Thursday 1 31 19 morning call

A windfoil session for me yesterday. The end of Janunary has had very poor conditions due to the NE winds (and the beginning of February looks even worse), but before that most of the month was pretty epic. This video shows 10 minutes of great waves at Pipe and Backdoor.

HANDODAT from Hammah Time on Vimeo.

5am significant buoy readings
South shore
Lanai
2.4ft @ 17s from 281° (WNW)

Here's the sentence of Pat Caldwell that made me put together the collage of the Maps of Jan 23, 24 and 25 below. Low pressure SE of New Zealand within 1/21-25 is giving a 1 foot swell out of 180-200 degrees 1/30. It could linger a few more days. More westerly exposures should have small breakers from the western north Pacific systems described above with peak days Thursday and Sunday.
Ala Moana did have some beautiful waist high plus long period waves yesterday, but reports from Lahaina were for ankle high. No sign of that southerly energy at the buoys, but the new WNW swell is making for the reported reading at Lanai, so I'm gonna guess more waves on the Kihei side. Check the webcams if you want to go there. Unfortunately, we can't check any webcam in Lahaina at the moment, please contact Ozolio if you have the possibility of hosting one.


North shore
NW101
8.6ft @ 17s from 311° (NW)

N
8.7ft @ 8s from 12° (NNE)

Hanalei
7.5ft @ 16s from 309° (WNW)

Waimea
6ft @ 16s from 302° (WNW)

Mokapu
8.1ft @ 9s from 37° (NE)

Pauwela is down, but thanks to other buoys we can see that the current WNW swell has risen during the night and will peak (coherently with the Surfline forecast) during the day. Unfortunately, and once again, the quality of those beautiful long period distantly generated waves is going to be completely destroyed by the strong NE winds (which will intensify during the afternoon) and by the related windswell that we see at the N and Mokapu buoys. Another day in which most north shore's breaks will be unsurfable. Get used to it, as shown in the 10 days Windguru table below, the beginning of February doesn't look any better.


Wind map at noon calls for a Kihei downwind run.


In the North Pacific yesterday's fetch is now oriented much better towards us (instead of SW of us) and Surfline calls for 6.3ft 15s from 307 on Sunday. The NNE fetch associated with the stubborn local low continues to generate significant short period stormy energy.


South Pacific has a fetch in the Tasman Sea.


Morning sky.

Wednesday 1 30 18 morning call

A day of rest for me yesterday. Not that I wanted to, but I couldn't find anything that inspired me. For example, I was I immediately clear that I wasn't interested in surfing this spot.


Those waves are deceivingly fast. Most of the times, in fact, the kick out looks like this. This particular one looks pretty spectacular, because of the wave on the foreground that makes the surfer looks small and the jump even higher than it was.



4am significant buoy readings
South shore
Lanai
2ft @ 14s from 269° (W)

As a consequence of the westerly position the fetches have had lately, Lanai has been recording a small portion on westerly energy in the last 5 days or so. Small waves in Kihei should continue. Might hit up to Ukumehame, but not as much Lahaina.

North shore
NW101
2.8ft @ 18s from 290° (WNW)

NW001
3.7ft @ 18s from 312° (NW)

N
7.7ft @ 9s from 20° (NNE)

Hanalei
1.5ft @ 20s from 304° (WNW)

Barbers
0.6ft @ 22s from 303° (WNW)

Mokapu
8.1ft @ 9s from 38° (NE)

6.2ft @ 11s from 43° (NE)

New long period WNW swell starting to slowly rise at the outer buoys. The two NW ones offer 290 and 312 as directions, and that's a clear indicator that buoys have trouble detecting the exact direction of a new still low swell if there's other energy in the water (and there's plenty, but I didn't report it because not significant for our purpose). My recommendation is to never take the direction indication as an absolutely correct value. Rather, try to remember the position and shape of the original fetch, and you'll have a much better idea of the characteristics and directional spread of a swell.

To help you with that, below is the collage of the maps of Jan 26, 27 and 28, which show an initial position between 280 and 300, before becoming between 290 and 310 on the 28th. So another pretty westerly one. Thanks to the epic post Buoys to Maui travel times and Maui's shadow lines we know that those 1.5ft 20s registered by Hanalei at 4am will take 6h to get to Maui, which give us a time of 10am. At the same time (or thanks to the same post, I should say), we know that those 3ish feet 18s at the NW buoys will take 14h to get here, which give us a time of 6pm. Waimea doesn't report it at 4am, but Barbers has a low 22s reading, which is consistent with all of the above.

