day 4 of a series of big NW swells

Sunday saw the swell go down quite a bit. That meant that the lefts at lowers were rideable, but also that a lot of surfers were out. The rights were still better though, specially those ones that once in a while you could catch from the lefts take off point... veeery long.
I had a couple of those and this is a snapshot.


In the afternoon I was too tired and stiff to do more regular surfing and that's when the standup helps me squeeze in extra time in the water.
Actually, it happened that the conditions were ideal for SUP: super soft waves and very few people out (so that the standuppers were not hogging all the waves) and I ended up having a magic sessions. I remember in particular one left that turned pink on me. Only one. One of those short crazy sunset colors.

Monday morning 7am. I got invited to a special place from where to watch the very best tow surfers in action at Jaws. Stay tuned, 'cause I sure will take a bunch of photos.
Even though I can hear the ocean roaring from my studio (100 yards from the ocean... wow, that was a big one right now!), the NW buoy "only" went up to 16 feet, 16 seconds. Considering that the forecast were for 25 feet, either this swell has a second pulse or the models were wrong.
We'll find out. Sure Jaws will be big no matter what, but if it stays like this, it's not the swell of the century...
Got to go. Later.

day 3 of a series of big NW swells

Saturday report: the waves were big and a little all over the place with those three different periods overlapping.
The lefts at Kanaha were mean and unridable, but I had some fun on the inside of the rights... sooo much paddling, though.
Here's one.

a right a kanaha from giampaolo cammarota on Vimeo.

I heard the west side was epic, but in the afternoon I could only take an epic nap trying to recover a bit. Got to pace myself in these kind of days...

This is the weather map of Saturday afternoon. What a beautiful and huge fetch that is. The pressure went down to 949 and don't forget that the sea in that fetch was already developed. It's not hype, this is going to be a swell that will be remembered for a while.


I'm not going to Oahu: too much stress and traffic jams and flooded highways. Plus they'll do the Eddie on the internet. Plus, Jaws is going to be 70+. Plus I foresee a narrow window of possible epic wavesailing conditions on monday afternoon. Plus, I live in Maui, the most beautiful place on Earth: no need to go anywhere else!

Off to my daily dose of waves.
PS. The contest at sunset is on today.

day 2 of a series of big NW swells

Man, I caught some of my best waves ever.

Dawn patrol offered glassy, sunny conditions. Still plenty overhead up the coast.
Here's a couple of snapshots.





And here's an unedited clip of a wave.

one wave up the coast from giampaolo cammarota on Vimeo.

In the afternoon, Nick, Pascal, Glenn and I were even able to sneak in a fun port tack wavesailing sesh. At first, it seemed that all last summer practice in Oahu had completely disappeared. But after a few waves I tuned into it a little better...

Today (it's Saturday morning, 6.30am), it's going to be really, really big.
The NW buoys is showing 12 feet 16 sec, 8 feet 14 seconds, 8 feet 10 seconds all from around 225. That will make it dangerously consistent with frequent sets and plenty freak sets.
That's the fetch that created this swell (weather map of Dec 3rd).


And that's the fetch that is creating the monster one of Monday - Tuesday. Notice that that fetch is building seas over the already developed seas of the previous fetch of two days ago. That's why it's going to be abnormally big. But read the Pat Caldwell's explanation. That's meteorology poetry right there...


OK, time to go look for a place that is actually surfable...

PS. Final day of the surf contest at Sunset. Maui's Dusty Payne is in the first heat of the quarter finals.

First day of a series of big NW swells... so much fun!

After surfboard and windsurf boards, those gopro cameras are the most fun toy ever invented...

so much fun from giampaolo cammarota on Vimeo.

The afternoon saw some light Kona winds and Pascal put up a show on the weird wave. Congrats, that didn't look easy.

Today (Friday morning 5.30am) should offer some more fun surfing with the first swell that went down a bit and the winds that are still light konas. The wind should then switch from the north in the afternoon.

