maui surf report

my unsatisfying relationship with Honolua Bay

2012-01-30T21:21:00.002-10:00

Honolua bay is for sure the best wave in Maui. Not for me though.

There's two things that makes me not prefere it. The second one clearly is not her fault.
1) when it's good is always crowded.
2) when it's good (and crowded) I'm not confident enough to sit in the middle of the pack (that means in the right spot) taking off on those steep walls on my back hand. I'm an poor backside surfer (because I don't practice enough going right).

But today I surfed it and the place is truly beautiful.
Gas bill was 13 bucks.
Worthy it?
No.

BTW, I didn't catch any of those beautiful waves you see below. The reasons, I just explained.

one guy is gonna get barreled, another one is flying over the lip

PS. Those photos are from sets that I saw before and after my session.
When I was in the water, in two hours there was only one set like that. And I was in the wrong spot.

PPS. This is Browsinho at Jaws today... Holy crap!

PPPS. Just checked the long term weather maps. The whole week looks very good (that means, there's waves). This one is forecasted for midnight of Monday February 6. Seen the close proximity of the very long fetch, I predict that the related swell to be another extra large one. Jaws will go off again. Doesn't look like wind this time.

It's deep winter in Hawaii. I don't want to be anywhere else.

the luxury of deliberately choosing not to sail...

2012-01-29T21:21:00.000-10:00

Well, my hopes of bad conditions in order to take a full day of rest were sure fulfilled today.

As usual, when most of the readers will see the photos will go:"what the hell is he talking about?!?"
Guys, I know that this would have been epic for most of you.
But:
- these are the best sailors in the world and make it look good also when it's not.
- I'm not most of you and I'm extremely spoiled and picky (and in need of a rest).

Hookipa looked horrible the whole day for my taste. Strong wind, huge chop, shapeless waves. I had a 9 out of 10 session the day before, why bother with a session I knew EXACTLY was going to be a 1 out of 10?

So I took a bunch of photos instead. Here's the two best ones.

Mark Angulo was in form with his Mutant thing.

beautiful tweaked aerial by Browsinho back in Maui after a South Africa trip

Chronological order from now on.

Kai bottom turn

a professional ocean athlete

Browsinho's backloops are now in my top three favorites together with Francisco Goya's and Nico's. I really like his style.

Ferdinando's reef tattoo. It was very shallow at low tide.

Bernd

Japanese sailor Masa sailed extremely well. A couple of times he looked like Keith!

the goiter machine (AKA as Browsinho)

Francisco Porcella

Mark

Bernd

Mark

And Mark

Tomorrow there's a large swell on the rise but the wind will keep cranking so it will be very choppy again. I have no expectations whatsoever about tomorrow.

Nonethelss, I do see some potential epicness in the immediate future. That's a good feeling.

mamma mia, what a session!

2012-01-29T10:18:00.001-10:00

After watching Kai Lenny kiting Hookipa yesterday afternoon, I decided to title this post "Kai Lenny is amazing".

But then I went sailing and the feeling of the sessions took over. I still think Kai is amazing though,
and I'm going to start this post with him.

Some time ago I posted his video "four in one" and one reader commented that the video was lame.
In my opinion, Kai is the best ocean athlete in the world (at age 19!!!!) and NOTHING about what he does and says is lame for me.

Assuming that the action is not the lame part, since it's absolutely mind blowing, I'm assuming that the reader thought that lame was what he says. Here's what he says at the end:

I'm not a surfer.

I'm not a windsurfer.

I'm not a paddler.

I'm not a kiter.

I am an ocean athlete adapting to the elements.

Today is the last day of our hawaiian summer. This south swell is one of the largest in the last 15 years... and I was part of it. How lucky am I?

Our world measures us in rankings and world titles. There’s so much more out there than that!

Somebody might have thought about those words for him, nonetheless not a single one of them is false.

I tell you more. I'm not a kiter (even though I wish I had the time to learn... my fourth discipline is work instead... LOL!), but other than that I could second each single word he said.

In my car I ALWAYS have:

- a windsurf board (and three sails)

- a surfboard (often two)

And when I think there might be the right conditions, I also load my SUP on the roof rack.

I am an ocean athlete too adapting to the elements. The things I do are not even remotely comparable to the ones Kai does, but I can identify myself in what he says. He's a total inspiration to me.

Allright, said this, here's a few pics.

When I got to Hookipa, Kai was the only one out. Photographers, videographers. He makes a living out of what he does in the water and that's part of his job. Call that lame!

four times overhead

love the shadow of the kite. And the turn.

someone went out on a windsurfer a little downwind. What the hell was he thinking? Look at those waves all over the place...
IMO, it wasn't sailable. But I'm sure he had some thrilling moments.

beaufitul turn on a beautiful wave

And now my session.

It probably was a 9 out of 10. Thanks to the high tide and to the westerly direction that limited the size, the waves were doing a very beautiful thing: peaking at the bowl and tapering down in size all the way through.

At the bowl, there was some chop, but after that first turn, it was smoother and smoother.

Here's my best wave.

A mast high bowl is forming just downwind of me and I see Glenn sailing out downwind of me.

A friend watching you is always an extra motivational factor to try to rip a little harder, so, despite the chop, I carefully bottom turn and go all the way up to hit the lip.

It's not a throwing lip by any means. It's a rather mushy one, but it still was a mast high wave and that, at my skill level, definitely got my heart going...

Now I'm setting up my second bottom turn and Glenn is about to hit the ramp for a jump a few meter downwind of me.

The section is now logo high and and I'm going up the face to hit lip again. Now, try to picture this amazing vision I'm about to have.

I'm looking at that lip that I'm about to hit and in the background there's Glenn up in the sky at the apex of his awesome backloop, looking down to spot his landing.

Once again, I saw that while hitting the lip of a logo high wave.

That was one of the best windsurfing moments of my life, for sure.

Good, that makes up for that super shitty session of last Sunday...

I made three more turns on that wave. I hit the lip at each single one of them, also because the wave tapered down to head, shoulder and finally waist high, so I could be as aggressive as my skills allowed me.

When I kicked out, I was screaming my joy out of my lungs.
Mamma mia, what a wave that was...

The past few days instead it has been glassy surfing paradise and I surfed at least twice a day.

December sucked. January was amazing. Unfortunately I missed the best surfing week of the year (so far) because I was sick, but I sure got the rest of it!

I'm so spent that this morning (Sunday) I couldn't force myself to go surf. I did a laundry instead, and my arms where hurting while hanging the clothes on the wire... I definitely needed a morning rest!

The swell went down a lot in size and the today might be an up the coast deal. That is unfortunate, since the westerly direction is not the best for those reefs.

I'm at the point that I hope it's gonna suck so that I can have a full day of rest... LOL!

For sure I'll take some photos of the windsurfers at Hookipa (which will be sailable and sailed), so stay tuned for a post.

PS. Volcom Pro Pipe ON now.

Just another beautiful day in paradise

2012-01-25T20:48:00.001-10:00

I'll tell about my sessions later, let's start the photo report.

this guy came out of the water after this wave and is going to score a free photo. He gave me his email address...

a smile most women can't resist

Hookipa around 5pm. I have never seen anyone getting barreled at Middles unless it's blowind Kona.

the guy who did that amazing performance, gets rewarded with another shot

there were some fun sections

my new friend

great way to enjoy the show of the sunset on the cliff in front of the waves

Federico's leash broke in two points. That's another first.

not a bad one

not a bad one!!!!!

My sessions. Kanaha in the morning was just beautiful. Unfortunately also inconsistent, and with a hord of standuppers and longboards my choice of riding a 6.6 was probably not the best. But I got my waves and I had fun anyway...

Second session was on the standup, but it was a little onshore and bumpy.

Now a bit of gopro action.

glassy and sunny

that's my dad's nose and that's where I'm headed, I guess...

Here's a clip.

Couple of more days of glassy waves ahead of us. No complains about that!

Oh, Jimmie Hepp just posted this nice photo of me on my FB wall. Thanks Jimmie!

PS. Jamie O'Brien got bored of getting barreled at Pipe and came out with a feature that I really hope no one will try in a crowded lineup in Maui... Check this out!

worst windsurf session ever?

2012-01-24T20:20:00.002-10:00

This photo report is from Sunday, most likely my worst windsurfing session ever.

The wind was gusting 10 to 30 and I just can't sail in those conditions. I mean, look at the graph from iWindsurf.com! Steady 20 mph between gusts and lulls. Pure shit in my book.

So I sat all day and enjoyed a beautiful sunny day at the beach, while taking some photos from a different angle. Here we go.

Despite this nice hit, Josh Stone commented "it was pretty rough out there!"

Ferdi

Maurizio Ubaldi sailed really well. I was impressed.

Morgan dominated the field. Without a doubt, the best sailor of the day. Good job.

Niels

Good day to wear a helmet!

Morgan tried at least 30 goiters. Sure enough, one day he'll land them all...

a pair of those

digital zoom is no good on this camera. Nice hit by Junko anyway.

Ascanio

oh, hello!

the famous downwind facing dog!

Nathan Mershon

el pipe Martinez

goiter attempt #23 for Morgan

here he is again, just in a "simple" aerial

andres

last, but not least, B-rad

As I posted on Facebook, "if Maui was always this windy, I'd be out of here in no time. Fortunately, it's not!".

In fact, Monday I enjoyed two glassy morning surf sessions before work and today (Tuesday), I surfed in the morning, worked, sailed (in beautiful super light wind conditions with only two other guys out most of the session), and surfed again.

After that nasty flu that made me miss the best surfing week of the year (so far), I can officially declare that I have all my energies back. I still cough and have to clear my throat once in a while, so I'm not lowering the guard and the intake of all the natural immune system boosters, but I got my energies back and that feels awfully good!

Tomorrow the waves will be bigger, which is not a thing that I necessarily like, but I can guarantee you that I will catch some. Well I'm actually off, so make that.. a lot.

Life is good in the 808.

PS. Volcom Pipe Pro most likely to start tomorrow.

Another very good day to be recovering

2012-01-17T18:56:00.003-10:00

Maui has always been the Mecca for both windsurfing and kitesurfing.
Thanks to its wind and with the new shift of surfing towards the aerial manouvres, it may now well become the surfing Mecca too.

Well, we'll see about that, but for sure today there was all kind of action in the water and the level was mind blowing. In fact, here's a brief summary of who was in the water:

- The new generation of windsurfing kids ripping it up at Lanes.
- 13 times (or whatever they were) world champion Robby Windsurfing Naish.
- 2 times SUP world champion Kai Lenny.
- An old windsurfing legend like Pete Cabrinha killing it with the kite.
- The new aerialist surfing masters Meola and Leyer.

Despite all that, I'll keep the chronological order and start the photo show with my buddy Brad! Awwright!

Brad (from now on B-rad) did pretty good for his second day at Lanes with the Kona

this kiter had straps, yet he couldn't keep that rail in the water

Nick

B-rad again. He wasn't anywhere close to landing those crazy attempts, but I'll take my hat off anyway.

Pete Cabrinha instead was way more in control strapless. That doesn't make any sense to me. Unless, the strapped guy was overpowered. Could also be a matter of skill...

Nick (sorry, bit blurry)

Ops, Mr Cabrinha lost it.

B-rad all over the place. The board is from the Hi-Tech rentals. The place to go if you want a Quatro multi-fin.

Robby showed up with the second shift.

Kai too.

Robby making it look like a piece of cake.

Bernd.

Robby enjoying a piss on his sail. That's how real men do.

Oh, hello!

Pascal

Robby

Morgan

Bernd

surfer at The point

Kai switched over to SUP and did a bunch of aerials like this.

back to Lanes: Morgan

back to Hookipa: Bernd gets a little cover up. What a fun session to watch.

Matt Meola spins the top turn

Taboul attacks a lip

Albee Layer rotates an aerial 360. On this one, he's grabbing a rail, but he did a bunch with no grabs. Pretty insane.

Tomorrow I go back to work.
The day after tomorrow I go back in the water.
I promise.

the Bernd Roediger show

2012-01-16T18:59:00.003-10:00

Another day of kona wind.

