Friday 6 2 17 morning call

Beautiful day of waves on the south shore again yesterday. The old swell was in the 12-13s range, waist high and declining, but once in a while a 17s set belonging to the new pulse would fill in the lineup and reach up to chest high. I don't have a photo of the day, so here's a random California wave. Photo by Sebastian J. Franklin.


3am significant buoy readings
South shore
W
2.3ft @ 15s from 112° (ESE)

2.3ft @ 12s from 128° (ESE)

SW
2.7ft @ 15s from 162° (SSE)

SE
2.5ft @ 15s from 122° (ESE)

The swell rebound has reached a lovely level that is registered by the outer buoys between 2.3 and 2.7f and 15s (don't even look at the directions, they're meaningless), while the old energy still lingers in the water now down to 12s and it will hopefully help with the overall consistency. No doubt, I'll drive again towards Lahaina, stay tuned for an early beach report. Got to squeeze this swell until it lasts (probably Monday), because next week looks pretty grim.

BTW, pretty amazed by how oblivious most surfers still are to the meaning of the period of a swell, I might have to explain it again when I have a bit of extra time. In the meantime, you guys can read what I wrote in the two posts you get to by clicking on the "wave period" label in the labels section of this blog. Here's the link to those, start from the bottom one, as the top one is mostly about how the period influences the refraction aspect.

North shore
Waimea
0.6ft @ 11s from 339° (NNW)

Pauwela

4ft @ 8s from 84° (E)           

3.2ft @ 7s from 69° (ENE)

2.4ft @ 5s from 72° (ENE)

Mostly windswell at Pauwela and with the Hookipa wind sensor reading 14(8-21)mph from the east at 4.30am, I am out of here in the dark again.

8am map shows easterly trades on the north shore.


2pm map shows stronger easterly trades on the north shore.


North Pacific's wave generation at a minimum again, with only a small (but very close) windswell fetch.


South Pacific looks better, at least in terms of orientation and size of those couple of fetches. Now we need some wind strength. The dark blue (up to 24 knots) is not quite enough down there to make waves big enough to reach us.


Morning sky shows some cloud cover, but I wouldn't be too worried about taking an umbrella with you. The weather brought by the easterly trades is one of the nicest, as it's much drier than the one we get when the trades blow from the NE, for example.