Saturday, 15 feet at the buoy. Monday/Tuesday, 25 feet at the buoy. With a 2+ feet high tide in the early morning, ocean front properties on the north shore of all hawaiian islands are at serious risk.

I'm thinking about going to check out the Eddie at Waimea bay on Monday/Tuesday, but I'm scared by the immense traffic jam in which the Kamehameha highway will turn into... IF the police won't completely close it due to the ocean flooding.

Maybe I'll stay here and go take photos of the biggest Jaws waves ever. Plus I wonna surf too and in Oahu I would have no idea of where to go surf with those size waves... we'll see. It's going to be a last minute decision.

Allright, dawn patrolling is calling.

North Shore Poised for Epic Transformation: big, bigger and bigger.

I liked the title of one of those excellent surf contest update emails from Jodi Wilmott and I borrowed it, adding how the surf is today and how it is going to be: big, bigger, and bigger.

The 5 days forecast from Surfline is quite explicit.


Notice how the monster swell in excess of 25 feet (open ocean height) on Monday makes look like a small one the other extra large one on Saturday (15 feet) and like an insignificant one today's one (which is already double overhead plus instead).
And Tuesday is going to be even bigger!
Oh, and there's also a respectable out of season SW swell of three feet on Firday/Saturday that completely disappears in the chart...

Anyway, unlike for super strong wind forecasts (which I pretty much dislike), I can't help myself being excited by giant waves forecasts. It's going to be hard to find a place where to surf, but just watching at the ocean when it goes seriously off is a source of great pleasure... at least for me.
Hopefully they'll run the Eddie. Most likely they will run the contest at Sunset today.

For the Maui sailors: looks like there will be two narrow slots of sailable afternoon today (Kona) and tomorrow (north). Make sure you won't miss them.

Got to go surf! Everyone, be careful out there!

birds and waves

Let's get rid of the birds first.





Not exactly the same bikini top that Stephanie Gilmore wore when she won the contest at Sunset the other day (and together with that her third consecutive world title), but sure looks cute.


I have three questions for you, dear asian beauty.
1) what's up with the double leash?
2) who put the pad on that board?! A few inches more forward and it would be good for nose riding!
3) how do you clean the wax off the piercing?

And now the waves.
12 feet, 9 seconds from NE and 9 feet 12 seconds from NW made for a big mess on the north shore.
Pascal knew better.


Like often happens in light wind, the kiters impressed me a lot. Specially this guy.


Let's see who throws more spray:




Uff, I don't know...
It's early for new year resolutions, but here's (a conditional) one: forget about trying to learn in winter time (I'm too busy surfing and wavesailing), but IF next summer I'll be in Maui, I'll give kitesurfing another try.
Ok, and now let's start planning where to spend next summer...

Here's a brief forecast.
This week: big waves.
Next week: bigger waves.

This post is dedicated to a friend who left today for a short mainland trip. Brah, you missed a really fun session. Wind forecast doesn't look good though, so no more torture posts for you. Oh wait, I forgot you surf too...
Oh well, there will be plenty more... technically winter hasn't even started yet.

God, it's already December though!! I'm about to panic... soon it's going to be June! Can't waste time, can't miss sessions. Time to go to sleep. Tomorrow morning there's more waves to be caught. Goodnight.

thanksgiving bliss + Jaws pics

Just updated this post with a few PS's at the bottom.

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Yesterday was Thanksgiving and I gave plenty thanks... to mother nature, as usual.


Actually my session started pretty bad. It was the second day in a row that I drove to this super fickle spot. I got skunked already the day before and it looked like I was going to get skunked again: as soon as I hit the water, the wind dropped drastically.
Super light, super offshore. Thanks to all that practice at Da Spot last summer in Oahu, I was able to do my usual slog and surf thing and catch waves doing just one turn.
A bit frustrating, since till a few minutes before they were sailing on 4.5s... but, better than nothing I thought.
Lower Kanaha was onshore, there was no point to drive back. Allegedly Uppers was pretty good instead.