This time just really light and with some bigger waves.
Bernd was the first one out and he stuck an a beautiful aerial on pretty much each single wave he caught. Like these three.

the surfers at Hookipa weren't too bored either

Brad used to live in Maui. We shared the office many times (teaching windsurfing at Kanaha). Now he's taking care of a family business somewhere on the mainland. He misses the ocean, but he goes snowboarding and he just came back to Maui for a vacation with his girlfriend... life can be a lot worse than that. Shoots brah!

Zack Howard. This turn was much better than it looks. I got it just a tiny fraction of a second too late.

him again

Bernd again

good job, Meesh!

untired, after the windsurf session Bernd ripped a few more on his SUP

Pascal showed up late, but got his share

just like Morgan

My throat is still not ok and the energy level is still very low, so I had to ditch work again. I know, I could be in a worse place than this, but god... how many good waves am I missing?!?!
6 days out of the water in the middle of January.... What did I do to deserve this...

immediate karma punishment

2012-01-15T18:29:00.001-10:00

Guess I bragged too much about my amazing first 10 days of the year...

The punishment came in a viral form that knocked me out in bed for four days. Today I was finally able to step outside, but I still have a sore throat, so I'm not out of it yet.
It's definitely going around a lot in Maui these days.

I missed some of the best surfing days of the year, but that's ok... it could be worse and there will be more epic days.

Small Kona conditions saw some sailors out at Lanes. I don't have a favorite one, so here are my photos in chronological order. Gonna try that "add a caption" feature, so for the first time, the caption will be under the photo, not above.
The caption font is kinda small, please let me know how you like it.

pascal

believe it or not, I don't know who this is

everybody know who this is intead. Or at least, everybody know his photos. Mr. Jimmie Hepp.

As he often does, Morgan got better throughout his whole session

Josh Stone came down with his kid from the upwind neighborhood...

...and as always left his mark of style and stoke.

Nick

Morgan

Glenn brought me groceries yesterday. Not exactly the sexiest of the nurses, but better than nothing! Thanks brah, eh!

And that's when Philip Koster entered the arena.

His aerials were precise and powerful

Kai Lenny was no slouch either

the german kid was definitely at ease on this tack...

...but he's still only sailing Uppers on starboard tack. Afraid not to be the best one at Hookipa like a PWA champion is expected to be? Sponsors' order? Lack of car ride? Who knows. I'll send him a message and ask him...

despite that, the beginning of 2012 remains epic from all point of views

I just hope I'll be back in the water soon. :(

that's why I'm so spoiled

2012-01-11T18:09:00.000-10:00

The first ten days of January have been amazing.

On their January issue, Windnews (the Italian windsurfing magazine I work for) publishes a nice simple calendar called "la stecca del vento". For the Italian readers, the purpose is to mark the days they went windsurfing.

For me, the little squares corresponding to each day are barely big enough to write the sport(s) and spot(s) I did that day.
As you can see, I was able to average two sessions a day (most days I also worked at Hi-Tech). Most days the sessions were surfing (either laydown or standup) in the morning and windsurfing in the afternoon. Which is ideal for keep progressing in both sports and not using the body muscles only in one way.
That routine is phenomenal, but it also makes me the most spoiled surfer/windsurfer in the world.

In fact, you would now understand why I don't like strong wind forecasts:
- there's no clean waves to surf in the morning
- the waves for wave sailing are all choppy and mixed with windswell
- I don't jump
- strong winds bring lots of rain

I absolutely adore light trades forecasts (like the last 10 days) because:
- I can surf clean waves in the morning
- I can sail clean waves in the afternoon
- the weather is delightful
- my body doesn't get all stiffed up by doing only one sport

The next week, because of a low pressure about to form very close and north of the islands, there will be pretty much no wind. Even though not my favorite, I sure don't mind this kind of forecast. Which surfer doesn't like glassy waves!?

Better heal up first though, since today I had to rest for a return of that cold I had a couple of weeks ago... been pushing too much, I guess.

Back to the amazing start of 1012, I'm pretty sure you guys have seen all the photos from the big day at Jaws on Jan 4th. The amount of photos/videos available online a few hours after the action is so rich that I think I'll never go to watch Jaws again! I can focus on my own action and watch Jaws at night...
This is a nice video by Jake Miller.

Out of all those session, I do remember a couple of outstanding ones.
Jan 7 at Hookipa the conditions were just fantastic (which for me means pure slog and surf and clean glassy waves) and here's three shots that I took out of this gallery of Jimmie Hepp.
Thanks Jimmie!

I also remember the Jan 10th surf session at Hookipa.
The waves were head high to head and half and I only had 1 hour before work.
I paddled out determined to charge like if I was in a contest heat. I sat deep at Green Trees and a big double overhead set soon loomed on the horizon.
"Damn, that one looks good for where I am... I'm going!"

I caught double overhead waves at other spots before (Dumps, Kanaha, Cloudbreak and Uluwatu for example), but that wave felt like it was the most difficult drop I ever did. I paddled for it knowing (or better, thinking!) that I had very few chances to make it.
Only by mid bottom turn I started realizing that everything was going smooth and I could actually pull it off. Which I did. And that gave me goose bumps and a huge smile.

It's all in the mind you guys. That thing looked big, but doable. Nonetheless, I was scared as hell while dropping down the face of it. If I could get rid of my fear, I'd do much better. Hesitation is the cause of most wipeouts.
I really need to try to remember that.

Talking about bottom turns, here's one on the standup. Probably 45 times easier than the one I was describing (it's kanaha, it's a foot overhead, I got a paddle in my hands to balance and pivot, I got the front foot in a foot strap to help cranck the turn, I'm going way slower, I caught the wave in a way less steep section and I didn't have to get up on my feet... is that enough?).
Nonetheless another very fun session. And another way of alternating the use of my old body (now 49).

And that's when the GoPro becomes pure entertainment. Still very impressed by the clarity of these shots.

Happy surfing everyone!

Someone instead, won't surf anymore and this post is dedicated to his memory. Goodbye Fede.

PS. Nice article on Mark Raaphorst.

First GoPro Hero 2 clip

2012-01-09T21:32:00.000-10:00

Just received my new GoPro Hero 2.

Such a pleasure to watch the videos and the photos of the sessions you had. It's like living them again.

I've been super busy riding the amazing waves that the last 10 days have brought.
No time to write about all the stuff I could write, but, better than nothing, a simple clip.

If you are a fellow standup surfer,please notice how often I check the lineup and how many waves I let go in order to:
- don't be in anyone's way
- go for a wave nobody is in a better position for

Hope you guys will enjoy the ride. Yes, it was just another gorgeous day in Paradise.

Couple of top turns.
These photos are just gorgeous. The clarity is amazing.
The new mode of "a photo every .5 seconds" is key not to miss the action. And that's just the 5Mpixel resolution. Can go up to 11.

Will post more photos soon. Waves permitting...

trifecta!

2012-01-02T06:55:00.000-10:00

I seem to remember that Kai Katchadourian once left a comment saying that he calls a three sports day a "trifecta".

Well, I started the new year with one. And actually, considering that I also worked 4 hours, I could claim a "4 in 1", like Kai Lenny! The only difference between me and him is that he kites and I work... LOL!

Just seen this horrible clip on youtube. That is my home town in my home country. Which I clearly don't miss at all whatsover.
Looks like a war? It is: 1 dead (right in Naples of course) and more than 500 injured, the nationwide day after balance.

Instead, I went to sleep before midnight and caught more than 30 waves in three different ways. I think I like this balance better.

This week is going to be awesome.

this looks 10 times better than it was

2011-12-29T20:19:00.000-10:00

Today I felt better, but not strong enough to get in the water.And that was a blessing, because the conditions weren't exactly my favorite...

As I state in the title, the photos can easily fool you. The waves were nice, but the wind was horribly strong, gusty and offshore. Nobody really sailed at their usual level. Even the very top sailors at times struggled... imagine what kind of embarassing performance I would have produced!

So I covered myself with shirt, sweatshirt and wind jacket and sat to take some pics.

Shot of the day goes to Levi, whose bottom turns are getting consistently mind blowing fast.

These are the other shots, in chronological order.

The Maui county decided to put a fence around the lifeguard tower and nobody is happy with that. They also replaced some piece of rusted guardrail and everybody is happy with that.

Bunch of Italian vacationers.

Francisco Porcella feeling it out under the faithful guard of his dog.

Not a good first wave for him.

Ferdinando.

Second major wipeout for Francisco. Told you it wasn't easy... but, very characteristically, he charged anyway.

Mark doing his thing.

Mr. Polakow showed up. He literally destroyed this wave. First top turn.

First bottom turn.

Second top turn. Notice the spray he threw when he changed his trajectory to get more vertical up the face.

Third top turn. Getting three turns in a day like today was no easy feature.

I had to leave at 1.30 to go to work, so that's all for today folks.
I feel like tomorrow I might be able to be back in the water.
Let's bloody hope so, shall we?

sick day!

2011-12-28T18:22:00.001-10:00

Unfortunately, not in the sense that I had a sick session (even though I heard Hookipa was pretty damn good in the afternoon), but in the sense that I really was sick today!

I choose to spend the whole day at home (not my favorite thing in life), hoping that tomorrow I'll be fine.

Why, what's happening tomorrow?

Well, with the NW buoy reading 9.4 feet, 16 seconds from 335 degrees at 4pm, a guy like me just can't afford to be sick... 'cause it's gonna be sick!!!

Here's the surfline graph still on its way up.

Unfortunately, the wind is forecasted to still be pretty strong, but that is all going to change soon. Winter is about to take a wintery turn ('bout time!) and we'll see some big NW swells with no or light wind.

This is the weather map forecasted for Tuesday January 2nd. The close proximity of the fetch associated with that deep low will generate a swell that will fall in the extra-large category.

That means: Jaws, Waimea and all the outer reefs.

In the end, for me those days are very seldom the best ones ('cause I don't surf the above breaks, I guess). And even though it might be difficult to find a place where to surf, I just like to watch the big waves, to feel their energy and to hear their sound at night...

I'm about to move from one studio to another on the same property in Kuau (the new owners wanted to rearrange things differently) with a significant rent increase, but what's the price of that...

Allright, more ginseng tea.

christmas swell

2011-12-25T19:58:00.009-10:00

As forecasted, Christmas day saw a beautiful 7 feet, 14 seconds NNW swell. Unfortunately, as forecasted, the howling wind made it very difficult to really enjoy it. I speak for myself, of course.

Even though I timed everything right (a very early session up the coast and a very late session down the coast), I had to give up too many beautiful big waves completely devastated by the chop/windswell to be truly satisfied. But it was a gorgeous sunny day after weeks of rain, so that felt very good.

Strong wind sucks. At least on this blog...

Here's the shots I took at Hookipa.
Mark performs a clew first aerial 360.

This time he's in the middle of a big set.

Shit, that's gear from the shop...

Not sure at all, but to me it seems an aerial kick out jibe. He's back foot (right) has already moved to the new position and he's jibing the sail. I could be wrong, but I seem to remember that he stuck it...

The aerial Nick Warmuth did off that lip was glorious. Unfortunately, I totally missed. Still getting used to the new camera. Still not liking it 100%.

Very impressed by Nick's performance.

Kai Lenny went out on an old asymmetrical board of his dad. Right click on the photo, open the photo in a new window/tab and you'll see the tail.

One wave was was all it took for him to figure out that board so radically different from nowadays boards. This is the bottom turn he did on his second wave.

Top turns were all pretty bad though. Good news: modern boards are better!

On his third wave he really started to look like Craig Maisonville...

Paolo has to work on his style, but good job being out there.

Nick.

As usual, Zack Howard surfed well.

Polakow did a downwinder. He thought about catching a wave at Hookipa on his 14 footer, but he's too smart to do something so risky. I wonder if he regretted not going sailing. I think he would have liked it.

Nick going late again. Me shooting early again.

Lovely shoulders.

Patrick backloop at Lanes.

Quite impressed by Morgan too.

