A longboard and a shortboard session for me yesterday. No photo of the day, this is Derek Hamazaki making good use of his paddle. It's another personal preference thing, some SUP foilers don't like to use theirs. I do.
4am significant buoy readings
South shore
Lanai
4.7ft @ 17s from 301° (WNW)
I don't know how many times I've been asked if there was going to be a wrap of this swell on the west side. The real answer to that question is nobody really knows because the variables involved are too many and the direction of this swell is not particularly favorable to the wrap even though it's pretty massive. All I know I elaborate here. I took this photo from the post Buoys to Maui travel times and Maui's shadow lines and I added three lines of different colors:
1) the black line shows the easiest way to the most common wraps that happens when the swell is from 350 to 20 degrees, which is not the case, at least just yet. On a big north swell, the wrap can come down all the way to Lahaina, particularly focusing on the Puamana area. Yesterday's fetch was suggesting a strong northerly component, which might arrive tomorrow. So this wrap has more chances of happening tomorrow, imo, IF the swell will come from a more northerly direction.
2) the yellow line indicates the narrow corridor between Niihau first and then Molokai and Lanai. That is 285 and that's not the case either.
3) the red line was drawn roughly from 300 degrees, which is the direction that the Lanai buoy shows this morning with a healty 4.7ft 17s. That energy will have to wrap around the south tip of Lanai and possibly hit the Kihei coast and even the Ukumehame area. Will it happen today? As I said, I don't really know, but it's likely. We'll find out later today.
North shore
NW101
12.3ft @ 15s from 321° (NW)
4.2ft @ 9s from 334° (NNW)
3.4ft @ 11s from 320° (NW)
Hanalei
18ft @ 17s from 321° (NW)
5.1ft @ 9s from 328° (NW)
Waimea
17ft @ 17s from 322° (NW)
Pauwela
17ft @ 17s from 323° (NW)
North Pacific now has another relatively close and strong NW fetch for the next swell on the conveyor belt.
5.5ft @ 11s from 330° (NW)
Below is the collage of the graphs of the four reported buoys, plus the Surfline forecast. This was the first time ever that I saw Hanalei going higher (21ft) than the NW buoy. The reason, I think, is that the fetch got so close to the islands that the wind kept building the swell also on the stretch of ocean between the NW buoy and the islands. Usually instead, the swell declines in that part (and cleans up), as there isn't active wind on it to keep building it.
The vicinity of the fetch made this swell extremely rough and with multiple periods overlapping. Pipeline looked like Sand Piles yesterday (a massive Sand Piles!), and all of Maui's north shore will be unsurfable, with the only possible exception of the Kahului harbor.
The place to go is the west side. Honolua will be pretty massive and the more you move down the coast towards Lahaina, the more the size should decrease. As usual, the wind will play an important role, so keep an eye on it.
The vicinity of the fetch made this swell extremely rough and with multiple periods overlapping. Pipeline looked like Sand Piles yesterday (a massive Sand Piles!), and all of Maui's north shore will be unsurfable, with the only possible exception of the Kahului harbor.
The place to go is the west side. Honolua will be pretty massive and the more you move down the coast towards Lahaina, the more the size should decrease. As usual, the wind will play an important role, so keep an eye on it.
Wind map at 11am. I got the feeling the wind maps are being updated while I type this, so the 11am map was the latest I could retrieve.
North Pacific now has another relatively close and strong NW fetch for the next swell on the conveyor belt.
Nothing from the South Pacific.
Morning sky.
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