There was some talk earlier in the week about a bid South swell coming in and perhaps hanging around for race morning. I’ve been here since the 1st and the first 2-3 days the swell was very large–and somewhat challenging to swim in. It has diminished considerably since and now at mid day Thursday it’s still quite modest–perhaps slightly more than 2-3 days ago. We’ll see if it builds from here but my guess is not…
Now as for the wind–we have a lot more now then we did a few days ago…it was cooler yesterday afternoon then it’s been since i arrived…
Nothing to worry about–it will be what it will be…
Not so much the S. but the new NW swell will be filling the bay Sat. am.
From NOAA:
HIGH SURF ADVISORY FOR NORTH AND WEST FACING SHORES THROUGH FRIDAY NIGHT
Surf along north facing shores will be 12 to 16 feet today, building to 15 to 20 feet Friday
Surf along west facing shores will be 8 to 12 feet today, building to 10 to 14 Feet Friday
This event is expected to piggy-back the first episode, filling late Thursday and peaking Friday morning from 300-325 degrees. Heights should be high enough to awaken select outer reefs making for marginally extra-large conditions. Surf should slowly decline Friday night into Saturday from 300-335 degrees, though remain above average.
Keep in mind this is the Oahu forecast - waves arrive to our West shore about a day later, which means the peak of the swell (right at the cutoff window of 300-305 deg.) will arrive Sat. morning. The energy dissipates somewhat in the travel time from Oahu as well, but it’ll be a notch or two bigger than that South swell we had last week. The “piggy-backed” swell referenced in the forecast above was in our Maui block window (310-320 deg.), and if there’s any energy down there now thats what you’re feeling.
Have fun out there, please stay off the reef bc I don’t want to have to come and pick urchins out of you, and swim hard!
from surfline for kona:
Small long period swell from the northwest holding during the day. Light and variable west-northwest winds with smooth seas, increasing rapidly later.
SHORT TERM FORECAST (through Sunday, October 12th)
*Highlights: Solid NW swell peaks. *
South Pacific Swell: Old SSW swell fades out Thursday morning. By Thursday afternoon, some new, shadowed SW (220-205) trending more favorable SSW (200-190) swell begins to show. This decent Southern Hemi looks to further fill in throughout the day on Friday with inconsistent sets in the waist-chest high zone for exposed breaks later in the day.
For the weekend, the swell holds in the waist-shoulder high range for good exposures, with larger sets up to head high at top spots.
North Pacific Swell: Old NW/NNW swell (310-330) winds down on Thursday as a new, long-period NW (300-330) groundswell fills in through the day. The healthy groundswell tops out Friday then holds on Saturday. This healthy groundswell is being cranked out by large scale storm that’s been tracking across the central NPAC lately, and it will be good for plenty of waves in the double overhead zone at well exposed spots. Standouts will see some larger sets on top of that. Slow fading but still solid surf left for the end of the weekend.