hookipa hopefully around 6.30am.


Even stronger at noon.


North Pacific has the fetches you see circled. Unfortunately tomorrow we're going to be immersed in the southern tip of the nearby NW one and it's going to be the north shore's turn to be turned into junk.


South Pacific is seriously stirring waters, but only with a small portion of winds oriented towards us. The low indicated with the big red L is going to deepen and hopefully provide us with a fetch of remarkable intensity and remoteness. I'm gonna guess 26+s readings at the buoys next weekend for the forerunners of a swell that should become the largest of the season so far. Remember my rule though: never-ever, under any circumstances, get excited for a south swell.


Morning sky shows the south flank of the low over Kauai and approaching Oahu.


And that's where the rain is at the moment. According to Windguru, we'll get some tonight.

7am hookipa has inconsistent head high sloppy waves with relatively clean faces.
4.5

Friday 5 3 19 morning call

Three longboard sessions for me yesterday, during which I caught 2-3 chest high waves, but the rest were knee to waist. Yet, two of the sessions were excellent due to the immaculate conditions at dawn and sunset. Size really doesn't matter (specially if you have the right boards). This is a knee high one around 10am whit a little texture on it.


This is Nick on his Lift e-foil having a blast and catching waves all by himself in the late afternoon. That's about the biggest size I've seen all day on the Lahaina side.


Blog reader James Dawson went to Makena again and took some pictures of the shore break. This is my favorite.


4am significant buoy readings
South shore
Barbers
1.1ft @ 15s from 201° (SSW)

0.7ft @ 20s from 203° (SSW)

 

Lanai

1.7ft @ 13s from 194° (SSW)                        

0.6ft @ 20s from 200° (SSW)

 

New low 20s energy at the local buoy. If this is the Fiji swell, what was the 16s energy in the water yesterday? I honestly don't know and without Pat Caldwell shedding light on the subject, I confess I'm often lost in the analysis of the fetches. It's nice to know the origin, but most times it's enough to know what's in the water and for that we have the buoys and now finally also the webcam in Lahaina. From which I took this picture showing a nice set. Obviously, expect low consistency. Do watch the webcam yourself for at least 10 minutes before deciding to go.

 

North shore

NW101

3.1ft @ 12s from 332° (NNW)

 

Hanalei

2.7ft @ 13s from 330° (NW)

 

Waimea

2.5ft @ 13s from 315° (NW)

 

Pauwela

2.9ft @ 9s from 64° (ENE)

2.5ft @ 13s from 319° (NW)

2ft @ 7s from 26° (NNE)

1.6ft @ 5s from 44° (NE)

 

Pretty modest NW energy at the buoys. The Surfline forecast calls for 2.3ft 14s at 6am, so in this case it's pretty accurate, as there's 2.5ft 13s at Pauwela. That, together with the 9s windswell you also see should make for waves in the head high range, but sloppy, but relatively clean seen the absence of wind. Will report around 7am.

Wind map at noon. Notice the onshores on the south shore. Should be calm till 10am.

North Pacific has a distant small NW fetch and a small NNW fetch associated with the local low that is disrupting the trades.


South Pacific has a very remote SW fetch and a small but well positioned S one.


Morning sky shows plenty clouds.


As a consequence, there's some rain around.

6.30am lahaina side appears flat to knee high until a bigger long period set arrives very infrequently. Clean everywhere.

6am hookipa has sloppy mixed up waves.
2

Thursday 5 2 19 morning call

A day of rest for me yesterday. This is my pick of Jimmie Hepp's gallery of the windsurfing action at Hookipa.


