Hookipa yesterday afternoon.
These are the results of yesterday's foil downwind practice race organized by
Mauidownwindfoil. Conditions were excellent and the first 6 guys finished under 30 minutes. "The level is crazy!" commented Kane.
I fell four times and I'm not sure why. Guess I'm not used to try to push the speed so much, as that is never in my mind when I do my solo runs.
Here's how I see downwind racing:
Imagine a surf contest at Jay Bay in which there's a buoy at the take off spot and one at the end of the wave. The surfer who makes it in the fastest time from the start to the finish wins. Kind of sucks, really. Once in a while, and for a change, it can be fun also for me, but training everyday for that is a bit of a negation of what's fun about downwinding. Today, and until the next race, I'll be glad to go back to my free, do as many turns as I feel like, style.
6am Surfline significant
buoy readings and discussion.
South shore
Barbers
Lanai
New long period Tasman Sea energy is picking up at the buoys. Below are the maps of May 27 to 30 that show the fetch that generated it. After that, the low moved in a much more favorable position SE of New Zealand, but that's another swell predicted to start rising Friday and reaching 3.7ft 17s on Saturday (according to Surfline).
Today's swell will be very inconsistent and Surfline only calls for 1ft 16s.
Check the
Kihei webcam if interested,
for size, conditions and consistency.
North shore
Hanalei
Waimea
Mokapu
Small NW energy at the outer islands buoys. It comes from a weak fetch that happened May 30 through June 1 (see maps below). Surfline only calls for 2ft 10s. The easterly windswell still looks solid at Mokapu. Home guess for
Hookipa is around waist to occasionally chest 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
