4 6 15 morning call

Yesterday turned out to be a trifecta day, so that automatically goes into the good category.

South shore was perfect for SUP and longboards, as the two photos below show.

Well this one shows some beauty.

 

 

 

 

 Head high for this kid, who was actually ripping.

After that, I attempted a shortboard session, but that didn't go too well. It just wasn't enough power, but I'm constantly testing boards and I don't want to miss out on any opportunity.
In the evening I ended up having way more fun that I thought I was going to have at Hookipa. My buddy Maurizio took some pics.

My Hot Sails Maui Firelight 4.3 is my favorite sail in the world. Haven't tried them all, of course, but working at Hi-Tech, I tried a bunch. Now listen to me: that doesn't mean that's the best sail for you also! They crack me up every time they ask me what you think about this sail and this board etc...
I mean, it's good to have an opinion (like this one you're getting here), but you need to filter it. We are all so incredibly different. What's good for one can be shit for someone else.
The sailing I do is quite different from the sailing 90% of the windsurfer of the world do.
I hate the strong wind, I think planning is overrated and I love slog and surfing, just to give you an example.
Back to the sail, here's the two main reason I like it so much:
1) It's the lightest sail in the world. It's even lighter than any 3 battens sail I've tried. You can throw it around like a feather and that, specialy in light wind, it's an incredible advantage.
2) It's pretty flat. I hate full bellied sail and all that power they generate. 90% of my turns are tacks (as the one pictured below) and a flat sail makes the tack SO MUCH EASIER.
I believe it also makes you trim the upwind sailing better. And lastly a flat sail is way more responsive than a full bellied one when you pump it to get on a wave (which I do a lot, since I love being always underpowered).

Today's buoys at 5am show a tiny little bit of difference (thank god) compared to has been the norm the whole past week. Not much to make a difference in the water, but at least it's comforting to see some periods bigger than 10s again.

NW
5.3ft @ 9s from 83° (E)

3ft @ 14s from 291° (WNW)

1.7ft @ 5s from 102° (ESE)

As you can see, 291 is a westerly direction that gets blocked  lot, so we won't see much of that energy on the north shore.

Waimea
4.2ft @ 9s from 36° (NE)

3.1ft @ 7s from 44° (NE)

1.1ft @ 5s from 39° (NE)

0.9ft @ 16s from 309° (WNW)

 

Pauwela
6.3ft @ 9s from 74° (ENE)

3.8ft @ 5s from 68° (ENE)

0.8ft @ 14s from 27° (NNE)

That means that the swell still has to hit Maui. We'll see some lines later in the day, but mostly it's gonna be windswell.

Lanai
1.8ft @ 8s from 174° (S)

1.4ft @ 13s from 193° (SSW)

1.4ft @ 4s from 154° (SSE)

0.1ft @ 25s from 262° (W)

South shore still not flat.

 

The wind today at noon looks like not as strong as the past few days, but still windy enough to get moving on a wind propelled water vehicle.

Wind map shows one fetch. One fetch much better than no fetches.

Chest to head high windswell + wind

5 4 15 morning call

 

 

 

Below average day for me yesterday.
Hana is firing, but that's the only place where you can really feel the power of this windswell episode. 9 seconds waves are not particularly powerful, so it needs to be big to get you going.


Instead it was perfect for the kids at the Ian Walsh Manehune contest at Pavillions. Here's one of the many competitors showing some possess. I got to ask Martin Potter if that's how you spell it. 

 

Beach was pretty busy.

 

 

This photo is from Jason Hall and shows some nice quads. One is my board. The other ones are Olympic skier's.

 

 

 

 

 

Buoys.
Below is the graph of the Samoa buoy. On the right, I underlined the readings of some of the local buoys. You can see how much bigger this windswell episode has been at the Mokapu, Hilo and SE buoy. I don't have an explanation for that, since the direction should hit Pauwela pretty straight.
But at the same time, Hana is big and Hookipa is small, so it must be something related to the effect of the Maui's NE facing coast (the one from Hookipa to Hana).
Anyway, more windswell on tap today. I'm a little bit sick of it and I'm doing a laundry, that's why you guys are scoring a longer than usual post...

The reason I posted the Samoa graph is that I'd like to draw your attention to another swell: 3.7ft @ 15s from 159° (SSE)
Now, what the hell is that?
Below is my best guess: it's from that fetch that I pointed out many times in the past few days. If it is, then we should most definitely receive something good. Hopefully a couple of feet and 18 seconds. But that's more wishful thinking than anything else...

