Thursday 3 28 19 morning call

The funding campaign for the new Lahaina harbor webcam has raised $705. Thanks a lot and let's keep them coming. I'm gonna start my posts with an update like this until it reaches its goal of $2,000.

A longboard session for me yesterday. Then I went to work and after that I went back to Hookipa which offered a mixed bag of photo opportunities. In chronological order, we have Victor Fernandez making the most of the very light wind with a sub-discipline of wave-sailing that in Maui it's often called "slog and surf". Slogging is when you windsurf without planning. And even though that's no particularly fun, it still is my favorite conditions, because when you finally catch a wave, the riding will be cleaner than with strong wind.


This is Casey Hauser on his windfoiler. The fun from riding a wave on a foil doesn't come (necessarily) from hitting lips or staying in the steep sections. It's fun just to be carried by the wave, since the adjustments the foil requires are constant and extremely engaging for both body and mind.

If you starting carving up and down the face like Casey here, you add challenge hence fun.

Kiting is another way of enjoying the waves and the light wind. I think this was a lady, but it's hard to tell from the shot.

A little easier on this one.

At sunset the light wind died and the conditions improved to a 9 with most sets in that beautiful head and a half size. This is Matt Mercado, I think.

A friend asked me yesterday:
"GP, how come you gave it only a 5 this morning? It was so clean!".
"It sure was, but it also was very slow with few waves that were breaking."
"Really? When I got there, there was a wave after the other at the point!"
"What time was that?"
"Around 8.30am"
"Well, my post was at 6.30am, things change..."
Sometimes I wonder if it's worth to do beach reports from Hookipa. Conditions can literally change in a few minutes. Things that go into my score of the conditions: shape of the waves, texture and bumps, wind, consistency. I think it's still better to know something that not to know anything, so I'll keep posting them, but please remember that things can change quickly at Hookipa.

4am significant buoy readings
South shore
SE
2.6ft @ 15s from 213° (SW)

Lanai
2ft @ 14s from 266° (W)

Not sure how reliable those readings are in terms of direction, we need a local webcam to check the waves on the Lahaina side. Please keep the donations coming on the page I link. This is a nice wave at Ala Moana, but there's plenty flat spells in between.


North shore
NW101
6.6ft @ 14s from 317° (NW)

Hanalei
6.4ft @ 14s from 313° (NW)

Waimea
6.6ft @ 15s from 314° (NW)

Pauwela
6.2ft @ 14s from 327° (NW)

1.4ft @ 10s from 31° (NE)

1.2ft @ 8s from 62° (ENE)

1ft @ 11s from 19° (NNE)

Wonderful numbers at the buoys. Below is the collage of the graphs of the four reported buoys plus the Surfline forecast. This last one sees the swell growing a little more during the day, but instead the graphs indicate that the peak is right now in the morning. After that, it should stay pretty steady throughout all day. A wonderful day of waves in Hawaii. Hookipa will be head and a half to double and extremely clean with a little offshore breeze. Not sure if I'll report or not.


Wind map at noon. Should be glassy till 10am.


Huey, Dewey and Louie are still in place in the North Pacific. The fetch that will make the most waves for us today is Dewey's, as it's the closest to us.


Weak SE fetch in the South Pacific.


Morning sky.