waves and a new sponsor

A fairly big NW swell has just delighted us with plenty waves. Maybe not the cleanest ever, but sure there was some energy in the water.

I managed to surf in the morning and sail in the afternoon every single day and that makes me a happy boy.
By the way, I'll explain this photo at the end of the post. In the meantime, try not to drool on your keyboard if you can.


Friday afternoon the windsurfing conditions at Hookipa were just beautiful, but something like 40 between international and local sailors were out... too many for my taste, so I sailed somewhere else. But Francky was in the water and took the usual bunch of great shots: amateur and pro galleries.

They're all gorgeous, but in particular I really like this one of Camille (unusual perspective from which you can see the eastern point of the bay and the surfers at Pavillions) and this one of Peter Volwater (looks like two mountains, one of which made of water).
That day I watched for 15 minutes and it was such an amazing show. Windsurfing at its best with most of the best sailors in the world. I feel like mentioning Mark Angulo going for a clew first forward off the lip, which I've never seen before.

I was sitting with two Cabo Verde experts (Kai Katchadourian and Francisco Porcella) and I asked them:"hey, why are all these people here if there's a contest in Cabo Verde in November? Why are they not training there?"
"'Cause over there you may easily break everything if you fuck up!"
I asked the same question to Josh Angulo (who I met in the shop).
"Josh, are all these sailors here because of that?"
"Nah, there's spots that are more mellow"
"So why are they here?"
"Don't know, the conditions are very different indeed"
"Well, why are you here then?"
"I got some business to do..."

My feeling is that even though Cabo Verde may offer epic, super clean, side off conditions once in a while, if you have 3-4 weeks and want to train in wave sailing, Maui is the place to be, in terms of consistency of wind and waves.

Anyway, let's move on to Saturday (yesterday).
The swell went down a lot and the wind started to blow strong and gusty from an easterly direction (which in Maui is a bit offshore).
It looked horrible to my very spoiled eyes and I happily decided to go for a photoshoot instead.
I don't have a favorite, so here are the pics in chronological order.

Luke.


Boujmaa.


Boujmaa jibing the sail mid backloop.


Luke.


Boujmaa.


Luke. Always picture perfect aerials.


When Francky left the water most of the pros left too. That's why next photos are mostly "normal" people, which is something I like a lot.
Don't know the name of this guy.


Aurelien shows us the graphic of the bottom of his custom board.


Argentinian Pablo in the landing phase of a push loop (I think).


Mr. Ordonez went for a sail.


Spanish sailor and nice guy (hey, I can't remember all the names...).


Italian freestyler Nicola Spadea is working on his wave sailing skills. Doing allright, I'd say!


Somewhere in there there's another italian guy who has been training pretty hard.


At one point I decided to call it a day, but while I stopped chatting with a friend on my way to my car, I saw my buddy Nino getting in the water. He arrived two days ago, and seen the relatively small waves, decided to sail Hookipa for his very first time.
I was so excited for him that, after taking this shot, I had to rig and go sail with him. By then (5pm) the wind had dropped enough for me to even enjoy the session (caught a couple of nice ones), but my joy was more the one reflected by the stoke of Nino. Good job!


Unfortunately, the forecast looks shitty (to my spoiled eyes).
Despite the fact that a new moderate swell will hit today in fact, a strong high pressure is about to take over the north pacific and generate strong, gusty, low quality, easterly winds.
This map is modeled to happen on Oct 27 and you can see how the high pressure is relegating that big storm north of the Aleutians... which is NOT where it belongs!


Fortunately, as this other map modeled for Nov 1st shows, ultimately that storm will manage to move south and offer a decent fetch that will generate a NW swell, but we're talking 10 days from now.


Last, but not least, I'd like to welcome a new blog sponsor: the young lady in the first shot is a model for Maui Girl bikinis and you'll find plenty more of her on their website. They bought a few months of a text link (can't think of a better blog sponsor), make sure you'll visit them!

I noticed that after the break with no posts (no internet connection for most of my trip), the number of unique readers has immediately gone back to almost a thousand a day (thanks everyone!), so if you're looking for a cheap and effective internet advertising, here are my prices:
Current prices for a banner: $50/month, or $45/month if you order 3 to 5 months upfront, or $40/month if you order 6 months or more upfront.
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