Out of the first five days of this week, I got 4 four stars days and a 3 stars one, including two full moon SUP surfing sessions. Not too shabby.
Here's a little video of... the 3 stars day (definitely a bit crowded...).
Bloddy hell, I forgot the music again! That is Makana...
But it was still worth to surf there because... here's an interesting board story.
A few years ago (at least three) I bought a sweet T&C 8.6 surfboard at a garage sale from Ed Angulo: 200 bucks.
I loved the board right away, but unfortunately it was built very light and I started to bump it all around the stringer with my weight (it was probably built for a very light person, like a kid or a girl). So I sold it to a girl for 350.
Heck, 150 net gain... not too bad!
I thought I would have looked for a similar more robust board, now that I knew the shape... but none of the ones I tried could even barely match the incredible performance of that one.
I learned a lesson: never ever sell a magic board.
After almost one year I met again the girl and she had just bought a new smaller board.
"Can I buy my board back?", I asked her.
"Sure, 350 plus a surf lesson to me and a water start lesson to my husband", she replied...
"OK, deal!"... that's the karma you get when you're too greedy, I thought...
Anyway, I was super stoked to have my baby back. I put a stripe of fiberglass on the top of the stringer and the board seemed to resist much better to the pressure of my feet...
Then one sad day in I had to send this email to all the surfers I knew in Maui:
Dear island surfer,
first of all, I apologize if I eventually sneaked your email address from the internet or somewhere else. You're a surfer too, you can imagine how much it hurts to have your best boards stolen. Please help me out on this...
You probably figured this already, but it's good to be reminded... Hawaii is not anymore the safety paradise it used to be!
My car got stolen in Kahului last Friday, Feb 10th 2006. It was found two days later. My three surfboards were gone along with my car stereo components.
Here's a brief description of the boards:
a) 9.3 Bill Foote. Bright yellow deck with the footprint logo right on the front, round pin tail. The bottom is white and there's a fix with the footprint logo on one side. No measures written.
b) 8.6 Town & Country. Shaped by K. Rapoza (it says that on the deck), blue color, round pin tail. It has a reinforcement of fiberglass 4 inches wide on the stringer from the pad to the shaper's name. I'm attaching a photo of it (I'll put it on my blog too).c) 6.10 Illusion surf. White (don't remember the shaper).
If you see them, call me, write down the license plate, call the police (I got a police report with their description), start screaming, do something... If they try to sell them to you for cheap cash (less than $100 for a) and b) and less than $50 for c)), please buy them, take the license plate number and call me. I will buy them back from you! If you are the thief, call me I'll buy them back (just kidding...).
The most important thing would be to forward this email to all you surfer friends and spread the word. PLEASE!
One and a half year later, I was about to leave the above (not) mentioned spot, when a guy gets out of the water with my board...
I almost had a heart attack...
I went to him, introduced myself, explained what happened and found an agreement to buy it back from him for $140. He clearly wasn't the thief (and even if he was, I don't care) and he had bought it for $200 last week, but he confessed me that he didn't really like it... "I knew that was something wrong with it... it was the karma of a stolen board!"
"yes brah, it was because she was in the water together with me she and wanted to go back to me!!!"...
I got my board back. Probably nobody surfed it for all this time, because the board only had a little new ding, but it was pretty much like it was back then.I was wondering if I still would have thought it was that great, since in the last 1.5 years I have definitely become a better surfer...
I surfed it at Breakwall the day after and at the end of the very first wave I screamed "YES!" so loud that all the people on the boats in the Lahaina harbor turned their heads and thought:"wow, that guy must have just had a killer ride!"...
I did have a killer ride. Just like all the other rides I had and I will have with that board... the bloody best board I've ever had!
K. Rapoza, I don't know you, but I love you!
PS. This morning I got in the water in another one of my top 5 favorite spots at 7.30. No wind, head high, super sunny, nobody out. Not much of a ride, pretty much just the drops. But 10 drops in that spot with nobody out and with the possibility of picking the wave I wanted in the set and the take off spot I wanted... what a delight!!