That indicates a very slow start of this swell (as the distant location of the fetch suggests) and I honestly doubt we will be able to detect it in the water until the late afternoon, considering that the NNE energy is still pretty strong, as the Mokapu buoy suggests (Pauwela is down). The reading at the N buoy, seems to suggest a down trend for it, but I doubt things will change much today. Once again, look for spots that like the NNE more than the WNW is my recommendation.


Wind map at noon. Seems like the wind might start turning a little more east, but still not regular trades direction which is predicted to very temporarily return on Friday only.


Western North Pacific has a strong fetch, but only the part circled in red is directly oriented towards us. The bulk of this fetch (blue circle) is aiming south of us, we might get some angular spreading though.


Nothing from the South.


Morning sky.

Tuesday 1 29 18 morning call

A shortboard session and SUP foiling downwind attempt number 16 for me yesterday. Here's a bottom to top turn combo of one of Maui's top groms Jackson Bunch. He caresses the water at each bottom turn very much like Tom Curren.


And got plenty flare off the top. I always enjoy watching him surfing.


Downwind attempt n.16 was in Kihei with excellent conditions and was shaping up to be the best yet, as for the first time I was using the Maliko 280 together with the short mast and a tuttle to tuttle extension (which I greatly prefer to the long mast, at least for surfing). The foil was coming up about 30% of the times that I was trying to take off (which is great, as the previous times it was more like 5%). Then the flight wasn't lasting more than a minute as I'm not used to the very slow foiling speed of the 280 (which I never surf with), but I was definitely improving along the way when a technical issue occurred and I had to stop my attempts half way. Very encouraging though, might try again soon with the 200, so that I don't suffer too much from not being used to foil at such slow speed.

5am significant buoy readings
South shore
Lanai
2.1ft @ 15s from 275° (W)

Westerly energy stubbornly still present at Lanai, there might still be small waves in Kihei.

North shore
NW101
4.3ft @ 14s from 324° (NW)

N
9.5ft @ 10s from 20° (NNE)

Hanalei
4ft @ 15s from 305° (WNW)

Waimea
8.1ft @ 13s from 325° (NW)

Pauwela
8.7ft @ 13s from 335° (NNW)

6.7ft @ 11s from 24° (NNE)

5.8ft @ 10s from 33° (NE)

5.7ft @ 8s from 27° (NNE)

Let's celebrate the first post of Pat Caldwell since the beginning of the year (no details about the short hiatus) with his effective summary of the conditions:
Mid Monday on northern shores has rough breakers from combined remotely-generated long-period WNW to NW swell and nearby- produced shorter- period N to NNE waves. Similar rough conditions are predicted for Tuesday.

Below are the graphs of NW, Hanalei, Waimea and Pauwela (different scales, I reported the top of the scale value in red) and the Surfline forecast. I put an arrow on the peaks of this NW pulse at all the buoys, from which we can see how the swell is peaking in Maui right now. That energy is expected to start declining soon after dawn, but 8.7ft 13s from 335 (assuming this direction is reliable, might be more west than that) is still a solid number to start the day with. The problem, as uncle Pat underlined, is the roughness of the sea due to the local winds and to the interaction with the still significant NNE energy. Tough call, you might want to pick a spot that filters one of the two energies and most importantly is protected by the wind. My guess in fact, is that the waves at Hookipa will be big (easily double overhead and for sure bigger than yesterday), but rough and almost unsurfable. Happy hunting.


Wind map at noon.


North Pacific has a newly formed small westerly fetch off Japan, the strong NW fetch we've observed the last couple of days (7.5ft 15s from 312 predicted by Surfline on Friday) and the NNE nearby one associated with the local northerly flow.


Nothing from the south.


Morning sky shows a low just east of the islands that will keep the northerly flow (and the cold air) going until Friday morning. After that, back to straight east and getting pretty strong next week.

Monday 1 28 19 morning call

A e-foil and a SUP foiling session for me yesterday. Yes, for the very first time I tried an electric foil. It was 5ft Lift with a 150 wing (a bit advanced for a true beginner, but I know how to foil already). You can watch a proper introduction to it in the video below.

