Wednesday, August 31, 2016
8 31 16 morning call
One thing I need to start doing again is taking a photo to document the conditions of the day before. I forgot to do that yesterday, Hookipa had head high sets at sunset.
Let's start with the 4.30am satellite picture that shows the hurricane Madeline kinda stalling just offshore Big Island. You can see that better in the animation with link n.6.
Buoys 4am
North Hawaii
7.4ft @ 10s from 101° (ESE)
Pauwela
5.1ft @ 8s from 58° (ENE)
Wind map shows the hurricanes' fetches, a fetch down south (only a small part of a bigger one pointing towards us) and a weak NW one that should get stronger tomorrow and provide us with a first little NW swell in a few days (not indicated by the other websites, but I do see it on the maps).
Let's start with the 4.30am satellite picture that shows the hurricane Madeline kinda stalling just offshore Big Island. You can see that better in the animation with link n.6.
Buoys 4am
North Hawaii
7.4ft @ 10s from 101° (ESE)
Pauwela
5.1ft @ 8s from 58° (ENE)
2.5ft @ 6s from 57° (ENE)
1.9ft @ 11s from 93° (E)
1.5ft @ 13s from 96° (E)
Mokapu
4.9ft @ 12s from 93° (E)
4.9ft @ 12s from 93° (E)
3.7ft @ 9s from 69° (ENE)
3.6ft @ 8s from 71° (ENE)
2.9ft @ 6s from 68° (ENE)
Lanai
1.2ft @ 10s from 188° (S)
1.2ft @ 10s from 188° (S)
0.8ft @ 7s from 197° (SSW)
0.8ft @ 12s from 200° (SSW)
0.7ft @ 4s from 162° (SSE)
Pauwela only has a significant 8s component, while the slightly longer period ones are still pretty small. They're bigger at the other buoys (for example 5f 12s at Mokapu), so I would expect that to ramp up in Maui too. Seen the straight East direction, Hana will probably have the biggest waves.
No sign at all of the west swell and that's a bit disappointing, both the Kihei and Lahaina webcams show minimal energy, so east and north facing sides are the only options.
Gonna be a windy and rainy day. The iWindsurf sensor is already reading 12-24 at Hookipa at 5am, so expect some rough, choppy waters. And stay tuned for a report from the beach later.
Some very marginal windsurfing did happen yesterday, but it didn't last long between squalls.
MC2km map not updated yet, check it out later at link n. 17.
Pauwela only has a significant 8s component, while the slightly longer period ones are still pretty small. They're bigger at the other buoys (for example 5f 12s at Mokapu), so I would expect that to ramp up in Maui too. Seen the straight East direction, Hana will probably have the biggest waves.
No sign at all of the west swell and that's a bit disappointing, both the Kihei and Lahaina webcams show minimal energy, so east and north facing sides are the only options.
Gonna be a windy and rainy day. The iWindsurf sensor is already reading 12-24 at Hookipa at 5am, so expect some rough, choppy waters. And stay tuned for a report from the beach later.
Some very marginal windsurfing did happen yesterday, but it didn't last long between squalls.
MC2km map not updated yet, check it out later at link n. 17.
Wind map shows the hurricanes' fetches, a fetch down south (only a small part of a bigger one pointing towards us) and a weak NW one that should get stronger tomorrow and provide us with a first little NW swell in a few days (not indicated by the other websites, but I do see it on the maps).
8 31 16 morning call
One thing I need to start doing again is taking a photo to document the conditions of the day before. I forgot to do that yesterday, Hookipa had head high sets at sunset.
Let's start with the 4.30am satellite picture that shows the hurricane Madeline kinda stalling just offshore Big Island. You can see that better in the animation with link n.6.
Buoys 4am
North Hawaii
7.4ft @ 10s from 101° (ESE)
Pauwela
5.1ft @ 8s from 58° (ENE)
Wind map shows the hurricanes' fetches, a fetch down south (only a small part of a bigger one pointing towards us) and a weak NW one that should get stronger tomorrow and provide us with a first little NW swell in a few days (not indicated by the other websites, but I do see it on the maps).
Let's start with the 4.30am satellite picture that shows the hurricane Madeline kinda stalling just offshore Big Island. You can see that better in the animation with link n.6.
