Memorial Day Weekend Waves

You gotta love it when we get a late season north swell on Maui’s north shore. Wave season is pretty much over for the summer on Maui’s north shore but we always seem to get one or two last swells the end of May and early June. We got one of those day. Super fun day in my opinion. Spectacular weather with sunny blue skies and hot temperatures. Solid 22 knots of wind meaning well powered 5.0 for me. Head high north swell and occasionally larger sets in the logo high range up near Camp One. And hardly anyone out there to compete with for them. I love these late season north swells. Most of the winter and spring crowds are gone and the summer crowds haven’t arrived. Uppers was nearly deserted at times. Got some really sweet, clean, head-high+ sets early in the session around 11:30 am.

Here’s a few shots I snagged of Uppers after my session:

Before today it’s been mostly pretty flat and even a bit light for a couple of days. Trade winds mellowed a bit on Wednesday from their previously nuclear levels. Gusty 4.7 conditions at Uppers/Camp One was the call – very powered up most of the time but lots of holes. Some fun backside riding wind swell. Thursday and Friday the winds backed off even more – still sailable but bigger gear than I was interested in. Wind came back up to 5.0 levels yesterday. Small surf, but a fun session of riding the ocean swell outside Camp One upwind of Kanaha. Some big, fun, glassy rollers for Gorge-style riding. Not much breaking surf, just some small stuff breaking at Camp One for backside riding.

Looks like good wind should stick around through mid-week then possibly back off a bit. Today’s swell will start subsiding but there should still be something tomorrow. And, it looks like we may get another series of small northwest swells late next week.

And this just in, check out the latest installment of the Victor Fernandez on Maui series: