Saturday, February 17, 2007

Tropical energy games day 2

Today the shortboard surfing and kitesurfing contest took place.

Kuau neighbor Kiva Rivers won the surfing contest with waves like this. He's gonna get barreled on this one and come out if it. You can see it happening...


Robby Naish won the kitesurfing contest smiling.


Plenty more photos here.

That's a special board for disabled people. There's an optical illusion in this photo...


A nice guy called Mark showed me their program. They already organized a few beach event in Oahu and helped people that normally sit on a wheel chair to catch the first waves of their lives. They want to do that in Maui too. I told him that I can help them out as a volunteer instructor and I gave him my number. I really hope they'll call me. I think the smiles I will see that day will blow me away.

In this right moment what is blowing me away, instead, is an extreeemely tight version of Rock'n'roll of Led Zeppelin. Live from Radio Rock in my studio in Kuau. Brava Cecilia, the dj. And it's 7am Sunday morning in Rome! Got to love these guys...

Back to the post, GP!
What, now you guys want more? Da hell... and I gave you the surfing... and I gave you the kitesurfing...

Allright, allright, let me give you some windsurfing too...
Around 3.30 the water was open for freesailing. Nat Gill, a Paia electrician just as good as a pro, was one of the few lucky (and smart) sailor that scored a very uncrowded Hookipa.
He showed me and everybody else that didn't leave the cliff that windsurfing is a lot more fun to watch than kitesurfing when it's down to wave riding.

I ve'had the same theory for 6 years and I still believe it. Here it is.
For a remarkable percentage of time, the kite has a component of the pull that is towards up. And that makes you lighter. And you can't dig that rail in the water as much as you can on windsurfer, that has even the additional weight of the sail. The sail pulls forward, not up.
And when you jump or hit the lip and fly (like in this photo), you don't have a parachute to slow you down. All the impacts are harder.


He landed on the face of the wave the following two rotations off the lip. Impressive.


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