BTW, Lanai reads 1.5ft @ 13s from 200° (SSW) at 7am... not flat. Check the webcam before going.





Wind today: strong as it has been for last... many days. That's the MC2km map at noon.



Fetches today: one decent one up in the NW corner and the usual very wide windswell one.

 

 I just noticed that the number of page views went up again to more than 20k per month, so thanks for reading and help me spread the word as much as you can. Thanks!

 

 

 

Chest high windswell and a bit windy. 10 people at pavils at 6.30am. I think there's the Ian Walsh menehune contest today.

4 4 15

Yesterday early morning surf wasn't particularly remarkable due to the small (chest high at most) windswell waves. It was definitely better on the beach.

 

 

After that (the surf session, I mean), I had another intense day of work, but I managed to squeeze in a sweet 20 minutes windsurfing sesh at Kanaha. Slalomish board,  perfectly powered sail, the ocean was very smooth around 1pm before the wind got stronger. Five more minutes and I would have probably got bored, but that was perfect.
Wave sailing at sunset at Hookipa looked fun judging from the photos that my friend took.

As you can see from the buoys list on the surfline page, they all have the 9s easterly windswell as their primary swell. The primary swell is the one that has the highest number in the feet column.
That doesn't mean it's the biggest out there. You guys should know by now that the waves generated by a 2f 20s swell will be way bigger than the waves generated by a 4f 9s one.
But in this case, there's really not much else around.
The windswell is forecasted to get bigger in the weekend, but I see all the graphs pretty steady.
The only exception is Lanai that is indicating a comforting 1.6ft @ 14s from 202° (SSW). Lanai doesn't get hit by the east windswell at all, since it's shadowed by Maui, plus the buoy is on the west side of it, so double shadow there.



The wind map shows an encouraging fetch just NE of Japan and that might be the one that will send us the moderate NW swell forecasted by surfline for the second part of next week (3f 14s on Thursday).
The same fetch was just east of Japan the past few days, so starting early in the week, we should se small long period energy from the WNW, but with that direction is shadowed by the upstream islands, so we won't see a hell lot of it.

World wind map shows possible the last day of generating waves for us for that fetch down under. We got to trust the angular spreading for that, since the direction is much better aimed at central america. Once again, that means non flat conditions all week on the south shore next week. Perfect for learning how to surf or sup surf.
Get out there you guys, no excuse.

 

What else. Oh yeah, the lovely wind! Below the MC2km map at 1pm that speaks for itself.
Have fun and be safe out there you wind propelled people!

15 people at pavils at 6.30am... this looks like a summer day. Waves are small with a bit of wind on it. Remember the lack of fetches in the north pacific the past few days? That's the result.
Still, it's a beautiful day and i'm not gonna complain at all!

3 4 15 morning call

Yesterday's early morning sesh was fun.

Photographer Jason Hall got in the water when I was getting out of it so he missed the prime action... But he was lucky enough to get Kai Lenny ripping on a 7.6 single fin.
Kai just got a sponsorship by Tag Heuer, and I'm gonna shameless publicize that I'm trying to sell a couple of their gorgeous sunglasses on ebay. Starting price is $150, they retail on amazon for around $355. Here's the link.




My buddy Maurizio is visiting from Italy and he took this shot from shore instead. That's the Hi-Tech rental manager Alex, one of the most solid guys I've ever met. I work with him and with Russ Faurot and I consider myself blessed for how lucky I am.




Buoys.
Pauwela is only windswell (which should increase tomorrow):
5.5ft @ 9s from 71° (ENE)           

3.6ft @ 6s from 76° (ENE)

0.5ft @ 16s from 75° (ENE)

Lanai got a tiny little energy from the south. Ankle to knee high and glassy is my call for the morning on the lahaina side.
0.9ft @ 13s from 188° (S)

1.1ft @ 7s from 213° (SW)

1ft @ 10s from 187° (S)

Wind map shows the tiniest of the fetches off Japan and a wide moderate trade wind fetch (20-25knots) east of us.



That's how the weather map looks like this morning and I wouldn't be too excited about the wind today, since you can see how at the border of that trade wind area we are. Gonna be very offshore and it could be that up the coast the wind will be better than down the coast.

 

 

 Which seems confirmed by the MC2km map at 1pm. Btw, I sailed Hookipa at sunset yesterday and that was fun too.

