The contest was canceled after too many dangerous wipeouts like those two below from this gallery by Jimmie Hepp.
What made those waves so hard to successful catch and ride was not so much the size (well, that too of course), but more the speed at which the waves were traveling. At 20s of period and in open ocean, the waves travel at 31 knots. At 16s they travel at 25 knots. When they start feeling the bottom, they all slow down, so when they're breaking they're slower than that, but there is still a difference in the speed of a breaking wave between 20 and 16 seconds of period. That's why it should be more user friendly today... from that point of view. Unfortunately, the trades will be stronger.
French competitor Justine DuPont sure whishes that decision was taken before her injury occurred. The women's contest was held before the men's, with Keala Kennelly winning on two incomplete rides.
What yesterday really showed is the limits of prone paddling into such big long period waves. As soon as the contest was called off, Kai Lenny instead put up a show with his tow board getting barreled, coming out and...
...throwing aerials. Later on a few skilled wind and kite surfers hit the uncrowded lineup (the WSL circus left) and scored pristine challenging conditions.
Let's see what happens today, the link to watch is this. And while all this was happening, the ladies competing at Honolua scored PERFECT conditions with waves up to three times overhead. I don't have photos of that, but there's plenty highlights on the contest page.
3am significant buoy readings
North shore
NW001
13.1ft @ 16s from 318° (NW)
Hanalei
9ft @ 17s from 315° (NW)
5.5ft @ 14s from 314° (NW)
4.7ft @ 10s from 331° (NNW)
4.6ft @ 12s from 317° (NW)
Waimea
12.7ft @ 15s from 322° (NW)
Pauwela
11.3ft @ 17s from 320° (NW)
6.2ft @ 13s from 324° (NW)
The buoys are all trending down and locally Pauwela (graph below) peaked at around 2pm yesterday (I predicted 4pm, not too bad), but the waves are still going to be extra large (breaking on outer reefs). The problem today will be the trades that are going to be stronger than yesterday. As I type at 5am, it's already blowing 12mph in Kahului and that is not a good sign.
South shore
No indication of southerly energy at the buoys, should be flat today.
Wind map at noon. Possible busy day for the lifeguards at Kanaha rescuing wind and kite surfers.
North Pacific shows a complex situation with three rapidly moving fetches. Hard to predict the size for the second half of this week. Easy to predict excellent conditions instead, as there will be light southerly winds Thursday through Saturday.
Nothing in the South Pacific (the fetch in the Tasman Sea is too weak).
Morning sky.
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