So, having finally given up the fantasy of an epic session, I was enjoying my one turn waves when unexpectedly the wind came back. At that point it was only me and Glenn and it was getting better and better. He had to leave kind of early though and I was left completely alone.

Let me try to describe how bloody awesome the thing got.
Upwind the clouds were low, dark and full of rain, framed by a monster super bright rainbow. The water upwind was very dark, but, since the sun downwind was out and low on the horizon, the white caps were so bright that they were almost glowing in the middle of the menacing chops. In this surreal beauty, I found myself catching peeling head high waves perfectly powered on my 4.7.

The wind was about 30 degrees offshore (0 degrees being sideshore) and the non intimidating size of the waves pushed me to do my top turns as close to the breaking lip as possible, in the so called pocket. I did so also because I thought that most of the times it was going to be a one turn wave anyway. But here's what happens when you do a turn in such a critical section.
The lip that is about to break but is held in place by the offshore wind acts like a slingshot being tensioned... and when you hit it just before it falls, you get a incredible push from it. That projected me in the next bottom turn with unexpected extra speed that, guess what, allowed me to stick another unplanned top turn. Still in the pocket, of course, and the whole thing happened again!
In other words, I had several waves in which I thought I was going to do only one turn and I ended up doing 3, 4 or 5... but not racing down the line, rather hitting the most critical section instead!
Unbelievable amount of fun.

I was just sorry for Glenn that had to leave early and I thought that it was a shame not to share such bliss with anybody else. But - cherry on the cake - when I got out of the water (5.30... couldn't do till 6 because my arms gave up) a couple of tourists renting one of the condos right in front of the spot gave me a standing ovation thanking me for the "awesome show".
It was probably the first wave sailing action they saw in their life, but still... I admit that I was flattered. They kept clapping hands until I walked out of their sight slightly embarrassed...

Photos now. Again, these photos were taken before the magic happened...
The one on top is Glenn doing a backloop. He pumped his arms off to get the speed. Click on the photo and admire the dramatic cliffs on the background. That's an awesome shot! Patrick did great, considering that it was the first time he used my camera...

This one is Nico instead, who was part of the early crew.


Just like Ferdinando. He was rigging down from 5.0 to 4.5 when I arrived. 20 minutes later the wind dropped and he headed back in.


That's how Nico made it back.


And that's me heading out. Had to swim for a while before I was able to uphaul and catch a little puff...
Those guys seem to be having more fun than me.


Didn't know kitesurfers could swim back in like that.


Glenn bottom turn.


Blog author.


Glenn top turn.


Patrick got bored.


This is Nick the day before. The wind was so light that me, Glenn and Andres decided it wasn't worth it. I'm sure Nick disagrees with us. BTW, brah I need to borrow those fins!


Couple of Hawaii shots.



And now a few photos of Jaws on Wednesday that Tormod sent me.
This looks like Polakow.


This is Levi.





But the most amazing shot I actually took from Nayra's blog. That is Francisco Porcella sliding on his back, head first, down the face of a monster. Patrick was there (congrats on his first Jaws experience) and told me that he kept sliding until he got caught by the lip and thrown over the falls.


That didn't stop him from going windsurfing later on.


For more Jaws photos, check Tormod's and Nayra's blogs.
Special thanks to Tormod who is about to leave the island. Very nice guy and I have to admit that his peculiar English spelling and grammar crack me up... I'm sure I do the same effect to someone else!

PS. Congrats to Tatiana for winning the 2009 Paia Bay invitational surf contest.
PPS. Thanks to Ian and Danny for the delicious food. You guys rock!
PPPS. The forecast continues to be awesome. New swells on Saturday, Monday and Wednesday. And check what Pat Calwells says in his latest forecast:
In the northern hemisphere, it will be the 40th anniversary next week of the hugest surf of the last 50 years, a series of episodes with the peak day on December 4, 1969. That episode was a typhoon-fueled, extratropical source. Presently, there is a typhoon in the western Pacific, nadi, to watch for re-curvature into the central north Pacific mid next week. It is too early for specifics, though the potential for the gender bender, meaning a tropical warm core low turning to a mid latitude cold core low, ups the surf potential ante.

