Wednesday 7 31 19 morning call

Another day of inconsistent and relatively small but really good waves on the south shore yesterday, but here's the best way of utilizing the weak/blown out windswell waves at Hookipa. Kane is such an inspiration for me, and he will probably also be the cause of the heart attack I will have while trying to do what he does...



3am significant buoy readings
South shore
Barbers
1.6ft @ 13s from 195° (SSW)

Lanai
2.1ft @ 13s from 198° (SSW)

Not too bad for a week... "without swells". Loving the lack of crowds, the extremely clean early morning conditions and even the traffic on the way back for the installation of the lanes' sound markers on the Pali, which will save many lives in the future. Watch out for the extreme new moon tides, here's the Lahaina ones.


The low tide might be the reason why this morning the waves only look like knee high on the webcam. Still clean and not flat, I'll take it. Check it out yourself, it might get a little bigger on the rebound.


Below is the collage of the maps of July 22 to 25. On the 23rd I circled that fetch NE of New Zealand in black because it was oriented towards our west, but it looks like we got some angular spread energy out of it.


North shore
Mokapu
5.3ft @ 8s from 74° (ENE)

Hilo
7.2ft @ 8s from 74° (ENE)

Windswell increased a bit, more small mushy waves at Hookipa, slightly bigger on the eastern exposures.

Wind map at noon.


North Pacific has the trade windswell fetch and the two tiny but intense ones of Erick and Flossie. Depending on the trajectory, most of the energy of those last two will be blocked by Big Island, but if they will travel south of us (as they're predicted at the moment), we could have those short windows of epicness in select spots on the south shore.


Here's Erick's cone, too early for specific swell prediction. For sure the combo of the two storms will finally put an end to the drought we had so far in this extremely dry summer (caused by the easterly direction of the trades, as opposed to a ENE or NE direction).


South Pacific has a couple of lovely fetches E and W of New Zealand. And the big Tasman Sea wham is following right behind. Should be a pretty good first half of August. What a summer!


Morning sky shows the approaching outer bands of Hurricane Erick in the SE corner.

Tuesday 7 30 19 morning call

A day of intense Gofoil GL wings test for me yesterday (more to do today, will report the results soon), while at Kanaha the Maui Race Series saw its third and last day of action. Jimmie Hepp posted a beautiful gallery from which I picked this photo. Sorry, not a huge fan of slalom windsurfing races photos.


This is a video of the foil wing races posted by Gofoil on their youtube channel.


3am significant buoy readings
South shore
Barbers
1.9ft @ 12s from 189° (S)

Lanai
1.6ft @ 15s from 199° (SSW)

Love the 15s reading at Lanai, unfortunately it looks pretty small instead on the webcam, but if you watch it long enough, you'll see very inconsistent long period sets like this one. It baffles me how many people still drive there without checking it first.


North shore
Mokapu
4.4ft @ 8s from 81° (E)

Hilo
5.5ft @ 8s from 91° (E)

Windswell came up a bit, Hookipa had small kine waves yesterday, and that makes me think that there should be something also today.

Wind map at noon.

North Pacific has the windswell fetch and the tiny but intense ESE one associated with tropical storm Erick. Big Island should block most of the long period energy out of that.


Tasman Sea warming up for a wham later on this week, but it'll be a different fetch than this. The blue circled S fetch should send us also some angular spreading.


My Fiji connection sent me this MSW Cloudbreak forecast. It cracks me up that, according to the left column, 11ft 20s translates into 12-18ft faces. Those spot related forecasts are totally useless. Just use the open ocean swell forecast and learn what that does to your spots. In a few weeks of observation, you'll know better than any surf prediction website.
Btw, in case you were wondering, IF 11ft 20s will really be in the water at Cloudbreak (which I doubt), the faces of the waves will be more like 30-40 feet...


Morning sky.

Monday 7 29 19 morning call

I'm gonna borrow the words of a post on a Aussie forum to describe what happened yesterday:
Huge day in Hawaii with Kai Lenny pumping his way past Jeffrey Spencer to take the win in another record time 2hrs 29minutes. Having done 2 M2O's the head wind into the last couple of km's is hell on a raceboard let alone trying to pump into it...
SupTomo had a shark encounter mid way into the race with the shark attacking his foil :(
Huge Congratulations to James Casey with an emotional win just beating Boothy & another amazing win for Terene taking out her 3rd M2O & in record time...
Huge day on Maui with the national Slalom windsurfing titles but the highlight of the day was the first ever Wind Wing Foil event & watching legends of the sport Robbie Naish & Alex Aguera battling it out around the course...

