Monday, January 14, 2008

weekly reports poll

Looks like the italian websites that usually publish my weekly reports are slacking on their jobs this year.

I'm still writing them for a bunch a friend in the email distribution list. Here is an example of last week's one. It's in italian, so have fun trying to understand it...

*** lunedi 7-1-08: onde piccole e niente vento... mi diverto al tramonto a fare standup surfing con Jeff davanti a casa sua (upper Kanaha)
* martedi 8-1-08: ancora niente vento e onde piccole... ma stanno arrivando! Ne approfitto per salire per la prima volta su uno starboard serenity, ma il vento non e' sufficiente neanche a quello.
**** mercoledì 9-1-08: arrivano le onde e sono davvero belle e glassy. La mattina vado a Kanaha e mi sembra ancora piccino. Indi per cui, torno a Hookipa e esco a Lanes col 9 piedi, dove rimedio solo mazzate. Onda troppo difficile/grossa/ripida/pesante per le mie limitate capacita'... Poi mi metto a fare qualche foto a Keith e Lalo. Ne allego una di Keith su una bomba almeno tre volte piu' grande di lui... Per fortuna al tramonto rimedio all'errore mattutino e mi sparo una bellissima session a lowers, dove in un'ora e mezza becco 18 onde. Tutte belle/facili/lunghe/divertenti.
**** giovedi 10-1-08: ancora lowers la mattina, sempre col 9 piedi. Glassy fino alle 11... uno sballo. Al tramonto, scelgo lo standup perche' non gliela faccio a remare sdraiato, ma la swell e' cresciuta un po' troppo e fa spesso close out anche a Kanaha.
***** venerdi 11-1-08: grandissime condizioni per il longboard sailing a Kanaha. Le sinistre sono liscissime, ne prendo una quantita' industriale e mi diverto... ma no assai.... di piu'!
***** sabato 12-1-08: vabbe', e allora ditelo... migliore giornata di sempre sulla tavola da standup surf col remo. Giornata galattica con sole, onde e niente vento. La mattina a lowers ci saranno duemila surfisti e grazie alla mobilita' che lo standup offre, pagaio fino al reef di fronte a kite beach, dove becco inesplorate destre e sinistre in assoluta solitudine. Poi dopo una pausa per il pranzo, rientro in acqua con una bellissima tavola 10.6 prestatami da un'amica e, sempre in piedi col remo, faccio il panico a lowers. In acqua, 5 surfisti (avendo surfato tutto il giorno, gli altri si sono ritirati esausti), tutti amici. Ho preso destre lunghissime fatte tutte hanging five on the nose. Ho preso sinistre piazzandoci dei top turn proprio nel mezzo della bowl. Insomma, mai surfato cosi bene con lo standup... davvero una giornata che ricordero'.
*** domenica 13-1-08: oggi, invece, come da previsioni, c'e' vento da nord e una nuova swell molto grossa e incasinata. In queste condizioni, il north shore e' off limits e si va a Kahana, nel west side. Vento da 5 (anche se poi e' salito e ci voleva la 4.7) e onda a volta overhead, ma molto, molto choppata. Al solito, mi diverto.

7 su 7. Percentuale uscite dall'inizio dell'anno: 13 su 13: 100%.


Notice that Saturday's report is longer than usual because... for me it was the bloddy best SUP surfing day EVER!

Now that you have an idea, please express your desire or not of having them published on this blog on a weekly basis. Please vote only once, thanks.
AND, this time don't expect me to necessarily do what the poll result will be... I just need to have an idea if you guys would like them or not... you should know by now that I'm allergic to the word commitment!
Plus, the summer reports are way less exciting...

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Please re-up the picture of Keith.
Per favore post nuovamente la foto di keith!
Continua così, il tuo blog mi fà sentire in vacanza anche se non lo sono.....saluti da Bari (italy).

cammar said...

Ciao Fabio,

the picture of Keith I mention in the reports is the first one of the last post... just scroll down and you'll find it.
This blog makes you feel on holiday even if you're not? That's cool... thanks for the appreciation and spread it among your friends.

