Smaller day at Hookipa yesterday, but, as you will read below, that was only a transition day. Photo by Jimmie Hepp from this album.
Hi-Tech is now carrying the awesome Armstrong foils. Eager as I am to try as much gear as I can, I immediately got myself a 1050 with a 50cm fuse and managed to have one head to head comparison session with my favorite Gofoil surfing setup (GL120 with 24.5 mast and tuttle to tuttle extension plus short pedestal and 12.5 tail). The comparison started up so interesting and exciting that it seemed like it was going to be like a tight race between American Magic and Team New Zealand.
Unfortunately my right hip started flaring up and now I have to take a break from foiling until it heals.
And while I'm at it, I'm also going to take a break from all the disciplines that involve gripping with my hands. With the exceptions of my thumbs and the right index that was operated, in fact, all my other fingers trigger. Bit of a wreck I know, thank god I can still surf at least...
On the floor are three of the most advanced front wings: 1250, 1050 and the just arrived new 850. Damn, would love to try them all!
4am significant buoy readings and discussion.
South shore
Lanai
1.2ft @ 13s from 196° (SSW)
Very small SSW energy at Lanai, check the Lahaina webcam
if interested, for size, conditions and consistency (there's not much).
North shore
NW101
11ft @ 19s from 324° (NW)
Pauwela (6am)
New large long period NW swell on the rise, judging from the NW buoys it's not as west as it was predicted to be, that's good news. Here's Pat Caldwell's description of the evolution of the fetch:
The boisterous low pressure got going just east of Tokyo 1/18. It tracked east about 1000 nm then turned NE to NNE as it hit the west side of the blocking ridge near the Date Line. A long-wide fetch of severe gale to storm-force winds set up over the 295-310 degree band. JASON satellite measured seas over the fetch aimed at Hawaii near 36 feet about 2000 nm away. The old back-of-the-envelope surf forecast rule of thumb of swell losing half its height for each 1000 nm of travel seems to match the Wave Watch III, WW3, estimate for the peak of the swell at the Waimea buoy output point as noted in the table above. Other JASON passes near and east of the Date Line 1/21 to early 1/22 showed swell at least the size or a notch higher than the WW3 output, which increases confidence. As the low took a NE to NNE track 1/20-21, additional swell over the 310-325 degree band of limited fetch length and duration has added NW to NNW swell that should some lower surf size to the dominant WNW to NW swell over the weekend.
You can read the rest of it on the linked SNN page. Below are the maps of Jan 19, 20 and 21 that will help follow.
Below are the graphs of NW101 and Pauwela (Waimea not online this morning) together with the Surfline forecast. It's going to be another solid swell, even though not quite as big as the last massive one and unfortunately with a lot of wind on it. It should be rising steadily throughout all day, home guess for early morning Hookipa is already head and a half to double.
Wind map at noon .The other ones can be found at link n.-2 of GP's meteo websites list in the right column (click on animation of the 10 meter column).
Fetches map (circles legend: red: direct aim, blue: angular spreading, black: blocked).
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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