The full results (but with a missing 3rd!! Maybe Kody Kerbox which I can't find anywhere else?) of the M2O race are here.

This instead is the start of the first foil wing race ever! They did three of them and in the last leg of the second, it was such a classic battle from the past: Robby Naish, Alex Aguera and Alan Cadiz head to head just like... 30 years ago! Sky Solbach won the combined results of the three races.


Jimmie Hepp posted the usual big gallery of the windsurfing races, but he didn't take many photos of the foilers. Fortunately Chris Pagdilao did, here's a start from the jet ski.


And this is the youngest of the competitors (I counted 13 of them) Bobo Gallagher doing a strapless air.


4am significant buoy readings
South shore
Barbers
1.1ft @ 15s from 200° (SSW)

1.1ft @ 12s from 198° (SSW)

0.9ft @ 11s from 191° (SSW)

Lanai
1.2ft @ 15s from 205° (SSW)

1.2ft @ 12s from 199° (SSW)

0.8ft @ 11s from 191° (SSW)

 

Love the consistency of the readings at the local buoys. The most significant energy is of course the 15s one, which will probably be very inconsistent, but provide some sets once in a while in between long flat speels. Check the webcam!

 

North shore

Mokapu

3.5ft @ 8s from 85° (E)

 

Hilo

3.9ft @ 8s from 96° (E)

 

Small and easterly windswell, Hookipa will be flat to tiny, little bigger on the easterly exposures.

 

Wind map at noon.



North Pacific only has the windswell fetch.


Pretty good Tasman Sea fetch. We should see Cloudbreak shots in a few days.


Morning sky.

Sunday 7 28 19 morning call

Today there's a Molokai to Oahu race, you can follow the competitors on this page. This SUP foil downwind short video by Jeremy Riggs is very inspiring. Unfortunately, my trigger finger doesn't allow me to learn/do such things, it's been one perfect downwind day after the other in the last week or two.


Take yesterday, for example. How windy does it look to you?


Jimmie Hepp posted a whole gallery of photos of the first day of the Maui Race Series. This is a busy jibe.


Chris Pagdilao caught this wipeout.


BTW, just find out about this.


3-4am significant buoy readings
South shore
Barbers
1.8ft @ 13s from 187° (S)

Lanai
1.7ft @ 13s from 165° (SSE)

0.2ft @ 25s from 185° (S)

Small 13s energy in the water, that sliver of 25s energy is too small to be noticed and it might easily be a fluke. Yesterday early morning the Lahaina area was knee to waist high perfection, today looks knee to thigh high perfection. Check the webcam before going as there's many flat spells.


North shore
Mokapu
4.3ft @ 7s from 91° (E)

Hilo
4.7ft @ 8s from 88° (E)

Windswell is pretty small and east, Hookipa will be flat to tiny.

Wind map at noon.


North Pacific only has the windswell fetch (forgot to circle it).


Nothing from the South Pacific as fetch circled in black will be blocked by Australia and Tasmania.


Morning sky.

Saturday 7 27 19 morning call

No photos from yesterday, here's Hi-Tech manager Steve Roan flying pretty high on his Gofoil Iwa wing.


He will be very busy running the Maui Race Series windsurfing races at Kanaha for the next three days.


4am significant buoy readings and discussion
South shore
Barbers
2.1ft @ 14s from 177° (S)

Lanai
2.1ft @ 13s from 169° (SSE)

No matter what the buoys show in terms of directions, if you remember the position of the fetches, you know that there is still a mix of SSW and SSE in the water. It wasn't particularly impressive in Lahaina yesterday (also because of an early onshore flow), but there were some waves and more there will be today. So look at the webcam and decide. Looks small, but nice and empty at 5.30am.


But if you watch long enough, you can see there's bigger sets like this 5.40am one I caught while brushing my teeth. Still empty.


North shore
Mokapu
4ft @ 6s from 85° (E)

3.3ft @ 7s from 80° (E)

 

Hilo

4.7ft @ 8s from 81° (E)

 

Windswell in a down phase, the waves at Hookipa will probably be tiny, as usual a bit bigger on eastern exposures.

