Windfoiling, longboard and again windfoiling were my fun activities yesterday. Sorry about the inflation of harbor photos, but that's where I spend my days lately. Such a peaceful place.
A friend of mine sent me this from Honolua. You can see a little bump from the north wind, but nonetheless yesterday's best spot for sure.
5am significant buoy readings
South shore
Lanai
2.4ft @ 15s from 301° (WNW)
Lanai feels the wrap of the big NW swell, but I doubt our shores will see anything of that. Flat is my guess for today.
North shore
NW101
10.3ft @ 13s from 335° (NNW)
3.1ft @ 10s from 7° (N)
2.6ft @ 8s from 11° (NNE)
N
10.2ft @ 15s from 316° (NW)
7.7ft @ 10s from 348° (NNW)
1.8ft @ 5s from 316° (NW)
Hanalei
9.2ft @ 15s from 322° (NW)
7.4ft @ 11s from 1° (N)
5.6ft @ 10s from 349° (NNW)
Waimea
9.4ft @ 15s from 319° (NW)
6.2ft @ 12s from 343° (NNW)
5.1ft @ 9s from 351° (N)
4.4ft @ 10s from 355° (N)
Pauwela
9.4ft @ 15s from 319° (NW)
5.5ft @ 10s from 348° (NNW)
4.5ft @ 11s from 342° (NNW)
Usually I report the secondary swells only at Pauwela (hence the adjective "significant" before "buoy readings"), but today I made an exception and reported everything at every buoy of interest. Pat Caldwell elegantly describes that as: Combined remote long-period, and nearby short-period waves are making for high, rough conditions. I call it a mess. Today's conditions will be very similar to yesterday, so once again seek for a sheltered spot on the north shore or try the west side.
Wind map at noon.
North Pacific has a nicely elongated NW fetch and the now small nearby N one.
A SUP foiling and a longboard session for me yesterday. Don't have a worthy local pic of the day, so here's Signature foils' Nathan Van Vuuren's new 2.9 prone board. That is 2 feet 9 inches.
5am significant buoy readings
South shore
Lanai
1.2ft @ 13s from 202° (SSW)
Still tiny SSW energy at Lanai, I heard yesterday was tiny, so probably tinier today.
North shore
NW101
11.2ft @ 16s from 326° (NW)
10ft @ 10s from 344° (NNW)
Hanalei
6.7ft @ 17s from 311° (NW)
3.7ft @ 9s from 356° (N)
Waimea
6.9ft @ 18s from 308° (WNW)
3.9ft @ 10s from 353° (N)
Pauwela
3.5ft @ 18s from 325° (NW)
3.4ft @ 11s from 344° (NNW)
3.2ft @ 6s from 37° (NE)
3.2ft @ 9s from 7° (N)
New large long period NW swell on the rise all day today, as the graphs of NW, Waimea and Pauwela show below (blue line on all graphs). Notice how the significant wave height (black line) is much higher than the NW swell, as the shorter period N swell from the nearby fetch adds energy on top of it. That, together with the unfavorable winds (16mph from N in Kahului at 6.45am), will give the unsheltered spots of the north shore messy conditions and disorganized breaking patterns making them pretty much unsurfable. Seek for sheltered spots or try the west side.
Wind model didn't update, so this map at noon is more than 24h old.
North Pacific has a NW and a nearby N fetch. That other NE blue area seems too weak to deserve a circle.
South Pacific has a tiny bit of fetch SE of New Zealand.
Morning sky.
Tuesday, February 26, 2019
7 hookipa has mixed up waves from head to head and a half with already a bit of wind on.
5
I'm back after a short and very last minute trip to the Big Island. Took me 18 years to put foot on that beautiful land. Let's see how long it will take for Lanai.
Doesn't happen often to have a commercial airplane all by yourself.
The reefs of North Kihei look pretty awesome from above. Too bad they don't get swells very often.
And that's because of the relatively narrow opening between Makena and Kahoolawe which, as reported in the post Buoys to Maui travel times and Maui's shadow lines, is 165 to 185. Pretty cool to watch it from above. I wished there was a swell to see how long the shadow cone created by Molokini would be.
Human colonization.
The teacher comes in.
I even went on a "touristy" boat trip. Got plenty photos of whales...
...but none of them looked as good as this one that I took at Hookipa.
4am significant buoy readings South shore Lanai
1.4ft @ 14s from 206° (SSW)
Small SSW energy at Lanai should make for another non-flat day on the south shore.