Your First Ride - Video #5 from Lift Foils on Vimeo.

The whole setup has some weight to it, so if I tried to stand up on it while still, the thing would sink. But with a little speed it was much more stable and it took me maybe 5 minutes to get used to it, but once I was up and foiling I never came down. Incredible feeling of flying over the water without even a wave carrying you.


And of course, I also caught a few waves while I was at it. Can't turn it as sharp as a regular SUP foil (too much momentum to redirect), but there's no paddling back out, there's only continuous silent gliding and carving. I had a blast.


5am significant buoy readings
South shore
Barbers
0.8ft @ 18s from 235° (WSW)

Lanai
1.5ft @ 12s from 278° (W)                        

0.9ft @ 18s from 203° (SSW)

 

I believe the waves were riding yesterday at Thousand Peaks were the westerly energy wrapping south of Lanai (Lahaina, in fact, was much smaller). That energy is smaller today, but not gone completely. But we have a new long period swell, reading almost 1ft 18s at both Lanai and Barbers.

Below is the maps of Jan 20 and 21 that shows the fetch that generated it.

Unfortunately the Ala Moana webcam (on the right) doesn't show much at all (there probably are some very inconsistent sets), while there's still a 12s little shore break in Kihei. Webcams are a great tool to decide the spot, please contact Ozolio if you can host one in Lahaina.


 

North shore
NW101

3.8ft @ 15s from 336° (NNW)

 

N

9.6ft @ 10s from 18° (NNE)

 

Hanalei

1.1ft @ 18s from 321° (NW)            

 

Waimea

1.2ft @ 18s from 327° (NW)

 

Pauwela

7.2ft @ 9s from 24° (NNE)                        

0.4ft @ 20s from 9° (N)

 

Here's how the Pat Caldwell's deprived NOAA page starts today's forecast:
 A series of new, moderate to large, northwest swells will move through the islands this week. The first in the series of swells will begin to fill in this morning, peak late this afternoon and tonight just below advisory levels along north and west facing shores, then lower on Tuesday....

As a matter of fact, we do have some lovely long period NW readings all the way up the upstream buoys, but that is going to be completely irrelevant, seen the much higher 9s NNE energy that has been in the water the last couple of days. That's why I also reported the N buoy reading, which assures us that we're going to be receiving plenty of that energy also today.

In other words, in case it wasn't clear, chose a spot that is hit by the NNE energy vs one that is hit by the NW one. And keep in mind the wind maps, as it's going to be that dreadful NE wind again.

 

Wind map at noon. Notice the stronger orange colored band (20-25 knots) band approaching. Supposed to increase significantly around 2pm.

 

North Pacific's last low has moved north quite rapidly and now the fetch is in a much better position for Maui. 8.5ft 15s predicted by Surfline on Friday out of that, but there should be waves already Thursday. I also forgot to circle whatever is remaining of the NNE swell that has generating the 9s energy in the last couple of days, but you can see it in the map on the right.

 

Nothing of relevance out of the South Pacific.

 

Morning sky.

Sunday 1 27 19 morning call

A full day of rest for me yesterday, my body is thankful. No photos taken either, so here's that video of Amazing Kane foiling from Lanes to Mama's while catching a few waves in the meantime.



5am significant buoy readings
South shore
Lanai
1.8ft @ 13s from 271° (W)

Westerly energy winding down at the Lanai buoy, but there should still be some small waves in Kihei.

North shore
NW101
5.1ft @ 10s from 49° (NE)

3.8ft @ 12s from 319° (NW)

Hanalei
7.9ft @ 9s from 27° (NNE)

Waimea
6.9ft @ 9s from 8° (N)

3.7ft @ 11s from 328° (NW)

3.3ft @ 13s from 310° (WNW)

 

Pauwela

7.3ft @ 9s from 10° (N)

6.3ft @ 12s from 325° (NW)

 

6f 12s from the NW at Pauwela seems a bit exaggerated compared to the other upstream buoys, so I'm either going to question that (buoy glitch) or guess it's on its way down pretty quickly. What's there to stay is the strong 9s northerly energy instead. And what's also to stay is the NE wind that is making a mess of the north shore (unless you find a sheltered spot).

So, plenty waves on tap for the day, but we got to deal with the wind. Not even going to check Hookipa, sorry.

Wind map at noon.

Yet another strong west fetch (forgot to circle it) on offer in the North Pacific. Kihei once again will get action out of that.


Nothing from the south.


Morning sky.

Saturday 1 26 18 morning call

A longboard and a windfoiling session for me yesterday. First one was at Hookipa and was one of the best of the winter, with glassy head to head and half waves. I only had time to take the shot below before leaving, but it really doesn't show how good it was.


The windfoiling session was surprisingly fun. The onshore wind allowed for shore runs (usually boring), but I managed to go across the reef and take the challenge to go over the breaking waves (still some solid head high ones) and into the bubbles without coming off the foil. The turbulence you experience in the white water is exactly like the ones on the airplane.

Norm and Bernd Roediger were out there sailing their self built dingy and towing each other on a inflatable SUP. Here's a short video that Norm took. You can hear his excitement about the beauty of the background which, undoubtedly, was a big part of the enjoyment.



So yesterday morning Hookipa was head to head and a half, Pauwela was 4ft 14s and apparently Jaws was breaking. Small, but breaking. That is a bit shocking, but we have photographic evidence of it, so the whole predicting Jaws game changes after this. This is a shot posted by Alex Aguera showing Dave Kalama foiling Jaws after 15-20 years he first foiled it with Laird with the ski-boots foil boards.



5am significant buoy readings
South shore
Lanai
3.3ft @ 13s from 266° (W)

More waves in Kihei yesterday and with such a westerly reading at Lanai, there should be something also today.

North shore
NW101
7.8ft @ 13s from 319° (NW)

5.4ft @ 8s from 14° (NNE)

3.8ft @ 10s from 353° (N)

Hanalei
6.8ft @ 9s from 347° (NNW)

5.6ft @ 14s from 300° (WNW)

3.5ft @ 11s from 306° (WNW)

3.4ft @ 6s from 9° (N)

Waimea
7.6ft @ 8s from 349° (NNW)

5.4ft @ 14s from 311° (NW)

Pauwela
7.9ft @ 9s from 345° (NNW)

4.7ft @ 15s from 314° (NW)

4.4ft @ 11s from 319° (NW)

2.6ft @ 4s from 20° (NNE)

 

Yesterday's surf session was the last high quality one for a while, as all I can see in the Windguru table is northerly winds. So why spending time commenting the buoy readings, when the conditions are going to be shitty? Plenty energy in the water and messy, stormy conditions if you still feel like surfing this morning. I can use a morning of rest.

Wind map at noon. Not good for windsurfing (at least for my taste), possibly good for windfoiling or a Kihei downwinder.


North Pacific has three fetches:
- a small westerly one centered around 190 degrees
- a bigger, but pretty weak NW one
- a near N one.
The last one will produce the most noticeable energy of the three. We can't really compare them, as we have to wait a few days of the first two energies to arrive here, while the third one is already producing 8ft 9s, as the Pauwela readings show.


Not much from the South Pacific.


Morning sky shows the classic dotted clouds that usually follow the pass of a front and indicate cold air. Waiting to destroy (verbally) the first one who complains about the weather, as this winter has had fantastic weather so far.

7.30 hookipa is glassy head to head and a half.
8.5

Friday 1 25 19 morning call

A longboard, a SUP foiling and a SUP session for me yesterday. I spent the whole day in the Kahului area and didn't take a single picture. Fortunately Jimmie Hepp was at Hookipa were 5 braves sailors challenged the huge waves and the light wind. This is the usual Brawsinho out of this gallery.


4am significant buoy readings
South shore
Lanai
3.5ft @ 13s from 269° (W)

I saw footage of head high waves in Kihei yesterday. Not too surprised, as the original direction of the swells has had a lot of west lately. And with that reading at Lanai, I wouldn't be surprised if there will be waves also today.

North shore
NW101
9.5ft @ 14s from 332° (NNW)

4.5ft @ 6s from 334° (NNW)

3.9ft @ 10s from 332° (NNW)

Hanalei
6ft @ 13s from 309° (WNW)

3.2ft @ 9s from 327° (NW)

2ft @ 11s from 306° (WNW)

Waimea
5ft @ 13s from 310° (WNW)

Pauwela
4.2ft @ 10s from 58° (ENE)

4.0ft @ 14s from 318° (NW)

4f 14s at Pauwela is a quite a lot less than the 7f 14s the Surfline forecast has for this morning. That means that I'll check Hookipa first and report hopefully before 7.30.