3-4am significant buoy readings
South shore
Barbers
1.3ft @ 16s from 224° (SW)

1.1ft @ 13s from 183° (S)

Lanai
1.5ft @ 13s from 179° (S)                         

1ft @ 16s from 216° (SW)

 

The local buoys register some low 13s energy from the south together with some other low 16s from the SW. Yesterday I posted the fetch that generated the Tasman Sea SW swell, today I post this photo of Cloudbreak posted on April 28 by Brothers Surf Tour. The post Buoys to Maui travel times and Maui's shadow lines shows that at 18s a swell takes 4 days from there to here. 5 days at 15s. The amount of energy that makes it over here is always a hard guess, but I can assure it will be less than that... I might report early, but now there's the webcam in Lahaina and my beach reports are not so important anymore. Thank you Ozolio.

NW101
3ft @ 14s from 303° (WNW)

Hanalei
1.7ft @ 15s from 328° (NW)

Waimea
1.6ft @ 15s from 307° (WNW)

Pauwela
4.2ft @ 7s from 11° (NNE)

2.2ft @ 10s from 40° (NE)

1.5ft @ 6s from 359° (N)

1.3ft @ 16s from 321° (NW)

 

New NW swell is pretty low at Pauwela. Below is the collage of the first three reported buoys (Pauwela's is not showing) together with the Surline forecast. Notice how this last one only has the swell for tomorrow (orange line). It will slowly build today instead, but the rise at the upstream buoys (red circles) is not particularly impressive, so expect only little energy from it. It will be mostly the shorter period NE energy with some NW sets here and there. Should be bigger in the afternoon than in the morning. Weather at my house is rainy with some wind, I might drive south right away. Hookipa should be head high and low quality.

Wind map at noon.

Wind map at noon in the Saildrone version. Looks cool, but offshores in Paia while 10 miles offshore is blowing 25 knots from the ENE don't make any sense. So, this is probably the last time I post it, just to quickly label it as "cute but often wrong".

 

North Pacific has a couple of minor NW and NE fetches. I put an L and a couple of arrows to indicate the spot where the low that is about to bring some unusual weather (and Kona wind) for the weekend.


South Pacific has a strong and wide fetch oriented towards Central and South America. Angular spreading is always a hard thing to guess, but it might be possible.


Morning sky.

Wednesday 5 1 19 morning call

A shortboard and a longboard session for me yesterday. I took this shot of Hookipa after the first one.


This is my pick of Jimmie Hepp's gallery of the daily windsurfing action later in the afternoon.


5am significant buoy readings
South shore
Lanai
1.3ft @ 13s from 180° (S)

1.2ft @ 15s from 180° (S)

0.6ft @ 20s from 195° (SSW)

Barbers
1.6ft @ 13s from 190° (S)                        

0.6ft @ 20s from 192° (SSW)

 

Background energy from the south hanging in there at 13s, but both local buoys feel a "solid" half foot 20s from the SSW. Once again I had to go back to the fetches maps and the first map I found that had those kind of fetches was from Friday April 26th. Today it's Wednesday, it seems a bit early to see that, but it's also true that 20s travel pretty fast (30 knots!). Below is the collage of the maps of the 26, 27 and 28.

 

Please don't get excited by any means, as that low 20s from the Tasman Sea will be extremely inconsistent. 20s or not, the webcam shows some clean waves. But DO CHECK IT YOURSELF before going. Always.

 

North shore
Pauwela

3.8ft @ 9s from 344° (NNW)

1.3ft @ 4s from 27° (NNE)

 

Quite an unexciting day on the north shore today. The NW swell of the last two days is trickling down and nothing new will arrive today. Hookipa is waist to chest high.

We're up to a pretty unusual start of May. A low is about to form just north of the islands and it will cause the wind to do what is indicated in the Windguru 10 days table below. Saturday is the day for the first Maliko downwind race of the season, which, unless they reverse the course, might end up being an upwind one.

While I'm at it, let me point out once again how ridiculously wrong the wave forecast on this table is. 5ft 16s tomorrow morning.... we all wish!!!

Wind map at noon.


North Pacific only has a couple of weak fetches.


The 40's are roaring, the 50's are furious, the 60's are screaming, but all zonally west to east, not much energy generated for us down there.


Morning sky.

Beach report before call today

6am hookipa has textured and broken up waist to chest high waves.
2.5