I learned the lesson...

The last three days have been quite intense.

Let's proceed with order.
Saturday I tested Starboard longboards all day. And when I say all day, I mean all day.
From 11am (can't sail earlier at Kanaha... thank god!) to 5.20 pm, with 20 minutes lunch break. That makes 6 hours.

I don't get paid to do this.
I don't even get equipment (that would be nice, though).
Why do I do it?
Here's a few reasons:
- it's a lot of fun
- the fact that Svein and Jeff listen to what I have to say feels good
- but most importantly... I'm increasing my knowledge. I look at a new board and try to guess how it sails. Then I try it, see if I guessed right and learn stuff. And the more boards I try, the more I know about boards. And one day, who knows, maybe I'll know enough to want to design (and eventually shape) my own board. That would be dream number 11,284 coming true...

Here you can read more about the test (technical stuff). Actually, I don't think I can write that tonight... too tired. Maybe tomorrow. Come back later if interested...

Sunday an extra large swell hit the islands. It was windy and lower Kanaha was pretty much closing out. The outer reef at uppers was going off (big chop on the face, though), but I just couldn't sail well. I was so tired and slow that I had to give up after one hour.
Note to myself: brah, you're 44... can't sail 6 hours in one day...

Here's a few photos from Sunday.
These guys were towing in at Kuau.


Big swells trap the fish inside the reef and fishermen are happy.


Like this one.


Da hell is that? Oh yeah, my car's leash compartment. Kind of handy if somebody brings soup to the beach...


More photos here.

The forced rest yesterday was actually a good thing, because this morning I woke up all perky, went early to Kanaha and hit the water around 8.30am (no wind). Standup paddling on the 12.6, I caught a vast number of rights. The waves were smaller, but still plenty overhead bombs.
A lot of fun.

At 10.30 I came out and had a quick snack.
Around noon I rigged a 5.3 and went out sailing on the 87l wave board.
A lot of fun.

At 1.30 I had to came in because a footstrap screw came undone.
There was a message on the voicemail from the neighbor. A hose under my sink broke and the kitchen was flooded.
I left boards and sail on the beach, drove home, dried the kitchen floor, took the broken hose off, drove back to Kahului, bought the new hose and went back to Kanaha.
Unfortunately, there I found out that the insert of the footstrap screw was worn out (no more thread) and, since the wind seemed to have got lighter, I went out again around 4.30 on the 12.6 with the sail.
A lot of fun.

At 6pm I finally decided that the wind had become strong and steady enough to risk my 68l Quatro 7.4 wave board. I took it out and, even though the wind was barely enough for it, on the waves I had a blast for 30 more minutes.
A lot of fun.

Let's see... 2 hours in the first session... 1.5 hours in the second session... 2 more hours in the third session... hey, that's only 5.5 hours!

See?

I learned the lesson...