Sunday 1 14 18 morning call

A shortboard and a SUP foiling sessions for me yesterday in another wonderful day of waves that saw the rise of the biggest swell of the year so far. Observing (and surfing) the first 22-25s sets roll in the lineup overlapping to the 12-13s energy leftover energy was a great thrill for me, but I'm kind of weird... the other surfers didn't even notice it.

This shot was taken at the harbor around noon, when the boats headed to Jaws were launching. Kai Lenny must spend a lot of time in front of a lens.


This photo by FishBowlDiaries shows that there were some sets at sunset, but the conditions weren't that great because of the chop left by the onshore wind that, as predicted, started blowing mid morning. It should be a lot cleaner and bigger this morning. Looking forward to the facebook session tonight, let's hope we don't receive another missile alarm, so I won't have to skip between hundreds of related posts.


Here's a quick interview with Dave Kalama. The words that come in my mind are: wise, humble, competent and well spoken. His choice of words is excellent in my opinion, I really hope he'll be available to comment more Jaws contests in the future. I'm a big fan.


4am significant buoy readings
South shore
No indication of southerly energy at the buoys, the Surfline forecast calls for 1.1f 14s, but there could also be a bit of NW wrap in the Lahaina area.

North shore
NW101

16.1ft @ 16s from 321° (NW)

Waimea

16.9ft @ 18s from 315° (NW)

Pauwela
17.1ft @ 18s from 329° (NW)

Maybe a couple of feet under the forecast, but the swell is definitely pumping and the numbers at the buoys belong to the "rare" category. The graph of the three reported buoys below shows that the swell hasn't quite peaked yet locally, the start of the day will offer the biggest waves. The harbor will most likely be the only place to surf on the north shore, while the west side should offer more variety in size. Good luck with your search, I might go shoot the Legends of the Bay contest, in which case I'll try to post beach reports from the west side.


The usual model didn't update, this wind map at noon shows onshore winds in the 5-10 knots range (starting 1-2 hours earlier). The morning should be glassy everywhere, even though the Kapalua airport shows a weird 10mph from the N at 6am.


North Pacific shows an elongated NW fetch.


After more than a month of seasonal calm, the South Pacific shows a semi-proper southerly fetch and one forming in the Tasman sea. About 2f 15s predicted by Surfline around next Monday, proper out-of-season stuff.


Morning sky and the sunshine continues.