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January 10, 2006
west swell
WEDNESDAY...surf is on the way up as a new swell is already upon us. buoy 1 has started to increase in all the neccessary catagories and in particular is showing very long period energy in the 17-22sec bands. this is typical fashion announcing the arrival of a new ground swell. the culprit was a strong fast moving system that lived and passed relatively quickly in terms of storm life. this system packed a powerful punch with near hurricane force winds late saturday into sunday and then dissapated. as the system deepend rapidly it spun in a tight knit unit only allowing a moderate fetch of around 600nm to form. with the given travel distance of roughly 2200nm this allowed the swell trains to arrange themselves in periods of similar frequency. in simple terms that translates into the larger swell periods moving out in front of the pack because they travel faster. tomorrow will see the swell periods shorten to 14-17sec as the main swath of energy moves in out of 290-312deg. west facing reefs will definitely pick this swell up as in terms of north swells this one is about as west as they get. because of this factor oahu may see slightly smaller waveheights due the shadowing effects of kauai and niihau...which is on the other hand is good news for the big island. look for surf in the 6-8ft solid range in the morning with a possible drop in the swell by the afternoon. expect some winds on the water as the trades are stubborn and do not want to go away.
Posted by megaprober at January 10, 2006 05:42 PM