Saturday 12 22 18 morning call

A longboard session for me yesterday. I met my surf guide customer at Honolua at 6.30am. The waves were much smaller than I would have thought with Pauwela reading around 5f 11s from 335. It was also rainy and we called it off (no charge if conditions aren't good). First though, I told him:"I bet if the direction was 345 instead, they would be bigger. Probably at 5f 11s they don't have enough energy to do the S turn around Molokai first (shadow line exactly at 335) and then the outside point, while with 10 degrees more from the north, they would be less obstructed. I wish I could magically make that happen, so I could see if I'm right".
He left, I stayed and took a nap in the car. When I woke up, conditions were improved and, although still slow, there were better sets. I went surfing and caught some shoulder high nugs and when I checked the buoys at a 10am it was 5f from 343. It wasn't too bad of a call, just a slightly wrong timing.  Never stop learning and yes, Honolua is a tricky spot.


No obstacles for the waves at Hookipa, here's a photo by Jimmie Hepp from this gallery.


4am significant buoy readings
South shore
Lanai
0.8ft @ 13s from 219° (SW)

0.3ft @ 20s from 198° (SSW)

Promising readings at Lanai. Yesterday the Lahaina side was flat to tiny. In lack of a proper Lahaina webcam (please contact https://www.ozolio.com/ if you can host one), check the Ala Moana cam (linked in the webcam list on the right column) to see how it looks.

North shore
NW001
1.8ft @ 17s from 349° (NNW)

Hanalei
2.1ft @ 11s from 357° (N)

Waimea
4.5ft @ 9s from 357° (N)

1.4ft @ 18s from 329° (NW)

Pauwela
3.9ft @ 7s from 53° (ENE)

3.4ft @ 9s from 6° (N)

2.7ft @ 11s from 13° (NNE)

1.3ft @ 14s from 7° (N)

Bunch of energies locally, but all pretty small. Notice the small 17s reading at the NW buoy (and the 18s one at Waimea), a sign of a new low long period swell that could be noticed also in Maui in the late afternoon. Hookipa will have waves from a mix of sources in the morning, I should be able to report early, as I have another (much easier, they just want to surf) surf guide engagement.

Wind map at noon.


North Pacific's WNW fetch moved a little bit closer to us, starting to have a captured look.


Here's the very complex classic weather map, on which I counted the word "storm" 4 times, "gale" 2 times, "developing gale" 4 times and "heavy freezing spray" 2 times. Winter.


Nothing of relevance from the south.


Morning sky.