Wednesday, December 07, 2011

hooked-in wipeouts

What a couple of beautiful windsurfing days we had since the last post!

Yesterday was probably the best session of the winter so far for me. Light wind, glassy waves on the rise, what can go wrong?

Well, your harness can accidentally hook in the lines mid bottom turn, for example...


(photo Jimmie Hepp, taken from this gallery)

Fortunately, I managed to un-hook just before the wave hit, otherwise it could have been a lot worse. And thanks also to Laurent, who saved my board from the rocks after the wipeout.


I'm not new at these kind of features. I like adjustable harness lines, but those are unfortunately a bit more "swingy" than the fixed ones. And sometimes I pay a price for that. I remember an horrific wipeout a year and a half ago for example, when an ominous looking mast high wave was about to shut down on me (no wind whatsoever in that moment) and the harness hooked in just before I ditched the rig.
I did the whole wipeout hooked in and that was probably the scariest moment of my windsurfing life.
A friend took a photo of that wave, just before it happened. That's a mean looking wave, isn't it?


Nonetheless, that was an epic day and here's the related post.

BTW, I'm thinking about switching to fixed lines at least on the wave riding side. I rarely adjust those ones. I quite often adjust the other side, instead.

Today was fun too, but - for me - not even remotely comparable to yesterday. The wind was stronger (I did the early session), hence there was more chop on the wave.

Tomorrow is going to be BIG. This is Maui ripper Joao Marco Maffini testing out his new 10.6 Kazuma board. Guess where he's going tomorrow... good luck to all the crazy Jaws prone paddle surfers, each single one of you has my respect.
Can't wait to see the photos!


NW buoy reads 9 feet, 19 seconds from 323. That is less west than predicted, but it is possible that the direction here will be different.

The Pipeline contest starts tomorrow. Seems like good timing, but that could be a bit too big even for Pipe. We'll see. If they run it, it will be a cracking show!

Here's one of the forecasts that I like to spit out: in Maui (in particular in Kanaha), Friday will be bigger than Thursday.

Lastly, congratulations to my home town soccer team that, against all odds, advanced to the next stage of the European Champions league. Sorry to see such a great team like Manchester City eliminated (and United too), but I can't wait to see Napoli's next game!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

any chance good wind speed/angle for windsurfing jaws???
Marcos

cammar said...

Hola Marcos,
I'm not a great expert of the wind conditions for Jaws. Victor and Browsinho are still in town (maybe Ricardo too), so I think if it will be sailable those guys will be there.

Anonymous said...

Hey GP, I was often told if you are re hooking (in the air/wave) it is something you are doing. I could never figure out what it was but have had the worst times when hooked in by suprise. A friend who freestyles also had a bad experience and figured a way of twisting his fixed harness lines so there was less of a chance. I think he slid one side on the regular way and the other side of the line would be backwards, velcro enclosure side out. I don't know if he still does this.....Mike