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Wednesday, September 30, 2020
Wednesday 9 30 20 morning call
Extremely high quality waves all morning yesterday in Lahaina. Don't have shots of the day, so here's my review of a 12.5" flat tail from Gofoil.
4am significant buoy readings and discussion.
South shore
Barbers
1.9ft @ 14s from 181° (S)
Lanai
2.3ft @ 14s from 183° (S)
This swell has performed much better that I expected (size and intensity of the fetch helped the angular spreading) and the numbers at the buoys are still nice. Check the Lahaina webcam
if interested, for size, conditions and consistency. Here's a flawless shoulder high one at 6.30am.
North shore
NW001
6.8ft @ 11s from 335° (NNW)
Pauwela
3.3ft @ 9s from 4° (N)
2.8ft @ 11s from 330° (NW)
First low pulse of NW energy is at Pauwela, while the second much larger one is on its hills (at NW001). Let's see how Pat Caldwell described the evolution of the fetches:
The first pattern unfolded into 9/26 with the surface winds leaning below near gales and the head of the fetch further away. This lower pulse is due on Tuesday with a trend up in the PM from 325-350 degrees. There could be the start of some longer period energy of 14-16 seconds toward sundown. The second pattern has nosed near gales to near 35N to the N of Hawaii Monday morning 9/28. The low center is beginning to occlude and should gain severe gale status overnight. The track away from Hawaii limits the surf potential for the longer-period portion. The nearby gales alone should bring surf above the September average by Wednesday morning with an upward trend from 325-350 degrees. The longer-wave period portion should peak on Thursday morning from 345-010 degrees at levels above the Sept-May average.
Below is the collage of the maps of Sept 26 through 29 that will help follow.
Below are the NW001 and Pauwela graphs, together with the Surfline forecast. The second pulse seems to have start hitting the NW buoy around 5pm yesterday. 11s means 21h of travel, so I drew a red dotted line on Pauwela's graph to indicate a local rise in the afternoon. Earlier than the Surfline forecast that calls it during the night. Surfline forecsts have been late, so that might be the case also this time. Keep an eye on the Pauwela buoy, if you plan to surf in the afternoon. Meanwhile, almost 3ft 11s should make for at least head high waves at Hookipa to start the day with (beach report later this morning).
No to light wind in the early morning should make for very good conditions.
PS. I just saw a few well overhead sets at Sunset Beach in Oahu, so here in Maui there might be an even earlier rise around 11am/noon.
Wind map at noon (the other ones can be found at link n.-2 of GP's meteo websites list in the right column).
Fetches map (circles legend: red: direct aim, blue:
angular spreading, black: blocked, yellow: apparent direct aim,
but out of the great circle ray map, so not 100% sure).
North Pacific (about 4 days travel time from the NW corner
of the North Pacific):
South Pacific (about 7 days travel time from east/west of New Zealand):
Morning sky.
Tuesday, September 29, 2020
Tuesday 9 29 20 morning call
This is the reply I got from the Mayor's office to my email:
Aloha,
Under current Public Health Emergency Rules, County of Maui park hours are from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Thank you,
Brian Perry
Director of Communications
Office of the Mayor
Which means that until there's an insurrection, they're not gonna change it. So please keep sending emails to the Mayor's office: Mayors.Office@co.maui.hi.us
to ask to open the beach parks before 7am as it used to be before Covid.
Fun surfing on the Makena side yesterday.
Waves were a bit racey.
4am significant buoy readings and discussion.
South shore
Barbers
2.2ft @ 15s from 185° (S)
Lanai
3ft @ 15s from 179° (S)
Period down to 15s, but still 3ft at Lanai, should be another good day of surfing on the south shore. At least to start with, because, as Pat Caldwell reminds us, since this is an angular spreading event, past experience has shown that once the dominant wave period falls within 10-14 second, the energy drops sharply, because the longer-period swell maintains size much better during the travel, with the shorter-period swell having substantially more decay.
Check the Lahaina webcam if interested, for size, conditions and consistency.
North shore
NW001
2.7ft @ 13s from 348° (NNW)
Pauwela
4.2ft @ 9s from 71° (ENE)
The windswell at Pauwela will give small waves to Hookipa and the eastern exposures. The NW001 buoy started recording 13s NNW energy around midnight. At 13s it takes 19h to get here, so I don't think there's going to be anything from that locally all day. Tomorrow there will be.
Wind map at noon (the other ones can be found at link
n.-2 of GP's meteo websites list in the right column).
Fetches map (circles legend: red: direct aim, blue:
angular spreading, black: blocked, yellow: apparent direct aim,
but out of the great circle ray map, so not 100% sure).