 

Wind map at noon.



North Pacific only has the (weak) windswell fetch.


Yesterday's straight south fetch moved to the east, but right now is still in a decent position. As soon as it moves east of the 160 degrees great circle ray, it will be blocked by the Big Island.


Morning sky.

Friday 7 26 19 morning call

After a Kai Penny video, I feel compelled to post one of "The Original", that came up a few days ago.


3am significant buoy readings and discussion
South shore
Barbers
1.9ft @ 14s from 194° (SSW)

Lanai
2.2ft @ 15s from 164° (SSE)

Let's first see what Pat Caldwell had to say about the energy in the water these days.

Surf coming in 7/24 from 140-170 degrees was created S to SE of the Tuamotu Islands 7/15-17 in the subtropics. This event is also modelled to trend down on Thursday.
The subtropical Tuamotu system tracked SSE 7/18-19 as it gained severe-gale to storm-force winds. The system moved steadily away from Hawaii, limiting fetch duration. Without the shadowing by the Tuamotu Islands, this type source would generate above average surf locally. However, the shadowing greatly lowers the surf potential and introduces larger error bars on the surf estimate.
Forerunners from this source are due locally on Thursday centered from 155 degrees. It should be filled in by Friday and peak near the average Friday night. The event should slowly trend down into Sunday. Background level surf is predicted for Monday, 7/29.

Below is the maps of July 19, 20 and 21 that show the "Tuamotu" fetch and a Tasman Sea one. IF the directions at Barbers and Lanai are correct, the first one feels the SSW energy, the second the SSE one, but obviously they are both in the water in both locations.


The not so usual SSE direction inspired me to draw a few lines on Google Earth. As you can see, Lahaina might get a bit of shadowing from Kahoolawe from this direction, while a spot like Thousand Peaks seems to be more open to it. That is true, but let's not forget that well before hitting the small uninhabited island, the swell will have to wrap around the southern tip of the Big Island, which sits at 160 degrees from us (but only at 150 for Lanai), as reported in the Buoys to Maui travel times and Maui's shadow lines post. Hard to predict the size, that's when the Lahaina webcam plays a huge role. Check it out before going, but there should be waves on that side today. Do check the size at Thousand Peaks if you do go, but the wind maps call for strong offshores over there.
PS Looks pretty small in the semi-dark, but there's sets. You got to look at least 5 minutes, the longer you look, the better you know.


North shore
Mokapu
3.6ft @ 8s from 76° (ENE)

Hilo
5.8ft @ 8s from 87° (E)

Mokapu down a bit, Hilo pretty steady, there should be small waves at Hookipa also today with bigger sizes on the eastern exposures.

Wind map at noon.


Only windswell in the North Pacific.


South Pacific has a lovely fetch in a great straight south position.


Morning sky

Thursday 7 25 19 morning call

Another day off, another Kai Penny day. Skin check was good by the way, despite the fact that I pretty much don't use sunscreen anymore... surf hats work!

The first session clips were full of water drops on the lens (forgot to dip the water in the camera before paddling for the waves), here's the only decent image I was able to retrieve.


3am significant buoy readings and discussion.
South shore
Barbers
2.1ft @ 12s from 193° (SSW)

1.4ft @ 16s from 178° (S)

Lanai

2.3ft @ 6s from 142° (SE)

2.1ft @ 13s from 162° (SSE)

1.4ft @ 9s from 170° (S)

1ft @ 16s from 167° (SSE)

We have SSW and SSE energy at the buoys, and that's the result of the fetches in the South Pacific last week. Below is the map of July 18th, for example. As a result, there will be waves from both directions, not sure what spots will feel them more (yesterday Thousand Peaks was the most effected one), check the webcam in Lahaina before going for size and conditions.

North shore
Mokapu

5.7ft @ 8s from 71° (ENE)

Hilo

6.8ft @ 9s from 77° (ENE)

Windswell going up and down with the size and intensity of the upstream fetch, today seems to be an up day. Hookipa will have small waves with eastern exposures possibly bigger.

Wind map at noon.

Only windswell in the North Pacific.

The black circle indicates a fetch that will be mostly blocked by New Zealand, the red ones are pretty small/weak.

Morning sky.