Buoys 4am
North Hawaii
7.4ft @ 10s from 101° (ESE)
Pauwela
5.1ft @ 8s from 58° (ENE)
2.5ft @ 6s from 57° (ENE)
1.9ft @ 11s from 93° (E)
1.5ft @ 13s from 96° (E)
Mokapu
4.9ft @ 12s from 93° (E)
4.9ft @ 12s from 93° (E)
3.7ft @ 9s from 69° (ENE)
3.6ft @ 8s from 71° (ENE)
2.9ft @ 6s from 68° (ENE)
Lanai
1.2ft @ 10s from 188° (S)
1.2ft @ 10s from 188° (S)
0.8ft @ 7s from 197° (SSW)
0.8ft @ 12s from 200° (SSW)
0.7ft @ 4s from 162° (SSE)
Pauwela only has a significant 8s component, while the slightly longer period ones are still pretty small. They're bigger at the other buoys (for example 5f 12s at Mokapu), so I would expect that to ramp up in Maui too. Seen the straight East direction, Hana will probably have the biggest waves.
No sign at all of the west swell and that's a bit disappointing, but I'll check the webcams in Kihei later when the sun comes out just in case.
Gonna be a windy and rainy day. The iWindsurf sensor is already reading 12-24 at Hookipa at 5am, so expect some rough, choppy waters. And stay tuned for a report from the beach later.
Some very marginal windsurfing did happen yesterday, but it didn't last long between squalls.
MC2km map not updated yet, check it out later at link n. 17.
Pauwela only has a significant 8s component, while the slightly longer period ones are still pretty small. They're bigger at the other buoys (for example 5f 12s at Mokapu), so I would expect that to ramp up in Maui too. Seen the straight East direction, Hana will probably have the biggest waves.
No sign at all of the west swell and that's a bit disappointing, but I'll check the webcams in Kihei later when the sun comes out just in case.
Gonna be a windy and rainy day. The iWindsurf sensor is already reading 12-24 at Hookipa at 5am, so expect some rough, choppy waters. And stay tuned for a report from the beach later.
Some very marginal windsurfing did happen yesterday, but it didn't last long between squalls.
MC2km map not updated yet, check it out later at link n. 17.
Wind map shows the hurricanes' fetches, a fetch down south (only a small part of a bigger one pointing towards us) and a weak NW one that should get stronger tomorrow and provide us with a first little NW swell in a few days (not indicated by the other websites, but I do see it on the maps).
Tuesday, August 30, 2016
8 30 16 morning call
I wanted to resume the morning calls on September 1st, but it has been almost 3 months I didn't make a call, I figured I could use a warm up one.
Se here we go, this call is the first of the season, let's hope it's gonna be a good one. It's gonna be hard to beat last winter, but you never know. The start is for sure interesting, since in the following 7 days we're gonna have swells from the east, west and south, which is a very rare mix.
To understand where these swells come from, we need to look at the wind maps from a few days before. This one below is from August 26. I circled the fetch that Typhoon Lionrock south of Japan was offering. As a result, Pat Caldwell is calling for 2f 20s from the west already tomorrow.
Below is the map from the 27th. More waves generated by the Japanese Typhoon and a bit of a fetch down south. You can also see the two hurricanes east of us starting to gain wind speed, but not making waves for us just yet.
August 28. Lionrock still spinning strong and a strong fetch down south will unfortunately be greatly blocked by New Zealand.
August 29. Lionrock still making waves from the west, the fetch down south moved east a bit and that is a much better situation for us. The related south swell is forecasted by Surfline to pick up at 2f 18s on Monday.
Lastly, this is today's map. The Typhoon fetch is now very weak, but as you saw on the previous maps, the small, long period W swell should last quite a few days. Best bets to catch it will be on the Kihei side.
The fetch down south is already shooting at the Americas, so we'll have to rely on the angular spreading.
The two hurricanes are now providing slightly bigger fetches. What will make the related swells relatively big and full of energy is the close distance of course.
This is a close up of tomorrow at noon and that's when the swell of the first hurricane Madeline will peak at 12f 10s according to Surfline.
Hurricane Lester will send us a second punch of 14f 12s on Saturday and as you can see from the map of September 3rd below, it should travel to the north of us.
Lots of interesting weather situations to be observed in the next few days, that is for sure. But let's stay in the present and look at the 4am buoy readings this morning.
Pauwela
4.1ft @ 7s from 58° (ENE)
7am update: here's the MC2km map at noon that confirms the wind, but read what I write below before you get excited about the wind related sports. It's not a classic high pressure, blue sky trades kind of wind.
Se here we go, this call is the first of the season, let's hope it's gonna be a good one. It's gonna be hard to beat last winter, but you never know. The start is for sure interesting, since in the following 7 days we're gonna have swells from the east, west and south, which is a very rare mix.
To understand where these swells come from, we need to look at the wind maps from a few days before. This one below is from August 26. I circled the fetch that Typhoon Lionrock south of Japan was offering. As a result, Pat Caldwell is calling for 2f 20s from the west already tomorrow.
Below is the map from the 27th. More waves generated by the Japanese Typhoon and a bit of a fetch down south. You can also see the two hurricanes east of us starting to gain wind speed, but not making waves for us just yet.
