Thursday, January 21, 2010

An intense day of wavesailing

After that teaser light wind day on Saturday reported in the last post, the wind in Maui has been extremely light again till yesterday (Wednesday) when it blew strong sideon in the late afternoon. Lots of fun in some unusual conditions (yes, sideon is unusual for Maui...).

Today, instead, it went back to a regular easterly trade direction (after something like a month and a half).
The waves were big and gnarly at Hookipa (I heard of Kauli destroying his sail and been rescued by the lifeguards) and most pros were down at Kanaha.
I got lucky and sailed for a couple of hours with manageable 4.7 wind, before it went up again around 5 and made the whole quality of the sailing way worse (overpowered and overchopped).
Not an epic day, but a hell lot of fun for most sailors (me included) after such a long wavesailing abstinence.

Other than a possible Kona day on Saturday though, the next windy day might be in exactly one week, next Thursday when another very temporary high pressure cell will build just north of the islands. One week wind forecasts... I honestly don't trust them. In the meantime though, no shortage of waves and that's what counts in my world.

I took out my new HD GoPro camera and shot some video clips. In the meantime that I slap them together, please enjoy these photos.

I like the colors in this one.


Andres backloops downwind of me.


It looks like I'm in the right spot at the right time, right?


Two seconds later...


I had the camera on the shots every two seconds. Unfortunately, it didn't shoot when Omri was at the apex of his jump, otherwise you guys could admire how freaking high he went, before wisely ditching everything.


Wow, I'm exhausted (thank god for the Superfreaks, otherwise I'd be even more tired!). My legs are sore for all that bouncing on the chop. Time to go to bed. Also because tomorrow might offer good surfing conditions.

What a life.

PS. The Volcom Pipeline Pro starts tomorrow (wave permitting).

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ended up being very glassy late - last hour till dark. Was a great session for sure!

Anonymous said...

pics number 4 is fantastic, the perspective is damn unusual !
M

Andy said...

Great pics- the colors are awesome!

Brian S said...

GP,
Those are really good shots for a GoPro - good color saturation and also sharp. Is that the new HD gopro?

cammar said...

Yes, new HD gopro, I changed the post to specify that, thanks.

Yes, #4 is quite a good one, thanks to the 'shot every 2 seconds' feature. I remember thinking in that precise moment:
"1) I hope I can get my feet out the footstraps
2) I hope the board won't hit me in the wipeout"
Fotunately both things happened...

Goodness, slept 10 hours straigth! Feel great this morning. Off to surfing!

Rille said...

Nice update of last days sailing. I sailed Kuau for the first time wednesday in cross-on masthigh. Felt like my homespot in sweden on steriods... Kanaha on thursday was nice, but crowded.
I actually got the Kauili disaster on film at Hookipa. Just picked up the cam, so it is unsteady handheld. But you see the massive wave that hit him:
http://www.vimeo.com/8941816
Very nice blog by the way! :)