Another day of extraordinarily strong and gusty (=awful) wind here in Maui. I chose the right week to test sails of four different brands I have access to... clearly they're all NOT MADE WITH DACRON and my body is suffering unimaginable physical abuses.
It's like driving a car without shock absorber on a very bumpy road.
Please don't even ask which brands they are and which ones I like. So far they're all good, nice, powerful and awfully stiff and they all like to torture my body. Hey, this is not a sponsorshit talk (no, that's not a typo). I would say exactly the same of a Fire.
It's that when the wind goes from 18 to 33, there's nothing like a Superfreak for an old fart like me.
18 to 33? No way... it was more like 5 to 40, really.
I was out on a 3.7 today and I got slammed twice into the water by a gust just sailing along.
Power is a dreadful thing in these conditions and with my non-pro abilities.
Clearly Victor and all the pros don't mind all that power (even though I saw everybody falling in jibes, catapulting, etc...) and continues to make it look good.
If you click on this photo, you will enjoy how his shorts match the colors of the superfreak in the background...
Another in form sailor today was Alex Mussolini.
The rest of the photos in this slide.
The wind forecast calls for a couple of more day of ugly strong East wind, then Friday and the weekend the models say ENE and slightly less strong. If they're right, that slight difference in the angle would make a huge difference in the quality of the wind on the north shore of Maui. Let's hope so.
The wave forecast calls for a fat WNW swell peaking on Thursday afternoon. I believe that is going to be a fun day to watch at Hookipa, with all these pro sailors (and pro photographers) competing for the ultimate shot. I'll try to squeeze an early session somewhere and then focus on my duty of reporter from paradise.
Stei tiund (that's how 'stay tuned' would be written with the italian pronunciation rules). Ai laic it. Meibi ai uil start raiting laic dis...
5 comments:
Hi GP, great pics as always, that's me in the background of your first shot on the technicolour 4.5 superfreak...
The wind was indeed mental strong and gusty but I still had a great session! Some really nice non-threatening head-high waves today for a numpty Ho'okipa sailor like me.
I'll try harder to get on a decent wave and into your camera next time!
Harry
Hi Harry,
I sound like I complain about the conditions, but I do it more for the sake of reporting. I managed to have some fun too.
Hey if this blog inspires non pro sailors to push it hard trying to get a photo published, that's a great thing.
As long as:
- you guys don't blame if you get hurt
- you guys don't get to disappointed if you don't get the shot.
Actually I don't even follow the non pros, because it's quite distracting. I was shooting a friend yesterday, and I missed a couple of good shots because of that...
But if somebody wants a photoshoot, I can always be hired! I don't have a professional camera and I am not a professional photographer, hence I'm cheaper...
Email me for info.
ohhhh boy,, nice pic of Glenn's bamboo tech SOS.
in some weeks I'll show you some more ;-)
david
Hahaha the written English-italian accent is totally correct(trust me i know italians) and superhilarious!
Nice pic's! Is it so hard you can't handle the circumstances? Even not by tweaking your sail? But you said the tested sails were stiff, maybe that has got something to do with it?
Gusty is always better than no wind...
David, if you're coming over at the end of april, make sure you grab a superfreak and take part to the "Freak and meet" day on Sunday 26th.
Rudie,
- it was very hard
- I had fun anyway
- it had a lot to do with the stiffness of monofilm/xply compared to dacron. ALL sails on the market are stiffer than a superfreak
- as long as there's waves, no wind is way better than this gusty... I just go surfing!
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