North Pacific (about 4 days travel time from the NW corner
of the North Pacific):
South Pacific (about 7 days travel time from east/west of New Zealand):
Morning sky.
Monday, September 28, 2020
Monday 9 28 20 morning call
Wonderful waves on the south shore, here's a beauty of a right. The sky is not too shabby either.
Here's a roller that lasted 50 seconds. Kai Penny showing his version of fancy footwork.
4am significant buoy readings and discussion.
South shore
Barbers
2.5ft @ 17s from 189° (S)
0.9ft @ 13s from 192° (SSW)
Lanai
2.9ft @ 17s from 181° (S)
0.9ft @ 12s from 187° (S)
Impressive numbers at the buoys. Second time in a few days in which an angular spreading exceeds my expectations. Check the Lahaina webcam
if interested, for size, conditions and consistency.
North shore
Pauwela
4.6ft @ 7s from 62° (ENE)
Back to windswell only, small waves at Hookipa and on the eastern exposures.
Wind map at noon (the other ones can be found at link
n.-2 of GP's meteo websites list in the right column).
Fetches map (circles legend: red: direct aim, blue:
angular spreading, black: blocked, yellow: apparent direct aim,
but out of the great circle ray map, so not 100% sure).
North Pacific (about 4 days travel time from the NW corner
of the North Pacific):
South Pacific (about 7 days travel time from east/west of New Zealand):
Morning sky.
Sunday, September 27, 2020
Sunday 9 27 20 morning call
Please send an email to the Mayor's office: Mayors.Office@co.maui.hi.us to ask to open the beach parks before 7am as it used to be before Covid.
Deneb's bottom turn to illustrate the waves at Hookipa yesterday morning. 
4am significant buoy readings and discussion.
South shore
Barbers
1.6ft @ 15s from 195° (SSW)
1.5ft @ 18s from 191° (SSW)
Lanai
2.5ft @ 15s from 185° (S)
1.7ft @ 20s from 177° (S)
Extremely good numbers at the buoys with two distinct swells, the new very long period energy comes from this fetch that Pat Caldwell described like this:
The second pulse was created by a low-pressure system that dropped to 948 mb to the S to SE of New Zealand 9/19-20 with seas 30-40 feet aimed at the Americas. The wide, long fetch gives better odds for angular spreading to deliver surf in Hawaii. The onset stage is due Saturday 9/26 from 180-200 degrees. The American Samoa buoy showed 18-22 second forerunners 9/23-24. This buoy location is west of the predicted primary swath, so any energy registered increases the odds for Hawaii to receive the event. This event should slowly build into Sunday 9/27 from 180-200 degrees, with the combo of sources making above average surf 9/27. Heights should hold above average into Monday 9/28 from the same direction, then slowly drop to background by 9/30.
Below is the collage of the maps of Sept 19, 20 and 21. I put an arrow on the fetch, which is so aiming at South America that I originally didn't even circle it in blue. The angular spreading of such a fetch will be extremely inconsistent, so it's a good thing to have a solid background of 2.5ft 15s, as I guess the 20s sets will be many minutes apart.
Check the Lahaina webcam if interested, for size, conditions and consistency. Conditions should be good all morning.
North shore
N
3.7ft @ 10s from 32° (NE)
Pauwela
2.5ft @ 7s from 59° (ENE)
2.5ft @ 9s from 351° (N)
1.8ft @ 6s from 51° (ENE)
1.5ft @ 11s from 350° (N)
Swell is almost gone and it's going to keep declining all day. Hookipa will still have some small waves.
Wind map at noon (the other ones can be found at link
n.-2 of GP's meteo websites list in the right column).
Fetches map (circles legend: red: direct aim, blue:
angular spreading, black: blocked, yellow: apparent direct aim,
but out of the great circle ray map, so not 100% sure).
North Pacific (about 4 days travel time from the NW corner
of the North Pacific):
South Pacific (about 7 days travel time from east/west of New Zealand):
Morning sky.
Saturday, September 26, 2020
Saturday 9 26 20 morning call
This is the email yesterday I sent to the address of the Mayor: Mayors.Office@co.maui.hi.us
Subject: please start opening again the beach parks before 7am as it used to be.
Hi Mayor,
I'm a strong supporter of everything you've done so far to contain the
spread of the virus. At the same time, I don't see any reason not to
start opening the beach parks before 7am again.
The early morning surfers at Hookipa are forced to cross the Hana
Highway sometimes in the dark and with winter swells approaching, that
is going to get more and more dangerous. It's only a matter of time
before an accident will happen.
Also the surfers at Kanaha are complaining because of the
inaccessibility of the park in the early hours.
Thank you very much.
Please send a similar one if you think that the parks should start opening earlier than 7am again. The more emails the better, so I will now start my posts with a reminder like this until that happens.
This is Hookipa yesterday morning. Kai Barger aggressively approaching the lip.
That resulted in a wide spray fan.
Later on the windsurfers went out and this is my pick of the Fish Bowl Diaries album.
At that time I was instead shooting my favorite wave wingfoiler Dylan Fish.
4am significant buoy readings and discussion.
South shore
Barbers
3ft @ 8s from 165° (SSE)
1.9ft @ 16s from 197° (SSW)
Lanai
1.7ft @ 17s from 175° (S)
1.4ft @ 6s from 174° (S)
1.3ft @ 9s from 184° (S)
1.2ft @ 14s from 183° (S)
Couple of pulses are expected to arrive during the weekend and the 17s reading at Lanai could be the first one, even though the direction is not what expected. Here's how Pat Caldwell described the evolution of the fetch:
The first pulse was generated by a gale to severe gale, low-pressure system south of New Zealand 9/17 that took a NE track allowing a better aim of seas towards Hawaii. Given the better aim at Hawaii and similar location, duration, and magnitude than recent sources that produced above average south swells, this one was notched up in the forecast. Readings from the PacIOOS/CDIP American Samoa buoy 9/21-22 suggested the event filled in by midday Friday. The NOAA southern Hawaii buoys 51002 and 51003 do show wave energy in the 16-20 second band late morning 9/25 that suggests the event filled in overnight Friday into Saturday above average. This event should peak late Saturday as a new event adds to the mix.
We'll check the second one tomorrow, below is the collage of the maps of September 17, 18 and 19.
Check the Lahaina webcam if interested, for size, conditions and consistency.
North shore
N
4.1ft @ 12s from 11° (NNE)
Pauwela
3.5ft @ 13s from 344° (NNW)
3.2ft @ 9s from 346° (NNW)
3.1ft @ 8s from 48° (NE)
2.4ft @ 11s from 340° (NNW)
NNW swell still decent at the buoys, today it's predicted to be on the decline all day. There should still be at least head high waves at Hookipa to start with.
Wind map at noon (the other ones can be found at link
n.-2 of GP's meteo websites list in the right column).
Fetches map (circles legend: red: direct aim, blue:
angular spreading, black: blocked, yellow: apparent direct aim,
but out of the great circle ray map, so not 100% sure).
North Pacific (about 4 days travel time from the NW corner
of the North Pacific):
Morning sky.
Friday, September 25, 2020
Friday 9 25 20 morning call
Despite my skepticism, the NW swell did get pretty big and the Maui rippers put up a show in all the wave disciplines. The action was insane, here's a sample of it, thanks to the contributing photographers who I thank very much for letting me use their photos. My favorite shot is this one of Luke Siver by Fish Bowl Diaries, out of this album.
This is a little chapter dedicated to Maui's own Kai Lenny who was seen launching his jet ski early at the harbor before going to Hookipa were he did... everything! This is a sick kitesurfing bottom turn from this album by Jimmie Hepp.
Then a bit of windsurfing...
...and at sunset he was wingsurfing. Here he's trying a new move: mid backflip on the face of the wave, he ditches his board, jumps on the wing and ride it as a magic carpet. Just kidding, but sometimes that's how new moves are born.
These are the rest of the shots I took. Logan Bediamol.
Last wave in for Kai.
Cody Young and his buddies formed a tight pack at The Point and they were all totally ripping.
After windsurfing, Bernd Roediger rode a small SUP and shredded some more. He's only kicking out in this photo.
4am significant buoy readings and discussion.
South shore
Barbers
2.3ft @ 13s from 209° (SSW)
Lanai
1.6ft @ 15s from 185° (S)
Pat Caldwell had 3ft 18s for today, but that is not what we have at the buoys. Keep an eye on them (and on the webcam) as they could come up during the day. Multiple sources will generate multiple swells over the weekend. Check the Lahaina webcam
if interested, for size, conditions and consistency. It looks bigger than what the buoys say.
North shore
N
6.1ft @ 13s from 1° (N)
Pauwela
4.7ft @ 13s from 346° (NNW)
3.8ft @ 6s from 65° (ENE)
2.8ft @ 7s from 70° (ENE)
Wind map at noon (the other ones can be found at link
n.-2 of GP's meteo websites list in the right column).
Fetches map (circles legend: red: direct aim, blue:
angular spreading, black: blocked, yellow: apparent direct aim,
but out of the great circle ray map, so not 100% sure).
North Pacific (about 4 days travel time from the NW corner
of the North Pacific):
South Pacific (about 7 days travel time from east/west of New Zealand):
Morning sky.
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