some serious wave sailing

Wow! We've been doing some serious wave sailing lately here on Maui...

Let's do it chronologically starting from Thursday March 11th.
Here's a photo of moi (by Francky) testing Tom Hammerton's latest creation... so much power in that sail!


The other water shots of that day are in this gallery.

Friday (back to the comfort of my Superfreaks) I went out quite early with very little wind on the inside and did a quick in and out from the rocks. No big damage, other than the fact that I lost my $25 watch... could be worse.
Monsieur Berthout was in the water again and again he took some amazing shots. How's the clarity and the sharpness of this one? Click on it and check the texture of the water...


I remember him body surfing the wave to take this one...


I hope I don't sound too "flattery", but I'm quite impressed by how good he got in such little time. Must be because of the enthusiasm he puts into it. You can feel his stoke to be in the water taking photos of us. And he probably can feel our stoke to have him in the water taking photos of us. It's like a stoke loop!


The other photos of that day, in this gallery.

Friday I also found the time to take some photos myself (from a way more comfortable beach chair on the cliff).
It's always kind of special when I give the "my pic of the day" award to a sailor that is not one of the usual pros.
This is Nils (from Holland, I think) and he just gained a lot of respect for this aerial.


Ok, I'm going to make a little exception and post another pic of the day, also because the show that Luke Siver put on that day was stellar. It got pretty freaking windy in the afternoon and the man sure likes jumping.


The following ones are in chronological order.
Luke, super tweaked push loop... or something like that.


Luke.


I see Francisco Goya planing like crazy on the way out. I follow him with the camera to catch the jump. Instead, he duck jibes at the speed of light on the wave and then rides it switch stance, even throwing some spray in the turns... in other words, much better than me in regular stance.
If he wasn't one of the nicest guys on the planet I would definitely hate him...


Glenn with his super stylish knee overlap backloop.


Keith. Notice the verticality of his lines.


Francisco Porcella is another one that enjoys jumping. Wait until you'll be my age, you guys...


Jason Diffin. Awesome!


Laurent goiter.


Francisco P.


Glenn.


Boobies.


Patrick 360.


Pato high jump.


This one is blurred, but it's too good of a wipeout... over the falls on your back on a low tide... uff! How was that Patrick?


Saturday March 13th.
I confess I completely overlooked this swell. The buoys went up to 4 feet, 14 seconds from 360-15. Believe it or not, that can create logo to mast high waves up the coast.
Francky was in the water and took these photos.

While you're at it, take a look at his "pic of the day" collection. But do it only if you have at least 15 minutes to invest. There are some incredible photos in it. That means that if you hire him for a photoshoot, chances are you're gonna get a shot like that...

Here's the report of my day, instead.
- surfed 1.5 hours
- worked 4 hours (that's 4 hours standing and moving boards around)
- sailed 2.5 hours

The reason I'm posting this instead of being in the water surfing on a beautiful Sunday morning, is that I'm sore.
With a big swell on the horizon, I decided to take some rest.
Check the weather map of Friday afternoon. The storm moved east and the fetch never really became captured, but the wave models are called for 10 feet anyway... and you've seen what 4 feet can do at Hookipa!


Even the south pacific is stirring up, life is as good as it gets.

PS. Brian published the March edition of his Windsurfer International.