just a boring rainy day on the north shore... part one

What a spectacular day I had!

Too late to edit all the clips. I'm going to just load this part one (5 min).
It's the storyboard of the day. The action shots will follow.
Stay tuned and let me know if you liked it.

PS In bed without shower again... got to be true to myself!


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Big and messy or small and glassy?

Boy, it's big and messy out there tonight.

How do I know? No, no need for buoys this time... I can hear it!
I love living a hundred yards from the ocean. If there's a big swell, I can hear it in bed.
And if it's a clean one, I can hear the waves in the sets and count the seconds between them. Every second after 10 gets me more excited. Occasionally, around 16 I have an erection. At 20, an orgasm.

Nothing like that tonight. It's a loud continuos white noise. And that means that it's messy and onshore. Maybe tomorrow could be a west side kind of day.
Here's a post of a few months ago. I think it was the first video post of this blog. I want to link it again hoping it will bring good luck...

This morning, instead it was small and incredibly glassy. I just love glassy waves, even more than light offshore. And they're so rare in Maui that it looks like another place. This morning it was like California, with a way warmer and cleaner water...
I can't believe how many people I saw getting tiny little barrels (not me, of course). So the question is: do glassy waves make the barrel more the waves with some texture on it?
I don't know. But I know the answer to the question in the title... small and glassy!

This guy is coming out of one.


See how glassy it was? Not for long though. That is the approaching windline of the onshore wind that messed everything up. Thank god I had surfed already... good timing!

miscellaneous

Below a few assorted pictures, but first an update on how Big Blue feels now that it's glassed. I sailed Hookipa today with very light wind and I had a lot of fun.
I also tryed to test an old Drops Flyer 87 liters (anyone ever owned one?) that a shop is selling for cheap. But the wind wasn't really enough for that. In other words, in that wind (10-12 knots? but I never owned a wind meter, so I just guess) it is defenitely more fun (for me!) to be on a longboard. And that's reassuring. It means that I'm not wasting my time with all these experiments...

One extremely important thing I forgot to mention is that being so light, I can easily carry Big Blue with the sail attached to it on top my head. And that makes for only one trip from the car to the beach and not two like with the 12.6... but this is nothing.
The real kick is that because of this, I CAN LAUNCH FROM HOOKIPA! I can't really launch the 12.6 there, specially if it's kind of big and it's high tide. With the 12.6, in fact, I grab the tail and push the board in the water with the front of it dragging on the sand. Can you imagine what one of nastiest shore break of the world would do to me?
Oh, by the way, I just want to mention that lately I've been worked by the shore break at Kanaha... and that is something I shouldn't talk about...
So, again, after three years I can finally do longboard sailing at Hookipa. This is extremely cool. Do you know how many 10-12 knots days there are in which the waves aren't quite big enough for Kanaha and Hookipa (or Lanes if too many surfers are out) would be a lot of fun? Will be, from now on!

And let's not forget that a robust board is another conditio sine qua non to be able to sail Hookipa.
Since the waves are quite faster than Kanaha where I usually longboard sail, in fact, today I had at least three serious wipeouts, one of which ended with a floating over the rocks action (but coming out of them with no scratches). Without the fiberglass, I would have some pieces of foam missing from the bottom of the board, for sure.

Other than this, the board didn't change much. I can confirm that it didn't get any faster. It somehow feels better though. And it's still faster than a slogging windsurfer. Jeff said on the SF's forum:"short don't glide, just plane physics...."
It must be true, I add.

Ok, enough of that, let's post some pics.
This is Mike Eskimo standing up thru the palm leaves this morning at Ho'o.


This is a good way to see things from a different perspective.


I had forgot a small papaya from Sharon's garden in a plastic bag (thank god) in my backpack for a few days. I looked quite mushy and over ripe, and I almost threw it away. It smelled good though, so I decided to give it a bite. The best papaya ever. It was like a mousse.
Even the flies liked it. Click on the photo and check the lines in their wings. Like sail panels...

