Whole Lotta Sloggin' Goin' On

Light, slogging conditions are prevailing on Maui right now

Back into light wind mode again here on Maui for the past few days. Trade wind strength has dropped quite a bit. Not to say that it’s been totally unsailable the last few days – lighter than I’m willing to try, but there’s definitely folks out making the effort. Winds have come up to the mid-teens in the afternoons off and on, and it’s been tempting at times, but every time I get tempted to go down to the beach, I check and see that the winds have dropped to below 10 or some such dismal reading. Thursday it even came up to 22mph for a couple of readings but that was followed by the wind completely tanking. And looking at the streaming Kanaha cam (which is indispensable on days like this for those of us who don’t have the luxury of hanging out at the beach all day waiting for the wind to come up) I’ve rarely seen anybody planing  - just a whole lot of slogging.

More of the same yesterday but even a notch lighter. Checking the iWindsurf graph a few times an hour to see if it’s worth the effort to head to the beach. A few readings in the upper teens. Then a big drop. Kanaha cam showing lots of people slogging. Just not worth it to me.

No doubt some are still managing to maximize the stoke factor like our anonymous commenter in the previous post that recounted “epic” conditions at Uppers on Wednesday despite wind never getting above the mid-teens. I’m a firm believer that epic is in the eye of the beholder and stokifying conditions are completely subjective so I won’t question his sanity – just that our definitions of “epic” are completely different.

Looking into the future of windsurfing on Maui, it’s not looking like it’s going to get any better in the next week or so. In fact the Wind Guru numbers are looking a bit more dismal than they have the past few days and the guys at the National Weather Service office in Honolulu are saying it’s going to get lighter still. Surf is also on the decline on the north shore.