Sunday, September 18, 2016

9 18 16 morning call

I surfed Hookipa in the morning yesterday and it was classic conditions. That means: windy, choppy, crowded.

The windsurfers instead had a blast in the afternoon. Photo by Jimmie Hepp.


At sunset the waves were well overhead and the point had some clean conditions. I was too tired to paddle out, but I saw some gems. Hopefully this morning it won't be too blown out, but the wind sensor is already sensing 7-23 mph, so have no expectations on that.

4am significant buoy readings.
The graph of the three buoys shows that the swell peaked and it's on its way down. On the NW and Waimea graphs that is the light blue line of course, the dark blue being the windswell which is instead pretty steady. On the Pauwela graph, the colors are the other way around.

The graph of the NW buoy shows that the decline after a 24-30h period of elevated readings is not too steep. This morning Pauwela is just at the end of the equivalent period, so we can expect the waves to gradually come down throughout the whole day, but not at a particularly fast pace.
In other words, still plenty energy in the water all day.
4am Pauwela readings are:
4.3ft @ 14s from 324° (NW)
4.2ft @ 8s from 79° (ENE)
3.2ft @ 6s from 68° (ENE)

Lanai still reads 2.2ft @ 13s from 237° (WSW) and that means there's still waves on the south shore. Check the Lahaina webcam and you'll know if it's worth driving for you. There's a marathon run at 6am on that side, so that might do something to the traffic which has been already pretty bad lately.

MC2km wind prediction at noon shows plenty wind.


Current wind map shows only the windswell fetch and a small/weak one down south. Nothing to be excited about.


The JS went pretty fast, the Bret 5.6 is still available. I think I did my tightest turns ever with it. I'll have it with me during my 9-2 work shift at Hi-Tech in Kahului. Come check it out if you're interested. You need to buy some wax anyway, don't you?

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