Monday, December 28, 2009

Honolua bay + more SUP shots

Ladies and gentlemen, Maui's most beautiful wave.






Plenty drop-ins as usual.




Glenn.


Someone's legs. Don't look like Glenn's.


This guy did the monster drop of the day. Catching a bomb like that on a shortboard is for me way more impressive than being towed into a 50 feet wave.


Same guy, same wave.


Still him.


He's already thanking his god for the magnificent wave he sent him.


Well, after such a display of great surfing, I have to be very bold to post these photos of me on the standup taken on the 26th... specially starting with this one:


For the beginner standuppers, a couple of tips and a request:
- notice how I constantly use the paddle
- notice how I move the back foot on the rails to achieve the turns
- please, if you're in Maui and learning SUP surfing, go to the south shore. It's going to be extreeeemely easier/better for you and you won't be a danger for the other surfers as much as you will be on a north shore break.
When I learned it, I spent three months on the south shore before feeling ready to challenge the north shore. These days, every single day I see beginners in the lineup totally unaware of how dangerous they are.












Nothing, I just feel like spending a couple of words about the amazing weather we are experiencing. Here's the 5 days surfline forecast.


And I just checked the 7 days weather map models and there's even bigger surf ahead.
The jet stream is running pretty low and the storms get close to the island.
What's unbelievable is that we get this constant supply of NW swell, but this year in particular, most of the times we don't get to experience much of the weather associated with the storm. No wind, no rain, no cold air...
I mean, check the sky in those standup photos above... it's been like that for most of the time!
It might not be good for the plants or for our water supply, but I'm absolutely loving it.
I understand how the visiting windsurfers can be bummed about the lack of wind. A Maui trip is always an expensive one (well, actually they should stop bitching about it, considering that most people can't even afford it)...
But the local windsurfers... please gimme a break. Learn how to surf, go snorkeling, get a beach chair a book and a beer and enjoy the freaking sunshine!

Let's have a look at tomorrow's forecasted temperatures in some of the major world cities:
New York 17 34 (-8 1) cloudy
London 37 41 (3 5) heavy rain
Milan 36 43 (2 6) rain
Paia 67 81 (20 27) sunny and high surf advisory.

Today I surfed a total of 5 hours. Tomorrow it's going to be light kona and epic. It's 9pm. Even if I knew for sure that all those chicks of the previous post were waiting for me at Charley's, I would still go to bed right now and get some sleep.
That's how much I'm loving it.

Ok ok, maybe I would go there, get the numbers and call them when it's flat...

Goodnight!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

GP Beautiful Honobay Photos, pic #1 and #4 are of Jud Lau (owner of Hana Hwy Surf) my girl's bro. Thanks for such a great blog... after you paddled in we got a few more in the last few minutes of light.

Anonymous said...

Picture No.3 looks like the terrifying "headless surfer" of Maui.

Anne

Acewave said...

Love the wipe-out photo on the SUP! Agreed about people moaning when the wind is too light. Just had a windless 5 days here and took the chance to do some snorkeling and SUP'ing and enjoyed the sunshine and ocean in a different way.

I've just got into riding a SUP in the waves and am really enjoying it. Would be great if you could share some more SUP wave-riding and paddle-handling tips.

cammar said...

Yes, I was almost sure it was him, thanks for confirming.
Jud Lau, the organizer of the first official downwind paddling race with a SUP division in august 2004. To find out who won it (eheh...) wait until I eventually find the time to finish the article I'm writing about the start of SUP downwinders for the Standup Journal... hey, at least I started it!
He's a great guy and an amazing surfer. Your girlfriend looks like a sweet girl too, but my favorite of the family is for sure the dad Ron... I really love that guy. Always smiling, great spirit of aloha.

Hi Anne, even though I reject most of your comments (specially the ones in which you sound too "motherly"), I appreciate most of them...

Hi Andrew, that's the way to go.
One more tip: when paddling over the white water of breaking waves, make sure to keep the board perpendicular to it and to keep the paddle in the water and in the active phase of the stroke when the white water hits the board. You want to propell yourself through the white water and the paddle in the water will give you stability.

okki said...

Do you think you could mount a GoPro on the nose of a windsurf board as you do on the SUP? maybe just infront of the nose to avoid the mast hits?

cammar said...

Okki, yes we can!
I did this one two years ago when the camera was still non wide angle:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHR4Q4Jij6M
Don't really feel the pull to do it again now, since it's one of those mounts when you can't turn the video on and off and it would take too much time to edit (in my super busy life, at least).
You can do two things:
1) sand the front of the board and stick one of those "permament" sticky plates so that you can clip on the camera whenever you want (the sticky plate will stay on the board)
2) use the wide white sticky plate that comes the surf-hero, but don't glue it to the board. Just use it as a wide base to duck tape to the front of the board. This is a less permament mount, in the sense that at the end of the session, you only have to get rid of the leftovers of the duct tape...
No matter how forward you put it, the camera will still be at risk to be hit by the mast. So I strongly recommend a safety line from the camera case to the mast foot.
Nothing will save your camera if the mast breaks the case.
Good luck!

okki said...

I think now with the wide angle it would look much better than that video, you should be able to get the whole sailor in the frame. I'll give it a go when I get one.

cammar said...

Okki, 100% guaranteed that you will get the whole sailor. And I think you will get most of the sail too if you orient the camera high enough.
Just don't use resolution 5, 'cause that has a more narrow angle.