flow rider

Post update.

Here's the link to Sharon's post with more funny shots.
Here's the link, instead, to some serious fake wave action. Check the last rider... a very young Jason Prior shows everyone how it's done.

Lastly, I'd like to publicly declare how proud I am of myself. After the fake wave, yesterday we all went to a pub and had a few beers (and for my first time ever a Shepperd's pie... not quite a big hit in Italy!).
I was feeling happy and tipsy. The party continued in an Haiku home, with master DJ Masters. I wisely decided not to go. I knew I would have had a few more and I knew I would have hated life on Sunday morning (that's what happens at my age when you drink too much and don't sleep enough).
Instead, I woke up full of energy and had two light wind wave sailing sessions that made me very happy indeed.

Life is about priorities. I just love mine.

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That fake wave in Kihei is so much fun...


Cool, relaxed and focused.


'Zactly!


The cool pool dude takes a little girl for a ride.


Here's the old fart again.


Hand in the water is not cheating.


Bikini of the day.


The fart tries to go sideways...


... and there he goes!


Thanks to Sharon for taking all this photos. She got plenty more, so stay tuned: I'll post the link right here as soon as they're online.
But the most thanks go to birthday boy Danny who rented the place for us!!! Thanks Danny, that was a blast!


PS. The day before I was practicing balance with dinner... I'm getting good at that cabbage risotto my mom showed me!

jeff's foot + footstraps + pwa + rocks encounter

Lil post update.

Right after reading my post, Ola and his family ran into this other seal on the south shore and took a few pics. Thanks!


So incredibly cute! Mine was slightly more pissed off, though...


Now this is Michelle Hunziker instead. She has absolutely nothing to do with Maui and Ola, but it was right next to the seal in the folder where I usually put the photos downloaded from emails. Sorry (not!), but I just couldn't stop myself from uploading her too.
"Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world... I feel like I can't take it."... let's see if someone remembers which movie this quote is from.
Anyway, I had the luck to meet her and she's truly incredibly beautiful. And in her case, I even feel like I could take all that beauty... or at least give it a good try!


What now, two photos for the seal race and only one for the human race? Da hell, here's another one!
Without any doubt the most beautiful woman I shook the hand of! Didn't wash my hand for a week after that...



AAARRRGGGGHHHH!!!! Scrolling down the post, Bruno now just got into my screen. Right after the Hunziker beauty... that scared me more than the seal!
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Plenty stuff in this post.

Jeff's post about his broken foot, reminded me that I made a short interview with Bruno Andre about the DaKine footstraps he's using that should prevent those kind of injuries.


I tried them on his board (yet another nice AHD board, btw) and I was convinced enough to go buy a set. I put them on my 81l, but since then the wind started nuking and I've not used them much. So I can't tell yet, but I'll make sure to report my opinion once I'll have one.
I just feel like mentioning that when I bought them, I met a very good sailor at the cannery and he said:"those are the most dangerous streps around!"
"Really, and why is that?"
"Because they're stretchy and if you land a high jump or aerial, your foot sometimes slips all the way in and if you wipe out it will stay stuck there..."
Shit, that makes a lot of sense I thought...
But then I told Bruno this and he said:"probably that guy had the streps too wide. I have them pretty narrow to avoid that. For example, I don't use two corresponding inserts on mine (like the two middle ones), but two closer ones (like the middle one and the one closer).
I believe that if Jeff had these footstreps, his foot would have not broken. But, what if the guy at the cannery was right? That would mean that yes, less broken feet, but more risk for ankles and knees.
So, it's all to be proved.
If you guys have experience with these footstraps, please leave a comment and let us know. But please don't report about the very first version of these footstraps: they sucked (even though I know people who liked them). They were incredibly stiff. Now they are still a bit annoying if you have to adjust them (can't adjust them like the other ones, you need a screwdriver), but they are very flexible and that's what's different about them.

PWA

While I'm writing, the final day of the PWA contest at Cabo Verde is on its way. I've been reading the TEXT live ticker and instead of being happy that there is such a thing, I can't help being frustrated that we can't SEE it yet.
Here's an example: "16.45 Angulo just pulled onto a massive set and clocked up the closest thing to a perfect ride you can get. Simply stunning sailing from him, that was phenominal, just phenominal."
How does that make you feel?

As you can see from the double elimination ladder, Marcilio Browne had a good run all the way until he met KP, who then lost to Josh Angulo. Angulo won twice against Kauli and won the event.
18:20 So the winner is JOSH ANGULO, 2nd KAULI SEADI, 3rd KEVIN PRITCHARD, 4th MARCELLIO BROWNE

Somewhere I read that Kauli was on a quad board. Quite timely, Mr. Bruce McKee in person left a comment on the Dirk's quads post. Thanks for that.

Remarkable JC photo on the PWA site. I like the caption: Camille Juban moments before it all went very wrong.

And now a funny story.

Last Monday Hookipa was beautiful. After all that shitty (but still fun) windswell, the first head to logo high sets of a proper NW ground swell were hitting the shore. I was having a blast until, unfortunately, I broke my mast. The usual kook stuff: I fell on the inside, the board towards the wave and the mast towards the beach, no time to turn it around, the next wave comes, the tip of the mast gets stuck on the reef and... SNAP. How many times have I done that?
Anyway, since I've done that many times, I knew what to do: take it easy, swim with the current and get in through that little rocky cove downwind of the rocks.
Once I finally got onshore, these two big hawaiian guys fishing on the cliff towards Lanes were shouting me something. They were downwind and I couldn't hear them. I thought they were either making fun of me or bitching about their fishing lines and I ignored them.
Once I got my shit together, I started walking on those grey rocks and DID NOT SEE something.
Now, imagine the scene. I'm on this isolated rocky little cove and I think I'm completely alone. All of a sudden, some of those grey rocks come to life in the form of a huge monk seal that barks furiously at me for having interrupted a fat nap...
Holy shit, did I get scared!
And finally I could hear the voice of the two hawaiian guys laughing:"we told you there was a seal there!".
The animal was probably ten times heavier than me. "OK honey, no worries... I'm going to walk away from you... you keep napping, alright? I'm out of here in no time..."
Anyway, how cool is that you can have encounters like those? I wasn't even pissed off for the mast. I saw a beautiful animal in its natural environment... stoked!

bummer, the audio didn't work...

lil post update. Dave put up a video from yesterday on his blog.
It's the first time I see myself together with the good guys... OMG, what a difference! And thank god I'm on the little 68l...
First weird forward loop is by Luke Siver. Pascal and Keith are so freaking fluid and Keith is always so vertical.

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Oh well, Dave did his webcast anyway. Yesterday five hundred people tuned in and that's quite remarkable, considering how little it was advertised. There's a big market out there... sponsors wake up!

Today I had a sweet double sesh and my arms are happily sore. Here's the first pic of the day. It's horribly blurred, but I was standing leaning against a van without the usual support of the arms of my beach chair... but it's such a nice aerial that I felt like rewarding it anyway... good job Andres.


Second shot and best non blurred shot of the day, Glenster.


Giuliana hits a lip.


Eyal in a beautiful shove-it.


Two busy backloops. Leo Ray.


And Eyal again.


And, just received from an italian tourist in vacation here (thanks Fabrizio), the blog author doing his thing.


That section in front of me looked pretty good, but I forgot that when going upwind you don't go as fast as when going downwind...


Closed out. Oh well, I tried...


Just came back from a great live performance of Makana. He's staying next door. Tomorrow morning I'll burn him a cd of italian songs.
First, I'll better do some stretching though.

maybe I'll do the commentary on today's webcast!

Not sure yet we'll be able to do it, but make sure to tune in to http://www.epicsessions.tv/ around 2.30-3pm hawaiian time...

PWA Cabo Verde single elimination + Hookipa photos and webcast report

How ironic is this.

While epic conditions were once again blessing the PWA contest in Cabo Verde and the only way the internet surfers could follow the event was a TEXT live ticker (by the way, congrats to whoever did it... I like the style), Dave Troup managed to do the first windsurfing webcast ever from Hookipa on epicsessions.tv

PWA organizers would you please finally do something about it?
Or, alternatively, Dave would you please go to Cabo Verde next year instead of coming to Maui?

Here's Dave at work. See? It didn't take that much... a video camera, a computer, a cell phone data connection, a few streaming servers somewhere and some bandwidth. Of course this was just a beta test. It could be better quality but hey... I would have loved watching Cabo Verde like that!


For the records. The car from where he shot from is one of mine. It is now in the history as the car that hosted the first windsurfing live webcast ever...


I took a few pics too. I'll post them and comment about the PWA single elimination results.
This is Taka, clearly sponsored by Naish now.


Keith is still sponsored by himself, instead.


Andres.


Leo Ray.


I saw this shot coming, but I didn't have the time to zoom out. So I had to shoot a bit early in order to have both sailors in the frame. Less zoom and a bit later and it would have been a killer shot.


Can't blame the zoom though. Look how close I can get. Totally digging the rail graphic of this Naish board. Nice and stylish.


And now a short section dedicated to a few creative friends (who I hope have good sense of humor...).

Cookie in a new move called Shampoo.


Elena in a "stick a nice butt out" bottom turn.


Fiona doing a proper water job.


Forgot to comment the PWA results!
Quickly, because I got to go play bass...
1) Kay Lenny almost made the final... shocking! Unbelievable that a 15 year old kid is so competitive already to kick ass like that. Absolutely impressed.
2) A few days ago, I was at the Hot Sails shop and with Tom and Glenn we bet on how Francisco Goya would have done after so long away from competition. Guess what I said... bloody fourth, that's what I said! Forgot what we bet though...
3) Congrats to Kauli and watch out Levi on the double elimination.

Got to go!!!

live Hookipa webcast!!! (+ water shots)

There we go, it's doable.

My friend Dave is doing it today (and maybe tomorrow too) around 2.15pm hawaiian time on http://www.epicsessions.tv/
No audio, but a chat line where you can ask questions and make comments. I might be there too, since I don't think I want to sail in these superwindy supergusty conditions of these days...

In the meantime, here's a couple of shots that Benjamin Thouard took from the water in November.


I remember this next one perfectly. That was a perfect spot for a tight top turn and a killer shot. Problem is that with my poor skill level, I would have probably ended up killing Ben... so I chose a safer (and lamer) lil kick out aerial off the back.
Ben, you should thank me for having saved your life.

what to do when you wake up really early in Maui

6 am canoe paddling hawaiian dutch italian style from giampaolo cammarota on Vimeo.

Pro-less Hookipa

Hookipa, photos from last sunday.

Without the top pros who are in Cabo Verde for the pwa event, let's see some new faces.
Best turn of the day, Frederick Steinbeck.


Dean Christener.


I think I saw this face already...


Patrick Bergeron wave 360.


Mark Angulo keeps trying his thing. Sure enough, he's persistent.


Bernd Roediger.


Julien.


Last, but not least, swedish sailor Ola Helenius with his new self designed and Maui built board.


His daughter wasn't too impressed.


My big respect to his wife Isla, who left the young child alone on the bluff for quite a while. An italian mother would have never done that for the fear that the child would have done something dangerous. Which means that either italian children are more stupid than swedish ones or that italian mothers are more apprehensive than swedish ones...
Look at her: "I think that bloke over there is taking photos of me..."


"I better assume a more composed pose!"


Thanks to his dad Pietro, here's a photo of Francisco Porcella training hard in Punta Preta (what a tough job!). He has been admitted to the top (?) 32 PWA athletes (selected with a mysterious criteria) who will compete starting February 14th.
Not too shabby conditions, uh? Another webcastless event. Another great missed opportunity.


Other photos of him, on Pietro's blog.

Here in Maui everybody seems to be excited about the super windy forecast for this weekend.
For my personal tastes, it's the worse forecast I can think of. Strong, offshore, gusty, squally, short period big windswell pushing you right onto the rocks with a wave on the head every 8-10 seconds... I might well choose to stay out of the water and take photos of the carnage from the bluff.

Ah, if only Santa would bring me some webcast gear...

PS. Beachtelegraph.com linked this quite pragmatic weather forecast site. Here's a few zip codes to play with:
New york: 10001
Los Angeles 90001
Absarokee, Montana 59001
Paia 96779.

PPS. I almost forgot... here's a lil present for all the UK windsurfers. The present being not Robby Swift in a tie of course (who cares about that), but the hot college girl with the union jack in the background. More photos of that party in this post on Sharon's blog. Nice one, Ulli.


PPPS. Someone needs a room in Kuau?

a few waves dedicated to my favorite band

This camera is amazing.

The conditions were far from being as good as they can be (very low tide, the big sets were totally closing out), but nonetheless the little gopro was able to capture some details (how about the sky?) that made it worth it to invest some time in editing a little video.
This time I didn't even have to choose the soundtrack, because while I was editing, radiorock.it passed yet another beautiful Porcupine Tree song and that was it...

a few waves at Kahana from giampaolo cammarota on Vimeo.

