This particular one was absolutely average, but what he did on it wasn't. Before this one, he did two more remarkable turns, accelerating in each one. Only a lot of speed, in fact, can allow him to throw such an amount of spray. 10 from the italian judge.
Let's get rid of him and publish three more photos. Don't click on this one, since it's blurred. Looks better small.
Wave 360.
And another aerial.
Well, at this point (and after watching the following photos), you might think that conditions were epic at Hookipa yesterday, but you would be deceived.
The pros always make it look good. The wind was super offshore and gusty. The waves were inconsistent, since a new NW swell was just starting to show up and overlap with the leftover of the old NW swell and a short period NE swell. In other words, less than ideal.
Francisco Porcella may not agree with me.
Here he is again (this one is for the ladies), probably giving a bit more outhaul (some gusts were just too much). I keep hearing rumors that Mistral is done, finished, kaput. If that's true, after F2 that's another historical brand that goes. I will always remember that Mistral Stinger I had ages ago and that was the perfect board for my spring time home spot Scauri. Thanks to whoever shaped that board, I really enjoyed it.
Post update. An allegedly more accurate rumor says that they're not closing, but they're just cutting down some costs: no more sponsored team riders and no more Mark Nelson as a shaper.
Talking about shapers, french Hot Sails team rider Bruno Andre is here. He brought me a board that is completely out of the ordinary and will find some place on this blog soon.
Here he's riding his latest three fin AHD desing.
KP.
Brazilian stretching (sorry, wrong side).
Mark Angulo.
Graham Ezzy.
A local.
Manu.
Stuff I have to post (I write this as a note to myself):
- photos from the very first day of the Kona swell
- video clips from two days ago. They're really nice, but I want to edit them and do a little video called Uppers vs Lowers... stat tuned. The new GoPro wide angle camera is amazing. I can't believe those guys have improved the product so much in so little time. Thanks a lot for that.
Forecast.
The new swell is 6 feet, 17 seconds from 110-115 degrees at the Waimea buoy this morning at 6am. That is a great size and period, but probably a bit too west for Kanaha. I may have to sail up the coast again.
The wind is going to be offshore and gusty again, maybe I'll rig 4.2 this time. The weekend should be fun anyway, thanks to the waves, but next week looks pretty bad.
A low level low (can you say that?) will develop just north of the islands and give us some unsettled weather, super choppy short period northerly swell and variable winds. Then towards the end of the week, trade winds will be back with related windswell, but without any long period NW swell at all. Oh well, we had waves for more than 10 days, I guess I can't complain... so I won't!
Stoked to be alive, well and in Maui! Life is great. Off to the beach.
10 comments:
Hi GP,
Was Kauli saling yesterday? I saw some cool pics on another site. Was he there with the Kona winds?
Thanks,
marcos
Porcupine Tree rock!!! Avevi ragione Giampaolo molto apprezzabili, mi hai dato la possibilità di uscire dalla monotonia musicale degli ultimi mesi con questo gruppo eccezionale! Ho scaricato tutta la discografia!! ;D
Complimenti di nuovo per le nuove foto, e complimenti ai ragazzi in acqua.
Io stamattina assieme ad altri amici mi sono accontentato dello Stagnone (isola Mothia - Trapani - Sicilia).
Ciao alla prossima
P.S. Mi è arrivata oggi una Superfreak molto fricchettona, con colori fluorescenti, dimmi che sono ottime vele ti prego, ahahahahahhhahahhaha
Paolo
Sicilia
Hi GP
again an interesting post
greetings from cold germany (3°C)
the girl stretching with her ass sea side out is no fool, perhaps shes seen your blog? hahaha, bummer
Marcos,
Kauli wasn't out yesterday and not even with the kona.
I don't think he is here.
Paolo,
congratulations for having become one of the few italian Superfreak owners. The old importer wasn't supporting them. So Italy is probably the country where there's less SF in the (windsurfing) world. But now things will change and you guys can claim to have been the pioneers...
It's not for everyone (we all have different preferences), but if you like it you will immediately get rid of all your xply/monofilm sails.
It's the Cadillac of the sails.
Anon,
my sincere gratitude goes to you and all the blog readers that read this blog from cold countries and don't hate me.
Ben,
she actually did turn around, but -believe it or not- that shot is not as sexy as the one I posted.
I just love her hair... plus the wetsuit took the beauty out of it.
If she was wearing a bikini instead... you guys would have scored big.
mistral out ??!!Wow not a good thing, last i heard they were developing a new Equipe longboard, the old term longboard for light air course racing.
what used to be the best brand, and in the 80s they were built the best IMHO.
my 1st real hot board was the Mistral "diamond head" circa 1985??more footstraps then you knew what to do with 4 on front 2 in back, and only 115 litres. It had flat rocker, and double concaves the size of the old hypersonics. (hmm svein were'd ya get that idea)got planing fast and topped out speed wise early.
Again, I just heard rumors...
I remember the Diamond head, and the Hookipa too.
But a friend of mine bought the Taloa, remember that one? Four concaves, three fins, no centerboard, enough volume to uphaul: a big slogger in light wind and a (out of control) planing beast as soon as the wind picked up a bit.
Oh, this is hysterical. Looking for photos of the Taloa, I ran into this 1987 video
review that I'm sure the italians will appreciate.
At the end, the guy says that the sail is for medium to poor sailors... lol.
taloa yup knew a finnish guy that owned one. He was a big guy so it kinda worked for him, the three fin concept though looked slow. But look at the realwind boards.
It was so big it needed a daggerboard.
ah and then there was the mistral malibu ( owned one) really nice alrounder ,the mistral pandera nice, like a mini equipe.
to name just a few.
Little update: an allegedly more accurate rumor says that they're not closing, but they're just cutting down some costs: no more sponsored team riders and no more Mark Nelson as a shaper.
Il pantaloncino nel video e' veramente "super Freak"....
The board short on the video is a real "Super Freak"....
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