you should have seen my bum when I was 18!

Elena Pompei is beautiful and self-confident enough not to mind me taking photos of her. The fact that she designs and sells the bikini she wears probably helps...

"I used to model" she said. "You should see the photos of my bum when I was 18!".
"I'd love to", I replied. "But show them to me in the parking of the hospital, so that I can get immediate help when I have a heart attack", I replied...

Warning: due to massive presence of young and stunningly beautiful models, hi risk of heart attacks also when browsing her website.


And since we're in windsurfing beauties mode, how's this one?


This belly used to be two things:
1) the fastest windsurfing belly in the world
2) a lot smaller
I'm praying for good sense of humor here...


Peculiar gopro mount.


Taking photos at Kanaha in a busy day is almost impossible: it's far away, there's no elevated place and the probability of having other sails in the way is very high. Unless it's Nico of course: he just flies over the other sails.


Looks like lately someone complained about the lack of "enthusiasm" of the lifeguards towards a possible rescue of a kitesurfer. As a consequence, some of their managers must have reminded them what they're paid for. I don't know if that is true, I don't know the details, but I did notice a improvement in their reaction time. As soon as you break down, they're out there to rescue you. We like this.


In this particular case, my coworker John broke the tendon (more precisely one screw came undone).
"What about the safety line?" I asked him.
"It was old and it broke."
"Was it a spectra one?"
"Nope".

It's a little piece of rope, but it allows you to sail back when you break the tendon. It's one of the most underestimated pieces of equipment. Check your mast foot and if the safety line is not spectra, invest two bucks and replace it.

Want another ass-saving tip? Even if your safety line breaks, you can still sail back.
1) grab the downhaul line and make a knot very close to the downhaul cleat (to avoid releasing the tension)
2) loosen your mast foot base
3) wrap the downhaul line under the mast foot base and around the screw a few times.
4) tighten the mast foot base.
The downhaul line will now be your safety line, connecting the rig to the board.

I remember a very hairy situation in Barbados, in which this trick allowed me to land on the beach literally one meter upwind of some really scary rocks in big waves.
No sandy beach to be seen anywhere downwind. I felt very lucky to know that trick.

And now a few links.

Congratulations to Kay Lenny for winning the SUP contest at Sunset beach. What a waterman he is.

These are two cd's I downloaded off amazon after having enjoyed a couple of tracks in a surf movie: Mishka and Xavier Rudd. What a cool and environment friendly way to purchase music. I had both CD's on my computer 10 minutes after I first heard those songs...

Talking about environment friendly things, Brian McDowell published the fifth issue of his online Windsurfer international.
There's a nice shot of Nick Warmuth from last august's hurricane Felicia. Don't remember it? Here's a reminder.

I just watched another great movie called Food Inc.. Make yourself a favor: watch it and learn how it's possible to profitably sell hamburgers at 99 cents (while killing the clients who eat them). Warning: there's a high chance you'll never want to eat any kind of meat again.

Talking about animals, here's someone who doesn't eat them, but instead gives them lots of love.
Laurelee Blanchard is a lovely lady that founded the Leilani Farm Sanctuary, located on a lush 8-acre farm in Haiku, Maui, and home to goats, rabbits, donkeys, cats and chickens. It is an all volunteer, non-profit organization created to provide shelter and care for abused animals, and humane education to the community.
She just sent me the following story.

Story of Johnny and the Goat Rancher

Johnny was born on a ranch with sixty other goats raised for meat. Because
his mother wouldn't nurse him, the rancher had to bottle-feed him. Johnny
was brought indoors several times a day for his bottle, and soon a bond
formed between the rancher and the newborn goat. The rancher began to
realize she couldn't bear the thought of little Johnny being butchered
someday, so she brought him to Leilani Farm Sanctuary.

Johnny grown up

A week later, the rancher returned to the sanctuary to visit Johnny and
brought her husband, a pig farmer. They stayed all afternoon, mingling with
all the rescued animals and learning their stories.

A follow up call a month later revealed the farmers had a change of heart
and decided to get out of the pig and goat meat business!

That goes to show that through our acts we can change things.
How can we fight against the giant and powerful food corporations that are fucking up with our health and make the animals suffer horrible atrocities?
Very simple. Don't buy their products. Don't eat at fast foods. Actually try not to eat meat at all. Our ancestors happily survived on a pure vegetable diet (ok, plus a few bugs) millions of years before we became able to catch animals and cut their flesh using tools (our teeth only allow us to chew meat, not to tear it off). We don't really need meat.

Conditions update.

Nico's photo was taken on the 11th and that was a fun day. After that we had a couple of light onshore wind days and not so good windsurfing. Fortunately the morning surfing has been ok.
Don't feel like getting into a forecast tonight. There's waves and there will be waves... that's good enough for me. Also because it's Hawaii and it's warm.
Different temperatures back in Naples where my family lives instead...