Wednesday, April 11, 2007

not sure about the title of this one...

Allright, let's see what we got here... let's start with a few links.

My review of the Starboard production longboards.

A nice windsurf related blog.

There I found this photo sequence of Kauli at Jaws last Sunday.

The ASP site where to read the results of the Bells Beach surf contest that I just saw online...
Taj Borrow won with a wave worth 9 points in the last minute of the final against Andy Irons. When are the PWA contests going to be webcasted online? The Cabo Verde event would have been awesome to watch!

An hysterical little video that Ely shot with his head cam. Kevin Pritchard made Ely's day, that's for sure... He sounds more excited than being in the hot tub with Pamela Anderson...

Talking about blog readers... here's Lano's blog. He's been reading my blog for ages and I want to welcome him in the blogosphere.

Here's a few shots from today at Hookipa. I sailed there with a 4.7 and the 68l, but soon the wind dropped and I could not enjoy that much. Those guys did. In these conditions, you can have fun only if you're really good...

And here's the sailor of the day, Boujmaa Guilloul, flying really high in one of the rare jumps of today (no wind on the inside).


I know, the horizon is not straight... you guys don't want to pay-per-view... I don't have the money to buy a trypode... :-0

Here's him again showing how ALL windsurf boards should be: bloddy five fin boxes so that the sailor can fool around with the fins and find the best setup. I would love to try that board! I want the possibility of side fins on all my boards!


Lastly, here's an extremely uninteresting list of my personal preferences of famous windsurfers' skills:

- most radical: Kauli Seadi. He was born in the pocket. I'm not talking about his mother's womb... I'm talking about a wave's pocket!
- craziest: Boujmaa Guilloul (with a mention for Mark Angulo)
- cleanest: Kevin Pritchard
- most powerful: Josh Angulo
- most spray off the lip thrower: Jason Polakow
- best ability to perform well under pressure in contests: Josh Angulo and Kevin Pritchard
- best light wind wavesailing: Josh Angulo and Matt Pritchard (both are big guys... how do they do that?)
- best jumper: I don't really care
- best sail number: US1111 Robby Naish (got to put him somewhere...)
- nicest guy (among the ones I know): Francisco Goya
- most vertical approach to the top turn: Keith Taboul
- most stylish: Levi Siver (mention for Sean Ordonez)
- most promising kid: Kai Lenny
- least amount of hair left on the head: Scott McKercher (mention for Keith Taboul)
- most getting better every time I see him: Graham Ezzy
- most underrated Hookipa sailor: Nat Gill
- most contagious smile: Josh Stone and Brian Talma
- best girls around him: Sean Ordonez
- best looking: me

3 comments:

Sharon said...

What a plethora of options for us this post.

Ely's mini-vid is classic and your photo's just keep getting better. As for the horizon not being straight-a bad workman always blames his tools (or lack or trypode)!

What-no mention for the best windsurfing ass?.....dude you’re slacking.

Anonymous said...

Pamela Anderson? Who's that?

See you in a few weeks!

Anonymous said...

Hi again The Italian and Sharon/
Imaginary Friends/Photographers/Writers/Entertainers/Therapists,

It’s been awhile since I’ve been able to make it to my therapy session -I’ve been visiting family in Ptld. (another love/hate relationship- love the family/hate the weather) and just working alot… but I finally made it back to therapy… and THANKS for the session! I still haven’t figured out if I feel better or worse after these (reading your blog) sessions but I know they’re important and deserve attention because it stirs something in me… and since I discovered Maui (well I didn’t actually discover Maui…guess the Polynesians did that-- but discovered it on a personal level) …all I want to think about and talk about is Maui esp. the water sports, wave and wind reports, whales…!

I’m glad you learned your lesson and only played in the water 5 and a half hours! Smart!

“Send a photo” for the contest you suggest… well I don’t have a photo at this time but judging by your apparent low standards for blog worthy photos of friends (ie: Ulli’s BA in the hot tub and unnamed woman in the water ballet pose on Sharon’s site April 4) I’m sure it won’t take much effort to come up with something acceptable!

And PonoBill- I don’t know where you drive but some of my favorite memories of Maui are of the many parties in the streets initiated by the chickens stopping traffic while they mosey across the street- myself and all the other drivers around are glad to have another excuse to bust out the beach chair and cooler and get to know one another while we wait for the chickens to decide to cross to the other side!

And cammar - it is no surprise to find out you’re from Naples… your passion looms!…. Many moons ago I was riding the Eurail enroute to the Amalfi coast … and without seeing any signs indicating the location I knew I was in the vicinity of Naples… because true to reputation the conversations became very demonstrative…. volume WAY up, arms flinging, faces contorted in every expressive fashion, hugging, kissing… I don’t know a word of Italian and if I hadn’t been forewarned I’d have thought that everyone on the train was either in a heated argument or making up after a heated arguement!… but they were probably just talking about the weather or what they ate for lunch that day! No wonder they eat so much pasta and drink espresso - they need a lot of calories and caffeine to have a conversation!

On the topic of “personal preferences of famous windsurfer’s skills” I’d like to put my two cents in… and add a subtitle of “favorite all around water athletes” … Being sorta new to windsurfing and totally new to spectating I realized recently how much one can learn by watching the crème de la crème … Anyway I lucked out and happened to be on Maui during the Tropical Energy Games… I was really impressed that Robby Naish is so excellent not just at windsurfing and kiteboarding… but also surfing- short and long board, and paddle board surfing! That to me is amazing athletic ability and knowledge of waves, wind, different kinds of equipment, stamina…! He and 14 y/o Kai Lenny were the only ones to be in all the events…. And on top of that- I understand that he was flying back to Oahu and then driving to Kailua every night and then back to Maui again in the a.m. throughout the whole 3 day contest! Getting up at WHAT time to be at Hookipa by 0700?! And the reason for doing that also puts him on top of my list for all around nice guy… (I hope I’m not outa line saying this but since it IS public information -- I think it’s ok) …I hear it was a special time for he and his wife … as they awaited the birth of their baby! Does that make you melt or what!!? What a nice guy! And on top of that he has windsurfed Jaws… AND boogie-boarded powered by a kite with the boogie board duct taped to his chest! (See the DVD 13 Daze…it‘s sooo funny!)

Well, looking forward to hearing what I’m missing… I’m going to try to make the best of this rainy day (it always rains on my day off!)… Have fun ya‘ll!

Eileen

P. S. Sharon- love the dog photo on your site today! How’s the cooking coming along? Watcha cookin’ up today?