Thursday 1 11 18 morning call

Shortboard and windsurfing sessions for me yesterday. The day started with some glassy surfing conditions at Hookipa. These photos were taken around noon, and despite a bit of wind, it was still pretty good.


Coconut Willie took out his Jaws gun for a practice session in view of the upcoming big weekend. Obviously, he got barreled on it.


The windsurfing was pretty epic for my standards. Very light wind on the inside made for dreamy wave faces like this one Browsinho is on. I saw him pulling an impossible 360 from the channel that left me in complete disbelief. Photo by Jimmie Hepp from this gallery.


Conditions like that require a precise timing for sailing out off the beach and through the channel. In my case I had to do a few tacks on the inside corner, before the horizon seemed to have flattened enough. That's when I heard Jimmie yelling "GO!!" from the rocks and the big smile was my way to thank him for the advice.


A couple of more shots after the session and with little light. This is Jud Lau's son, forgot his name.




Kitefoiler at Lanes in front of a beauty.


5am significant buoy readings
South shore
No indication of southerly energy at the buoys, the Surfline forecast calls for 0.5f 14s.

North shore
NW101
7ft @ 16s from 320° (NW)

6.8ft @ 14s from 327° (NW)

4.6ft @ 10s from 332° (NNW)

Waimea
8.7ft @ 15s from 319° (NW)

Pauwela
6.5ft @ 15s from 326° (NW)

3.9ft @ 8s from 76° (ENE)

2.4ft @ 6s from 77° (ENE)

Solid numbers at the buoys, very much in line with the Maui North Shore Surfline forecast (link n.15), which is the most reliable single page where to check what the swells are predicted to do. As long as you click on the offshore swell heights though. As you can see, the swell should have an increase in the afternoon, then stay pretty solid around 9f 14s tomorrow, before an incredibly steep rise to giant levels throughout all day Saturday.

Wind map at noon once again shows easterly trades. That makes it 11 days in a row, but tomorrow is going to be different.

North Pacific shows a strong NW fetch and a windswell one. The NW one is at this moment aiming the biggest energy a bit north of us (although a large section of it is oriented towards us as the map on the right shows). Tomorrow it's going to be better oriented towards us and, much more importantly, much closer. Vicinity will be a key factor in the wave size and consistency.


South Pacific only shows a weak SSE fetch.


Morning sky. Those clouds should not affect us.