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.