Talking about which, I contacted the PT representative and he was kind enough to reply to my emails. He said he had no problem at all with what I was doing with their music and to go ahead and post those two muted videos on youtube again... thanks Andy!
This post is dedicated to him and to the band.
And if you guys liked the song, check out this acoustic version. Love it.

PS. As that cymbal hit at the end of the video clearly tells, the song goes on. The total duration time is 5.26 and it really broke my heart to have to cut it short... It belongs to the album Fear of a blank planet. If you're new to PT and would like to check them out, I'd recommend to buy Stupid Dream. If you like it, then buy Coma Divine. If you like that too, you're hooked and you will buy them all...
PPS. I'm having trouble at visualizing the video with Mozilla, but IE works fine. Let me know if you guys had problems.

----------lil post update------------
Blog reader Sergey, once again, considered the video good enough to kindly post process it for me. Here's the result. I feel like leaving the original Vimeo one up, so that you guys can check the difference and also because I noticed that someone is leaving comments there too. Thanks to Sergey and to the ones who left the comments. Well, thanks to all blog readers too for reading this blog.

Please click here to get the latest Flash Player needed to see this video

Another day, another mount.

Here's my favorite by far so far: right above the boom shooting towards the clue on the wave riding side.


Two are the reasons that make this the king of the mounts, both related to the fact that the mount can turn around the mast:
1) even if you're at the end of your ride right in front of the rocks and you HAVE to jibe and don't have time to stop the video, it's no problem because you can turn the camera towards you later, stop the video and turn it on the other side again.
2) you can shoot somebody else

Here's a short clip that shows an example of point 2.

ops! from giampaolo cammarota on Vimeo.

Oh yes, handling the camera with the front hand while hooked in the harness in gusty wind considerably increments the chances of catapults... Nico is still laughing.

I got a bunch of other clips, you can check'em out on my Vimeo page.
One of them shows particularly well the so called "accordian" effect of the Superfreaks. Here's what I was compelled to write after seeing it.

When a gust hits you, part of the initial gust's energy is absorbed by the sail to change its shape from flat to fat. That's why the transition from a lull to a gust on a Superfreak is smooth...

Similarly, the transition from gust to lull is also smooth, because the sail continues to deliver a little bit of power while changing its shape from fat to flat.

Now, imagine an ideal world in which the wind blows perfectly steady. No need for a Superfreak, you'd think.
Wrong. More precisely, partially wrong.
Sure, in light steady wind and flat water, no need for gust absorbing capabilities.
But in strong steady wind (is there really such a thing?) -let's say 20 knots and up- the water has chops. And chops change the course of your board with a continuous series of micro right-left up-down deviations that translate into the sail just like gusts. A continuous series of micro gusts, ALL of which smoothly absorbed by a Superfreak.

And let's go back to the light wind for a second. I'm not a big sails kind of guy, but a lot of people on the HSM forum swears that the SF excells also in super light wind conditions. Not too difficult to believe if you compare the weight of a SF ultralight 9.0 (for example) to the one of a Neil Pryde (kudos to them for being one of the very few sails company that publishes one of the most important characteristics of a sail: its weight!) V8 of the same size: 4.23 Kg vs 6.10 Kg. Almost 2 kilos lighter!!!
Do you guys understand the enormity of the difference? I'm afraid not.

This photo is from the first of the Kona days. Not too big, not too scary, not too windy. Perfect for my first time at Lanes with the Kona.


Oh well, it was a lot of fun at Hookipa today. Wind up and down with the squalls, mostly on the light side and waves on the rise with some head high plus sets. Bit sectioning and disorganized, since there's two swells overlapping. The big sets were the best.
On one of them I went down on a top turn and got worked over the falls with the back foot stuck in the footstrep. That terrible moment again... this time was even worse because I had the time to think to Jeff Henderson (broken foot) and John Skye latest footstrap injuries (good luck to both).
Fortunately (how long is the good luck going to last?), I didn't break anything, but my right knee (the good one) got a nice twist. I kept happily sailing but, as usual, tonight it hurts and I'm giving it Ibuprofen and frozen peas...
As usual, tomorrow morning is going to be worse. And that might mean a few days out of the water. As usual, that happens at the start of a week that should be really good for wave sailing.
Oh well, as usual it could have been sooooo much worse.
As usual, I'm stoked.

PS. Let's see who's the first one that guesses what happened in the "camera in hand" clip.