North shore NW001
5ft @ 12s from 339° (NNW)
4.6ft @ 9s from 4° (N)
1.1ft @ 20s from 340° (NNW)
Hanalei
5.5ft @ 13s from 315° (NW)
4.6ft @ 9s from 342° (NNW)
4.3ft @ 11s from 320° (NW)
0.2ft @ 25s from 305° (WNW)
Waimea
5.5ft @ 10s from 337° (NNW)
5.2ft @ 13s from 319° (NW)
0.2ft @ 25s from 312° (NW)
Pauwela
4.4ft @ 9s from 347° (NNW)
3.5ft @ 13s from 317° (NW)
3.1ft @ 11s from 327° (NW)
One of the reasons why I went to the Big Island was the lack of waves in Maui. Not anymore, plenty and mixed NW energy on tap now for the whole week, unfortunately with unfavorable winds at times. As usual, we'll stay focused on the present and notice that this first medium (size and period) NW swell buoy peaked around noon at the NW buoy yesterday. At 12s that means 20h of travel, so expect a corresponding peak in the local waters around 8am. Below is the graphs of NW, Waimea and Pauwla together with the Surfline forecast, which for today suggest an optimistic 6ft 11s. Whatever it'll be, today it's just a warm up day, the real big stuff is tomorrow and Thursday.
Not much too really get excited about though. The number of different period readings at all the buoys suggests a non particularly clean breaking pattern. In addition to that, tomorrow there will be the very long period energy, and the short period N energy generated by the nearby fetch depicted in the fetches map below. With the addition of the onshore winds (predicted to gradually increase), the conditions will look pretty stormy, unless you manage to find a sheltered spot.
Best time to surf this whole three days stretch, imo, is this morning at dawn. I'm running a little late, but I'll try to report from Hookipa before 7.30am.
Wind map at noon. Should stay relatively calm until 10-11am.
Announcement: there will be no morning call tomorrow.
A longboard session for me yesterday. I passed on a possible foiling session at Hookipa in the afternoon, because that's my least favorite place where to foil. I took photos of the foilers instead.
The smooth style of Sean Ordonez.
Jason attempting punts.
Kane broke three leashes while foiling lately (!). The last one was a coiled one which ricocheted badly and put a hole in his brand new and incredibly light self-designed Flying Dutchman built board. He bought a regular one and in this moment he's studying it (and possibly hating it). Not gonna last long, that's my guess.
Spiritual teacher of the day.
5am significant buoy readings South shore Lanai
1.2ft @ 13s from 205° (SSW)
The low energy from the SSW stubbornly insists at the Lanai buoy, I had a report of up to thigh high waves at Ukumehame yesterday. Might be more of the same today.
The Ala Moana cam seems to confirm that. Please contact Ozolio if you have the possibility of hosting a webcam in Lahaina.
North shore Hanalei
0.4ft @ 16s from 350° (N)
Waimea
0.4ft @ 16s from 340° (NNW)
Pauwela
3ft @ 8s from 65° (ENE)
After two days of 9ft 10s (Wednesday and Thursday), one at 6ft 9s (Friday) and one at 4ft 9s (yesterday), today the easterly windswell is down to 3ft 8s and the size of the breakers will be borderline too small to surf both at Hookipa and at all the easterly exposures.
Both Waimea and Hanalei show a hint of 16s NW energy, but none of the outer buoys does. The Surfline forecast calls for only 1ft 14s for tomorrow, so one thing is for sure, that energy will make no difference in the Maui water today.
Wind map at noon.
North Pacific's main fetch is the strong NW one that will generate the Wednesday/Thursday swell. There's also a lovely nearby NNW one and a tiny W one associated with typhoon Wutip.
South Pacific has a possible very remote S fetch. I say possible, because I have no idea of how the great circles rays are down there and it might easily not be oriented towards us.
A shortboard and a longboard session for me yesterday. Here's a couple of shots of the spot where I spent all day.
This is Hookipa instead.
5am significant buoy readings
South shore
Barbers
1.2ft @ 13s from 196° (SSW)
Lanai
1.2ft @ 12s from 203° (SSW)
Minimal Tasman Sea energy continues at the buoys. I heard yesterday there were waves at Ukumehame that were up to occasionally waist high, smaller in Lahaina. I'm going to call it flat to knee high today.
