This is a photo from Jimmie Hepp that shows the conditions (and let you imagine the crowd) at Hookipa yesterday.
Many more pulses are on the way. Below the comparison between the NW and the Waimea buoys.
I put an arrow on the two troughs and an arrow on the two peaks (or when to expect that on the waimea one). Not even sure that is a peak or that line is going to keep going up, but what is easy to deduce is that waves will be getting bigger all day in Oahu.
Please also notice the difference is size and direction and for that you got to click on the photo.
Look at the blue line on the very bottom, that's the direction of the main swell (that surfline chose to indicate with the blue color). See how the original swell has been more westerly than the direction registered at waimea? That's because Kauai is in the way and the swell needs to wrap around it a bit in order to get to waimea bay. That is also reflected by the difference in size.
You also lose power and consistency, but those things are not shown by the graphs.
In other words, the waves were for sure bigger and more powerful in Kuai. If the swell was coming from a direction of, let's say, 315, there would be no wrapping/refraction and no difference between Kauai and Oahu. If the came from 325, no difference even with Maui.
So is the wrap a bad thing? Hell no! Imagine the waves didn't have the ability to do that, it would have been pretty much flat here in Maui! Instead, look at the Pauwela and Lanai buoy graphs below.
I circled the two extremely different directions: 321 and 264. And those are waves belonging to the same original swell from WNW. One is the wrap from the north of the islands, the other is the wrap from the south. Ain't that amazing?
I'm gonna use again a picture I used for the 12 22 14 morning call.
The numbers are different, but it still illustrates the north and south wrap of a westerly swell around the islands upstream of Maui.
The wind map below shows the usual fetches WNW of us (so more westerly surf coming) and the area with very light wind where maui is sitting at the moment. In other words, more epic surfing today. For the size, wait for the photo/report from Hookipa coming up soon.
Have fun in the sun everyone!
PS. All the sources for this post are permanently linked in the links section on the right of this blog.
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