Anonymous said...

I'll just read around your Italian report (as I don'r understand a word of Italian), would be coul if the Italian surfers/readers will still be able to read it.

There is this rumour that Kauli has switches sailsponsors and is on Neil Pryde now. Have you heared/seen anything about that?

Lano said...

more 'pics of chicks', less surf reports!

:)

Lano!

cammar said...

Robin,
Kauli will be on JP boards and NP sails and Levi will ride Quatro boards.
In other words, they will now be paid by different companies to have different graphics of their custom boards...

Also, Kevin Pritchard is selecting his new sail sponsor, I guess we'll know from his blog...
Btw, I just bought a custom SOS from him and I'm getting ready to sell some boards... got two sweet custom Quatro for sale, I'll post some pictures sooner or later...

Lano,
I agree with you 100%. Unfortunately, I don't take that mane pics of chicks as I'm almost always in the water...
The ones that I take, I promise that I won't keep for me any good one... I'll post them all!

Anonymous said...

Thanks G.P.for being our eyes and ears on the big Island.

Congrats on the new board, I guess it was drived frm the Rocket Fish 82, very radical board!

I like the way how you state: 'they will now be paid by different companies to have different graphics of their custom boards' Nice one!

cammar said...

Robin,
unfortunately I never rode one (actually I never even seen one other than in photos, due to the lack of SOS production boards on the island), but I higly doubt that a board shaped for KP with his inputs has something to do with a production shape. It would be a non sense...

A board made for a pro is very likely to be too difficult/technical/personal to be good for the rest of the world.
Get on one of Kauli's boards and see what I mean... good luck! ;-)
Not even the shaper Keith Taboul liked them!!! At least the first ones he shaped for him...

KP's estimate on the volume of the board he sold me is 74.
BTW, for the maui sailors, he got still a bunch of similar ones under his house... email him if interested at having a look.

Anonymous said...

You might be right G.P. , it is just that I have a mail sitting in my inbox from Sean telling me he shaped a RF82 (ish) for Kevin for the PWA pozo 2006. Curious how you'll like the board (btw my guesstimate on the RF82 is actually 75 liters, at least that is how big/small it sails).

Anyway had Diner with Dolf and Joanna 2 nights ago. Nice people! Gotto plan that trip to Maui...

Anonymous said...

"In other words, they will now be paid by different companies to have different graphics of their custom boards..."
cool comment...
It would be interesting if everybody knew that almost all of the waveboards the pros ride are custom and most shaped by KT.
I kind of liked when Kauli won his first title riding custom quattro boards, painted with cool custom graphics! He even took a board to Sylt painted with kamasutra positions! He then started riding boards painted with the serial quattro graphs, that to my taste, get worse year after yer...same with the goyas..

Marcos

cammar said...

Robin,
if Sean told you so, I take everything back, because it's probably true. Plus, I didn't know that the RF82 feels like 75l... it's usually the opposite.
I notice that "smart" market managers of big board brands like to declare that the volume of their boards are less than they really are so that when the clients buy them, most of them would say:"Wow, this board is 75 but it floats like 82! Fantastic!"
I would personally go like:"Shit, I bought this board thinking it was 75, but it bloddy floats way more than that!".

I'm sceptical/cynical by nature... I believe that most brands actually don't even measure their boards volume in tanks...

Marcos, that is one of the things that I really can't swallow.
I mean, it's totally understandable that a pro has different needs than the general public, specially when it comes to wave boards.
But what's the point of pretending that a custom is intead a production board bu putting the same graphics on it? It's a form of bullshitting the market, I think.

Btw, Keith shapes boards to a lot of pros, but there's also other Maui shapers that do that.
A few names I know include Mark Nelson, Sean Ordonez, Richard Green, Bill Foote... mmm, I feel like I'm forgetting someone...
Yes, I'd say that Keith is today the biggest name, followed by Mark Nelson.
But, in the end... what do I know?