A Change in the Weather

Definitely a change in the weather today and likely for much of this week from what we’ve been having on Maui lately. A light and variable wind pattern has taken a firm hold over the state of Hawaii bringing light onshore winds all around the island. We’ve had a good run of wind up until yesterday.

Maui Sails' Phil McGain blasting around in 30 knots on a race sail

While Thursday was a bit light for part of the day, winds on Friday were strong most of the day after about noon. I rigged before noon when the wind was looking light and it looked like 5.3 would barely be enough. First reach out it was obvious a 5.0 would have been a better call and within a half an hour I was wishing I had 4.7 and then a 4.5.

Still some remnant NNE swell rolling in – not the optimal angle for down the line, but still a fun set-up with some fun head high waves good enough to get a few turns in down the line.

By late afternoon wind had amped up to 4.0 levels or smaller with wind speeds over 30 knots.

Gray skies made it a bit tougher to tell just how windy it was on Saturday. Rigged 4.5 thinking it looked a bit holey. Wrong! No holes at all for the 4.5. Only did a short session not wanting to punish my already sore shoulders and elbows, but had I wanted to sail more a 4.0 would have been the call. Still some short period head high sets coming in from the NNE.

Got suckered down to the beach yesterday when the wind showed up midday after being light all morning. Got to the beach to find people slogging and swimming in. If you were one of the lucky ones to have timed it right there was a brief period of powered up sailing to be had, but by 2:00 or 3:00 the wind speeds were plunging, heading for single digit readings.

We’re definitely out of summer season sailing mode now as a cold front has pushed far enough south to push our beloved ridge of high pressure out of its trade wind producing position. The result will be light and variable winds this week. Perhaps a chance for some thermally induced sailing on big sails somewhere at times, but it’s not going to be a favorable week for windsurfing here on Maui. Looks like trade winds should come back next weekend just in time for a new large-ish northwest swell bringing a chance for more wave riding for those of us here and a chance for me to get more video action for those of you living through us vicariously.

Speaking of video, here’s another video submission for Naish team rider Bernd Roediger with some pretty cool water shots of Bernd as well as other Team Naish riders including Mark Angulo throwing his Mutant 360s and Robby Naish himself.