Sunday, October 14, 2007

Lots of stuff

Let's start from the photo of my second new "seared sashimi" (that's how Jeff calls them) Superfreaks. Ladies and gentlmen, here's my 5.0.


Even though they don't stand out like orange, yellow or red sail, I love blue freaks...
Check out this one that my friend Domenico has. He designed it a warm night last year in Paia together with a bunch of friends after a bbq and a few beers... and there it is, ripping warms waves somewhere on the planet...




Jeff liked the second one so much that he put it on the Superfreak 2008 home page.

Talking about waves around the world, here's a link to a video of a beautiful right in a place where they speak Spanish... thanks Andre for the contribution.

And still talking about waves (or lack of thereof) around the world, the last day of the PWA wave contest in the island of Tiree (Scotland) has finally seen some action. Not enough to have an event winner, but enough to have a PWA world title winner...
For the second time, brasilian Kauli Seadi can say to be the best on the waves.
Read the whole story on the PWA site.
Congrats to Kauli, but what a shame that such a title was not assigned in Maui, the Mecca of wave sailing...

Talking about which, I want to brag about my yesterday (Saturday) sesh.
The wind was light and slightly onshore all day. At Hookipa there were only surfers, so I went out at my backyard spot around 1pm. 5.5 and floaty board were enough for planing most of the time and some slogging...
Caught a bunch, had some fun, but nothing too exciting... then all of a sudden I saw sailors upwind at Hookipa... what to do? De-rig and go there or slowly slog upwind? I opted for the latter and it took me more than forty minutes to get there. But it was worth it. Way bigger and better waves.
Unfortunately, shortly after I got there the wind dropped even more and the surfers claimed the application of the 10 men rule and kicked us out.
But before that I had a couple of really good ones and that's all I needed.

Plus, since I launched downwind (that's when the upwind slogging payed back), instead of going in like all the others had to do, I just kept sailing at Lanes... I had a blast! I kept saying:"ok, I'm getting tired, I'll catch just one more"... but they kept coming! Beautiful glassy chest to over head high waves... how can one leave?

When my muscles started seriously cramping (wave sailing in light wind is very tirening, because you barely use the harness), I had to sail back in. My watch said 4pm.
I sat down on the beach unable to move a finger for a while, contemplating the gorgeous sunny day and chatting with the other sailors.
Another day of wave sailing in Maui. Another day in paradise.

To celebrate, later in the day I cooked a delicious dinner based on green beens in a tomato soup (Mom's recipe) with steamed yams on the side. But first, a little appetizer...


A friend found some pecorino romano cheese and some Falanghina (feudi San Gregorio!!!) white wine! And all of sudden, Maui is an even better place where to live... Have you guys ever tried cheese and pears?

"I'll leave now, this can't continue" (sorry, that's a quote from one of my favorite Porcupine Tree songs... btw, they just started a new world tour)... 'cause I got to get ready for my today's sesh. Here, I'll leave you with this sunset shot from last week (Tuesday).


No wait, I put just about everything in this post... but I feel there's something missing...
Oh yeah, we need an intelligent girl!
No kidding, she has a I.Q. of 156 and has been invited to join the Mensa, an association of people with high IQs.
So for once, I'm posting IQs and not T&As...

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

hi giampaolo,

nice sails, they look good on the water as well!

it was kind of weird yesterday with all the surfers - when i went in the lifeguards said they whistled etc. to get our attention - i didn't hear them... well anyways, it would have been great at the point but there were just too many surfers claiming the whole bay, even that it was choppy and onshore - i watched the surfers a while and barely anybody made much more than 1 turn... what ever happened to the 11 o'clock rule?
i wish those surfers could one day surf a real long nice pointbreak like the wave you posted the link about... by the way, i know that wave and have surfed it myself, probably the best i ever surfed in my life...

aloha,

pascal

Anonymous said...

Ciao GP,

have fun with the superfreak, you’re a flying dolphin now, ex-Johan! Cool photo, the grass is sooo green, it’s truly inspiring, blablabla…

Never ate cheese with pears, did you ever try to steam fruits (apples, pears, apricots etc.)? The vitamins are working more intense in your body and it is very tasty.

Hell… that girl…and she proves that the cliché about blondes is wrong!

Allora, buona giornata!

cammar said...

Hi Pascal,
yes it was bummer on Saturday, but I always try to put my self into their shoes...
If you surf and don't windsurf, you probably don't care if the conditions are not perfect for surfing... you just want to surf! And some of those rights at the point were really sweet...
So, since the "authority" (I guess the lifeguards) setup a rule, they now have to make sure it's applied.
Were you at the beach sunday? There was even the police!!! Which is kind of ridicolous... but, as long as the wind was light (5.5), we had to go to Lanes. As soon as the wind picked up (4.7), the transition between surfing and windsurfin happened automatically without a problem...
So it's just for those days of light wind (the ones me and you like...) that there is the "conflict"...
I understand the surfers' needs and I don't mind to go to Lanes or more downwind...

Chris,
I didn't know about the steamed fruit, but somehow I like the freshness of a row fruit...
The blonde's... IQ is mesmerizing!

Anonymous said...

Hi Giampaolo,

you're right - I understand them as well - but would be nice if they had a bit less attitude and we could all get along... like i did for 10 years on oahu...

i didn't sail yesterday, took a break.

i love light wind days as well and usually sail kuau when hookipa has too many surfers - and will do so again in the future.

aloha,

pascal

cammar said...

Pascal,
I agree, less attitude would make not only Hookipa a better place... but the entire world!
Unfortunately attitude is like a disease in the western world.
The only thing we can do against it is trying not to have one and keep smiling...

Anonymous said...

sick shot of the sunset. nice post. where is the wine from and is it affordable??? it's been a while since i left a comment eh !

cammar said...

The wine is from my home land and can be bought at bloddy Costco for... what was it? 14 bucks?
If you like the sweet, fruity California kind of whites, save your money... you're not gonna like it.
It still bugs me that the wine is not exactly as good as it would be in Italy (I guess the wine doesn't like to travel) and that it's pretty expensive, but it's the best white I found here... for sure.
In Italy I can buy a bottle 10 times better for 2 bucks... hey, got to pay a price somewhere to live in paradise!
It's been a while since you made a post! Welcome back!!
PS. Decent forecast for the next days...

Anonymous said...

Can you fill us in on what is going on at Ho'okipa? Word is out that fights broke out between surfers and windsurfers, windsurfing has been banned for good, Robby Naish and Josh Stone are both in detention at the Maui County Jail, and all non-US windsurfers are being rounded up awaiting deportation.

cammar said...

:-)

I just need to find the time to post... it's not going to be easy, since tomorrow there's waves!!!
But, don't you worry... soon you'll have the facts and my opinion. Stay tuned.