Saturday, April 01, 2017

Saturday 4 1 17 morning call

Double surf session for me, one in Lahaina and one at Hookipa (with the rising big swell). Unfortunately Lahaina had an uncharacteristic early morning sea breeze. It's actually not that rare and, IMO it's related to the strong trades. You'll never find it on a light trades day. But not all strong trades day have it. Pretty much impossible to predict. Too bad, because the waves would have been fun. Hookipa was a mess of wind, I just went for the workout.

The swell picked up as predicted and the windsurfing conditions were pretty radical. Photo by Jimmie Hepp from this gallery. Bernd Roediger was on a tear.


4am significant buoy readings
South shore

Lanai
4.2ft @ 17s from 268° (W)
The wrap of the WNW swell is hitting the Lanai buoy and it's overshadowing the south swell. IMO, both the size and direction of that reading are influenced by the interaction between the two swells and that reading is almost useless. What counts in the case are the webcams.

North shore
NW101
9.9ft @ 14s from 299° (WNW)

Waimea
8.1ft @ 15s from 314° (NW)

Pauwela
6.3ft @ 15s from 320° (NW)
4.3ft @ 9s from 79° (ENE)
3.5ft @ 7s from 77° (ENE)

Below is the graph of the three reported buoys. It shows that the swell is holding pretty steady in size, but it's already down to 14s at the NW buoy. So, slow decline through the day, but still plenty energy and big waves at Hookipa.


The MC2km website is down (those guys need a good webmaster), it would be nice if someone could investigate if maybe they changed the address again and let me know. In the meantime, today the wind should be exactly how it has been for the last week: easterly, strong and gusty. At 5,30am the Hookipa sensor reads 14 (10-20) from 81 and good luck at surfing those big waves with that wind. No report from the beach from me, I got a very tight schedule and can't waste any time today.

Another stunner on the way. How's the weather been? Unreal.
 

Current wind map shows:
1) an extremely weak NW fetch
2) the windswell fetch
Such a pressure configuration should immediately trigger the thought:"we're gonna have a small day in a few days". That's what's gonna happen after the current swell will be over (around Wednesday).


Strong fetch very much down under. so far away and not well oriented. We'll see what we get in 7-8 days.

No comments: