Monday, March 19, 2007

The best waves of the winter

And the fastest growing and dropping swell I've ever seen.

It happened last Tuesday... hey, it has been a postless week, I got to catch up!
Have a look at the Surfline NW buoy. It started sensing the new swell around midnight of Monday and by noon of Tuesday it was 20 feet, 18 seconds. Never seen anything like that.


This is the weather map of two days before (the 12th).


The storm is not particularly deep. The fetch is not particularly wide and it didn't even become a particularly captured one.
The only thing that would explain such a size, is the relative vicinity to the islands. Usually, in fact, the NW winter swells are generated west of the 180 parallel.
This one was closer, but still far enough to arrive extremely clean.

I timed it perfectly, checking the Pipeline and Laniakea webcams on surfline. I got in the water at Hookipa at 3.30.
The point was shoulder to head high, but the first forerunners sets were just starting to show up.
Nobody was surfing at Lanes (needs to be bigger to be good), so I paddled there. Halfway through the channel, the first big set arrived. I sat on my board and admired the beauty of it. The most beautiful waves I've seen at Hookipa, for sure. Thanks to the offshore wind, from my position I could watch into a deep barrel on my right at the point and into another deep barrel on my left at Lanes. Unreal.

I was stoked just to have seen that. I could have paddled in already...
Instead I did surf Lanes for an hour... or tried to. The rib was still hurting and I couldn't quite paddle fast enough to get into those steep lefts...
I got out of the water just in time... it got bigger and bigger.
Unfortunately all the photos I took are kind of blurry, because it was getting dark. I still put a bunch of them here.

On this one, Alan Cadiz drops in a triple overhead bomb. Looks like a little Jaws... Respect!


Yesterday and today we were blessed with some fun windsurfing conditions. Actually, THEY were blessed... my rib is still sore and I could only have a couple of short sessions. But I took a bunch of photos. Here are yesterday's ones.
And here are today's ones.

These are the three main page deservers.
This one hand tweaked table top is sick. Got to find out who he is. It shouldn't be too difficult... da hell, he's sponsored by Fiat!


KP in a sprayful turn.


Jeff Sutherland in a big aerial.


Last, but not least, don't miss out Sharon's latest hysterical post.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

damn yeah!! what an areal jeff! big "wow" from austria :)
klaus

Anonymous said...

hmmmmmm mezmerizing!

Lano,

GP, can we change Lanes to Lano?

lol @ sharon! :)

Anonymous said...

Love Jason Polakow's super tweaked, one handed whatchacallit.

Nice shots, Giampaolo!

Anonymous said...

Damn yeah! is right!!! Great to see the photos of Jeff rippin!! (on the main page with the big boys no less!!)

Hope you're doing well, GP!

Steph
(Jeffs land-locked, Cdn gf)

Anonymous said...

FIAT guy is Florian Jung from Germany

cammar said...

Ely, one fraction of second before and I would have cought JP with his arm fully extended down towards the wave... actually, that's when I pushed the button, but the bloody camera sometimes doesn't shoot right away...

Others, cheers!

Anonymous, thanks... I just found out today at Hoo.

Anonymous said...

Sweet footage G.P. must have gotten bussy since the pro's are back.

A shame to hear about the 32 year old Italian guy :-(

Rusty said...

GP,
First of all, thanks for the lessons last Saturday. Excellent crash course beach instructions. You have a great passion for your work. Speaking of passion, Sharon's post was very funny. Most of my online time is spent pounding through work emails, however your and Sharon's blogs are always I nice diversion.
Rusty

cammar said...

Robin, Monday there were at least three photoshoots going on. Sailing sucked (hard to catch a wave alone), but watching was awesome...

Rusty, glad you enjoyed the lesson.

Boardrider said...

Hi, the guy with the Hifly board and Fiat in his sail is the german Flo Jung. One off the better germans...

Anonymous said...

A while ago I saw this bitchin video on this blog of Laird Hamilton out at Hookipa with his stand-up paddleboard on a HUGE day. I cant find it again and would love to show my friends. Does anyone know where i might find it???mahalos, Deb

jeff E of the Great White North said...

YO G, whatsup?? no posting lately but what you ahve is always good!! hey get a girlfriend or something, the'll slow ya down yaknow

Jeff E

cammar said...

Deb,
if it's not this one with the Kona http://mauisurfreport.blogspot.com/2007/01/best-watching-session-ever.html, you have to look in the archives. Start from Dec 06 down... good luck!

Jeff,
the posts come when they come...