Aqui' esta' el senor Ordonez going over a breaking wave standing up on his red 12 footer at Hookipa on March 20. It doesn't look easy? It's not!
Sean, thanks for sharing your knowledge and enthusiasm out there yesterday.

I just received an email from Sean. Here's what he says:
"Giampaolo, it was a pleasure sharing a great moment! Awesome waves .I haven't seen Lanes break that good in a long time. We scored.!"

See? I wasn't dreaming. And even if I was, it's the feeling that counts...

Epic.

What a great session I just had!
I went out standing up with the paddle on my 12.6 at Lanes. It was my first time standup-paddling there. I always surf the more mellow Kanaha, instead. When I got out there were like 5 surfers on the peak of the left. So I had to stay deeper inside. I cought a few big ones, but they ended up in close outs. After a while, the surfers left and I was left alone. I moved on the peak and I had a few incredible rides. The waves were absolutely glassy. The clouds and the whole sky were of a tone of grey that looked almost fake... It was perfection! Absolute beauty.
Shortly I was joined by Sean Ordonez, who was standup-paddling too.
"Man, I saw you catching some good ones", he said.

I mean, let's sit down for a moment and think.

Five years ago, before moving to Maui I was having a "normal" life. I had a regular job, I lived in a big town and, pretty much, I didn't really like it. To escape my inner discomfort, I did as often as I could one of the things that I loved most: windsurfing. It was like breathing for me.
Of course, I was reading the windsurfing magazines and I was dreaming about how great it would be to do the life that people like Sean were doing. I don't mean the contests and the photos in the magazines (which, by the way, now I have too :)). I mean their life always in the ocean, their deep knowledge of it.
Five years later, here I am. Catching waves in epic conditions on the reef of Lanes in Maui, Hawaii.
And Sean Ordonez comes out of nowhere to tell me with a big friendly smile:""Man, I saw you catching some good ones"...
You got to be fucking kidding me!!!
When I got out of the water I was so high on the stoke... I'm still shaking at home.
And if I close my eyes now, guess what I see? I see the lines... and if you're a surfer, you know what I'm talking about...
So, since writing would get a bit tricky with my eyes shut, it's time to say goodbye to you guys. I just saw a big set coming...

Micio is not convinced by that fin... He's quite technical to be a cat!

What the hell is that?!?

I just installed a sw that counts the people that connects to this blog and gives me all kinds of statistics (check yourself at the very bottom, they are public). The first 4 people that visited this page were from: Maui (of course), Italy (and you can expect that too), France (!), Australia (!!).
It shocked me. In a pleasent way, of course.
I don't exactly know why I like to post these photos on this blog. I like sharing, of course. And my narcissism plays a big role too (see the photo with the boa below...). But there's something else that I still have to figure out... I'll let you know, eventually.
Anyway, having guests from all over the world feels really cool and motivates me to post more. So here we go.

The sunset at Hookipa today was da kine. After so much rain, the air was incredibly clean and Molokai looked the closest it ever looked. I also noticed some resemblance with the contour of the island of Capri. Considering that the West Maui Mountain looks like the Vesuvio, it was quite trippy to see them lined up... also because from the window of my parents' house in Napoli, the are opposite to each other!

Ok, since I just got the writing going, I'm going to tell you the close encounter I had yesterday. After a first surf session at Hookipa, I went to Kanaha and did some stand up surfing too. Then it got windy and I replaced the paddle with a 5.5 sail. For more than an hour I was ablsolutely alone out there. Actually, that's not true. A phantasmagoria of whales was going off around me. I went to say hi and I ran into a huge mother with her calf. The calf was probably learning how to jump and seemed to enjoy it a lot. The mom was just cruising making sure that everything was ok. At one moment I was at about 20-30 yards but they were not scared at all... the baby kept on jumping. For me it was an intense moment of communion with nature.

Yes, I like living in Maui, can you tell?

This is Lock. You can tell he has a paddle by the wake on the face of the wave (and by the huge board).

Scott. (funny, in napolitan dialect, scott means "it burns"...)

Welcome to Hawaii.

This guy can claim he hit the lip.

Maxi pushes hard on the back foot.

Nothing wrong with this turn.

Looks like the end of it. But it's only the end of the part that I can take photos of. It actually lasted for one more hour with the clouds and the water changing colors in a in amazingly beautiful way. Just trust me on that one.

I saw Dave Kalama do incredible turns on that huge board. It takes a great surfer to do that.

Frontside snap. The point, March 20.

This great photo was taken at Lanes on March 20. Unknown standupper.

Dude, you better find better ways to pick up girls... You could have killed her!!! What the hell were you thinking???

Nice right at the point on March 20.

The two friends I made this show for laughed pretty hard. Let's see if somebody on the net laughs too...
Too bad the photographer didn't catch the moment in which I farted and made the boa feathers fly...
PS. The lady in the picture is watching the best part.

Little sunday night posting session, after a week of incredibly calm (wind and wave-wise) week. I had to go back to tuesday March 7th to find some action...
Matt Pritchard tries a goiter. Will he land it?

Robby jibes on a wave and then rides it upwind staying on the back side of the sail.
Piece of cake...

Robby hides his board in the wave

Hey, I think that's me!
I mean, the one in the water...

I know, this photo is shot too high, you can't really see how big the wave is, but I still think it's blog worthy. Because you can see a fairly long section of the lip which has just been flattened by the slashing board. Follow me: see the wake of the board?... see the impact zone?... and then there's like three-four feet of untouched lip (a little aerial) and then... there it is! Like a knife on butter.
Kauli, serving morning breakfast.

Whale watch cruise. I like the light in this photo. And the absence of the disgusting human presence. Sorry about those horrible images below, I'm just trying to stimulate thinking...

Last sunday I went on a whale watch cruise (thanks to Nancy and Jamie for the free tickets). Whales were nice, but I usually see them from way closer when I go longboard sailing... and I'm alone in perfect silence... much better!
So I was more interested in noticing how unhealthy most of the mainland tourists are. What's really shocking for me, is that they have no idea of how bad they eat and they think it's normal to be so fat. Of course, everbody else around is!
The food industry in the States is powerful. They make billions selling incredibly unhealthy food and at the same time they generate business for the farmaceutical and medical industries, to which, I suspect, they are linked.
The Americans are incredibly naive in believing everything that is shown on the tv commercials. Information about eating and living ealthy are not shown on tv, but are available on the internet. A simple google query would be enough to open their eyes. So, they have their part of fault too.
The human species is supposed to be the most intelligent on Earth. It depends on the definitions of intelligence, I guess. Killing yourself by eating shitty food doesn't sound too smart too me...
We are by far the species that behaves in the most unnatural way (actually, the only one!). That's why the more people I know the more I like animals...
And here I'm just talking about eating. So many other things we do are totally unnatural. Think about it...
Feel free to post a comment with an example of an human unnatural behavior.

Perfect shoes to go on a whale watch cruise...?? At least these guys were not obese, like the 80% of the other tourists.

Whale watch cruise. The whales were everywhere. Even onboard...

Ulli and Michelle tandem surfing on my 12.6
"Get off the board, wife!"

Nice sarong passes by at Puamana. Blogged!

Is he having fun or what?

Mattia backloop again on Tuesday Mar 7

Mattia backloop at Hookipa on Monday Mar 6

Sunday afternoon photo shooting at Launiupoko. For me, one of the most fun things to do. Just like the current blog posting session.
This is the bathroom's artwork. How beautiful is it?
Look at that board! Look at the sun on the sunny side!
Look at that... Hey, there's a little happy detail that I just found in the painting. Let's see who sees it first and posts a comment.

Launiupoko Kodak moments. How about this one?
BTW: my new camera is really a Kodak.

or this one?

or this one?

The focus on the rock made this one interesting.

Little ripper goes right.

Little ripper goes over a wave hawaiian style.

Little ripper does a board 180 taking off fin first. How good is he going to be when he grows up?!?

Cute. So cute!

Big guys ride big boards.

What is this tank sailing on? Crinkled tin foil? A glacier? Anything else?

That's another kind of surfer you can see getting in the water on a sunday afternoon at Launiupoko. I love this guy! I'm gonna look just like him one day!! I promise!!!

PS No "you look like him already" kind of comments allowed on this one...

Is there anyone one out there that would still believe me if I said that the only reason I took this one is because of the board?
Probably there has never been...

Here it is in action...
GEMINI CHIPPERS CRIPPERS!

Kisses from Maui to everybody out there on the net.
Oh, of course when I say everybody I mean all the girls!

There's a simmetry with the palm trees and the barbeque that I like in this one.

These feet are from Leeds. No wonder they look happy in those confortable slippers in warm Hawaii, instead of heavy shoes in rainy UK...
Hey, if anyone from Leeds gets to read this, you are kindly requested to post a comment with your address. We'll send you a postcard from Hawaii. No kidding. And no cheating!

more camera test... a set from the NE hits the point at Hookipa. Quite some energy in it... I chose a more mellow session in the harbor with my new 7.0. The more I ride it, the more I like it... the board and that wave!

OK, I'm back. I'm testing a new camera. I took this one at Kanaha. Check that huge right at Uppers right between the two bathrooms...