big breakers

The combination of a short perdiod NNE swell and a massive windswell made the buoys rise up to 12 feet and yesterday we were blessed by some big breakers.

I did an noon session up the coast that ended up being extremely fun thanks to my brand new 4.2 Superfreak Maui Edition. The Maui Edition (that only comes in 5.3, 4.7 and 4.2 and solid colors) is a more compactly designed SF with a fuller head and a higher foot.
The shorter mast gives the sail an even easier handling in the waves, but it still has five battens so there's no risk of that profile instability that I experienced on all the four batten sails I tried (not that many, I have to be honest).
Anyway, it's very rare for me to enjoy a session on a 4.2 and I give half of the credit to the sail (half to the waves, of course).
A new shipment just arrived in Maui, if you don't see a yellow 4.2 it's because I got it! :)

I timed my sessions and photoshoot between key heats of the surf contest in Oahu (congrats to Raoni Montero for winning it and to Granger Larsen who got third!) and here's the few pics I took at Hookipa.
It looked clearly very gnarly and plenty people went on the rocks. Levi defined it "like Paia Bay on steroid"... and if you ever surfed Paia Bay, you know what he meant!
Strictly chronological order means that this is the very first photo I took!
Sorry for annoying presence of the male, but that was out of my control. Actually, I know the guy, so I could have called him on the cell phone and asked him:"hey, can you move a bit to the left please?"...


Keith goes left.


Jesse is about to face a rejection from an often closing out channel. I saw plenty people getting stuck for a long time on the inside at Lanes.


Philippe, beautiful bottom turn.


The hang out table.


No comment.


Noted the harmonious shape of calf, thigh, bum and lower back (I especially like the rocker of this last one), the guard rail judges gave this gal a 10.


Nick rips one...


...before ending up in the soup. Outside was gusting in the mid 30s, inside was super light. That's right, welcome to Hookipa.


Oh yeah, sunset session down the coast was fun too, this time on a 4.7, but still very windy.
Thanks everyone for submitting their photos for the free copy of the Windsurfing Movie 2 dvd. The dateline is Saturday, so keep sending them!