Lastly, here's a clip that shows how Jack miraculously escaped the rocks.

oh my god, when is this shit going to end?!

2011-12-20T19:51:00.004-10:00

Well, that's my very personal take on strong wind forecasts in Maui.

In other parts of the world, other windsurfers seem to get a little more excited than me with these kind of forecasts...
This video is a little gem by a really funny guy called Muzza.

the 2011 PBI video, Slater vs Florence, forecast, etc.

2011-12-12T04:42:00.007-10:00

A rainy day was what it took for me to edit a little video of the 2011 Paia Bay Invitational. Enjoy.

The 2011 PBI was sponsored by the Paia Bay Cafe. If you haven't checked it out yet, you should, it's quite lovely. It's where the bead shop is, next to Puka Puka. Ocean side, just before you hit the traffic light when arriving to Paia from Kahului.
Photo by Joe Bergeron taken from this gallery.

From a prestigious surf contest to another: the Pipeline Masters.
These two guys didn't make it to the final, but they put up an amazing show in the quarter finals...

As I said, it has been raining a lot as this satellite IR shot shows. We're actually pretty close to the edge of that big rain, so if we get lucky we might see the sunshine again soon!

This is this morning's weather map. It shows a long fetch of wind that will provide us with yet another NW swell. More fetches like that throughout the whole week, so there should be no lack of waves.

Surfline's 5 day forecast. The green line is the NW swell. Shows up on Tuesday, then bigger Wednesday, and then bigger Thursday, and then bigger Friday...

A new buoy has been deployed off Pawuela Point in Maui. Here's the link for its readings.
The page provides many interesting ways of looking at the data, but they're not as easy to read as the breakdown in all the different swells that Surfline provides.
So I immediately sent them an email asking them to add the buoy to their website.
If you guys find something similar somewhere else, please let me know.

For today we mostly have a big easterly windswell on tap, so I guess I'm gonna try to tackle the infamous east facing break known as "the paddling treadmill" or "duck dive central"... wish me good luck!!!

That is just amazing surfing

2011-12-10T20:55:00.001-10:00

Just ran into this video and thought about posting it again.

bit smaller, but still kinda big

2011-12-10T08:17:00.006-10:00

The wind went up and down with the squalls and so did the windsurfing action yesterday at Hookipa.

I didn't take too many photos, but here's a few.
This bottom turn from Levi looks unreal.

But as the last photo of the sequence shows, he actually caught the back knee in the water and blew it!

He quickly redeemed himself with this aerial.

Uncle Robby found some time to go sail.

Nat Gill probably sails once a week. Nonetheless he totally rips.

Also this year Matteo Spanu is the visiting italian that impressed me the most. Oh god, let's hope the other ones don't get offended now... they're so sensitive! :)

Quarter final heat between Kelly Slater and John John Florence is starting rght now at Pipeline, so... so long!

Kelly is out on a 5'6"!!!!!! You kidding me!!!!

big Hookipa

2011-12-09T09:52:00.012-10:00

The big swell arrived and it sure wasn't disappointing.

The westerly direction made for sailable conditions at Hookipa, so after work and before my sunset session, I went to take some photos in a 45 minutes photo shoot. I shot from inside my car on the lookout at Lanes, because I was watching the Pipeline contest on my phone...

This is my favorite shot.
Looks like Francisco Goya's trademark bottom turn (notice the little fade in the trail), but I also love the color and smoothness of the waves.

Here are the other pics in chronological order.
Levi.

Not sure who this is, but look at the wake of the board... that was a bumpy one!

A lot smoother face for Bernd.

Same wave, a few seconds later.
On another wave, Bernd did an amazing aerial that I missed. Jimmie got it, but he didn't put it up because he hopes to sell the shot to the magazines. Nonethelss, his gallery is worth checking out...

Oh, there we go! My friend Chico got a shot of it from the water level!
Check out his gallery (I guess you have to be friend with him to see it though...).

And here's another photo of the same aerial taken from Globalshots Vinnie Amato's gallery.

Congratulations Bernd, that was a magic aerial!
Wait, just found a video of that! Thanks Giora!

Uff... how was that?! Back to my shots now.
Mark Angulo attacking the lip of a over mast high wave...

... and catching some air.

This is KP on a much smaller final section of a wave. Great style, nonetheless.

And that's the price he had to pay to go all the way to the end section. He got stuck inside for a few minutes. Absolutely no bid deal for a guy like him. Lots of other people on the rocks, instead.

Levi.

Gun Sail... not sure, but could be Nicola Spadea.

Honestly, the Hookipa show was better than the Pipeline one! But I just don't like to miss out on things...

Beautiful bottom turn. Looks like Browsinho.

In the meantime, Jaws was going off and a bunch of crazy surfers were paddling into it. This is Marcio Freire (who has been paddling into Jaws since at least 2008) in a photo taken by Mike Neal. Here's Mike's whole gallery.

More action today. The swell went down in size here in Maui. The buoys are still up and the direction didn't change much, so I'm gonna blame the decrease in the period for that. The longer the period, the more the waves can wrap around land points, islands, etc.
A clear example of that are tsunamis (periods in the order of minutes). Remember the one that hit after the earthquake in Chile a year ago? The direction of the waves was SE and the biggest waves were recorded at the Kahului harbor...

The Pipe contest is still on and John John Florence just won his round 3 heat with a total of 19.20 points. He looks unstoppable.

hooked-in wipeouts

2011-12-07T20:22:00.008-10:00

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!

winter is back to winter

2011-12-05T11:34:00.009-10:00

Let's face it: November that was a bit disappointing. Lots of small days and windy as hell. That made it epic for all those european windsurfers in vacation, since they could sail pretty much every day, but way below the average for the a spoiled Maui light wind windsurfer/surfer as myself.

December instead started with beautiful wintery conditions. Thursday the 1st was pretty damn big already (double surf session), but my favorite day was Friday.

I was off and here's how I carefully timed it.
8-9.30 watched the Sunset contest online (and waited for the crowd to leave and for the tide to go down at Kanaha)
9.30 - 12.30 surfed Kanaha. Bit windy, but very small crowd and lots of fun
12.30 - 3 watched the amazing action of the Sunset contest on my phone in the parking at Kanaha
3 - 3.30 rigged my sail (the wind was picking up) taking advantage of the break before the final
3.30 - 4 watched the final on my phone
4 - 6 sailed Kanaha. Big waves, big fun.
In other words, I pulled in the Kanaha parking lot at 8am and left at 6.30pm. Very, very good day.

After that, pretty much every day has been surfable in the morning and sailable in the afternoon and there is nothing wrong at all with that!

Here's a few shots from yesterday.
Francky's comment on his gallery was "Giampaolo trying to kill me!". I do remember I got pretty close to him...

One more shot from Francky. I just love the way the wave looks behind me. Freaking love those water shots, Francky!

This is another turn taken from this gallery of Jimmie Hepp.

One more shot from Jimmie.

Not sure about the board position (that's definitely a turn off the back foot... well, nothing wrong with it!), but I do like the radius and spray of the bottom turn I needed to connect those two different sections of that wave.

This photo was taken the day before instead. The new Hot Sails Maui Firelight is such an amazing sail that all the hot riders now want it. It is posing a serious threat to the rest of the line, but I don't think Hot Sails Maui should worry too much, since it's posing a serious threat to the rest of sails of all the other brands too!
Let me remind you that a 4.7 weights 2.7 Kilos and that's the lightest sail on Earth. You can click on the HSM banner to find out more info.

This one is taken from a gallery of photos on Surfline that documents the action in Hawaii during this first December swell.
Francisco Porcella and Matt Meola share a a bomb at Jaws left.

Tomorrow there will be another fun size NW swell (just hitting the NW buoy as I type: 2.2 feet, 17 seconds from 333 at 4pm), while Thurday a serious one will hit.
This is this morning's weather map and shows the deep storm that is generating it.

This is the Surfline forecast. 12 feet, 16 seconds... not too shabby!

As you can see, it should be from a fairly westerly direction (310-313) and hopefully that will make Kanaha manageable (swells from west of 320 get blocked by Molokai and the West Maui Moutain).
Trade winds will be easterly, let's hope that the morning will be surfable.
Fingers crossed!

And last, but definitely not least, here's the couple of lovely legs I ended up sitting next to at the Hi-Tech Christmas party... what a chance, uh?
The young lady they belong to is just as lovely. Ah, to be 24 years younger...

support the relocation of Kuau Mart

2011-11-28T08:13:00.005-10:00

Just received this email from Matt Meola and happy to publish.

I would like to personally invite you to join me in supporting the relocation
of Kuau Mart.
Albee Layer, Hank Gaskell and I are hosting our premier of
Taylor Steele's Innersection at the
MACC on Wednesday
November 30 at 7:00.
It is a fundraiser for Kuau Mart.
We are going to give away a lot of stuff plus 3 surfboards including my favorite -
an SOS Shapes Slushi.
Taylor Steele will be there, Lily is going to sing a few songs and it should be
a fun night.
If you can't make the premier and want to make a donation,
you can make a check out to Kuau Mart and send it to me
Matt Meola
15 A Kaimao St
Paia, HI 96779

PS. Little update. The big swell arrived and, as forecasted, it was big, messy, choppy, closing out and with a lot of wind on it. It was an epic day for many visitors, but, spoiled as I am and with my peculiar taste, I would rank it as a mediocre day. I'd rather take head high light offshore with 5-6 turns than those mast high rough waves with only a couple of turns...

PPS. Second contest of the Triple Crown of Surfing live now at Sunset beach.

little update before the big (stormy) swell will hit

2011-11-26T07:17:00.006-10:00

The 2011 Paia Bay Invitational on Thanksgiving day was a huge success.

Here's the podium:
1) Marcio
2) Michelle
3) Rich

I shot some video clips, so stay tuned for a video that will hopefully give you an idea of the uniqueness of this competition.

In the meantime, this is the weather map of Friday 25th afternoon. That's the big beautiful captured fetch that will finally break this long sequence of November small days (which include head high days at Hookipa... it's all relative!).

The problem is that the high pressure that will move over the islands right after the pass of the front, will bring blustery NE wind and make the ocean conditions extremely rough.
That's always a high risk when the head of the fetch gets so close to the islands.

There's another big swell on the horizon though (the low in the upper left corner), and that one instead will be generated way more far away and will hit on Thursday/Friday when regular trades are forecasted. Should be epic windsurfing.

Here's what uncle Pat Caldwell says about this November:
The long-lived pattern in November with the jet stream further north over the northwest basin and consistent blocking ridges between the dateline and Hawaii has broken down. The counts of days in the small bracket are set to match the record in November 1994 of 19 days. Only two days of high surf occurred in 1994, which was well below the mean count of 7 days for November. Since no high days have occurred yet in November 2011, it appears the record of fewest high days could be matched or beaten this year.

Ok uncle, what's next?
The new pattern resembles the common late fall scenario with a steady pace of troughs in the jet stream progressing eastward centered on about 42°N steering gale to storm-force surface low pressures from the Kurils towards the gulf of Alaska. This pattern is expected to hold through next week, suggesting an active pace of episodes with peak days over the high mark into the long range.

Thanks, that's what we like to hear! Read Pat Caldwell's whole forecast here.

It's the morning of the 24th...

2011-11-24T07:27:00.011-10:00

...and the Waimea buoy reads 6.7ft @ 13s from NNW (347°).

That means that the annual Paia Bay invitational will have plenty waves.
Unfortunately an extremely small percentage of them will be rideable (that's always the case at Paia Bay...).
Yesterday, for example, I had an hour to surf before work. Hookipa looked like victory at sea (very stormy) and so I thought to go do a bit of training on the wave of the contest. In one hour, completely alone, I stood up once (and went straight because it was a close out). Imagine my chances in a heat!
Who cares, it's all about having fun with friends on the beach...

Here's the shot that I was hoping some photographer got. Kinda felt a bit more radical than that when I did it, but I guess that's often the case. Thanks Sofie. This is her gallery of Nov 22 (I got a bit confused, but I now linked her gallery of Nov 21 in my "fun day" post).

