never trust my forecasts

Despite the buoy readings, the waves were smaller on Sunday.

Here's a couple of shots I took after another quite disappointing wave sailing performance.
Mark was in pushloop mode.


Nick.


And now, even though I know you couldn't care less, here's the three main reasons why I'm sailing like I'm sailing:
a) five months without wave sailing did effect my timing
b) I'm scared to hit the lip
c) in the bottom turn, when I push against the strap with the top of my back foot occasionally I feel a bit of discomfort. To avoid that, I don't push as hard as I ca. As a consequence of that, I don't turn as hard as I can!

Even though I have good reasons to suck, sucking sucks no matter what.
And even though I know that I'm privileged to live in Maui and sail Hookipa in a beautiful sunny day, sailing badly is not much fun you guys.

Allright, Francky is away but Jimmie is not: the following three shots are taken from this gallery of his.

I'm not a huge fan of these photoshopped sequences. Yes they're kinda cool, but they give a false impression of movement. In the real sequence, I bet Mark did not land as far to the left as it looks.
So why did I post this? Oh yeah, I wanted to point out the asymmetrical tail of Mark's board. Are the good old days back? Well, that board is only 7 days old...


I'm going to ask Anatol if that was an intentional one foot back loop or he's about to bail. I think it's a proper one.


Tif is looking good! Beautiful yellows.


Let's move on to Pavillions. These two photos were taken by blog reader Walter.
Young ripper.


Butt crack!


And now, even though I know you couldn't care less, here's why I wrongly forecasted bigger waves.


I mean, the graphic is so clear that even a 5 year old could read it.
Sunday morning (when I read it), the windswell was two feet higher than Saturday afternoon. That's the Makapuu buoy, just offshore of Oahu, no travel time to compute.
My only explanation is that Sunday it was less windy than Saturday. Unlike a full grown-up long period swell, the windswell is very sensitive to the wind that is actually generating it. It's like a little baby. If you feed him, he grows fast, but if you don't, he doesn't last long.
Yes, there was also a very slight change in the direction (more easterly), that might have done it too.

Whatevass.

PS. ASP Teahupoo surf contest started. After this, the number of surfers taking part of the ASP world tour will go from 46 to 32. That'll make for some dramatic heats.
Last heat of round two tomorrow, for example, is between Dusty Payne and Brett Simpson. They both sit at place 24 right now. My bet is that whoever will lose will be out.
Go Dusty!

This is Dane Reynolds. Photo ASP/Kirstin.


PPS. The windswell remains the only waves to be ridden at the moment and it's even going down.
August went by without the usual first NW swell of the season and there's none to be seen on the horizon for at least one more week. This is a consequence of the la Nina conditions that favors the establishment of a strong high pressure all over the north Pacific.
Not much happening on the south shore either, even though the following map forecasted to happen on Sept 3 shows a nice fetch over New Zealand. If that fetch will stay like that, once it moves to the east of New Zealand it will generate a good swell from a nice straight south direction about a week later. Cross your fingers.