North shore
Pauwela
4.3ft @ 9s from 66° (ENE)
The Pauwela graph below is pretty explicit: the energy from the ENE is declining steady and that's what the purple line on the Surfline forecast on the right also shows. Not much else is in the water, consequence of the lack of wave generation that we observed on the fetches map in the last couple of days. At least the wind should be favorable once again (been wonderful the last couple of days), so enjoy small and clean because tomorrow is going to be smaller and less clean.
Wind map at noon.
North Pacific has a decent NW fetch that will give life to a medium size/period swell on Tuesday (6ft 11s from 329). The red arrow points to the low that will instead generate a much larger swell for Wednesday/Thrusday. Unfavorable winds for those, unfortunately, but all can still change.
South Pacific has a couple of interesting fetches. Mark down next weekend as a day of possible small waves on the south shore (tbc by the buoys and webcams observation).
A longboard and a SUP foiling session for me yesterday.
Bernd Roediger took second place in the APP SUP contest at Sunset Beach a couple of days ago. Today he was testing gear at the harbor and put up an excellent display of different kind of skills. How's his ability to switch stance and still paddle like a machine while on the foil?
Finn Spencer glides one under the eyes of his brother Jeffrey.
Bruddah forgot-his-name was ripping.
Norm riding one of his shapes.
Randy on a gem.
Yasu.
Ralph Sifford told me he reads the blog regularly. I hope that inspired him to start learning SUP foiling. Whatever it was, I can see a grim on his face that means: "already hooked".
The inventive Brett Lickle came up (in collaboration with Jimmy Lewis who shaped the board) with an electric foil with a Wavejet motor pod, designed to catch the wave early pump up and foil without the drag of the motor like the other electric foils. Obviously, that propulsion should become zero as soon as the board lifts, but the drag will be zero too. The question is about the added weight of the board, the use of the Maliko 280 seems to indicate the need of big lift, but that might also be because of the small size of the waves on the south shore used for the test. Interesting nonetheless.
5am significant buoy readings
South shore
Barbers
1.2ft @ 14s from 211° (SW)
Lanai
1ft @ 12s from 240° (WSW)
0.9ft @ 14s from 208° (SSW)
The one foot at 12s at Lanai could be still coming from the cyclone Oma by Vanuatu, but that other foot 14s at both Lanai and Barbers probably comes from the Tasman Sea fetch that is highlighted in the maps of Feb 14, 15 and 16 collaged below. Wherever they come from, the will make for more small waves on the south facing shores. Unfortunately, I keep not having reports from there.
The lack of a webcam in Lahaina doesn't help (please contact Ozolio if you have the possibility of hosting one). Ala Moana looks pretty flat, so my guess is nothing more than knee high.
North shore
Waimea
3ft @ 11s from 351° (N)
Mokapu
5.7ft @ 10s from 73° (ENE)
Pauwela
6ft @ 9s from 67° (ENE)
Waimea is the only buoy that registers a northerly reading different from all the other buoys, that instead only show easterly energy. That is because it's more protected by NE of Oahu, as shown in the map below. As you can see, Mokapu instead is on the east side, and even though exposed to the 351 direction registered by Waimea, only shows the easterly energy. We can say that Waimea shows the N because it has nothing else to show. The position of the buoys is obviously important to understand why they show what they show. A convenient larger scale map with the buoys position is offered by link n.0 of the GP's list of meteo websites.
Pauwela is also open to both those direction and only shows 6f 9s from 67, as that's the predominant energy in the water. Hookipa will have some waves too, but they should be smaller than the easterly exposures (which are once again the safest call), as its shadow line to the east rests around 65 degrees, as described in the epic post Buoys to Maui travel times and Maui's shadow lines.
Wind map at noon. Shoud be pretty calm all morning with clean conditions everywhere.
North Pacific has a sliver of NW fetch (red circle), which is backed up by a larger fetch that is oriented just SE of us. We might get a bit of angular spreading from it, but overall another day with very little wave generation for Hawaii. That will reflect into three days of marginally small waves (Saturday, Sunday and Monday). Surfline has 6ft 11s from 328 on Tuesday, but we haven't seen the fetch for that just yet. A much bigger NW swell is predicted to pick up Wednesday, peak on Thursday at 13.7ft 15s from 328 and gradually decline the next couple of days.
South Pacific has a remote fetch in the Tasman Sea.
Born and raised in Italy, I became an engineer and worked 11 years in the IT industry. Sick of that, in 2001 I wanted to take a year off and spend it in Maui, the best windsurfing spot in the world. Not only I'm still here (in Maui), but I also got into surfing. And the stoke is flying high. Life is too short to work 8 hours a day...
