A good day

This morning I surfed Maalaea.
They call it freight train and they say it's the fastest makeable right in the world. They don't say how to make it, though.
Let me show it to you, first.
Here it's in its best form, on 7-13-04. Freight train is the right, but that day it was so big that it was peeling also left. This particular one is probably the most beautiful wave I have ever seen.

This other photo, instead, was taken on 4-22-04 (quite a good year for the south swells). The height of the white water is impressive. I wrote this already in an article, but please let me indulge in the special pleasure of quoting myself.
My friend Gianfranco was out there. Here is one of his many amazing surf stories: "I got barreled on this one. I was going fast but then I figured that it was better to cut towards the shore, because it was gonna close out in front of me. Getting out of the barrel, I saw this thick water guillotine heavily falling on my head. I don't know how I made it, but luckily the blade fell a few inches off my board. I wasn't hit by it, but I was exploded in the air."

Check the photo and use your imagination. You can totally see how that can happen...



This last one was this morning. Waaay smaller (I wouldn't dare to go out when it's more than head high).




I was on a shortboard and I caught at least 10 waves. I could not ride one. Just the take off, grab the rail... and wait for the lip to hit your back. The waiting time between sets was long, so I had time to think to alternative definitions for Maalaea. Here are some:
- the fastest makeable right in the world (if you are regular and if you are good... not if you are goofy and if you are goofy, like me...)
- the fastest peeling close out in the world
- the slowest unmakeable right in the world

Then I went home because I had stuff to do (you know.. email, fixing boards, nap... things like that) and in the late afternoon I drove 50 minutes to go surf my favorite spot in Maui. It was small and closing out, but glassy and sunny. I got in the water at 4.15pm. Thanks to the growing tide, the shape of the wave got better and better until, two hours later the tide had grown too much. During a short magic while, there were three overhead sets in a row. This time I had a longboard and there were four shortboarders out with me. I other words, I could pick the wave I wanted. I left the first two to the guys on the inside and went all three times for the third wave of the set: the biggest and best shaped one. Three memorable rides that made my session blog-worthy.

I don't have photo of today, so I have to pick from the archive. Here it is on 5-5-05.




And, yes it can get crowded...



Aloha.