A giant northwest swell rolled into Kaua‘i yesterday, pounding north and west facing shores with waves over 25 feet, with some sets sweeping in with up to 60-foot faces, according to North Shore lifeguards. With huge surf breaking at Hanalei’s
A giant northwest swell rolled into Kaua‘i yesterday, pounding north and west facing shores with waves over 25 feet, with some sets sweeping in with up to 60-foot faces, according to North Shore lifeguards.
With huge surf breaking at Hanalei’s outer reefs, only a handful of hardy surfers paddled or towed into the giants.
But that didn’t stop folks from all over the island from driving up to see the sights.
“First, I went to Princeville, and the parking lot was full. The whole end of the cliff was lined with people,” said Carl Heintze, a recent transplant to Kaua‘i. “It was awesome. I’ve never seen anything like it before.”
Heintze said he missed the peak of the swell, which apparently hit a few hours before dawn, but it was still impressive.
Kalihiwai resident Christopher Kaplanis was highly impressed with the work of the Hanalei Water Safety Officers, who spent the entire day pulling surfers to safety on jetskis.
“Those guys deserve praises,” Kaplanis said from the beach parking lot at the end of Anae Road in Hanalei. “All day I watched them. It was amazing.”
“As soon as they could get guys out of the impact zone, they just plucked them out,” he added. “The lifeguards were on it. They did an excellent job.”
In late afternoon yesterday, Kaplanis had just finished surfing Middles in the middle of Hanalei Bay. Surf had dropped into the eight-foot Hawaiian range (16-foot faces). Middles was unsurfable in the morning, he said, because the swell was just too big.
“There were just some mean waves out there,” he said. “I made some epic ones, but I took a bad wipe (out) and hit the reef.”
Kaplanis had scraped his head, elbow, and knee in water that is at least twelve feet deep.
“It was big. It’s the biggest I’ve ever been out,” said Zak Gilbert, who also surfed Middles. “I got a few good ones.”
Kaplanis said that there were only three guys surfing there, with six to ten surfers throughout the day paddling into the Point at Hanalei, fronting Princeville Resort.
At least a half-dozen tow-in surfers were on the outer reefs throughout the day, with numerous other jetski-surfer duos farther west towards Ha‘ena beach.
According to the National Weather Service, Buoy 51001, 200 miles northwest of Kauai, peaked at almost 25 feet at 11 p.m. Tuesday.
While the surf is on the way down, surf is expected to be 16-22 feet today on the north shore, and 6-12 feet tomorrow, forecasters said.
And it won’t go down much farther than that.
Another large northwest swell is expected Friday night, producing surf near or just below the warning level which is 25 feet for north-facing shores. And Tuesday will see a west northwest swell well above the 15-feet advisory level for north-facing shores.