Down south still a little bit of energy being pushed our way. Oh yeah, I also SUP surfed the south shore mid morning yesterday and that was fun too.
Trifectas feel good.

 

2 4 15 morning call

Yesterday saw a fun glassy early surf session at Hookipa (wind came up around 8, so the dawn patrolling really paid off), a beginner surf lesson with friends at idyllic perfect knee high south shore and a very windy windsurf session up the coast.
My resolution of not sailing more than 20 knots didn't last long.

Knee high glassy is perfect for teaching, but as an opening photo I chose one of Yuri Soledade that is just a little more impressive. I don't know what wave that is, but my bet is that ain't Maui.

If you wonna see some Maui action instead, here's a shot of Jimmie Hepp of a very tweaked aerial by Graham.





Today we have similar conditions. The Pauwela buoy is only registering windswell that can be fun at Hookipa and the other east facing spots:
5.9ft @ 9s from 71° (ENE)

4.2ft @ 6s from 74° (ENE)

0.5ft @ 16s from 63° (ENE)

 

The Lanai buoy went down quite a bit but a quick look at the Lahaina webcam still shows some knee high peelers:
1.5ft @ 7s from 173° (S)

1.3ft @ 12s from 191° (SSW)

1.1ft @ 4s from 158° (SSE)  

It should be another windy day, according to the two models at the bottom of the page of windguru.
Bit frustrating that they don't update the MC2km page before I post this... I like that 100 times better.

 

North pacific wind map shows a comforting little NW fetch and an immense ENE one going all the way to the mainland.

 

 

World wind map shows a nice couple of south fetches. Once again, next week is not flat either on the south shore.

 

Gonna go catch that windswell, photo report from Hookipa coming up soon.

Small with some chest high leftovers. Not much wind at 6.20am

1 4 15 morning call

The most remarkable thing about yesterday was how all the wind forecast models were wrong.

The wind in fact never really picked up to sailing levels and it was all about surfing all day.
Best session, as often, in the early morning, seen the glassy conditions.
Here's a nice shot from Jason Hall and his megapole. Someone commented "Will Hunt will find barrels in his bath tub".
Couldn't agree more.

 

I seem to have different skills, since I once wiped out in my bath tub.
To tell you the truth, I would have not gone for that close out drop if Jason wasn't there shooting.
That's why I like having him in the water. It just pushes you to try stuff you normally wouldn't in the hope of getting the shot. There was a slight possibility of pulling off that drop, but I got stuck in the lip. Got the shot anyway...

The buoys are down, today should be a fairly small day. Report from Hookipa coming up soon, I'll make sure to have a longboard with me.

Pauwela at 5am only shows windswell, even though at 4am it still had a couple of feet from the NW.
We better get used to that, since there's no much on the horizon, as you can probably remember from the lack of significant fetches in the north Pacific the past few days.

6.1ft @ 9s from 68° (ENE)

2.7ft @ 5s from 82° (E)

 

Today's wind map does show 4 fetches, but nothing really significant. 1 will send a tiny NW swell, the wind in 2 is too light, 3 has better wind but it's small (so another small NNW swell) and 4 is wide and big enough to send us a ENE windswell. Better than nothing. Slightly. The waves generated at the eastern end of the fetch should travel long enough to get up to 8-9 seconds, hopefully.

Lanai is reading
2.2ft @ 12s from 202° (SSW)

1.2ft @ 5s from 162° (SSE)

1ft @ 7s from 177° (S)

0.7ft @ 9s from 253° (WSW)

and that first swell means that the south shore is not flat either. Knee to occasional thigh high is my call.
I tilted the world a bit on this one to show you the very long distance that the waves from that fetch down under will have to travel. Nothing to get excited about, but once again, that'll keep the south shore at what uncle Pat calls summer background levels. Which most days means average waist high clean conditions all day in Waikiki. Knee high onshore mush from the late mornings to the evenings on Maui's south shore instead.




The wind models again call for strong wind this afternoon, but I tend to doubt that. They know much better than me though.
Notice also the 100% cloud cover that both call for tomorrow.

Oh, it's April first. Humans have the stupid habit of doing the April's fools thing. I once did one myself on this blog, it was too good to pass. You'll find it in this set of 7 posts I did back in 2010. Good read (I strongly recommend to scroll down and start from chapter 1) if you want to know more about me.