Saturday, October 03, 2009

Manta rays at Hookipa + Sylt

IMO, Nico has the best backloop of all the Hookipa sailor. And considering the amount of talent in the water, that's something.


The only other backloops that would compare are the ones of the good old days of Francisco Goya. Talking about which, he just got back in the water after a couple of months of rest because of an knee injury. Welcome back Francisco and hopefully we'll see him throwing his sick backloops again soon!

Here are the other shots of day in chronological order. I tried to go lower on the rocks and I kind of like the result. I missed my beach chair though and the bipode that my arms form when resting on the chair arms.
But what was worse was to know that I would have not been able to go sail because of the wrist pain... no complaints, could be worse.
Tried to surf: doable, but definitely that's not rest (the wrist hurt a bit when duck diving). And the conditions sucked. But at least there were two argentinian asses that made it worth it...
Anyway, here's the pics.

Jason D.


Laurent.


Dean.


Nico.


Bart.


Laurent.


Guess who sometimes decides to use this vehicle to go sailing?


And now a quite remarkable encounter.


Most of the times you see a fin in the water in Hawaii, it's a manta ray.


The family.


Sylt.
Alex Mussolini won the wave contest at Sylt. Here's the double elimination's ladder.
Josh Angulo won the waves world title.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I actually wanna comment on your last post when you talked about "shitty conditions" on sylt. Yes, you can call em so if you will. As a matter of fact, these conditions draw the most spectators by far anywhere on the tour. They do put anyone sailing there to the test (you wouldn´t go out, would ya?). And sailors are GLAD if they make it there. It aint the comfort zone, right. Not the warm-side/off-pampered fun you are used to. These were not shitty conditions, this was sylt, where the best of the sport could showcase how to deal with nature. Who wants to see top turn # 1.450.346 on a Ho'okipa wave? Hey, come on, put up a PWA grand slam contest on maui! Doesen´t work? See. Good luck with your hand though (seriously) and keep on with that great blog.

cammar said...

Point taken.
I agree that was too judgemental from me. I changed it from 'shitty' to 'challenging' conditions, which is a more proper definition, I think.
Thanks for your comment!

Anonymous said...

It's a Spotted Eagle Ray, not a Manta.

Anonymous said...

I agree with you GP it is absurd and disheartening that there are only 3 wave contest a year, two of them in Sylt and Pozo !
M

cammar said...

Anon,
how do you know? Manta rays can't be spotted? But I did spot those ones! Eheh...
Anyway, I think you're right and I remember when I had a super close encounter with an Eagle ray a few years ago while snorkeling at Hookipa (there's even a short video of that somewhere in the archives on this blog).
I was checking under a rock and when I started to come up my field of vision was suddenly filled by the face of this big and scary looking animal. I had never seen one and I admit that for an instant it scared the hell out of me. Then I realized how beautiful she was and looked it up on the internet to find out it was an eagle ray.
Here's a photo
.
And here's an interesting description
.
Thanks!

M,
your comment and the fact that the video of the double elimination is finally available online motivated me to do my next post.

nico said...

the car??
THE NAISH!