2018 Indo trip report 2

A week stay in my favorite spot in the world was absolutely delightful. The swell was never pumping, but it never went below chest high, with the biggest day at the head and a half mark.

These are a couple of different mornings, that's the quality we had all week.

But the waves were not everything. I love the relaxed atmosphere at the surf camp. This is my new young friend Tessa showing off some gymnastic skills in front of a classic pastel colored sunset.

A few random ones. One of my taxi rides.

Finally, after 7 years of coming to this place, I surfed a right. Beautiful, but I just have more fun on the left.

Couple of more sunsets.

And tonight I'm off to a new adventure in the Maldives. Stay tuned!

Indo trip 2018 first report

I took the gopro out yesterday for the morning and afternoon sessions. These are some shots.









I'm gonna stay a few more days in my favorite spot in the world, and then I'm off to a new place. When I left Maui, I had no idea I was going there. The freedom of traveling with no fixed plans...

I'm having a great time in Indo and I unexpectedly might go somewhere else too, but I can't help not wondering how the south shore will look with 20 feet 12 seconds of swell. No idea of where I would surf.  Probably somewhere on the Honoapiilani highway. Literally.

Wednesday 8 15 18 morning call

A SUP foiling session for me yesterday. No photo of the day, here's some very clean lines at Uluwatu from some years ago. This is the last morning call for a while (possibly a month), as I'm leaving tomorrow for Indonesia. Keep checking the blog, as I will possibly post updates from there.


I buy my ticket at the last minute only when I see the situation represented in the picture below: small stuff for Maui's south shore and good stuff for Indo.


But this time there is a surprise that I hope you guys will enjoy: the north shore is going to come back to life with a couple of proper swells. Below is the wind map predicted for Saturday mid day. The NNW fetch I circled will give life to a swell that Surfline predicts to reach 4.5f 12s from 345 Wednesday and Thursday. Even the Bay might break with that ideal direction, although small.

Then there's tropical storm Lane that will become a major hurricane and should track south of the islands. We all saw what Hector did, so be ready for possible long period waves in Hana and short period ones on the south shore.

Lastly, the tropical depression S of Japan is predicted to follow the red arrow and should end up changing in a wider low in the NW corner around August 24th and send a NW swell 3-4 days after that.


5am significant buoy readings
South shore
Barbers
1.5ft @ 11s from 195° (SSW)

0.5ft @ 20s from 172° (S)

Lanai
1.8ft @ 13s from 188° (S)

South swell down to marginal sizes. The super sensitive Barbers buoy feels half a foot 20s from somewhere, but that won't be noticeable in the water. As a matter of fact, this is the best set I've seen at Ala Moana while writing this call, flat otherwise. I'm not going Lahaina side, but I'm calling it flat to knee high from home.


North shore
Pauwela
3.4ft @ 7s from 57° (ENE)

Tiny stuff at Pauwela, I'm calling Hookipa close to flat too.

Wind map at noon.


North Pacific completely quite at the moment.


South Pacific has a fetch deep south of the Tasman Sea.


Morning sky.

6.30am lahaina side is knee to waist high with occasional bigger sets and clean. Ukumehame light offshore.

Tuesday 8 14 18 morning call

A shortboard session for me yesterday. No photos of the day, but I timely received an email from an unknown resort in Telo publicizing how well the waves of the island reacted to the extremely large swells that hit Indonesia latety. This appear to be the main spot.


The caption for this was:"Waves on the backside of islands that never broke were doing this".
That's where I would have surfed.


4am significant buoy readings
South shore
W
2.4ft @ 12s from 134° (SE)

SW
2.4ft @ 12s from 144° (SE)

Barbers
1.6ft @ 12s from 189° (S)

0.8ft @ 16s from 203° (SSW)

Lanai
1.9ft @ 13s from 183° (S)
1ft @ 16s from 191° (SSW)

South swell down to 12s and minimal size (flat to knee with occasional waist high is my home guess), but the two local buoys record some low long period SSW energy. I went searching through the fetches maps and all I could find was a tiny red circle in the Tasman Sea on the 8th. I doubt there will be much noticeable from it in the water, but I'll sure report when I get there.
 

North shore
Pauwela
2.8ft @ 8s from 64° (ENE)

2.5ft @ 6s from 63° (ENE)

1.5ft @ 12s from 74° (ENE)

0.3ft @ 15s from 63° (ENE)

 

Very low local windswell (the one below 10s) at Pauwela, but a little more energy from Hurricane John. The waves at Hookipa are still going to be pretty small, imo.

Wind map at noon. Gonna be a hot one.


Just a weak windswell fetch in the North Pacific.


And a weak fetch in the Tasman Sea is all the South Pacific has to offer.


Morning sky.

8.30am there are bigger sets up to shoulder high in town, but they're rare. Light onshore now.
    

6am lahaina side is knee to waist high and clean everywhere. Didn't wait to see if there's bigger sets.
    

Monday 8 12 18 morning call

Thanks a lot to blog reader Justin for the donation via the Paypal button.

A longboard, a SUP foiling and a shortboard session for me yesterday, in a day that saw some very good waves on the south shore. Too much fun to rest my back. If summer in Maui was every day like that (but it isn't), I would feel no need to go anywhere. I also took photos at three different spots. Here's the first one.

Archie Kalepa loves foiling.

"8.40am the guardrails area has plenty head high sets and clean", I wrote. Been quite off with some calls lately (like the arrival time of the hurricane swell, for example), but my reports have been pretty accurate, at least. But that's a lot easier.

Harbor had an extremely high level of surfers and a couple of photographers in the water. I love the water fan in this one.

Lovely warble in the lip line.

Cody Young was one of the standouts, obviously.

Spot 3: Jason's version of a grab rail turn on a foil.

Aerodynamic. Or cool. Or both.

Robby Naish has an extremely low stance on his foil board and he grabs the rail pretty much every time he changes direction, even the backside one. I like it.

Joy is our natural state of being. Then there's the distraction introduced by the mind and its incessant dialog.

You can see the intensity of the effort on the face of the most famous windsurfer in the world.

 As kindly requested by blog reader S., some female beauty. Brother, this one is for you!

2am significant buoy readings
South shore
W
2.5ft @ 13s from 146° (SE)

SW
3.2ft @ 12s from 125° (ESE)

SE
2.6ft @ 12s from 129° (ESE)

Barbers
2.1ft @ 13s from 191° (SSW)

Lanai
2.3ft @ 13s from 189° (S)

South swell down to 13s, but still 2-3f, so more waves on tap for the south shore today. I'll report when I get there (should be early), my optimism guess from home is waist to occasionally chest high.

North shore
Pauwela
4.6ft @ 7s from 80° (E)

2.8ft @ 6s from 81° (E)

1.3ft @ 11s from 74° (ENE)

1.3ft @ 14s from 83° (E)

The north swell that left many uninformed Hookipa surfers wondering why the hurricane swell was still there, lasted 4 days and now it's over. Back to purely easterly energy. The long period one is from hurricane John, but it's tiny and I don't think it's going to be noticeable. So small waves at Hookipa is my call.

Wind map at noon.


North Pacific only has the windswell fetch.


South Pacific has a couple of small fetches: a Tasman Sea one and a SSE one. I circled in black and extremely remote fetch SW of South Africa that could possibly (no idea how the great circle rays are) be oriented towards Indonesia. That is a distance of 7.500 miles vs the 4,500 that separate the summer time fetches E of New Zealand from Hawaii. That is to say that Indonesia is one of the countries on Earth with the longest stretch of open ocean in front of it. That's one of the reasons that make the waves always so clean there. If that swell does get there, we're talking 27+ seconds of period.


Morning sky.

8.40am the guardrails area has plenty head high sets and clean
    

6am ukumehame is waist to belly high and clean with occasional bigger sets. Smaller than yesterday, but still plenty waves.
    

Sunday 8 12 18 morning call

A longboard session for me yesterday, as my back pain was a lot better and Thousand Peaks was too glassy and beautiful to pass. This is my coworker Ayako on a small one. There were sets up to head high.

This instead is Keith Teboul foiling by himself away from the pack of surfers at sunset at Hookipa.

3am significant buoy readings
South shore
W
2.9ft @ 14s from 190° (S)

SW
3.3ft @ 13s from 149° (SE)

SE
2.7ft @ 13s from 184° (S)

Barbers
2.6ft @ 14s from 184° (S)

Lanai
3ft @ 14s from 175° (S)

South swell still up at the buoys, gonna be another beautiful day of surfing on the south shore. I'll report as soon as I'll get there.

North shore
Pauwela
3.1ft @ 8s from 29° (NNE)

2.8ft @ 7s from 47° (NE)

 

The very long lasting N swell is starting to decline, but not over just yet. There should waves at Hookipa also today.

Wind map at noon.

North Pacific has mostly the windswell fetch. The low north of the Aleutians is strong, but its fetch is blocked. It'll probably still send a small NW fetch on Wednesday/Thursday (1f 11s predicted by Surfline).


South Pacific has a small fetch in the Tasman Sea that will be mostly blocked by the islands to its north.


Morning sky.