I'm hearing some excitement about a possible Jaws day on Sunday.
Yes, with a forecast of 12 feet, 14 seconds from around 330 like the one below, Jaws will most likely break.

And tomorrow's forecasted weather map confirms the fetch that will generate the swell.

BUT, let's have a look at Sunday's weather map.

As you can see, it will be windy, but the shape of the high pressure will cause a decent NE windswell (uncle Pat forecasted it at 10 feet, 9 seconds in his forecast last Tuesday). That means a huge amount of chop on the face.
I'm no expert of Jaws by any means, but I think it will be less than ideal.
Not that I particularly care... I have no interest whatsover in sailing Jaws, plus it will be good somewhere else.

Happy Thanksgiving and eat a salad instead of a bird! (yeah, right...)

PS. Here, let me leave you with another weather map, this one of the South Pacific on Saturday 26th. You know what that means...

I'm a happy soccer fan (and windsurfer)

2011-11-22T21:11:00.004-10:00

My home town soccer team is playing in the early stages of the European Champions league (after 21 years).

Unfortunately, they got into an extremely difficult group together with two of the best European teams (Bayern Munich and Mancester City, the other team being Villareal). First two advance.

Today, 9.45 am Hawaiian time, there was Napoli-Manchester City, a very important game (with two more to go for the end of the group phase).
I could have swapped my morning working shift in order to watch the game live online, but I didn't.
Because I knew it was going to be a fun windsurfing session in the afternoon.

The session ended up being fantastic and the game too.

Here's a reply I just sent to a couple of friends, whose celebrating email I of course read only AFTER having watched the game.

just watched the game on-demand online.
chose to do so and stick to my morning working shift to be able to sail Hookipa in the afternoon.
the sailing session was fantastic!
and now, this awesome game.
which I could enjoy thanks to the fact that I was able to stay away from emails, phone calls, facebook, text messages, message carrying pidgeons, etc and stay unaware of the result.

you guys may think I’m weird, but having scored a session like today’s, I think I’m rather smart.

please, do not send me soccer updates. ALWAYS assume that I’m going to see the game with a delay. Unless it’s flat, of course...

GRANDISSIMO NAPOLI!!!!!!

Giampaolo
http://mauisurfreport.blogspot.com/

And now I can't wait to see if the facebook photographers got a shot of that decent slashing turn I did...
I totally understand how the sailors felt in the early days in which I was the only one (yeah, that's a claim I think I can reasonably do) to take photos and posting them on the internet two/three times a week.
Now, the service is daily and I'd like to thank all the photographers that alleviated me from the task. I'd rather be on the other side of the camera, really.

No posts without photos, here's an amazing football player. His name is Edinson Cavani and he's from a country that one day I'd like to visit: Uruguay.
He plays for Napoli, though... thank god!!!
(that's what he's doing, btw)

How did the game end? If you feel like listening to 15 minutes of a slightly dramatic commentator, you'll find out. It was a bloody awesome game.

fun day

2011-11-22T07:12:00.008-10:00

It sure was another fun day at Hookipa yesterday.
Between my early and late session, I took some pics. Here we go in chronological order.

Ricardo Campello is on the island and you definitely can notice him in the water.

Camille with a well positioned water photographer.

Wonder how those shots came out.

Nayra little aerial.

Don't be fooled by the standup paddler. I was windy (I was on a 4.2). It's just that when you only do one sport, you do it no matter what the conditions are, I guess... that's why I'm very happy to do three and I wouldn't mind to do four, but I'll get back to this towards the end of the post.

Bernd coming down from a nice backloop.

Dear Griffin, I highly doubt you landed that, but some photos look sick no matter what!

Bernd is becoming an aerial machine. His style is getting so clean that he reminds me of two great aerialists: Josh Stone and Mark Angulo. Not a bad compliment!

Here we go, there's now a rule for kiters too at Hookipa.
I'll let you read it (click on the photo to make it bigger).
I don't think it will change much. The only case in which there's less than 10 between surfers and windsurfers at the point are those 3-5 days a year in which the waves are so big that only very few people can be out. And in that case, kiters won't bother anyone. That's how I see it.

But I'd like to add a couple of more words on the topic.
This windsurfers hate kiters or surfers hate windsurfers is just plain ridicolous. What are we, 6 years old kids?
For me kiting is just another way to enjoy the ocean and ride waves. I have a lot of respect for all the kiters and am friends with a bunch of them. I would be myself into kiting if it wasn't for the following reasons:
1) it's still too dangerous
2) there is no conditions that I can't have fun with, with the three sports that already do
3) kiting in Maui is limited in where you can go. The only fact that you can't kite Hookipa (well, no you can under the conditions of that sign), is enough for me to say:"screw that"!

Sure, kites take more room and it's dangerous to be hit by their lines, but how much room do you have and how dangerous it is when there's five windsurfers on the same wave (seen that a couple of times at Hookipa yesterday and all the times at Kanaha)?
Let's stop being like little kids and respect each other more.

Last, but excuse me not least, blog author in a nice shot taken from this gallery by Sofie.

No wait, this morning's weather map looks pretty impressive... big waves are on the way for Thursday/Friday!

PS. sorry about mistakes, no time to review this post... got a surfboard to try...

second official Paia Bay Invitational forecast

2011-11-21T08:28:00.007-10:00

It's monday morning, and this is the weather map we were hoping for the contest.
As you can see, in fact, that fetch north of the island will send a swell that is confirmed to be around 5 feet on Thanksgiving day. See you guys at the beach!

A couple of more maps.
This one is forecasted for Friday 25 and it shows another northerly fetch. This time longer and way closer to the islands. It will create a big swell that will hit a couple of days later. Sunday and Monday should be windy too, Hookipa might be mast high plus.

This other one is forecasted for the 28 (last day available). It shows a nice little NW fetch that could evolve into something big, but most importantly shows a comforting lack of high pressure north of the islands.
I'd like to take it as a sign of a weather change. I'm definitely over these strong and gusty easterly trades that bring so much rain and I look forward to some beautiful sunny windless winter days. We'll see.

Yesterday Hookipa was occasionally logo high, thanks to the NNE swell forecasted a couple of posts ago. Today should be a bit smaller, but during the day the NW swell (see same post) should start showing up. There's already small waves at Haleiwa, hence the reef hawaiian pro got finally underway.

This shot is from Jimmie's gallery from yesterday. I love when Kauli does the top turn in the air and lands it sticking the whole board back on the face of the wave.

This one instead is from the day before (gallery) and shows the blog author doing a slide at the top of a wave. Not too bad, but what a difference with the good guys! Oh well, there's only one way to get better... lots of practice!

first official Paia Bay Invitational forecast

2011-11-19T08:02:00.009-10:00

Yesterday I had the pleasure to meet contest director Ian Haywood and the honor to be nominated official forecaster of the upcoming annual contest on Thanksgiving day.

Well I have two news: one bad and one good.

Let's start with the bad. It's officially a La Nina winter! Read this simple article on Surfline and you'll understand what that means. Make sure you'll flip through the four slides.

The good news is that, despite the presence of the bad girl, there will be a swell on Thanksgiving day! Hurray!
Here's the Surfline offshore swell forecast. As you can see there will be a NNW (the yellow one) swell, peaking Thursday morning at around 5.5 feet, 13 seconds from 334.
High tide (always a good thing for inside breaks like Paia Bay or Tavares, since more energy can pass over the outside reef) will be at 1pm, the wind shouldn't get crazy strong and that means solid perfect conditions for the whole day!
Note: perfect at Paia Bay means just as messy as usual! :)

And if you're like me that don't just trust the outcome of the mathematical models that generate surf forecasts, here's the weather map forecasted for the 21st. You can see the fetch pretty much north of us that will generate that swell. That's in two days from now, let's hope it stays like that.

I'll post an update on Monday to see how that weather map turned out to be.
Competitors get your wax ready!!!

PS. I met Ian at the second public screening of the Minds Wide Open movie at Cafe Mambo yesterday.
I just want to say that, just like Jason Polakow's solo session at Backyards on the Windsurfing Movie, Kauli Seadi wave sailing solo session at Ali Baba in Cabo Verde is mind blowing.
Two amazing sailors, two different styles... would love to see them both together in conditions like that!

flattest mid November week I can remember

2011-11-16T11:06:00.007-10:00

We're in the middle of it.

Looking at this morning's (Wednesday) map, you would think that there's light at the end of the tunnel, but unfortunately those two fetches (WNW and N of us) will only send a small temporarily relief in the weekend. The rest of the maps for the next 8 days in fact, only show strong high pressure and gusty, easterly trades with their associated windswell.
Not good.

Due to the abnormally shitty conditions, I didn't take any interesting photos, but photographer Marco Coppadoro just sent me the ones he took of me during the contest, so -like it or not- I'm going to post those! Thanks Marco.

goodbye Prince

2011-11-14T19:51:00.006-10:00

Among many others, there was one thing that gave me (like if I needed it...) another confirmation that moving in this time zone of the world was a good idea.

My favorite dj on my favorite radio was a guy called Prince Faster (Sandro his real name). His program aired at 6pm every week day in Rome, the city where I lived the last 11 years before moving to Maui.
Usually, at 6pm I was still at work. I was actually working in average till past 8pm (yeah, that's the life of a salesman for a big corporation like Hewlett-Packard) and I was frustratingly only catching the last part of Prince Faster's program.

In Maui, instead, I would listen to it live over the internet and often catch the show's starting signature tune as the music I woke up with... I can't think of a better background soundtrack for my buoy readings morning check.
This is the song, best reggae song you'll ever listen to. I strongly recommend to click on the "more" button to follow the lirycs.
Of course Price's program started with when the trumpets kick in...

Lately I found a software on the net that allowed me to record whatever music was played by my computer. I could then record his all show in the form of an mp3 file, put it on a memory stick, and listen to it later in my car, while driving around looking for the best waves in this gorgeous island.

Up to yesterday, knowing that there was a show every day, I used to delete the programs once I listened to them. But now that I learned that UN-FUCKING-FORTUNATELY Prince Faster is not working at Radio Rock anymore, I'm so gonna keep those few more programs I still have on my disk!
One day they're going to be like relics to me. They already are, actually.

Well, I'd like to thank Price Faster for all the fantastic music I had the pleasure to listen to thanks to his deep knowledge of all musical genres.
For example, just tonight, love when things like these happen, I ran into a video on Facebook that is - BY FAR - the best music video I've ever seen!
Rammstein is only one of the many bands that I would ever never got into, if it wasn't for Prince Faster.
It is absolutely mandatory that you let it load, connect some good speakers to your computer and, as Prince would say with a very calm, serious, intense voice... "alzate il volume della vostra radio!"
(pump up the volume of your radio!"
He wouldn't say that often, but when he did you knew that something good was coming at you on the FM...

Rammstein - Mein Land from Rammstein on Vimeo.

good fun now, not next week

2011-11-12T08:14:00.007-10:00

The NE windswell has been fun, but the next week looks as bad as it gets (for my taste): it will be windy but there will be no waves.

Let's have a look at the difference between the following two weather maps to understand what the difference will be.
This one is from the 10th (two days ago). As you can see, there's plenty isobars running over the islands, but a lovely low pressure east of the high pressure created a fetch that sent us the windswell.

This one is forecasted for Sunday the 20th. Still plenty isobars over the islands, but no fetches of wind oriented towards us (other than the eastely trades, of course). High pressures dominate the north Pacific and the whole next week looks pretty much like that.
To the point that even the annual "Paia bay invitational" on Thanksgiving day seems to be at risk of small waves!
Well, these long term forecasts can change, let's hope for the best...

Windswell had been fun, I was saying. Hookipa was pretty gnarly, but the tough guys were out there. I clearly wasn't, but photographer Paul Karaolides was and I stole these two pictures from his gallery.

Levi's bottom turn is becoming my favorite.

This is Mark mid mutant. You got to check the whole sequence in the gallery. It's hard to believe, really...

