Category: Maui Surf
The trade winds have picked up in pace on Maui. Maui’s trades help cool the islands, bring passing showers and have helped Maui earn the reputation as one of the best windsurfing locales on the planet. I recently found a good Maui Windsurfing blog that chronicles local conditions and provides some great photos and footage.
While I am on the subject of wind surfing, it is worth mentioning our Spreckelsville Beachfront listing. This property is hard to beat if you are a windsurfer. The home has 150 lineal feet of beachfront. The waters offshore offer world class windsurfing. A large gear rack in the back yard is ideal for storing all your boards. You can truly rig and launch from the back yard.
There are two beautiful homes on the 1/2 acre gated property. The main house is 3 beds and two baths with a large loft area. First class materials and fixtures make this home a luxurious home base for taking on Maui’s wind and waves. A second home features 4 beds and two baths. It has a flexible floor plan that allows the home to be separated into two separate 2 bedroom/one bath units. For more pictures, check out the the property website. This home is listed for $3,460,000. Seller holds an inactive real estate license in the state of Hawaii. Contact us today for additional information or to set up an exclusive showing.
The Tropical Energy Ocean Games began today at Ho’okipa Beach Park outside of Paia. The five day event will feature a variety of water sports including surfing, longboarding, stand up paddle surfing, wind surfing, kite surfing, canoe surfing and tandem surfing. The event has a waterman competition where competitors will be asked to compete in the various wave riding disciplines. There will also be individual events. Events will be run based on appropriate conditions. Today’s event is being run during a High Surf Warning. This will be challenging for competitors as there will likely be sets closing out the whole bay. The event is meant to be a celebration that evokes the old Hawaiian Makahiki season. This was a time when Hawaiians celebrated through games, music and festivities. If you are on the North Shore this holiday weekend, stop by Ho’okipa to check out the games!
January will be remembered with mixed emotions by Maui’s wave riders. Through much of January, trade winds made for good conditions for Wind and Kite Surfers. Surfers and tow surfers were flustered by lower than average surf and mediocre conditions due to the aforementioned trades. Around the end of January, we saw a change in weather patterns of the Pacific that has brought increased surf heights and a mix of calm and Kona winds. Kona winds are the southerly winds that groom the waves on Maui’s North Shore to perfection. While there have been no record breaking swells, there have been a number of high surf warnings over the last four weeks. This means wave faces in excess of 25 feet on outer reefs. This has kept Maui’s tow surfing and big wave riding community entertained. Another High Surf Warning was issued for a new swell slated to arrive late tonight. It will peak on Thursday and decline to advisory levels Friday. This comes on the heels of a beautiful advisory level swell that is just starting to fade on the North and West Shore. As with all high surf warnings, beach goers should exercise caution.
We have had big seas and big winds over the last couple of days on Maui. The waves were big enough to awaken Jaws, Maui’s big wave spot. While the waves were not enormous by Jaws standards, it is always impressive to watch particularly with the strong off shore winds. Here are some photos taken by friend Daniel Sullivan.
To see more of Daniel’s Jaws pictures check out the website for his store Indigo Paia.
Winter time in Hawaii is often marked by Kona Winds and large to even giant surf. It has not felt a whole lot like winter through most of this season. Kona winds have been a rarity with trade winds predominant. The surf while big by most standards has been tame for Hawaii. We saw things start to change last week with a giant surf episode. This week is likely the most decidedly winter weather we will experience as of yet. Kona winds started blowing yesterday and were grooming the waves along our North Shore today. The Konas are supposed to blow most of the week. The surf was beginning to rise around sunset with a High Surf Warning announced for North and West facing shores. Wave heights are expected to be 25 feet plus Monday rising even higher on Tuesday. It should be advisory or warning level surf for most of the week. We may even get some much needed rain on the dry sides of the island this week.
Maui’s North and West Shores are under a High Surf Warning. The surf began to rise rapidly on these shorelines today with waves between 20 and 30 feet with some sets approaching 40 feet in height. While most conventional surf breaks are closed out, tow surfers and expert paddle surfers are tackling the very large surf on the outer reefs. This looks like one of the largest swells to hit the island chain thus far this year and it comes as something of a surprise as forecasts earlier in the week were talking of smaller advisory level surf. Buoy data appears to indicate that the swell will peak tonight and start to fade relatively quickly tomorrow morning. After smaller than average surf through most of the month, it appears that weather patterns will be favorable for extra large surf over the next couple of weeks as the jet stream will be bringing storms in the North Pacific closer to Hawaii.