August 28. Lionrock still spinning strong and a strong fetch down south will unfortunately be greatly blocked by New Zealand.
August 29. Lionrock still making waves from the west, the fetch down south moved east a bit and that is a much better situation for us. The related south swell is forecasted by Surfline to pick up at 2f 18s on Monday.
Lastly, this is today's map. The Typhoon fetch is now very weak, but as you saw on the previous maps, the small, long period W swell should last quite a few days. Best bets to catch it will be on the Kihei side.
The fetch down south is already shooting at the Americas, so we'll have to rely on the angular spreading.
The two hurricanes are now providing slightly bigger fetches. What will make the related swells relatively big and full of energy is the close distance of course.
This is a close up of tomorrow at noon and that's when the swell of the first hurricane Madeline will peak at 12f 10s according to Surfline.
Hurricane Lester will send us a second punch of 14f 12s on Saturday and as you can see from the map of September 3rd below, it should travel to the north of us.
Lots of interesting weather situations to be observed in the next few days, that is for sure. But let's stay in the present and look at the 4am buoy readings this morning.
Pauwela
4.1ft @ 7s from 58° (ENE)
1.9ft @ 10s from 33° (NE)
1.9ft @ 9s from 27° (NNE)
Mokapu
6.4ft @ 7s from 71° (ENE)
SE Hawaii
6.4ft @ 7s from 71° (ENE)
SE Hawaii
4.9ft @ 10s from 96° (E)
4ft @ 8s from 67° (ENE)
As you can see there's already short to medium period energy from the east in the water. It will increase throughout the day, but the real first punch will be tomorrow. Where to go surf?
Well, of course the easterly exposures will be the ones that get the most energy, but seen the rough nature of such a closely generated swell, it might be a good idea to look for places that offer some filtering of some sort.
Stay tuned for updates from Hookipa later this morning. The "live" updates is something I'd like to do more often this year. No photos (which from Hookipa sometimes just don't upload), just brief texts describing the conditions.
MC2km is not updated at the time of this call, so please check it later if you want to know what the wind is going to do.
The two models at the bottom of the windguru page, do call for some strong wind.
Well, of course the easterly exposures will be the ones that get the most energy, but seen the rough nature of such a closely generated swell, it might be a good idea to look for places that offer some filtering of some sort.
Stay tuned for updates from Hookipa later this morning. The "live" updates is something I'd like to do more often this year. No photos (which from Hookipa sometimes just don't upload), just brief texts describing the conditions.
MC2km is not updated at the time of this call, so please check it later if you want to know what the wind is going to do.
The two models at the bottom of the windguru page, do call for some strong wind.
7am update: here's the MC2km map at noon that confirms the wind, but read what I write below before you get excited about the wind related sports. It's not a classic high pressure, blue sky trades kind of wind.
As usual it will depend a lot on the cloud cover and with a storm like this approaching, (4am satellite image), I bet there will be plenty squalls and related up and downs. Specially tomorrow when most of the rain will hit.
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Or buy this great deal 74L windsurfing board! :)
Or buy this great deal 74L windsurfing board! :)
Friday, August 26, 2016
2016 second Indo trip report n.3
I'm back in Maui and before I start the morning calls again in September, here's the report of last part of my Indo trip, which was spent entirely at my favorite spot.
16 days of excellent waves. The light offshore made all the difference and the size didn't really matter.
But I'll start with a collection of sunsets.
I got there on August 1st and a new swell hit the day after. The usual 5-6f 15s which over there translates into head a half to DOH perfection. Unfortunately, towards the end of the swell, a unlike duck dive heavily buckled my board. I brought it to the local ding repair man, but with the waves on the way down I needed another shortboard and bought a used 6.3 Merrick Semi Pro, which did a decent job at temporary replacing the Payzel.
Now I got three boards in the spot, two in Bali and if I count also another one that I left to be sold on consignment, the total number of boards I own in Indonesia is six.
That feels like having built hotels in the most valuable properties of Monopoly (what is it in English, Park Place and Boardwalk?).
Not too much to say about my stay, which was made of the classic surf, eat and sleep routine. The biggest decision I had to take in those days was what time to go surf. So I'll let the gopro shots and videos speak.
This first clip and the photos below show a collection of waves of the first two days of the swell. After that, I partially broke the housing of the GoPro, and didn't use it anymore.
Towards the end of the stay, I figured that I could still use the camera with the mouth mount, and this clip below shows a well overhead wave (close to double on the take off) on my last day. It's glassy as it gets and consequently the shoulder was pretty soft.
My favorite sessions were the head high ones with the light offshore instead.
16 days of excellent surfing went pretty quick and all of a sudden the last day came and I had to leave. Didn't go straight back to Maui though.
When I booked this trip, in fact, the cheapest Bali-HNL ticket was through Melbourne and offered a 9h stop over. I tried to break it down in two separate tickets and if I added a two nights stop over, it would cost 100 bucks left. I had just watched the contest at Bells, and I embraced the idea of exploring the area with excitement.
At the time, I didn't even know that I had a friend (a maui resident a few years back) that lived in Torquay. Visiting him was the best part of the stay.
That's how Winki Pop looked in the morning of the first day. Pretty awesome, but a bit crowded because there was a local contest at Bells.
We decided to check if later the crowd would go down and since it was windy, my friend went for a quick sail in a spot with side shore wind down the coast. I graciously passed on the offer: I was not gonna wear a wet wetsuit later on... plus I'm too spoiled from the Maui windsurfing.
When we got back to Winki Pop, a bit of westerly wind was on it. Not as clean as before, but a bit less people. Reluctantly, I got into my 4/3 sealed seams wetsuit, put my rented booties on and entered the frigid water. I believe the temperature was around 11 degrees centigrade (52F).
My hands were the only fully exposed body part and they hurt for the cold.
To tell you the truth, the conditions made the waves look like an average day at Tavares, but even if it would have been as perfect as it was earlier (photo below), I would have not enjoyed it.
I was uncomfortably cold.
The day after the waves looked still pretty good (this is Bells), but I decided that I wasn't tough enough for it and returned the booties, had a drive around and went to the airport happy to have done the experience. Never say never, but that might have been the last time I put myself into a 4/3 wetsuit. At least I hope so!
Once again, the morning calls will be back in September. Pray for waves.
16 days of excellent waves. The light offshore made all the difference and the size didn't really matter.
But I'll start with a collection of sunsets.
I got there on August 1st and a new swell hit the day after. The usual 5-6f 15s which over there translates into head a half to DOH perfection. Unfortunately, towards the end of the swell, a unlike duck dive heavily buckled my board. I brought it to the local ding repair man, but with the waves on the way down I needed another shortboard and bought a used 6.3 Merrick Semi Pro, which did a decent job at temporary replacing the Payzel.
Now I got three boards in the spot, two in Bali and if I count also another one that I left to be sold on consignment, the total number of boards I own in Indonesia is six.
That feels like having built hotels in the most valuable properties of Monopoly (what is it in English, Park Place and Boardwalk?).
Not too much to say about my stay, which was made of the classic surf, eat and sleep routine. The biggest decision I had to take in those days was what time to go surf. So I'll let the gopro shots and videos speak.
This first clip and the photos below show a collection of waves of the first two days of the swell. After that, I partially broke the housing of the GoPro, and didn't use it anymore.
Towards the end of the stay, I figured that I could still use the camera with the mouth mount, and this clip below shows a well overhead wave (close to double on the take off) on my last day. It's glassy as it gets and consequently the shoulder was pretty soft.
My favorite sessions were the head high ones with the light offshore instead.
16 days of excellent surfing went pretty quick and all of a sudden the last day came and I had to leave. Didn't go straight back to Maui though.
When I booked this trip, in fact, the cheapest Bali-HNL ticket was through Melbourne and offered a 9h stop over. I tried to break it down in two separate tickets and if I added a two nights stop over, it would cost 100 bucks left. I had just watched the contest at Bells, and I embraced the idea of exploring the area with excitement.
At the time, I didn't even know that I had a friend (a maui resident a few years back) that lived in Torquay. Visiting him was the best part of the stay.
That's how Winki Pop looked in the morning of the first day. Pretty awesome, but a bit crowded because there was a local contest at Bells.
We decided to check if later the crowd would go down and since it was windy, my friend went for a quick sail in a spot with side shore wind down the coast. I graciously passed on the offer: I was not gonna wear a wet wetsuit later on... plus I'm too spoiled from the Maui windsurfing.
When we got back to Winki Pop, a bit of westerly wind was on it. Not as clean as before, but a bit less people. Reluctantly, I got into my 4/3 sealed seams wetsuit, put my rented booties on and entered the frigid water. I believe the temperature was around 11 degrees centigrade (52F).
My hands were the only fully exposed body part and they hurt for the cold.
To tell you the truth, the conditions made the waves look like an average day at Tavares, but even if it would have been as perfect as it was earlier (photo below), I would have not enjoyed it.
I was uncomfortably cold.
The day after the waves looked still pretty good (this is Bells), but I decided that I wasn't tough enough for it and returned the booties, had a drive around and went to the airport happy to have done the experience. Never say never, but that might have been the last time I put myself into a 4/3 wetsuit. At least I hope so!
Once again, the morning calls will be back in September. Pray for waves.
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