miscellaneous

Below a few assorted pictures, but first an update on how Big Blue feels now that it's glassed. I sailed Hookipa today with very light wind and I had a lot of fun.
I also tryed to test an old Drops Flyer 87 liters (anyone ever owned one?) that a shop is selling for cheap. But the wind wasn't really enough for that. In other words, in that wind (10-12 knots? but I never owned a wind meter, so I just guess) it is defenitely more fun (for me!) to be on a longboard. And that's reassuring. It means that I'm not wasting my time with all these experiments...

One extremely important thing I forgot to mention is that being so light, I can easily carry Big Blue with the sail attached to it on top my head. And that makes for only one trip from the car to the beach and not two like with the 12.6... but this is nothing.
The real kick is that because of this, I CAN LAUNCH FROM HOOKIPA! I can't really launch the 12.6 there, specially if it's kind of big and it's high tide. With the 12.6, in fact, I grab the tail and push the board in the water with the front of it dragging on the sand. Can you imagine what one of nastiest shore break of the world would do to me?
Oh, by the way, I just want to mention that lately I've been worked by the shore break at Kanaha... and that is something I shouldn't talk about...
So, again, after three years I can finally do longboard sailing at Hookipa. This is extremely cool. Do you know how many 10-12 knots days there are in which the waves aren't quite big enough for Kanaha and Hookipa (or Lanes if too many surfers are out) would be a lot of fun? Will be, from now on!

And let's not forget that a robust board is another conditio sine qua non to be able to sail Hookipa.
Since the waves are quite faster than Kanaha where I usually longboard sail, in fact, today I had at least three serious wipeouts, one of which ended with a floating over the rocks action (but coming out of them with no scratches). Without the fiberglass, I would have some pieces of foam missing from the bottom of the board, for sure.

Other than this, the board didn't change much. I can confirm that it didn't get any faster. It somehow feels better though. And it's still faster than a slogging windsurfer. Jeff said on the SF's forum:"short don't glide, just plane physics...."
It must be true, I add.

Ok, enough of that, let's post some pics.
This is Mike Eskimo standing up thru the palm leaves this morning at Ho'o.


This is a good way to see things from a different perspective.


I had forgot a small papaya from Sharon's garden in a plastic bag (thank god) in my backpack for a few days. I looked quite mushy and over ripe, and I almost threw it away. It smelled good though, so I decided to give it a bite. The best papaya ever. It was like a mousse.
Even the flies liked it. Click on the photo and check the lines in their wings. Like sail panels...

Lano, that's for us...


If you would ask any Hookipa locals (me included) how were the waves today, they would say:"small". But looking at this photo... not THAT small!


And even if it was, this guy is not looking for excuses not to rip.


My slippah is still firmly attached.


Here's a photo I didn't take (too gross), but I'll describe it instead (even grosser).
I'm too lazy to go and check in this same blog when I broke the bottle of oil behind the range, but it was a while ago.
Yesterday, finally, I found the time and the courage to clean up. As I easily predicted a few bugs must have enjoyed the abundant food, but some of them evidently started the ice skating action without being particularly good at that and without wearing a helmet...
I found a few dead bodies, some of them still slowly spinning, but all of them with a fat belley and a big smile of their faces...

Mmmm... anything else? Oh yes, forecast.
Tough one, because a low very close to the island is about to develop. There are a few NW swells on their way (thursday the first one), but the wind could turn onshore and turn everything messy. Or maybe it's going to be west side longboard sailing action...
And from the 6 days modelled weather maps it looks like we should get a big NW swell about 10 days from now. Let's say Thursday again, next week.

So long.