Kanaha with the Kona shots

Big thanks to Alex who sent me these photos. Here's the text of his email:

Weather was not the best for shooting and the distance to the waves made it tough to get good shots (also without a tripod). I wish I had the camera out a bit earlier I would have caught you on some Big sets even though you said you made no turns (I saw you turn) not everyone is as comfortable as Pascal or Kauli... any of those sets could've made you swim for a looong time if you got a bit cocky, anyway this is what turned out and sorry if the files are to big.

Pascal was out for 3.5hrs and had some incredible rides including a few on weird wave, Kauli was out for 45min. and as you see it was raining while he was at the beach, so as soon as he hit the water the wind got super lite until it stopped completely while he was still at the reef. So he started swimming (Pascal pretty much sailed to within 15m. of the beach on the lightest of gusts 10min before it went to zero), the lifeguard jet ski happened to rescue a french sailor from uppers when they saw Kauli, so he got a ride while his friend and everyone else swam all the way in.


And here's the other photos he attached.
















In the meantime, I put together a few clips I shot at the harbor on Friday.


And I still have to edit the gopro clips of my session, so stay tuned.

Glenn sent this (sick table top at min. 4), Graham Ezzy sent this, Norm and Bernd Roediger sent this and Pietro Porcella sent this.

Today I surfed almost 3 hours and can barely move my arms. Life is great, despite the poor wave forecast for this week.

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I'm updating this post with something I wrote after having read the first comment from Ben:

Yes, what I was trying to explain with words is much better rendered by a photo.
Here's what I said in a previous comment:
"If you never sailed there, be very careful. It's waaay more difficult than it looks because of the extreme offshoreness and gustiness of the wind. And the wave is not the usual mushy Lowers wave... it's a beast that breaks top to bottom.
Again, way more difficult/dangerous than the usual Lowers."

I guess that picture tells everything (do click on it, it's the one above the jet ski one).
The peak you see breaking is the (in)famous bowl. Here's what happens: there's a shallow spot that sticks out in the ocean more than the rest of the reef. When the wave starts feeling it, it slows down and peaks right in front of the shallow spot. At the same time, the two shoulders keep travelling faster, they bend around the peak and that's when the bowl forms. It only happens with big waves though and, in my very personal scale of values, it's one of the most beautiful thing I've seen in this world. Being in the right spot on the bowl going left on any kind of board for me is better than sex.

That's why I was so stoked to have been out there for two hours without getting worked even if I didn't do any radical turn...
As Alex said I'm definitely not as comfortable on port tack also because I feel like I could get hurt more easily, since I have less experience not only in riding waves, but also in falling and wiping out on that tack.

Technical note: both me and Pascal were out on 90l boards. No idea about Kauli. Being out there with my 81l would have been a lot more difficult for me if not impossible.
Think about this: the wind was so fluky that I had to uphaul three times! One of which in emergency mode in the impact zone with a big set looming on the horizon...