Francky is back!!!!

And immediately everyone is pushing a bit harder.

Well, at least I am...


This is the first wave of my sunday afternoon session that I shared with the official mauisurfreport team rider Nico.


Beautiful sky.


Click on the photo to look at the intensity of the expression. I told you, Francky is the windsurfing viagra...


The rest of Francky's photo of that day can be admired in his
amateur and pro galleries.
He was shooting also Monday (I had an early light wind session and missed him) and the photos are in this other gallery. The girl in the orange Goya board and sail is Alessandra Sensini, an italian windsurfer that took part to four Olympic games and won a medal in each single one: one gold, one silver and two bronze. Hats off!

After my Sunday session, I took photos for half hour and here's my five picks (chronological order).
Argentinian sailor Paolo (not really sure about the name) recovered nicely from the knee injury he suffered in his last visit. Welcome back hermano!


Camille Juban is in town.


Laurent.


Francisco Goya, always stylish even in a simple high jump.


Alex makes some spray.



A big bravo to the bunch of windsurfers that gathered Sunday morning (sorry guys, I had a morning work shift) to cleanup the reef at Hookipa from the shit that we ourselves dump in the ocean when we break something. Not sure who took the photo, but I downloaded from this facebook gallery.


Cleaning up is good, but the most important thing is to try to stop creating garbage and pollution. I hate plastic bottles and bags (which pollute the ocean way more than some very stable pieces of carbon masts on the bottom) and I use refillable metal bottles for my water and reusable fabric bags for my groceries.
If you don't yet, please start doing the same as soon as possible. It's pretty damn easy and there's no excuses not to. Thanks.


Lil update on the upcoming swell. As you can see from the weather maps of the 17 (last post), 18 and 19 the fetch didn't become captured and actually moved quite quickly to the east.


We're going to get the angular spreading of a swell that is aimed east of us. It might still get big at Hookipa, but that won't last long.


As noon of Tuesday there's still no sign of the swell at the NW buoy, so don't expect it to be big too early Wednesday morning. But it's going to have a steep rise and fall.

After that there will be another moderate NW swell around Monday-Tuesday next week, but that will coincide with some very strong and gusty easterly trades. I don't like those conditions at all, but I won't complain about it.
I live in the most beautiful place that I know and I enjoy it no matter what.

Since I got back for example, in the last five days I managed to be in the water a consistent two hours surfing in the morning and two hours sailing in the afternoon.
The excess baggage (read: belly) I carried with me from my trip, is almost already gone.

It'll be gusty and choppy, but I won't need to look like this...


Still working on the Ireland post, you guys! In the meantime, enjoy this beautiful Irish video.

DARK SIDE OF THE LENS from Astray Films on Vimeo.