the north shore is coming back to life...

I love this time of the year.

For many reasons. Here's a few:

- the island is not too busy with tourists
- the water temperature is in the low 80s (as I type it's 81 in Kahului= 27 celsius)
- it's a transition time in which you can often have waves on both shores
- you can feel the north shore is coming back to life because... even a small stupid north Pacific fetch of wind oriented towards Hawaii will generate waves!

I'm going to explain this last one. But first, let's have a look at the first main page deserver of today: Francisco Porcella.



So, let me ask you a question: what do you do every morning if you're a windsurfer?
Easy... you check windguru to see the latest forecast, right?
I don't. 'Cause windguru sucks.

First because it's way more fun to try to do your own forecast.
And second, at least for Maui, it doesn't take into account a bunch of local variables, the most important of which being:
a) how much the wind will be amplified by the Haleakala, depending on the wind direction
b) how much the waves will be eventually shaded by the west maui mountain and the other islands, depending on the swell direction.

Second main page deserver: Nico again!


Instead, I check a very simple thing called weather map (you can find the links to both north and south pacific weather maps on the right in the links section) and do my own forecast.

During three long months of summer, I observe huge storms with hurricane force winds spinning east of New Zealand and I get all excited about the upcoming south swell...
"It's gonna huge... Maalaea is gonna go off, I'm gonna surf that spot and then that other spot"... that's what I dream at night.
In reality, most of the times, the swell happens to be rather small. Fun, but small.
Hey, I'm not complaining at all! I'm just trying to describe you how I feel.

Then September comes and a small storm spinning west of Oregon shows up in the north Pacific weather map. I just barely notice it.
"Yeah, there's a small tiny fetch oriented towards us... what's that, 30 knots of wind? Whatever, we'll get something in 2-3 days... cool, Hookipa will be fun... small but fun."
I'm not particularly excited about it, for sure I don't dream about it...

Then I go to Hookipa and I see those head high + lines breaking in the bay...
I stare at them in awe and go: "Oh my god! I can't believe it... that was the smallest, shittiest, lamest, most insignificant fetch I've seen in a while (three months, exactly)... look at that!!!"

Less travel distance makes a huge difference. Even if I know that well, it feels bloody great to figure that out again every time in September...

The third main page deserver photo is from Monday and was taken by Sharon, who did her own little post too.
It's Andres in an air chacho attempt. Water start-landed. Good job...


The early session today was soooo good. Ten sailors out for about an hour, very light wind on the inside, plenty glassy waves, no more than one guy per wave. Really, really good.
Me, Norm, Bernd, Skyler, Nori, the other kid on the NP... mmm, can't remember the others. But they know what I'm talking about...

Here's the rest of the photos.

Last, but not least, here's a couple of quizzes...

These are some very fine windsurfing legs.
Quiz 1: Who do they belong to?


And this is a very cute windsurfing bum.
Quiz 2: Who does it belong to?


Let's see who's the first (not anonymous!) that leaves a comment with both correct answers...