These, instead, are a bunch of turtles that came on the beach at Pavillons (thanks Patrick).
Did you notice how many turtles hang out on the shore break at Hookipa and pop out their head right there?
Well, my theory is that they're checking out how busy is the beach to eventually come take a rest, a poo, or whatever they need to take. They end up never doing that, since there are always a lot of windsurfers (at least, when I see them). In other words, in believe that we, windsurfers, bother them, just for the fact that we use the beach (and keep it busy). I don't think it's a huge deal (they can always beach at night and judging by their number in the water they seem to be thriving), but I do feel like sorry for them...

Bouj's board

2011-11-10T07:52:00.003-10:00

Yesterday I tried Boujmaa's board (a custom built by Starboard).

It's a twin fin (my favorite) and has a beautiful curvy outline. In other words, it looks pretty sick to me.
And on the wave it is pretty sick! Unfortunately, being around 72 liters it's not quite enough for me off the wave. I don't think I'm much heavier than the Moroccan, so I think the difference is purely skill level...

Here are some pics. Unfortunately the wind was pretty light and I couldn't get much speed on the waves.

That's right after a tack on the inside with light wind... water up the knees.

Here's that beautiful curvy outline... too bad she's so small.

Here's another beautiful curvy outline and this one looks even the right size for me!

After my session(s), I took some pics. 14yo Casey is enjoying his new Firelight too. That sail is a breakthrough.

Mini sequence of a top turn by Camille. His board is barely touching the water...

...and then he will stick the nose and the rest of the board into the face to regain the grip. The master of these kind of turns IMO, is Kauli.

Kai.

That's it for now, have a gorgeous day.

oh yeah!

2011-11-09T08:00:00.005-10:00

Wednesday morning weather map looks even better than the forecasted one (see a couple of posts ago) and that fetch is just lovely, isn't it.

This is the Surfline 5 days wave forecast for Oahu's north shore. Saturday afternoon and Sunday will be epic sailing for Maui's north shore (and not only) reefs. I already know where to go sail.

I'm going to spend a few words on the wave forecast on windguru, since I get that question very often. Windguru is a wind forecasting website, not a wave one. The info about the wave forecast they add can be very misleading if you don't know what it is.
They just report the biggest swell in height forecasted for that day. The problem is that sometimes (actually most times in Hawaii) that's not necessarily the biggest waves that will show up on the reef!

Example: imagine that one day there will be a 6 feet, 8 seconds from 90 degrees windswell and a 5 feet, 15 seconds from 330 degrees ground swell. WG will indicate only the first one which will create mushy, weak, barely shoulder high waves at Hookipa, while the second one will generate solid, powerful logo high sets.

So if you are looking for a accurate wave forecast, you need a site (there's many) that gives you ALL the swells that are forecasted for a day. Surfline is one of them.
My site of choice for wind forecast and reports, instead is iWindsurf.com.

But the main suggestion for anyone who wants to try to understand wave forecasting is to learn how to read a weather map. It's an extremely easy thing, and I'm shocked by the amount of surfers/windsurfers who still don't know what an isobar is...

Actually, it's a sign of our times.
"Here's the forecast, you don't need to try to know what's behind" is like "Here's the news, you don't need to know what's behind".
That's how governments keep control of the public opinion through the media and keep our brains lazy...

Allright enough of that, happy sailing everyone!

three videos

2011-11-08T22:26:00.003-10:00

I ran into these three videos tonight and I feel like sharing.

A scary moment.

A scary big wave.

The smartest gangster who has ever lead a country might be on his way out and this is a bye bye video.

bloody awesome day!

2011-11-06T19:25:00.008-10:00

How else would you call a day with one surf and two windsurf sessions?

It's windy as hell here in Maui, thanks to the strong and very gusty easterly flow. Not my favorite conditions, but thanks to a mix of ground NNW and wind E swells, I thoroughly enjoyed my early and late sailing sessions.

In between I took some photos and the shot of the day goes to Mr. Boujmaa Guillol.

Chronological order now.
Luke.

Nathan Mershon is sailing extremely good. Way better than I saw him sailing during the contest. I'm quite impressed by his consistency. The guy rips.

A meaty one for Nayra.

The usual Israeli guy I can't learn the name of.

Boujmaa.

Kai.

Little slippers section.

Sure, if you wear them like that they're gonna last longer... but what's the point?

I've been called foot fetish for taking this shot. Ok, no more foot shots for you!

Still not 100% convinced about the new camera, but it sure has a bloody good zoom!

Camille keeps being all over the place.

Here he is again.

Damn, I wish I could bottom turn like that! Boujmaa.

I'm pretty damn selective when I post photos on my blog. That's why I hope that blog reader (and nice guy) Paul will be proud of this shot of his. Good job brah!

Victor Fernandez forward off the lip.

This photo was taken by er Sor Mazza with his new Sony megazoom camera. Time stamp says 5pm, so that explains the lack of light. We'll have to do a photoshoot together to compare the devices.

Oh, yeah that's me by the way.

I need to spend a couple of words about that new Hot Sails Maui Firelight I'm using.

That sail is something else. I always knew how important the weight of the rig is. I thought the benefits were mostly felt in light wind, but I'm discovering that it's awesome also in strong wind.

I stuck some tacks under 25 knots+ gusts that I would have not stuck with a heavier sail. It's just so much easier to throw it in the wind!

And then in the evening session, VERY often I was planing while the others weren't. Light, efficient and powerful, freaking love that sail! The only down side is that my body is a bit more tired after sailing (compared to a Superfreak). I hope I'll get used to that...

I also feel like congratulating my buddy Glenn for sticking his first wave 360. Didn't catch it on camera, but I saw it. Way to go!!!

Last, but definitely not least, here's the weather map forecasted for Wednesday. That looovely fetch just NNE of us will send a NNE swell for Friday/Saturday. NNE is a direction that most north shore reefs adore... well, I don't know if they really adore it, but I sure do!
The swell will have short-medium period and it will be very consistent. I predict people on the rocks. I hope I won't be one of them.

Life is good and it couldn't be differently. It's the start of the winter and I am in Maui! Everything else doesn't really matter.

maui makani classic final day and awards

2011-11-02T08:15:00.008-10:00

The last day of the contest saw some big waves and light wind.

They finished experts single elimination and youth and amateur double elimination. No time for the double elimination of masters and women.

Camille dominated the experts and we'll start with him.

Then a bit of this...

...and that.

Beautiful hair.

Kai Katchadourian sailed extremely well. The judges saw him fourth (behind Camille, Browsinho and Josh Stone), but I would have put him a little higher...

Camille.

Very sweet.

Kai.

During the youth final (Morgan won), Bernd got chased by this big gnarly one.

Amateur finalist Neil Turpin got very unlucky and got pushed on the rocks by a big set. That pretty much was the end of story and Jay Lee won the final.

Farmer Skyler.

OMG.

This is the masters podium from the final party (Jimmie's gallery).

I am very impressed by the organization of the contest. BIG hats off to Sam Bittner!

maui makani classic day 4

2011-10-31T08:31:00.007-10:00

Day 4 saw some very mediocre conditions.

Seen the good wave forecast for the last two days (Monday and Tuesday), head judge Matt Pritchard decided to complete the single elimination for all the other categories other than experts.

Once I figured that my heat of the Masters double elimination was not going to be run, I went to work to give Alex a bit of rest (Russ is busy full time at the contest, so Alex is taking all the shifts...).
I didn't take any photo, so I picked a few shots from this gallery .

This is me in the warm up session.

This is a lovely lady in the cool down session.

I guess also this one can be called a top turn at Hookipa.

This is the NW buoy 6am readings. The new NW swell is on its way up at 5.5 feet, 16 seconds from 343 degrees (which is a direction that is not blocked at all on Maui's north shore).
The Waimea buoy reads 2.6 feet, so expect the swell to build throughout the day.

The wind is forecasted to be light, but I hope the Haleakala will do its magic and it will be a great day of action. Follow it on the live webcast.

If you prefere surfing instead, here's the live webcast of a surf contest at Sunset beach on Oahu. There's occasional overhead sets rolling through... allright!

Maui boy Joao Marco Maffini is up next at 8.55 am... go Joao Marco!!!

maui makani classic day 3

2011-10-30T08:15:00.012-10:00

Another action packed day!

Let get straight to the fact that I made it to the final of the Masters division. The final was the last heat of the day and, quite uncharacteristicly, it was windy as hell (overpowered on a 4.7) and almost dark...

My good friend (and only sponsor) Jeff Henderson won and I came second, so I couldn't wish for a better end. Seriously, he's such a better sailor than me that if I had won it would have felt unfair...
Congrats also to Yasu and Rob who were third and fourth.
Here's the "podium" in the dark...
Photo taken from here.

And here's the winner in one of his great clean aerials (thanks Nino for the photos).

Now a bit of me. Here's a little spray.

A late hit.

This jibe on the wave wasn't easy. The wall in front got pretty steep but fortunately I managed not to catch a rail on the way down... that would have been entertaining!

This wave did not count (I caught it just after the heat was over) and I was aware of it. That's why I rode it more relaxed (and better).

I'm trying to build a possible sequence here. This photo was taken by Sofie and I took it from this album. It might be the first bottom turn on that last non-counting wave.

I did three top turns on that wave, not sure which one is this.

No photos of the final whatsoever, because it was late and dark.
Here's the single elimination Master's results.

Here's a few shots I took.
A bit of that.

Kai is a character. I believe we all agree on that!

Nice goiter by Morgan!

It's pretty clear that this lady needs some attention if she goes surfing like that...

Graham.

Too bad she's wearing it upside down, otherwise it could be a nice ad for MFC harnesses...

Good friends Tati and Shawna.

Today looks kind of flat and I really hope they will hold the contest. Monday and Tuesday the waves are going to be big and the wind forecast is not too bad... can't wait!

maui makani classic day 2

2011-10-29T08:21:00.019-10:00

Well, the wind blew and it was an action packed day!

The sky was a bit gloomy at the 10am skipper's meeting.

The blog author gets ready for his heat. Six pack is gladly back. (thanks Nino for the photos)

The other guy didn't show up, so it was only Jeff, Colin and me. Three Hot Sails on the water, we just launched. On the reef, the first waves of a fairly big set. Transition time was two minutes, we used it all to wait that out.

The big set is peaking. Jeff and I waited it out on the inside, while looks like Colin is going to try to poke through.

After the big set was gone, it was pretty flat and, despite the light wind on the inside, it was quite easy to sail out. Here I'm seeing that Jeff will be in position for a nice medium wave (you can't see it in the photo because the zoom flattens everything out), so I decide to quickly tack and grab the smaller one right in front of it.

Still checkin on Jeff and probably thinking:"yeah, Jeff's wave is better, but this one is better than nothing..."
Still can't see my wave, can you?

And there it is. I caught a bunch of those little ones. It wasn't a planned strategy. It was just that I didn't see any big set looming on the horizon, so I chose to stay close to the reef to pick my waves.

Sometimes too close!!

Here's a major wipeout courtesy of Rick (this is his gallery). How the mast did not break is a mistery.

This is probably my best turn and, once again, was only caught by Rick. He might not have a great camera, but he had a good timing! Thanks!

This one is another small wave. I believe the photographer was Kevin Pritchard and I took it from the AWT gallery. Really good shots in there.

I know, it's an all about me post. But, for the non Hookipa sailors, I want to show one of the toughest spots for tacking in Maui. This is just upwind of the beach, right in front of the rock shelf. The current there goes upwind and that creates two unfavorable side effects:
- a hell lot of chop
- the wind feels always stronger (because the speed of the current adds up to the speed of the wind)

Here's Jeff and I sailing out. He smartly chose a 5.8 Superfreak. I was on a 4.7 Firelight...

...can you tell?

Jeff told me that with the 5.8 he could move all over the place and really took advantage of having Hookipa all for himself. This photo clearly confirms that.

After heat chat. Jeff, thanks for those great sails, but also for the most comfortable harness in the market.

Here I'm like:"really Colin? You think you sucked more than me?!?"