Getting out of the water I was greeted by a horde of wild goats. "Beeehhh" said one before running away.
It seems that in goat's language, that means "nice stick, brah!"
Allright, let's change subject.
Here's the sad, but hopefully happy ending story of Federico.
Buena suerte, hermano!
And here's the petition to speak up against the Maui county's decision to enforce the existing laws regulating the vacation rentals.
And, since a medal always has two faces, as the first comment to this post clearly reminds us, here's the petition to instead support the Maui county's decision to enforce the existing laws regulating the vacation rentals!
I still have some killer tandem and longboard sailing videos to edit, but no time... hang in there... this south swell will end (sigh!) sooner or later...
6 comments:
Cammar, you've misrepresented the situation with vacation rentals. You owe it to your readers (and to yourself) to inform yourself on the issue before you publish inaccurate propaganda.
The County did not, as you wrote, decide to shut down all vacation rentals. They've simply decided to be more active in enforcing the existing zoning ordinance that prohibits commercial vacation rentals in residentially zoned neighborhoods. The purpose of the ordinance is to preserve residential neighborhoods from being over-run with tourist rentals. Local people need a place to live, yah?
Property owners who've qualified for a permit can continue to operate their vacation rentals. This leaves plenty of options for tourists who prefer this kind of accommodation. However, landlords who have bought property at inflated prices counting on the artificially high vacation rental rates to support them are in trouble - and it is their fault for ignoring the law. These people have fallen victim to their own greed. They are now trying to drum up support and shift the blame onto the County, which is simply enforcing a law that was passed previously, with community support. The law is not new, and the County has given repeated warnings over the years regarding their intention to enforce the law, so there is really no valid excuse for the law-breakers.
There is another online petition that supports the County's enforcement actions, it can be found here.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Maui_Against_Illegal_Rentals/
Giampaolo, I really enjoyed this post, though that's really shitty about your boards and car getting ripped. I'm glad you got that blue one back. I had 9'2" Dave Mel, purchased at Christmas, stolen in January a coupla years ago.
On the vacation rental thing, hey, I'm not certain about all of it, but I know I can no longer find a room anywhere for less than $600 or $700; twice that of a decade ago and half of all I earn.
One rich windsurfer built a 3 house complex in Spreckelsville and had illegal vacation renters in place almost immediately. I know because Willie Nelson's wife Annie reported them and I knew the tenants. MB
I think I know your secret spot....
Anon,
point taken... I actually only quickly (I was in a hurry for the sunset session...) copied that text from an email I received.
I updated my post and linked your petition too.
"Par conditio" first.
Bob, I hear you.
Lano, I don't enjoy keeping my spots secret, but unfortunately there's a bunch of lovely and kind persons in this world that think to own spots.
And it happened already twice that somebody would go in the lineup:"hey, you're the guy with that blog! Stop putting photos of "our" spot, ok?"
Now, since I'm for avoiding conflicts rather than fighting, I still keep posting photos, but at least I don't name the spots, so that I don't get that shitty energy in the lineups or in the parking lots.
Eh, the life of a popular surfing/windsurfing blog owner can be tought sometimes... ;-)
nice post gp, thanks for the story. Stoked you got the board back! The full moon session was killer, and I had a blast. I will be back next month, swell providing. I disagree with the first comment, but it's too detailed to get into. Suffice to say, all of our windsurfing and surf friends are vactioning in aruba, dr and other such places where they can choose where they stay. Oh well, I guess it means less crowds on the water!!! ;-)
Hey, sorry to hear about the break in. I grew up on Oahu, and I know people go to Hawaii thinking it's idyllic paradise, but it has problems just like any where else. Just be careful. Theft is the biggest problem in Hawaii. So far, i've never had any problems, but who knows what the future will bring!
Hey, atleast you haven't been held up with a gun yet. My friend and I got robbed in Atlanta! That's some SCARY crap!
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