Lano, that's for us...


If you would ask any Hookipa locals (me included) how were the waves today, they would say:"small". But looking at this photo... not THAT small!


And even if it was, this guy is not looking for excuses not to rip.


My slippah is still firmly attached.


Here's a photo I didn't take (too gross), but I'll describe it instead (even grosser).
I'm too lazy to go and check in this same blog when I broke the bottle of oil behind the range, but it was a while ago.
Yesterday, finally, I found the time and the courage to clean up. As I easily predicted a few bugs must have enjoyed the abundant food, but some of them evidently started the ice skating action without being particularly good at that and without wearing a helmet...
I found a few dead bodies, some of them still slowly spinning, but all of them with a fat belley and a big smile of their faces...

Mmmm... anything else? Oh yes, forecast.
Tough one, because a low very close to the island is about to develop. There are a few NW swells on their way (thursday the first one), but the wind could turn onshore and turn everything messy. Or maybe it's going to be west side longboard sailing action...
And from the 6 days modelled weather maps it looks like we should get a big NW swell about 10 days from now. Let's say Thursday again, next week.

So long.

sick!

That's what I thought when I saw this photo of Jeff riding a wave fin first on his longboard and sail.
I have to post this!
Thanks to Wardog that posted it on the Superfreak forum.
As I said over there, I do this longboard sailing for almost three years now, and I haven't a clue of how to do that.

That's sick, Jeff!
I haven't a clue, but I'll try it tomorrow...

Big Blue gets glassed!

Here I am finally with some feedbacks on the blue board, which I called Big Blue.
When I used to be an engineer working in the IT industry, Big Blue was the nickname of the IBM corporation. It still is, I guess. Not for me anymore... now it's a board! Much cooler.

I'm just going to list a few facts:

1) the floatation is amazing. I can confortably uphaul (maybe with the water covering the top of my feet) and that's remarkable for a 9.6 surfboard.

2) it turns a lot. I can cutback on the wave from downwind to upwind and to downwind again in very little time and space.

3) it's really strong. I had a few nasty wipeouts and thanks to the two wooden stringers the only damages were bumps in the foam. Now, if the bumps are on the top, who cares. But it was starting to get too many bumps on the rails and on the bottom. Hopefully the fiberglass will solve this problem.

4) it's a bit too light. That one day I went out at Hookipa with big waves it was bouncing too much on the chops on the face of the wave. Hopefully the increased weight of the glassed bottom will fix this too.

5) it's painfully slow. On the wave it's fine. It's when you're just sailing that it gives you the feeling that it's dragging water instead of gliding on it (like the 12.6 does). You can even hear it!
That is the main reason for which I decided to glass the bottom. I also shaped it so that the rails are quite harder in the tail section. I hope that the new water lines will help better release the water when sailing and allow the glide (the added weight should help too).
Let's not forget that this is a board designed to be a beginner/intermediate surfboard. And for that purpose it does an excellent job.
I hope that the harder rails will also add a little more grip in the turns without penalizing too much the smoothness.
I also increased the rocker in the tail.

6) one day I sailed it in conditions in which most of the people were planing on their big boards and big sails (15 knots maybe?). Well, maybe it was because it was the fifth consecutive day of test and I was feeling the need of a little variety... but, even though I love the feeling of not having the feet stuck in the footstraps, I wished I had a windsurf board instead. Again, just because it would have been a different feel. Even though Big Blue turns a lot, the turns will never be as radical as the ones you can achieve when you have footstraps and you can go for the lip and hopefully catch a little air.
In other words, in addition to Big Blue it will still be nice to have the option to choose a good 85 liter wave board for that kind of wind. I will keep looking for an affordable one of those.
Under 15 knots... it's not even a question: longboards rule!

So.
Today I glassed the bottom. First time ever. It was a lot of fun and here's three little videos that show the whole process.
I know I should wait more for the resin to harden, but I already know that if tomorrow there will be the right conditions I won't resist the temptation to try it. I just can't wait! This is one of the most exciting things I have ever done. Especially reshaping the tail was exhilarating. I felt like Michelangelo giving life to one of his masterpieces. So extremely creative.

