Wednesday 12 5 18 morning call

A SUP foiling session for me yesterday. The windsurfers at Hookipa enjoyed the mixed period and direction energies in the water (the windswell was pretty solid) and here's a perfectly timed hit by Levi in this photo by Jimmie Hepp from this gallery.


Bit late in this case instead, french sailor Many tests the quality of the construction of his Hot Sails Maui KS3.


The windsurfing conditions didn't suite me, so I went home instead to check where the swell was and if I could sneak in a sunset session.
I used to practice mental counting of seconds with a clock in order to be able to measure the period of a swell without the need to look at the watch. I got it pretty much down. But now I don't even need (or want) to count anymore, I've seen enough to just visually guess. My guess on this set that came into Pipeline around 3pm was 22s. I didn't guess the open ocean size though and the waimea buoy reported 2f 22s at the same time. After that, it started kinda pumping and the lineup was flooded with 30+ surfers. Pipe Masters coming up soon (Dec 8-20), in the meantime, the Triple Crown Contest at Sunset Beach is still to be completed.


4am significant buoy readings
South shore
Lanai
0.8ft @ 12s from 203° (SSW)

That's what Lanai feels from the SSW. If true, that'll make some ankle to calf high breakers in Lahaina. I don't think the wrap of the NW swell will get down there.

North shore
NW001
13.2ft @ 16s from 312° (NW)

Hanalei
10.5ft @ 18s from 309° (WNW)

Waimea
11.2ft @ 18s from 312° (NW)

Pauwela
7.2ft @ 18s from 319° (NW)

7ft @ 8s from 68° (ENE)

2ft @ 12s from 5° (N)

Below is the collage of the reported buoys' graphs together with the Surfline offshore swell forecast (we're comparing apples to apples). The swell peaked at around 14f 18s around 8pm at the NW001 buoy in Maui is still building and it should peak around 10f 18s in the morning around 8-10am. As a comparison, the previous giant episode recorded 20f 19s at the NW buoy, so it belonged to a different category.

Yesterday I pointed out how the Windguru wave forecast was completely off in terms of size and timing (I'm still laughing at that 7f 24s predicted at 2pm yesterday... Hookipa would have been closed out already!). Today I'll point out that the Surfline forecast is in this case accurate in terms of size, but a little late in terms of timing. What surprises me is that their model doesn't update its prediction based on the arrival of the energy recorded by the buoys.

Anyway, at 10f 18s Hookipa should be closed out and Jaws will be pretty solid. I know there's windsurfers ready to tackle it, I'm sure there's kiters and surfers too.



Wind map at noon.


North Pacific has still a strong NW fetch (this swell is going to last till the end of the week) and a new one forming behind.


A couple of fetches of some relevance in the South Pacific after what seems like a month. Possible south shore action in a week.


Morning sky.