Our north and northwest facing shores will see some fun surf today in the 6-8+ foot range, with some breaks nearing double-overhead if you know where to look. Upper West shores should get some of this action as well around 3-5+ foot at the better breaks. Windswell on our east shores is at a minimum under no direct tradewinds with wave heights only reaching into the 1-3 foot range. Our south facing shores don't have any swell to mention and wave heights are flat at 0-2 foot. Conditions should be pretty good today under the light winds, but as always, the wind will ruffle things up later in the day. We may see a rare southeasterly swell arriving over the weekend, but the odds are still fairly low. More minor south shore action is expected through next week, but nothing to get excited over. Not much will come out of the northwest through the period, but a few little bumps are possible... more details to come.
Wind & Tide Info
The light local winds will continue today, but will swing more from the north with wind speeds only around 0-10mph, slowly clocking back to the typical easterly direction by Saturday. Low tide at Kahului was -0.1 foot at 6:13am this morning, rising to a high of 2.1 foot at 1:19pm this afternoon, fading once more to a low of 0.8 foot at 7:20pm this evening.
Maui Weather
We should see mostly dry conidtions today, but the vog will increase as a dying cold front located just to the north of Kaua`i dissipates, allowing the typical easterly tradewinds to slowly return over the weekend. Isolated showers are possible, but we shouldn't expect rain today.
No forecast update today... Please check back Saturday.
NORTH PACIFIC: The flat spell will be broken today as a new northwest swell fills in through the day. A minor gale of 25-30 knots set up near the dateline earlier in the week associated with a low tracking quickly toward the Gulf of Alaska, but the fetch it produced wasn't impressive and it wasn't aimed well in our direction. The resulting moderate NW (305-330º) swell arrived last evening at the NW 51001 buoy and will make its way down the island chain over the next couple days although it should peak later today. A secondary low following closely behind should keep the action going through the weekend at small to low-end moderate levels. Former super typhoon Rammasun may provide us with some west-northwesterly action over the weekend, but don't get too excited as it won't amount to much as most of this energy was aimed toward the Bering Sea. The northern jetstream has pulled back together and is offering a storm track favorable for Hawaiian surf... but storm activity will be low. A low pushing out from the Phillipines this weekend is modeled on a track aimed just to the north of the state that would result in a decent late-season swell arriving around Wednesday the 21st. More details to come.
SOUTH PACIFIC: Two swell sources in the South Pacific are occuring as you read this. The first storm is spinning southeast of New Zealand and is taking a northwesterly track up our swell window, and it is supposed to intensify over the weekend while sending up a decent southerly swell that would reach our shores around Friday the 23rd. It's too early for specifics yet, so stay tuned for updates. Far to the east is a strong but fading storm that was backtracking while sending a decent shot of energy northeast toward the Big Island. This energy will have to power through quite a few islands and much of it will be blocked by the Big Island, but we may see a rare SE (130-145º) arriving around the end of this weekend and into the workweek. We'll see what happens, but don't get too worked up about it! Looking at the long-range models, we don't see much action in our swell window although there will be lots of action in the South Pacific... just not much aimed our way. Pray for surf!
Brazilian wildcard Bruno Santos has defeated local wildcard Manoa Drollet (PYF) to win the Billabong Pro Tahiti and become the first Brazilian to win an ASP World Tour event in five years.
“I’m really happy, my dreams just came true,” Santos said. “Today is not the perfect day to surf the final, but I don’t care I’m still happy. It’s still the best day of my life.”
Santos, who earned his spot in the Billabong Pro Tahiti with a runner-up finish in the Air Tahiti Nui VonZipper Trials held prior to the main event, got the better of local Teahupoo specialist Drollet in their low scoring affair. Santos beat Drollet 9.16 to 6.83 on a borrowed surfboard in inconsistent three-foot (one metre) waves.
“I got two little barrels and then there were no more waves, I don’t know, maybe Mother Nature was trying to help me,” Santos said. “Today is so small and my 6’3 was too big so I borrowed a board from a French guy in the channel. He saved my life, I want to keep the board.”