This is Russ smiling before his really tough heat against Francisco Goya, Laurent and I can't remember the fourth one.
I've judged 4 or 5 contests in the past and I know that very often people disagree with the judges.
Now, to express a on opinion on a sailor performance, one should only be focused on judging (instead of chatting with friends), write down the scores, know the judging guidelines, and do that all day to keep the scores consistent.
Nonetheless, when the amount of people that saw things differently from the judges is so high (pretty much 100% of the people I spoke to), then there is a possibility that a judgemtent was not fair.

It happens, it's part of the game, sometimes you get lucky sometimes you don't.
I think Russ was the clear winner of that heat. He caught the biggest waves, he hit the lip at each single turn and he even finished one with a (small) one hand aerial.
He wasn't as fast as Francisco on the waves. Laurent pulled off a nice (small) taka off the lip. So it was a tough one. But I really think he deserved to advance.
So I feel like saying to him:"good job brah!".

A few shots of the experts heats before my camera's battery died.

I believe this is Brian Metcalf-Peres (sorry, the last name is probably wrong).

Josh Stone.
Brian.

Andrea Franchini.

Andrea smiles about his performance (he sailed good), but that unfortunately wasn't enough to beat Josh and Brian.

Browsinho.

Well, it's 9.30, skipper meeting is at 10. I better get going otherwise I'll end up parking at Pavillion again...
This is my heat. Check out the live webcast.

maui makani classic day 1

2011-10-28T07:51:00.009-10:00

Well, day 1 was a lay day due to lack of waves.

No big deal, since today (Friday, day 2) there will be a north swell hitting. Too bad the wind should be pretty light, so I think Matt Pritchard should call it off again.

This is the weather map in fact and that is definitely not the best isobaric configuration for a day of strong trades. We'll see, Maui can always do the magic...

Below is the wind forecast from iWindsurf.com.

Now, based on the wave forecast too and considering that they only have three days of permit till Tuesday to run the contest, here's what I would do:
Run and finish all single eliminations (and eventually start some double) on Saturday and Sunday. Take a break on Monday and then run the final day on Tuesday (last day of the waiting period) with a classic Hookipa day with a 6 feet swell (the one being generated as I type by that fetch just over the date change line) and light wind.

Here's the heat draw of the old fart category,
What a bummer that I ended up in the same heat as Jeff and Colin. And it seems that also Reed (who I don't know) is on Hot Sails too... oh well, at least two Hot sailors are guaranteed to advance!

See you at the beach!

Maui Makani AWT contest live webcast

2011-10-27T09:08:00.003-10:00

Live webcast here.

Opening ceremony today at 10am. Too bad it's flat as a lake!

found harness at Hookipa + I'm ready for the contest (to be over) + Jimmie's selection

2011-10-26T07:28:00.005-10:00

Yesterday Tursday 25 I found a harness at Hookipa. Email me to identify it.

Tomorrow Thursday 27 is the start of the Maui Makani contest. Everybody I meet asks me:"Are you ready for the contest?"
My answer just changed from:"look, it's going to be fun but I couldn't care less of how I do in the contest" to "yeah, I'm ready for the contest to be over and all these people to go back where they came from!"

I know I sound unfriendly and controversial, but Hookipa is just not sailable anymore. I didn't think that a contest would attract so many sailors! Yesterday they counted 60 people out. In below average (read shitty) conditions.
I'm happy there is a contest, and I'll be happy when it's over (even though it will take a few additional weeks/months to go back to normal).

Anyway, tonight inauguration party at the Ale House in Kahului. No problem of over crowd over there, so show up and have a drink!

Ah, there will be a live webcast! They didn't publish the website yet, so stay tuned on the AWT website for that.

Here's a short selection of Jimmie Hepp's shot from this gallery.

It really doesn't matter how many fins Levi has under his board. When one uses the whole lenght of the rail in the bottom turn like he does here, the board will hold even without fins...

KP went for this backloop off the lip attempt. I was looking but not taking photos and I'm glad Jimmie got it because, despite the fact that he went off the back and didn't land it, it was a very impressive move. A sick one.

I love how evertyhing lined up in this shot of a 360 from Kai K.

Camille is on fire.

Beautiful shot of Andres. He's got a Firelight too and seems to be enjoying the super light weight of it. It's the lightest sail on the market. Go try one at Hot Sails Maui you guys... you'll be shocked by how nice it feels in your hands!

three sports, photoshoot and work

2011-10-24T20:03:00.007-10:00

How did I manage to squeeze all that in my day today, it's a bit of a mystery even for me.

The photoshoot was only 30 minutes long, but thanks to the beautiful waves and the amazing skill of the sailors I got some decent shots. Don't have a favorite, let's start with this view of a wave at Pavillion with a sizey one on the background at turtle bay.

Browzinho 360.

Browsinho goiter.

Levi was on the wave behind and saw Browzinho's goiter. Of course, he had to go higher... nah, these guys are not competitive at all...
Notice how Levi is back on single fins. "That'll throw quite a few people off", commented Kevin Pritchard in a short chat we had today.

Fabrice Beaux gives us his interpretation of the move in this extremely overexposed shot (still not convinced about this camera).

And Mark Angulo (who invented it back in the days... the move, not the camera) goes for a "simple" aerial.

Keith Teboul joins in.

Fabrice.

The piece of lip just destroyed by Browsinho is still up in the air.

Mark aerial wave 360.

Victor Fernandez is in town. It's like April here.

Victor 360.

It was smaller than yesterday, but still some bombs.

le onde grandi are back

2011-10-23T20:38:00.008-10:00

Grand day.

I had an early wave sailing session at a spot up the coast. It wasn't great (the wind was very offshore hence very gusty and strong on the face of the wave), but there were the first mast high sets of the season, so it felt really good...

Then I went to Hookipa to take photos.
In the couple of hours that I watched, I was impressed by the performance of three guys: Camille, Levi and Polakow. I do feel like mentioning Kevin Pritchard too.

Let's get to the photos. I don't really have a favorite one, so I'll stick to the chronological order.
Believe it or not, I don't know who this is. But yes, it is still possible to rip on a single fin.

Morgan.

Compared to those waves he rode at Cloudbreak, this must have felt like a knee high wave for Jason Polakow.
Sorry if it's out of focus, but I still haven't read the manual of the new camera. It's good to be bazy (a mix between busy and lazy).

JP's aerial wave 360 in a critical section.
Levi did a few of those too. So perfect that a couple of times I felt like standing up and clapping hands...
It was a lot of fun to watch the best sailors in the world rip the waves apart in those challenging conditions.

That is one steep rise registered by the North buoy. The NW one went up to 9 feet 14 seconds.

Levi doesn't need fins. He buries the whole board in the top turns!
Notice the spray.

I believe this is Nathan Mershon. He's leading the AWT rankings with high chances of winning the whole thing. It's the first time I see him and, even though he might not be as radical as the top guys who live here, he sure rips.

This is from another day. Together with the next photo is an example of "cropping on the camera". Camille.

Love this shot of Browsinho!

I guess we're now back to today... blogger doesn't load the photos in the order it used too. One of the many little things that changed (for the worse) in the switch to the new PC and operating system.
Anyway, classic Josh Stone.

The evening surf session was for me actually better than the sailing session. The main reason is that I was on a 6.0 at a longboard/SUP spot and I managed to catch at least 5 good waves. I love the way I'm pushing my limits on the surfing.

In order to continue to do that, I'd like to go catch a few more at dawn, so you guys will excuse me if I, despite of the fact that could find things to write about all night, will now end this post and go to sleep.

Le onde grandi are back and I want to dance with them.

PS. Hey, uncle Robby and me are 8th and 9th! Only the first five take part to the expression session at the AWT Maui Makani contest. I really hope I won't make it, but I do confess that it would mildly thrill me to end up with more votes than the most famous windsurfer in the world...
So move those lazy fingers of yours, go to the AWT website and click on my name!!!

models changed!

2011-10-22T07:19:00.003-10:00

Good news!

As you can see from the below map (still 29th, like last post), the models now don't show that weak low pressure anymore and there's at least a couple of isobars (the 1016 and the 1012) running parallel over the islands.
That is far from being the classic strong trades configuration, but at least will assure an easterly flow that, if the sky will be clear, could allow the Haleakala to do the magic.
The big low on the very top will provide plenty waves too, so all of a sudden things are looking much better!

Don't forget the party at Kanaha Kai tonight and this is an aerial of me caught by Jimmie Hepp.
Totally went off the back, didn't even land it, but it looks cool anyway...

another meager forecast + photographers tribute

2011-10-21T08:14:00.008-10:00

Unfortunately, the forecasted weather maps for the days of the contest keep looking pretty meager (from the windsurfing point of view, of course!).

This one is for the 29th, third day of the six days waiting period. They need three days to run the full contest, so let's hope that something will start changing on the 30th, even though that weak low NE of Hawaii is sitting right where the high should be for the trades to blow... the only hope is that the models will prove wrong.

You can now vote for your favorite sailor that you would like to see in an expression session. Vote for me, because I don't think they'll run the expression session (due to lack of wind/time) and maybe they'll give the prize to the most voted sailor... in other words, I might have a chance to win some gear! :)
There's a voting widget on the awt home page.

Hey, don't forget that the party at Kanaha Kai on Saturday is coming up!

In the meantime, I'd like to thank all the photographers that have been taking photos lately at Hookipa. Here's a couple from Francky from this amazing gallery.

first unofficial Maui Makani AWT contest forecast

2011-10-20T08:24:00.004-10:00

This is the list of the registered (so far) competitors for the windsurfing contest.
In the expert division, the amount of talent is undeniably stellar... it will be a lot of fun to watch!

Unfortunately, below is the weather map modeled for October 28, day 2 of the 6 days waiting period. If that is going to be confirmed, despite the miraculous wind acceleration ability of the Haleakala, there will be no wind to be accelerated and it will be a glassy day for surfing...
Day one looks just as bad, let's hope the something will change for the next days otherwise it would be a big bummer.
That high pressure on the left needs to move east and merge with the one to the right and then there will be wind...
Clearly, that's the latest map available by the models. Stay tuned, I'll post the other ones when they become available.

Note: I'm stoked to do the contest, because I think it would be a lot of fun. I could not care less of how well I do. Cheers.

windsurfing party (and more)

2011-10-16T10:00:00.011-10:00

The Maui Makani AWT windsurfing contest is coming up and there will be a few parties/activities that will go with it.

Here's the banner of the one organized at the Hot Sails Maui headquarter. The band is a hip one so don't miss out!!
And if you think you'll go, please RSVP on the party facebook page, so that they can have an idea of how many people will show up and where to optimally place the band.

Since I got back from Italy, I pretty much surfed and/or sailed every day. Between south and north shore there has been abundace of waves. As you guys know, I've not been reporting on these sessions, also because I've got my backpack stolen and with it my loved Sony camera.

Now I bought a new one (or more exactly, I'm trying out a new... love the return policy at Costco). It's a Nikon Coolpix P5000 and these are the first shots I've taken. I haven't even read the manual, so I can't really say if it's a keeper or not.
There seems to be a much better mega zoom one on the market: the Sony DSCHX100 DSC-HX100VB, but there's two things that makes me prefere the Nikon (at least based on the specs):
- the equivalent 35mm optical zoom of the Nikon is 840, the Sony "only" 810
- the Nikon can take photos at 1280x960 (which is exactly what I was taking with my old Sony). The Sony's lowest resolution is still a big 3M and that will generate much bigger files than the average 300K I prefere.
That is a classic example of how everything in this world seemes to be dictated by the philosophy of MORE.
What is people going to do with MORE pixels if most of the times the way you show the photos is through webs, pc's, phones? You can tell the difference only if you print them!

Shot of the post goes to Josh Angulo who is back in town. His aerials are always fantastic.

Ah, to be a just few years younger... like 30!

This is a sequence of Levi, who's back in town too.
Sequences are another feature that really doesn't interest me. It completely kills the fun to press the shutter at the right moment. Where's the challenge?
You're not going to see many more of that.

Kai Katchadourian flying over a barrell.

My coworker Russ usually sails more uncrowded spots. But with the contest coming up, he's been sailing hookipa more regularly in order to get the timing down.

Hot Sails Maui sale manager (or is that sail manager?) Chris goes into a goiter attempt that will cause him a slight ankle injury. I've tried the new Firelight sail and fell in love with the extremely light weight of it.
2.7 kg for a 4.7 is pretty much 1 kilo less than most other wave 4.7s in the market!
Only Severne comes close, as this boardseeker test shows. No Hot Sails on that test unfortunately...
So I think that my love story with the Superfreak is close to an end. I still love the soft feel of it, but for me weight is THE most important feature in a sail.
Unless is blowing more than 25 knots, of course. In fact, I'll keep the 4.2 Superfreak.

Russ's timing getting better...

Morgan's timing is already very good indeed.

Technical difficulties encountered during the editing of this post:
- the mouse froze and I had to reboot (fortunately a draft was saved by blogger)
- in "compose" mode, the cut and paste of photos didn't work
- when I tried to publish the post with IE, it just didn't do it. So I had save it as draft, open a Mozilla window and publish it from there. I didn't do the whole post using Mozilla because there the links don't work.
I don't know if it's my new pc or Windows7 (probably a bit of both), but these technical difficulties are sure one of the reasons that makes blogging less appealing for me.
Also, I noticed the blog has been hijacked. Once in a while there's a pop up window that asks you to download something. I don't know how to fix that. Any help from the readers?

Uff, 'bout time to go the beach!!!!

The blog? What blog?

2011-10-05T19:48:00.000-10:00

That's what I've been answering to the people asking me when I was going to update the blog.

Sorry guys, I've been blogging full time since 2005, it looks like I need a break. Blogging for me has always been fun. All of the hundreds of posts I did were inspired by a pure will of sharing the stoke. Where did that go all of a sudden? I have no idea...

I think I need some motivation. I disabled the comment moderation (that means that you can leave a comment and it will show up immediately without me having to approve it). If you feel like, leave a comment and try to motivate me to go back blogging. I won't guarantee you that I will, but I thought it might help... maybe!
Thanks.

In the meantime, since I hate posts without a photo, here's a shot of Jason Polakow bottom turning into a massive Cloudbreak wave.

good bye six pack...

2011-09-13T04:06:00.004-10:00

Courtesy of that long lasting south swell, when I left for Italy I was in top shape and with a remarkable six pack...

...which is clearly gone now!

PS. Assuming everyone knows already about the NY ASP contest, I feel like mentioning that finally a PWA contest (the Klittmoller one) is being covered by some kind of live webcast.
'Bout time!
No live scores, but decent commentary by Skye and Swift (at least when I tuned in). I still can't really watch it though, because the conditions are horrible...

Ok ok, I'll take that back. Conditions were horrible compared ideal sideoff Cabo Verde kinda things, but, thanks to the fact that there were big (although messy) waves AND competent commentators, the webcast was still enjoyable.
Tons of things to improve to get to the amazing level of the ASP webcasts, but finally there was something that can be called webcast!!! Thanks a lot for that.

PPS. Next ASP contest is at Trestles and I'll watch that live. Cheers to that!

PPPS. Considering the amount of milk derivatives in those photos above, it's actually a good thing I won't be able to attend the Maui Vegetarian Society of Thursday September 15 at the Kaunoa Senior Center and learn how much harm I did to myself.

Its title is: "DAIRY: ESSENTIAL NUTRITION OR HEALTH SABOTEUR?"
In the abstract you can read: Joseph Keon, author of Whitewash: The Disturbing Truth about Cow's Milk and Your Health, will show how North Americans unwittingly sabotage their health every day by drinking milk, how our obsession with calcium is unwarranted, and that the inclusion of dairy products in the diet may increase the risk of serious diseases, including prostate, breast, and ovarian cancers, Crohn¹s disease, and osteoporosis.
Oh well, I can always watch it later online on the VSH website: http://www.vsh.org/

what a swell!

2011-09-04T08:27:00.001-10:00

I hate when people exaggerates about the size of the waves, but I have to admit that this last swell has been quite unique.

The series of storms that generated it, kept building seas on top of already built seas and that made for some exceptional energy packed into the waves, expecially the over 20 seconds period ones. Not even on the north shore we see stuff like that often.

The funny thing is that it wasn't record big everywhere. I guess it depends on the direction, as usual.

For example, McGregor's was way bigger in an early south swell we had in 2004. Here's an article of mine published by surfersvillage. Unfortunately, the photos got lost...

La Perouse was massive, that's for sure.
I heard scary stories from very experienced surfers...
I heard of no paddle takeoffs from Albee and Marcio going right and getting massive barrels...
I heard of kiters challenging spots couple of miles upwind of it...
I heard of people getting washed in the bushes on the beach at Dumps...

Anyway, I linked Jimmie's gallery of Tuesday in the last post. Here's Wednesday's.

On Tuesday, not only I surfed 5 different spots, but I found the time to take some pictures. This is the spot I wanted to surf first, but when I pulled in the parking lot at 5.45am there were already 30 cars... little I knew there was a longboard contest. It wasn't big at all, but it was peeling nicely... if I had a longboard with me I would have entered the contest just to surf two heats of 40 minutes together with 5 other guys...
Here's a young competitor hanging five.

But then he lost his board (contest rules: at least 9 feet board, single fin and no leash) and had to negotiate ankle deep water and sharp reef for half an hour...

Maalaea wasn't big either (at least I've seen it a lot bigger), but it was big enough to make some damage.

And this is your blog author doing what he does best: kooking out!

Allright, and a decent top turn.

Here's a youtube video of Ala Moana Bowls.

Biggest in 10 years? Not sure about that...
This was three years ago when I went there for two months... btw, that is my most seen video (almost 70k views). Bit depressing, considering that I put a lot more effort in the others...

I love this picture of a lady being told off by a lifeguard at the Wedge... taken from this slideshow.

Monday I'm off to Italy. What a great way to leave... completely surfed out. I know I will miss out on some waves, but that's almost inevitable in Maui... there's another nice south swell in a week and the north shore will see some action too.
Tired as I am now, I can only look forward for my 5pm massage right now...

Cheers!

8 spots in 36 hours

2011-08-31T21:11:00.005-10:00

That's how I honored the first two days of this majestic south swell (and the original title of this post was 7 spots... 'cause I forgot one!)

There's only three in this little video that I slapped together real quick, hope you guys will forgive me.

There's already tons of material online, but this photo of Kai Lenny in front of a glorious closeout deserves a steal...

Jimmie's gallery on FB.

Stay tuned, the swell is not over yet...

three sports day

2011-08-29T20:33:00.003-10:00

Today I did:
- surfing in the early morning
- wave sailing in the afternoon
- SUP surfing at sunset.

Even for my high standards, it was a really good day. I even worked a five hours shift!
Tomorrow instead, I'm off and I'm quite excited. The forecast calls for the biggest south swell since I'm Maui (10 years).
I'm at the point where 25 seconds buoy readings get me excited more than a date with a hot girl... should I worry? Nah, it's all good. It's all really good!

At the same time, the best surfer in the world pulled off his 67th ASP win (out of 44 finals) and managed to get back to the top of the world rankings, despite his decision to skip Jeffrey's bay, because Fiji was firing.
If I was forced to swap lives with someone else, Slater would be the lucky one... :)

This is the heat analyzer of the final: http://www.billabongpro.com/tahiti11/heat-analyzer-gb (the link thing doesn't work tonight).
Watch the waves and then click on Kelly's interview and let it go till the end. The final 5 minutes of it are just amazing. Bruce's Irons wave looks unreal. I can't even imagine what seeing that from his eyes must be. And the wipeout...

Alarm is set at 4 o'clock. I have ambitious plans tomorrow. Goodnight.

Teahupoo craziness

2011-08-28T07:38:00.005-10:00

WOW!

Craziness 1: yesterday's tow session. Highlights below.

I would definitely also recommend to check out the single waves/wipeouts in the heat analyzer page.
The "extras" bottom line offers some amazing super slow motion replays shot with a camera capable of 1,000 frames per second.

And this is the Surfline photo coverage.

BUT, the real show is going on as I type. The monster swell went down in size, but there's still some serious bombs and they're running the contest.

In the first heat Matt Wilkinson scored a perfect 10. Right after it, Jadson Andre felt the urge to free fall drop in a massive wave. He stuck the drop, but didn't get deeply barreled, so he only got a 6.77. That's the kind of day it's going to be...

Slater coming up next in the webcast.

Can't watch it all day, 'cause at noon I got to go shoot some customers that hired me to make them a windsurfing video... but I'm not worried because I'll watch the heat analyzer tonight.

waves, forecasts and archive photo

2011-08-25T10:18:00.006-10:00

Let's see what I'm gonna post about today... how about waves and surfing?

Tahiti is on hold and in fact the webcast shows rough stormy surf.
But, if you were jonesing for live webcast, there's a wqs contest in Virginia Beach right now.
These guys better complete their contest before they get hit by Hurricane Irene. Which will definitely create some problems this weekend all along the east coast of USA from South Carolina up. Surfline discussion here. Good luck and be safe to everyone over there.

After that it will turn into a "regular" North Atlantic storm and create a big, long fecth of wind for the delight of the European surfers from Ireland down to France. Wish I was in Brandon Bay for that swell...

Well, not really. Maui's water is warmer and will see some fun waves too in the next few days.

In the meantime, Maui's north shore is finally seeing some kind of waves. I surfed Hookipa yesterday afternoon and this morning. Kinda crappy, but it was nice not to have to drive 30 minutes to go surf.

But the south shore will still be the primary place for surfing in the next coming days.

Even though the big Tahiti swell will miss us to the east, will still get plenty energy from the angular spreading of it. Surfline is calling for a 7-8 feet, 19 seconds on Wednesday, but Monday afternoon and Tuesday should be fun too. I try to never get too excited for a south swell, but it's going to be hard this time...

More waves. Big swell hit G-Land and here's Surfline's report. Wonder if Kai and Francisco got some of it...

What, a post with no photos? Mmm... let me look what I can find in the archive... How's this one?

Also geese surf

2011-08-23T04:35:00.004-10:00

Buoy readings at 5am.
SE Hawaii buoy: 3.1ft @ 16s from S (182°)
West Lanai buoy: 2.2ft @ 17s from SSW (192°)
W Hawaii buoy: 2.8ft @ 15s
Barbers point buoy: 2.6ft @ 17s from S (190°)

Should be a fun day today... secret plan is not happening again, nonetheless I'll spend the whole day on the south shore.

Beautiful uncle Pat's forecast.
And that's the first little fetch of wind north of us oriented towards us that I've seen in at least three months.

In meteorology, that is technically called "the light at the end of the tunnel"...

PS. They're holding off the event in Tahiti, because slightly overhead is not spectacular/challenging enough for the best 32 surfers in the world. Hats off to contest director Luke Egan!!!

Tahiti contest day 1 highlights

2011-08-21T07:25:00.002-10:00

Yesterday, first day of the Tahiti contest and it was immediately a great show.

Below the highlights... how's those waves of CJ?

Let me also point out that they are now calling the heats on demand with the name of "heat analyzer". Check it out how cool this is. You can skip right to the waves, the interviews and everything that mattered during that heat.
They're getting close to perfection. Perfection would be a thing like that but with the additional option of not displaying the final result and the waves scores until they get ridden and displaying instead the score situation at any point in time.
In that way, if you don't know who won the heat or what happened, you can watch the condensed action without having any suspence or drama spoiled.
Mmm... maybe I should email them this?

Today they called a day off, even though it's still beautiful, because they know it's going to be bigger/better... Tomorrow they'll run for sure, so tune in billabongpro.com

Not a single wave to ride instead here in Maui.

bit of a forecast

2011-08-19T08:42:00.008-10:00

Usually towards the end of August Maui's north shore starts seeing some kind of swells from the North.

Not this year. August 5th was the last day with some decent waves and after that it was just flat.
Note: thigh high at Hookipa is considered (by me) flat.
From what I can see from the maps there won't be a decent wave breaking at Hookipa for at least 10 more days.

South shore instead keeps looking alright. Right now it's tiny, but there's another good Tuesday ahead and I'm off again. I didn't manage to go for the secret project last time, let's see if it happens this time.

