east side surfing

Went to Hana for the weekend and scored some really good waves on the way.

The friday afternoon session was a bit crowded and the level in the water was extremely high... a bit too high for me. In fact, I caught only a few waves on the shoulder and then decided to go in and take some photos... activity in which I did much better. I had a hard time selecting the main page and the slide deservers: so many good ones!

Even though not as spectacular as the other younger surfers, I'm going to start with a sequence of this big hawaiian guy, because he had a great energy, always smiling in and out of the water.
Here he drops in a bomb...


...he makes the section...


...and he smiles his way to a final cut back! After that wave he came out of the water and still had the same smile on his face... the power of a good ride!


And now the young guns. Nice top turn leaning back with the hand in the water.


Just as above.


The highlight of my session was to get stuck on the inside behind this girl...


And now a couple of powerful top turns. First a front side one...


..and then a back side one. Check how in both cases the board is facing the opposite side of where the surfers were going. That's the revolution that Kauli brought into windsurfing with his super short boards and the twin fins: finishing the top turns like surfers do. Hats off to him for having introduced a significantly different way of wave sailing.


I swear: I was only interested in what she was reading...


The last two photos are of a young surfer that was technically very talented, but didn't have much respect for the lineup turns. He paddled on every wave that came to him (catching most of them)... I hate that. Sure, I guess that's what made him so good too...
Here's a nice cut back. Focused on where he wants the board to go next, wide spread arms, leaning into the turn, but still with the body perpendicular to and well centered on the board. Very good indeed.


And an aerial grab.


Here's the slide show.

The sunday session at the same spot was way better for me. Smaller (still shoulder highish), but only three of us out. What a difference!
In Hana, I surfed Koki beach and that was a huge amount of paddling for something like three waves. But I had a great bike ride that I filmed with the helmet cam, so stay tuned for that.

Aloha.