And this is the weather map modeled to happen Sunday dec 6th.
It's going to be Jaws time again for someone. It's going to be uncrowded smaller waves again for someone else...
Meanwhile, the Pipe Masters in Oahu is going to be epic just like the women's contest at Honolua Bay in Maui.
Winter in Hawaii: what a bloody awesome thing!


PPPPS. The surf contest at Sunset Beach in Oahu is on. Here's the link to the webcast.

first HD gopro clip + upcoming Jaws

This is the first clip I shot with the new HD GoPro.

first gopro HD clip from giampaolo cammarota on Vimeo.

The action is not that exciting and there's a couple of drops on the lens, but I just wanted to give you an idea of how crisp the image is. And I didn't even select the highest resolution. And uploading it to a vimeo (or youtube) reduces its quality. But still, compare it to this other one shot with the regular definition wide angle and you'll see the difference...
I'll do a more extensive report on the camera when I have a bit more experience (and better footage!).
Oh, I was trying the chest mount. Nice angle from between the harness lines...

Wednesday morning, the dawn of a giant NW swell episode that should last a couple of days. With all these pros in town and a strong wind forecast (at least for Thursday), Jaws is going to be packed. I heard of three helicopters, plenty jet skis, hordes of people on the cliff filming and watching.
I'll make sure to be somewhere else, sailing relatively uncrowded waves...

PS. Don't miss the live action at Sunset beach in Oahu for the first day of the surf contest. It's going to be massive over there. I actually doubt they will run it... we'll see. BTW, the webcast is also on OC16: I'm going to record it and watch it tonight (if I'm still alive...).
Plenty Maui surfers in the first round:
- Ola Eleogram in heat 1
- Clay Marzo in heat 4
- Hank Gaskell in heat 5
- Kai Barger in heat 14
- Granger Larsen in heat 15

Talking about surf contests, Thursday (Thanksgiving day) the annual Paia Bay invitational surf contest will be held. Unfortunately I have to work till 1.30 and won't be able to take part. Bummer.
Well, actually, with this kind of forecast I'm kind of relieved... the (alternative) Bay can get gnarly with that size...
Have fun without me, you guys. Be safe!

water shots!

Boy, was Hookipa crowded today or what?



I chose to sail there only because there were two friends in the water that would have taken photos of me.
Very hard to catch the good waves when the level of the other sailors is so incredibly high like in these days (most pros are here), but thanks to the talent of Francky, I got a couple of nice shots!

Tomorrow is going to be pretty damn big. Unfortunately I have to work in the morning and I won't able to take photos of Hookipa. Hopefully Francky will. Check his website for that, he's got some really good shots.


This one is Morgan. Great colors: Superfreak, rainbow, shorts...


And this one is Glenn on his new Quatro custom quad.


These are the photos I took instead.
Monsieur Bergeron.


Monsieur Albeau. We had a nice swim for our boards together. He beat me.


Glenn.


Long time no see something like that.


The buoys are already sensing the forerunners (1 foot 22 seconds at Waimea) of the new NW swell.
I just received my new HD Gopro camera. Time to put it to work...

PS. Sunday and Monday will see the last two days of the surf contest at Haleiwa. Live webcast here. Start at 8am Hawaii time.

mid wipeout nap

Found this photos on FB:

Russian sailor Seva taking Super Freak "comfort" to a whole new level! zzzz.


Just a few words on the forecast that looks awesome. From the NOAA site:

Outlook through Thursday Nov 26: a large northwest swell is expected to begin filling in Saturday night, likely reaching advisory levels Sunday and Monday then slowly lowering into Tuesday. A larger northwest swell is expected to fill in Tuesday night, and peak late Wednesday or Wednesday night.

Holy smoly guacamole!!!