Foam

The early window at 6am delivered what you needed: light offshore wind from the east smoothed the faces while the swell wrapped in from the south-south-west, and that 16-second period means organised, powerful sets rather than choppy texture. The A-frame is holding overhead to well overhead now, probably 2.6 to 4.3 metres, which asks for confident, experienced surfers who know how to read a powerful reef. The left side holds all of it and opens into clean barrels on this push; the right barrels faster at lower tides but is shorter. The cross-shore south-east wind picking up through this morning is the reason the brief window closes by 10am, it flattens what the offshore had set up.

By 3pm the swell has already softened to head to overhead as the tide continues its slow rise, and the wind stays cross-shore from the south-east, so conditions are essentially done for the day. Nothing is wrong with Mawi this afternoon, but the organised power that made the dawn window work has faded.

Tomorrow morning looks genuinely alive. The swell drops to shoulder to overhead, probably 1.8 to 3.1 metres, which still carries real reef power and suits experienced surfers only; the forecast suggests the best window opens around 7am. How firm that read is depends on how the overnight wind and tide actually behave, the ocean rarely follows a model perfectly, but the swell direction and period should support cleaner conditions than today offers now.