 

Notice how the numbers at the buoys are progressively smaller as we move away from the more distant one. That is because of the decline of size with extra travel time and because of the energy lost into the eventual refraction around land masses. Both things are more noticeable at lower periods.
 

Below is the graph of NW, Hanalei and Pauwela. On the first one, I circled in red a nice turn of the swell towards a much more favorable direction for Maui. IF that is true, there should be another bump in the swell in the second half of the day, but...


... I wouldn't get too excited because of two reasons:
1) I didn't find and NNW fetch in the past five days maps (picture below: Jan 19 to 23) that would justify such a reading as 9.5ft @ 14s from 332°. So I actually think that the direction of this bump is still pretty westerly, but the buoy has its direction detection abilities hindered by the active post front wind that is at the moment hitting it: Wind: 23.33-31.1kts from N.
2) whether it happens or not, it shouldn't matter much, as the wind will turn the conditions into junk in the afternoon.


Wind map at noon shows the onshores that will follow the front. Should stay clean till 10-11 according to this model, which has been spot on with what the prediction of the ESE wind lately. Let's see how it does in this completely different situation.


Better get used to the sideon winds, as the Windguru table below shows that the weekend and the first days of next week should to be dominated by a NE direction, which isn't good for anything, other than for wind/kite foiling on the north shore and Kihei downwinders (maybe).


North Pacific continues to offer westerly fetches, this time with the side dish of a small northerly one after the front about to pass today, but that's only going to create junkiness.


South Pacific has a long but far and weak fetch.


Morning sky shows the approach of the tail of a front.


This other image shows a lot better that once again we're just going to be brushed by the very tail of a massive front that extends from just north of us all the way to the Gulf of Alaska. What a perfect latitude we live at.

Thursday 1 24 19 morning call

Two shortboard sessions for me yesterday. First one had the amazing colors pictured in the photos below.










Not many turns, it was mostly about the drop. Here's a clip.


Second session had some wind on it, here's a shot by Jimmie.


Still fun though. Here's a clip from session two. Between the two sessions, I caught 17 waves and didn't fall ones. Pretty happy about that.


When I saw Browsinho and Levi launching, I knew it was going to be an epic windsurf session. Jimmie Hepp documented it in this spectacular gallery from which I took this well over mast high wave.


If someone asked me:"GP, who's the best windsurfer on the planet in this moment?", I will answer without a doubt: Browsinho. Check the mind blowing moves he did in the above mentioned gallery.


Here's a few of my shots. As tweaked as it gets.

Levi's speedy bottom turn. I like his style the best still.

A little sequence to illustrate Browsinho's approach to that lip.

He redirected off the lip and now is going to free fall in front of it.

He painted that one.

Later at work, I had the Pipeline webcam in the background. Here's a set feathering on third reef and 100 people (no kidding, I counted them!) scratching for the horizon.


5am significant buoy readings
South shore
No indication of southerly energy at the buoys.

North shore
NW101
9.7ft @ 15s from 312° (NW)

4.9ft @ 10s from 319° (NW)

 

Hanalei

10.9ft @ 15s from 308° (WNW)

3.1ft @ 10s from 340° (NNW)

 

Waimea

9.6ft @ 17s from 318° (NW)

 

Pauwela

9ft @ 17s from 321° (NW)

4.1ft @ 10s from 68° (ENE)

 

Beautiful numbers at the buoys. Below is the graph of NW and Pauwela, together with the Surfline offshore swell forecast for the next three days, which shows that the surf should stay elevated across the period. For the ones interested in yesterday's discussion, I put a red arrow to show that at 7am Pauwela registered well under the 4f 17s (more like 2.5f 18s) that we observed yesterday at NW and Hanalei. It did go up nicely after that, so it might be a case of delayed delivery. This morning's number is very solid. 9ft 17s means Hookipa is too big for me, which means I probably won't report from there.

Wind map at noon. No wind down the coast till then.


North Pacific continues to provide complex WNW and NW fetches, which will make it difficult to separate each single individual episode. Here's the NOAA's take:"A moderate long-period reinforcement will bring the surf back to around advisory-levels for north and west facing shores early next week".


A small S fetch in the South Pacific.


Morning sky.