And after that swell, it should be good again. This is the weather map scheduled to happen in a couple of days and that's the beautiful fetch that will generate that huge swell for Tahiti.

Surfline's forecast for Tahiti reflects that. I still think those days are going to be too big for the contest, but I've never been there, so what do I know...
It would be great if they would finish the contest by the 26 and after that everybody would still be there to tow into those monster caves of water. It would be probably the best documented big Teahupoo action ever, considering that all the media would be there and the best surfers in the world too...

The contest starts tomorrow and today at 10am there will be a live webcast of free surfing. The best surfers in the world tuning up with the heaviest wave in the world without the stress of having to post a good score. I'll watch it...
And timely enough Prince Faster has just finished an awesome live streaming program on radio rock.

God, I love the internet!

PS. Superlative (as usual) description of the Teahupoo mechanics by Sean Collins.
PPS. Just tuned in and watched Dusty Paine getting a sick stand up barrell... and today it's supposed to be 3 to 4! Commentators are saying that with that forecast, more than when to run, the contest organizers will have to decide when not to run!!!
OMG, Jadson Andre, barrel and screaming cutback... you can tell how much free-er (spelling?) these guys surf when they're not competing...
Wow, Dusty again! And CJ as deep as it gets...
This is great!

ASP Tahiti contest coming up!

2011-08-16T19:27:00.006-10:00

Well, I surfed 5 hours today, but I didn't get any wipeouts (nor barrels) like these... thank god!

Get your smart phones and computers ready... it's gonna be a big show! Forecast is good... very good. Check the 24-25 below... that might be too big to run a contest, but the days before and after will be spectacular.

do you like barrels?

2011-08-14T07:48:00.011-10:00

Even though I think they're overrated, I do like barrels.

Here's an amazing clip entirely shot with the GoPro.

Here's a long barrel by Jamie O'brien.

And here's Kelly destroying Restaurants, which is by far my favorite clip of the bunch since we see some turns... and what turns!

Here are some nice surfing photos.

And after all this beauty, how do I dare posting a photo of myself?

Thanks Harry Wievel. The other shots in this gallery.
That was August 5th. Probably one of the last days with decent waves at Hookipa.

South shore was fun Friday, and I have a little secret project for Tuesday...

PS. I received an email with the content of a letter that has been sent to the Maui News. Here's what it said.

FYI, There is a 6-story medical plaza building planed to be built in Kahului right next to the Kanaha Pond nature reserve.

letter sent to the editor, Maui News:

Medical center madness.

How can the Maui County planning commission allow a six story medical to be built next to the Kanaha Pond in Kahului?. The Maui Medical Plaza at Kanaha, is a planned six-story building with a five-story, 300-plus vehicle parking garage on the edge of Kanaha wetlands. It is out of place and will be a virtual skyscraper dwarfing every building in Kahului and block views from every direction. Why place a high rise structure next to the open space of the Kanaha pond wetland?.

All the surrounding buildings in that area are two stories high, and the Kahului skyline is relatively unblemished, with views of Haleakala and west Maui mountains.

Driving by Kanaha pond you can still enjoy its natural beauty and appreciate it, perhaps we take Maui’s vistas and visual appeal for granted and forget how important it is.

A 6 story medical plaza, is way too big for this location, and is so out of keeping with any other development in the area, it is absolutely mind boggling how the county would allow it.

How was this development granted a permit that will allow the creation of an eyesore of such magnitude? It will be a visible from every point in the central valley. This would be one of the tallest structures on Maui (except for the county building, and the hospital) and will be the same height as a major hotel. There are so many other places that would be more suitable for this project where it could be among other taller buildings, where it would not have such a negative impact. For example in Wailuku.

What is surprising is that there seems to have been no consideration for the visual impact that this project will have. Where were the public displays of this proposed development? Where were the artist’s impressions of the finished project for the public to see? Shouldn’t the developer be required to make this information public? This project affects every resident of Maui, and we will all have to live with the negative visual impact for the life of the building, 30-50years or maybe more. The planning commission is responsible for stopping developments that go against the public interest. This development deprives the public of their right to an unobstructed view and right to be protected from irresponsible development like this. It will change the look of Maui forever, it will change our views forever, it will be our shame forever. Every persons view will be diminished and the character of Kahului, and the natural areas surrounding the Kanaha pond will be irreparably lost forever. What about the EIS and the SMA? Did they consider these impacts either? The county should not let this happen.

Fortunately it has not been built yet, so the county should put an immediate moratorium to allow time for public input. The residents of Maui have a right to vote on whether this development should be allowed in this area. The Kanaha pond nature reserve and wildlife sanctuary is in the public trust, so every resident has an interest in protecting this area and maintaining the natural beauty of this area, and has a right to say whether they approve of this project. There should be a public meeting and a proper process to determine whether this project is akamai and pono, or whether it should be relocated to a more suitable location.

stuff

2011-08-06T07:29:00.005-10:00

Summertime continues with a lovely alternance (just made up this word) of small south swells, sailable windswell episodes at Hookipa and standup downwinders. Not a bad summer, for sure.

Talking about SUP downwinder, Standup journal has published an article in which I claim to have done the first one ever. Well, originally I wrote that I thought I did, but they changed the words in a more affirmative way... too late to fix when I realized it. Who cares anyway...
I did win the first official race (four standup competitors in total!), that's pretty much for sure. Amazing the number of people that got into the sport and the level of specialization of the equipment that happened shortly after.
I still do my downwinders on that 50 pounds good old Timpone though...

Thanks to the Standup journal for publishing it. Believe it or not, that was my first paid article in English. 'Bout time!

We're in standup mode, let's enjoy this video that Dave Kalama posted on his blog. What a surfer he is!

And still talking about magazines, this is a photo published by Windsurfing. See those stones carefully placed under the ladies hills so that they wouldn't sink in the sand?
I did that. And, since Francky was super focused on getting the light right (tricky backlit shot at sunset), I was also nominated by Shawna as the director of the poses... that was a fun photoshoot!

Yesterday the local windswell peaked and there were some fun waves to play with at Hookipa. Very short period (8 seconds), not as fun as the California windswell of the beginning of the week (10 seconds and better direction), but still better than flat.
Jimmie caught a bottom turn of me. More, much better photos in his FB gallery.

This is the weather map predicted for the south pacific on Monday. That's a serious fetch that unfortunately won't stay in that position for long. But I predict high surf advisory on Monday August 15.

I'm still selling these two boards. 9.3x27.5 Kazuma SUP.

2011 74l Quad IQ Starboard. Email me for details.

Plunger and liquid plumber didn't work. Now what do I do?

PS. US Open of surfing happening at Huntington beach. Quarter final Slater vs Burrow coming up soon on the live webcast.
PPS. Congrats to Graham Ezzy who won the AWT contest in Punta San Carlos.

waves on both shores

2011-08-03T07:44:00.004-10:00

Monday was a really fun day to spend in Maui.

The south shore was on fire with solid head high and occasional overhead sets. The period was around 17 seconds and that just makes better, easier to read, more powerful waves.
After a dawn patrol session, I worked my 5 hours shift and then went to Hookipa to sail on windswell waves generated off the California coast (head high sets with 9-10 seconds period).

Yesterday it was pretty much the same, just everything smaller.
I don't have any photographic evidence of the above, so here's some other stuff.

My friend Ian celebrated his birthday on Lanai and here's a little clip made by Ulli.
The knowledge that nobody got hurt will probably help you laugh harder.

Think you want to throw your surfboard and/or windsurf board away and only do couch surfing? Wait until you see this other video that long time blog reader Lano posted on FB.

Lastly, I'd like to congratulate my missing in action coworker Russ who came third in day two of the AWT contest in Baja, just before the Pritchard brothers. He'll have to tell me how he pulled that off.
Good job Russ, you'll be rewarded with 5 lovely full day shifts in September for that! :)

3.3ft @ 16s from SSW (195°)

2011-07-31T22:20:00.002-10:00

The alarm is set. Let's see what we get.

wow, that was a downer!

2011-07-28T07:29:00.003-10:00

Sorry guys about the shitty energy of the last post.

I might not be on top of the world right now, but my life in Maui is still pretty darn good.
There have been waves on the south shore (Monday morning Thousand Peaks had several moments of epicness). Hookipa has been occasionally fun (photo below from Harry Wievel's gallery on FB).

More south swells are on the way and when there's no waves at all (like today) there's always the downwinders on the standup.
Can not complain. Cheers!

bit of a whine

2011-07-27T21:54:00.001-10:00

I did get a new computer (thanks for that comment, Dave), but my technical problems persist.

I got so much work to do to customize this new one the way I like it... it's really not fun.
I just realized how bad is my brain to adapt to do things the way other people designed to be made. I do 90% of the things I do in my life the only way I know: my way.
And even in the remaining 10% of things that I do because someone tells me to do (at work), I manage to squeeze in my own creativity and "special optimized way".
Operating systems and software programs designed by others are not my favorite thing in life.

My migration from Windows XP to Windows 7 is not going smooth.
And, on top of that, I'm experiencing some networking issues too.

That is one of the reasons for the lack of posts. There's a few more too:
- I'm working 6 days a week (5 hours shifts)
- Hookipa's conditions don't inspire me to take photos
- my life doesn't rock quite as much as usual
- it's summer time. No matter how hard I try to appreciate it, it just can't compare to winter. Allright, it's almost August. Two more months before we get there. Hang in there you guys, hang in there.

Anyway, whining is not all I'm gonna do in this post. I'm also going to embed a video I quickly put together when I got back from Bali.
I was taking clips here and there in order to make a video out of the trip, but I never really got into the groove. Nonetheless, I thought that some readers might enjoy it anyway, despite the poor/elementar editing and the lack of soul.

Seen the poorness of my video, let me link some worthier ones. Not sure if the word "worthier" exists, but I clearly don't care.

The doorman dog.

Bronte's surf action.

Hang in there you guys, hang in there.

technical problems persist

2011-07-22T05:38:00.004-10:00

While in Jeffrey's bay the supposed "dream tour" is dealing with shitty conditions to complete the ASP contest, in the meantime please enjoy this video about the epic swell in Fiji.

Pacific Pirates from Billabong on Vimeo.

As for the local reports, I'm going to mention that yesterday Hookipa was super fun thanks to a NNE swell that made it look like winter. Well, at least in those few overhead sets.

PS. Getting used to a new computer takes WAY more effort than getting used to a new everything else I know (board, girlfriend, house, job...).
And it's still Windows... Imagine if I got an Apple!!!

PPS. I'm selling a couple of boards:
9.3x27.5 Kazuma SUP
74l 2011 Starboard Quad IQ

technical problems

2011-07-15T21:07:00.002-10:00

My computer doesn't boot anymore and this is my first post ever from a smartphone (that after a painful, long, frustrating testing phase, i finally bought today).
I think you can tell...

I wanted to link the surfline page featuring the photos of the day 2 of the big swell that hit fiji, but I didn't manage to copy and past the link. You guys will have to go on surfline and find it yourselves ...

I also wanted to point out that kelly chose not to go to jeffreys bay's asp contest to surf this epics well.
I know he's loaded and he's won already 10 world titles, but I still like the choice. A lot. I like him even more.

Ps. The typing of this post was so frustrating that I hated this post. I really hope Trip is going to fix my computer!

holy shitballs!

2011-07-12T21:59:00.006-10:00

Michelle's fb comment to this link was so appropriate that I had to borrow it for the title.

I stole one of the pictures for you guys...

A surf magazine recently published the best 100 waves in the world. Here's their first 5:
1. Pipeline
2. J-bay
3. Desert Point
4. Teahupoo
5. Cloudbreak

Now, imagine if a fashion magazine published the first 100 most beautiful woman in the world and you happened to have slept with number 5... that's how I feel like when I watch these photos!

And here's an even better report of this epic day on Surfline.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Life in Maui is good. Since I got back, despite the cold I still had (almost gone, but not quite yet), I have been in the water riding waves each single day, so no complaints.

PS. I made a little video of the Indo trip, just can't get it uploaded on youtube... stay tuned for that.