SUP race + some good surfing + rooms for rent!

Been busy lately, time to catch up.

Here's a few photos from the Olukai SUP race that was held on Sunday. It was supposed to be a downwinder, but it ended up being a nowinder.
The usual Dave Kalama receives the first place trophy together with the other top five guys. The usual Andrea Moeller won the girls category.


Done with that, let's admire some nice things. Let's randomly start with a nice competitor's butt.


Nice shorts.


Nice board.


Nice sailing canoe.


Despite the fact that I claim to have invented SUP downwinders and have won the first SUP downwind race in the history of humanity (am I ever going to write that article about it?), I didn't compete in this one. I'm too cheap and not competitive enough...
So what did I do that morning instead?
I scored a lot of super fun waves at Hookipa. I was sitting in the uncrowded lineup while the competitors passed by sweating their asses off. Different ways to enjoy the ocean... with 5 people at Middles and glassy waves all morning I was very happy about my choice!
Here's a shot of a small bowly one taken at sunset.


Pavillion longboarder.


This one is Kazuma team rider Matt Meola at the point.
This photo should deserve a whole post by itself, I absolutely love it. Because it shows the essence of high performance shortboard surfing and it's like a backside top turn manual. Let me draw your attention to:
- how low he is
- how far back the back foot is
- how centered on the board center line his body is
- how beautifully he's using his arms to achieve the twist of the upper body that will lead into the top turn... they look like bat wings! And even his hands are fully open and contribute to generate that twisting momentum. Very important detail... I should try to remember that, since I always have my hands pending like if they were dead.


So that Sunday was the first day of a super fun N swell that got bigger Monday and Tuesday, went down a bit Wednesday and still has to offer a few small fun waves Thursday morning.

The wind in Maui is like a remote memory. I feel sorry for all the windsurfer tourists that came from all over the world and got mercilessly skunked, but I feel even more sorry for the kids that die for malnutrition in Africa... if you know what I mean.
Rent a surfboard or an SUP and go learn how to surf on the south shore you guys... you're still in Maui and it's sunny and gorgeous every day!
Plus, if the weather is super weird and there's a whole month with no wind in spring it's probably our fault and we can't really complain, can we?

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks a lot to the Premium drink dispenser that renewed their 6 months of banner space and helped support this blog.

I immediately invested the money in a videocamera (still thinking about the Oahu movie project). A cheap Samsung with a hell of a zoom, but it only takes videos in MPEG4 format, which is not good for Windows Movie Maker. Before I waste my precious time, anyone out there that knows of a free MPEG4 to AVI converter with no (or at least little) quality loss?
This is a first short clip I took from inside my car. Didn't need to edit it since blogger accepts MPEG4. Random soundtrack playing in my stereo is the marvelous 17 minutes long Anesthetize, needless to say by Porcupine Tree.



PS. My studio is still available for rent in June. And the room in front of it is still available for long term.