Film/edit: Carlo Carbajal/Maui Media Cartel. Music: Hot Lunch

We saw it over a week ago. The North Pacific had kicked off 2020 with less-than-stellar fireworks, but that all changed mid-month, when things started getting all purple up there. The highlight of said purple was a super session at Peahi on Thursday, January 23rd, where Billy Kemper got the “wave of his life,” local boy Tyler Larronde reminded everyone that he’s still around, Kai Lenny did as Kai Lenny does, footstraps and not. Oh, and former world champ Adriano DeSouza paddled and pulled into a massive pit. Click play above for highlights from the day. [Promo photo: Kai Lenny by Pedro Gomes.]

Meanwhile, we also tapped Surfline lead forecaster Jonathan Warren, who’s been monitoring this stuff relentlessly, for some more intel.

“After such a fantastic November and December – which performed above to well above average – January took a nose dive for the first two-thirds of the month, especially considering it’s typically the peak of the season and usually packed full of large to XL to even XXL size swells,” he said. “Just wasn’t the case this time. However, to not finish as a complete dud, the North Pacific swell machine finally turned back on in the final one-third of the month, unleashing two back-to-back XL size swells this week — the one that moved in this past Thursday and another that will arrive this weekend. In addition, for the most part, conditions have been excellent this week and will continue to be favorable this weekend.

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“A few key ingredients of this most recent swell that helped Pe’ahi produce some of the most incredible waves so far this season: 1) The combo of both long period and very westerly energy (but not too west and too blocked by Molokai), which really enhances the degree of refraction by the local bathymetry and amplify the wave in both height and powerful bowling shape. 2) Peak of the swell was in the morning, which coincided with the best wind conditions for the day. Maui is usually burdened by blustery trade winds — especially an openly exposed spot like Pe’ahi — but the trades went slack for this event and light winds prevailed.

SWELL SIGNATURE

STORM LOCATION/MOVEMENT: Slow, east-northeast track from under Japan to the Gulf of Alaska January 17th-22nd

STRONGEST STORM WIND: Fetch of 45-60 knots aimed at Hawaii on the 19th and remained nearly as strong over the 20th-21st.

PEAK STORM INTENSITY: 972mb low flanked by 1024mb high over the 19th-20th.

SWELL TRAVEL TIME: About 3.5-4 days from peak of storm to peak of swell on Maui.

PEAK OF SWELL: Buoy 51001 sitting northwest of Hawaii peaked with just over 14 feet at 16-17 seconds from the WNW 295-330°, while the Pauwela Buoy sitting just north of Maui peaked with about 11 feet at 16-17 seconds.