In the meantime, enjoy the videos and... thanks to the camerawoman! I was so focused on the job that I missed the more on/moron joke...


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Check this out

That was the subject of the email I sent to Jeff tonight.
And this was the content.

Some sets were mast high at Hookipa... I carefully avoided them.
Jeez, it was beautiful out there.
And then I sailed Kanaha at sunset. Just as beautiful.
Jeff, thanks again for getting me into this longboard sailing thing. I'm really digging it.

PS I'm afraid I buckled your strapped blue board... SORRY about that!

And these are the photos that I attached.









Tomorrow's forecast is 7 to 10 feet waves and 7-10 mph wind. It's gonna be longboard sailing paradise again.

Do you understand why I'm digging it?

respect

I was going to add it to the following post, but it deserves its own post.
This is unbelievable.

Lots of stuff

Let's see what we got here.

Let's start with a few videos from last Sunday morning (what a day it was!).
It was really cool to watch surfers and canoe paddlers having fun in Kahului harbor. I call the harbor a secret spot, but it isn't. It is extremely underrated though and, damn, I should keep this for me... but I'm such a nice guy!


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When you capsize than you got to scoop the water out...


As you can easily imagine, the waves outside the harbor were slightly bigger...
Here's a tow surfer on a board with a foil.


An easy way to find out what the hell I'm talking about is to check this video.
Nothing major, just average stuff... just stuff that Laird does... you know, it takes a lot of work to have a lot of fun!

I don't like jet skis, but riding a wave with that thing must really be a lot of fun.
The first time I saw Jaws in 2001, the only people out were Laird and Dave Kalama (can you imagine now?), testing their foil boards for the first time there. Nobody on the cliff had never seen anything like that and it looked like the surfers were flying over the waves without touching them. Like some birds do.
Quite trippy.

And, last but not least, here's a photo of the boards of the longboard sailing test.


The first blue one is my new 9.6. The other small blue one belongs to little Bernd (10 years old) and for him it's kind of a longboard, I guess. All the other boards (pretty much all the longboard sailing boards of the island) are around 12 feet long.
Here's my beauty. Did I do a damn good job with the mast track or what?


There is only one tool in Maui that could have allowed such a good job. And that is Ulli's router. That's why I don't buy one! ... thanks brah!
This is the website where you can find the board. I strongly recommend to watch the video.

I would like to write something about it, but it's now time to go to sleep. The waves are big, I got to go surf.
I just wish I had a video of the turns I was achieving this morning with my 5.5 in super light wind... no words would be necessary.

I'll leave you with a statement and a question:
Statement: I can turn my 9.6 more than my 8.0 windsurf wave board.
Question: why do you think is that?
Post a comment with an answer. The first correct answer will deserve a good job! mention on this blog.

PWA Maui 06 final heat

Finally I found the time to put together the clips of the final of the PWA contest.
I let you guys watch it without written comments, since I actually comment it live from the beach. I asked the head judge to replace me for the final so that I could film it for you guys.


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This is the end of this long Aloha Classic + Pwa report. There's two more things I want to mention.

1) My favorite moment of the contest happened during the Aloha Classic Open Men contest. There was a super close heat between Jesse Brown (who ended up winning the category) and Nat Gill. Both Paia boys, both very good sailors. They came up to the judges tower and sat on the guardrail waiting for the result. Jesse won (split decision: 3-2) and when the speaker announced it they shook hands, stood up and left. Not a sign of disapprovement on Nat's face. He didn't want to check the judges' sheets, like other sailors did (it is allowed to do so). He just walked away serene, absolutely no drama at all.
Good job Nat, that was very cool.

2) I think what I did is the best journalistic report of a windsurfing contest ever done. It probably isn't. But it feels like it. And that is very cool.

PWA Maui day 8

Better conditions today with some nice sets coming thru.
The whole losers bracket was run and there were some nice, really nice heats.
Levi against Polakow was my favorite.
But it's too late for a detailed report tonight. I filmed all the waves of the final and I will post it at my earliest convenience.

I just want to mention a few things:
1) Angulo won the contest (this time officially), Polakow was second, K. Pritchard third and Levi fourth.
2) K. Pritchard won the wave world cup crown, Angulo second and Kauli third.
3) Iballa Moreno won the women contest AND the wave world cup.
4) The pussy factor at the party at Charley's was extreeemely high.

Why am I in bed at 10pm then?
Because right after the end of the contest (5pm) I called Jeff to see if they were still testing the longboards. "We're done", he said, "but sails and boards are still on the grass by the beach. You're welcome to come and pick whatever you want".
I got there at 5.20. Light wind, small waves at upper Kanaha.
Roughly 30 minutes of safe sailing before dark, I estimated. Clearly I picked up my new foamy 9.6.
Fun. Very fun. It had a too small fin that made the tail too lose, but I had a lot of fun. 30 minutes are not enough to come up with a detailed description, but here are my very first impressions:
1) impressive floatation for a 9.6. I could uphaul confortably enough.
2) very fun upwind wave-sailing
3) a bit akward downwind wave-sailing. But that could be the small fin and the weird messy waves of upper Kanaha.
4) it feels too light. It feels like it would bounce too much on the chops of a big wave. If this impression is confirmed, I may decide to make it heavier by glassing it with fiberglass.

In summary, it's a big step closer to my perfect board, but I don't think it's quite it. Disappointed? You got to be kidding me... I'm stoked! 'Cause I got more information now!
It's not about HAVING the perfect board. It's about dreaming of it.
I dream about designing, shaping and glassing my perfect board. It may take years, it may never happen, the board may suck... doesn't matter. I'm already stoked now...

PS Tomorrow there might be some perfect conditions for longboard sailing and the boards are still all there, that's why I want to go to sleep early...
Hangovers suck. I'm so over them! Life in Maui is too beautiful to be hungover...

PWA Maui day 7

The wind got back and we were able to run the whole event, men and women.

Actually, the head judge said that if tomorrow it's windy enough, we will run the losers bracket of the men's board. But at the same time tonight they announced the winners, so that's a little confusing... because usually the winner of the losers brackets gets another chance to challange the winner of the winners... oh jesus, too complicated.

Let's get to what happened today.
We started quite early with the first heat in the water by 9.45am.
The wind called for sails around 5.0 and the waves were not the best that Hookipa can offer, but still...

Not many surprises during the event. Here's the only two.
Kauli got eliminated in his second heat by Kai Katchadorian and his good friend Ricardo Campello. And he had to give up his ambitions for the wave world cup title.
Daida Moreno sailed a heat like I have never seen her sailing (that bad, I mean) and got kicked out too. Her sister Iballa won the women, Karin Jaggi second and Junko Nagoshi third.

The final of the men was between the four sailors that had impressed me most: Polakow, Siver, Angulo and K. Pritchard. A classic. Unfortunately the conditions weren't classic at all and I think that Polakow was the one that was most penalized by them. He just loves big waves. He's good at spotting and ripping the best wave of a big, long period swell. Today's swell period was 10 seconds...
So, he got fourth. And he was the only one that everybody agreed on.
The other three were pretty damn close. Not all the judges agreed and after the tabulation of the marks Josh Angulo was first, Pritchard second and Levi third.
As you can see from my sheet below, I had Pritchard winning. I gave him a 7.5 for a one foot aerial off the lip. It was the only move he did on that wave and I've been pondering if I judged it too high, seen the final result. I had to go see the guidelines again. Even though it says that waves with more turns should be judged better than waves with only one big move, it also says that quality should score more than quantity. And that was a quality move for me, so I still think it deserved that mark.
More results one the PWA site.


By the way, those are Robby Swift's fingers, not mine.
And this is the hand of one of the judges. But I took the photo because of that huge ring!


Here's the winner, probably thanking Jesus...


I could only take a few videos during pee breaks. Here's a nice goiter by the frenchman Thomas Traversa.


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Here's one of Angulo's one hand aerials during the semi-final. The voice of the announcer belongs to Jace Panebianco that today told me that he likes my blog... thanks Jace!


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Remember all those 1s in the sheet? That's when a sailor kicks out of a wave, like Angulo does in the following video. But also check what Levi can do on a poor looking wave like that. Two clean and tweaked aerials. Quite impressive.


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Last, but not least, a short interview with one of the nicest guys around: Francisco Goya.


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That's all folks! No wait. THE MOST IMPORTANT THING!!!
My friends didn't do the longboard sailing test today.... thank god. Eventually they'll do it tomorrow. I'm still supposed to be judging, but... if the wind is too light for the contest, maybe I can ask for a half day off...

PWA Maui day 6

Boring quick update.
Light wind again, no contest. Good surfing in the morning and very fun longboard sailing at Lanes in the afternoon. In between, the sandwich from Mana food was a good too.
Tomorrow light trades are forecasted and they're all excited because they hope they can run the contest.
I'm a lot less excited for the following two reasons:
1) The weather map tonight doesn't look that good to me. But it's Maui, you never know...
2) I have finished my new 9.6 and some friends are going to test it together with my 12.6 and a bunch of other longboards. Why am I not excited about this? Because I'm gonna miss it!
Damn!

Maybe something will happen and they will postpone the test to Saturday...

PWA Maui day 5

Super quick post just to let you know that there was no wind at all today.
That means that I glued both mast and fin boxes in my 9.6. I might even be able to sail it on Thursday... yes!!!
If you don't understand why I'm so excited, read my post about longboard sailing on this Hot Sails Maui forum topic.
Gotta go!

60 and ripping

PWA Maui day 4. Even less wind than yesterday... but the waves were bigger though!
I surfed in the morning on the blue board and it was great fun.
Now, does getting paid to surf make me a pro surfer?

Here, get this little interview to a man that has his priorities in life very clear... remember that 60 years old Japanese guy who advanced one heat in the Aloha Classic Grand Masters (over 45) category? Let's see what he has to say.

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He moved in Maui in '88 at 42. I moved in Maui in '01 at 38. I go to sleep and wake up early, I eat healthy food, I do a lot of exercise... Hey, I may be even healthier than him when I'm 60! Nah, that's pretty hard to beat. We'll see... I'll post a photo of myself on this blog in 2023.
In the meantime, arigato to Yoshi. I hope some people will start doing more exercise and eat healthier after having seen this great little video.

Changing completely subject, I bought a bottle of olive oil yesterday and I put it... there. Evidently, I broke the bottle in the process, but I didn't notice!
Just like you, I thought:"wait a moment, where did all the rest of the oil go? Than I noticed that there's a small crack in the bottle all the way to the bottom.
Now, under that thing there's the range. Where do you think all that oil went? Exactly, behind the range. And it's a gas range (thank god!). And that means that probably I will have to disconnect it from the gas pipe to clean up. And that means that with the board project and the PWA event till Friday, MAYBE I'll clean up this weekend. No wait, there's gonna be waves! I don't know when I'm gonna clean up, but I know for sure that soon is going to be cockroach central down here...
They're gonna be ice skating all over the kitchen floor with their stomach full and their feet lubed by my olive oil...


PS. It's the international blog appreciation day. If you like this blog, please send an email to some of your friends that you think may like it and ask them to do the same if they liked it. I'm not trying to sell anything (...yet!). Just sharing the good vibe and trying to be inspirational. My little contribution to a better world.

PWA Maui day 3

Light wind again.
I had another great working day being paid to hang out at the beach and wait for the conditions to improve. I surfed and sailed on the longboard pretty much all day.
Sharon showed up at sunset and took this little video.


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Oh, let me add something about the mysterious board.
It's a 9.6 surfboard made of foam. It's like a beginner board, but the foam is a special kind that doesn't suck water at all. And it's pretty hard to be foam. It even has two 1 inch thick wooden stringers that make it remarkably strong!
I tried it surfing and I was pretty happy about it. The rails are quite soft and the tail tends to slide if the section is steep, but it's also because it still has a plastic small fin. I hope a good fin with a couple of small side fins will fix the problem. Or maybe I could go for a two fins solution, like Kauli's boards. Tomorrow I'll ask his opinion...
What really impressed me is the flotation. The density of the foam and the light weight makes it really floty. I could stand up on it in flat water. A bit wobbly, but not sinking. Can't do that on regular 9.6... like, not even remotely!
I'm going to put a mast box in that board and sail it on waves in light wind. Pretty much what I already do with my 12.6. But it's going to be a 9.6! And that means three feet less of board to turn!!
I'm really, really excited. I just can't wait!
I'm afraid I will have to build a little wooden box where to make the mast box sit, because the two stringers are like 4 inches apart.
So, this is a warning for Ulli. I'll need your help, man. Your tools and your knowledge will play a key role in this project. I can call the board Ulli, if you want...
Next weekend, brah... if there's no surf, of course!
Here's a shot of the board in action. Pretty much the first wave I caught... I can so see a sail on that board!


I like this board so much that I almost look like I'm having sex with it!
Ulli, I wouldn't let me call it Ulli if I were you...

PWA Maui day 2

Not much to post today, because the wind was too light and there was no competition. We'll try again tomorrow, but the forecast is not good.

I bought the board that could become the board of my dreams. The very first water test was good. I have some work to do, though. I think it's gonna work.
No worries, it's all going to be documented on this blog.

I'm cooking pasta with calamari tonight.

PWA Maui 06 - first day

'Zup everybody!

The pro event started and it was quite a good day. It started late (12.30) because they had to do the registrations and almost all the 16 heats of the Men's first round were held.
The conditions were pretty good, considering the forecast, with light wind and nice waves. Only two waves counting plus overall impression.
Talking about which, you may find interesting to take a look at the PWA judging guidelines hereafter. I strongly recommend to click on the photo if you really want to read that...




It was really a pleasure and a honor to be judging these incredibly good sailors. Judging is not easy, but, just like anything else, the more you do it, the better you do it. I was very focused on the heats and I wasn't really listening to who advanced. I wasn't even calculating the totals on my sheet (we got a couple of sweet ladies that do that for us) and so I don't have many results to mention.
You can check all the heat by heat results on the PWA website. Click the elimination ladder.

Here are my impressions, instead.
Levi and the Pritchards did really good in their heats, but what really impressed me was yet another one of those one hand aerial that Angulo did in the warmup. He landed a little too close to the wave and he had a heavy logo high waterfall coming down on his sail and he just hung in there with one hand on the boom. It looked like he had a third invisible hand. Impressive.
Unfortunately, I didn't filmed that. But I filmed a bunch of other stuff during the warmup. Enjoy the color of the water, the waves, the sun and the action.

Oh, I almost forgot. Little Kai Lenny passed a heat with Siver (who won it), John Skye and Kevin Ponitchera. As I said somewhere else in this blog a 14 years old doesn't clearly have the muscles and the power of a full grown man. Well, he selected the three biggest waves of the heat and managed to advance. Now, is that normal? This guy is going to kill them all one day...

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What was it? The "interviewing sexy windsurfers" campaign? The questions on the demand section? Ahah... I don't know about you guys, but I'm having a lot of fun doing this.
I park my car at Hookipa early in the morning, I drink my hot chocolate (I'm digging the hot chocolate instead of the coffee in the morning. They have a decent one at the 76 gas station in Paia. One dollar, 14 cents) and I look in the parking for my victims.
Let's see who is worth to end up on the blog...
I almost had the scoop of the century this morning. I was about to interview Robby Naish's dog, but the contest was about to start and I couldn't. Maybe tomorrow, if they show up again. Any questions for Robby's dog?
In the meantime, enjoy the following...

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See you guys tomorrow. Pray for the wind.
What? It's 7.20 pm and I'm done already. I don't have any excuse not to go out tonight! Damit!

Aloha Classic day 4

Uh, what another tough day at the beach!

Conditions: light wind (best three waves, no jumps) and shoulder to sometimes a little overhead high waves.
The first in the water were the Juniors (under 18). Kai Lanny won the final against the Brazilian phenomen Brausino, who is known for his crazy double forward loops. Not enough wind for those and Kai just killed it with an extremely good wave selection. And he's only 14!
Here's what he has to say.

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Was I shooting right into the sun or what? Hey, you learn by mistakes right? Tomorrow I'll try to remember that...
It was than time for the final of the Open Men division: Jesse Brown and Josh Stone. Here are all the 9 waves ridden in the 12 minutes heat.

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And here's what the winner has to say.

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Here's Pietro explaining Jesse why they call him "downtown" Brown.

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The menehune division (under 13) was won by Connor Baxter and Paulina Pease won the Junior women.
The day was closed by a supersession with all sailors (even the pros) in the water trying to boost the best air manouvres in twenty minutes. Josh Angulo, evidently arrived in Maui, did one of his sick one hand aerials and won a coupon for an interisland ticket.

That was the end of the Aloha Classic, a great "family oriented" event keeping up with its name and history. Good job to the organizers, competitors and especially the judges... and especially me!

Tomorrow the PWA pro event will start and it's going to be a different music (I'll be judging again, by the way). Less about the fun, more about winning. Which I don't necessarily like as a vibe, but the level of the sailors is going to be the highest available on this planet.

I would love to make my own weather forecast, but my main mid term forecast tool is not working and I have to stick to what Pat Caldwell says (please, let's not even mention sites like Windguru on this blog...). And what he says is not so good. There might be still some light wind tomorrow, but then it should become really light and from the south over the weekend. A decent north swell should arrive on Tuesday when the wind is forecasted to be from SW. I wonder if there will be good conditions at Lanes with the Kona. That would be interesting to watch if they will compete there...
I think they got time till Nov 17, which is next Friday, so everything can happen.

I have no clue who is going to win it. I can only throw there the usual names: Kauli, Polakow, Levi, the Pritchards, Angulo. I really hope that there will be some good conditions at the end of next week, because these guys rip. Watch out some of the young brazilians, the light wind conditions could favor their ability to throw freestyle tricks in the waves.

Whatever it will happen, I'll make sure you guys will know...
Damn, I don't even go out anymore to do this blog!

Aloha Classic day 3

One more very good day at Hookipa.

Despite the fact that the expected north swell didn't build as everybody wished, we were able to run the whole Grand Masters category (over 45). Alex Aguera won it clearly (who did I say?), but the surprise of the day was Rob Funk who, believe it or not, took second.
All the heats in this category were very interesting. A lot of good sailors. I just want to mention this japanese guy (Yoshi Hasumi) that I see all the times sailing at Hookipa and Kanaha always smiling and saying 'hi'. I found out today that he's 60 (he looks like 45-48ish) and I like him even more.

We were also able to run the Open Men remaining 16 down to the final, which will be held tomorrow. It will be Josh Stone (who did I say?) and Jesse Brown.
Third was Graham Ezzy and fourth my canadian friend Jeff Sutherland, who was absolutely stoked by his performance. You better, brah!
We tried to run the final two times, and since there were plenty judges available, I stepped out of the 'committee' to film the heat. But the wind kind of died both times and we had to postpone it to tomorrow.
I still got a few jumps, though. Thought you might appreciated them...

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Way better footage of the Open Men's action can be found on Makani's blog
See you guys tomorrow.
Wait! I almost forgot a little surprise at the end. I said that I was gonna ask Josh Stone how he does those amazing one hand forward loops. And I usually do what I say I'm going to do...

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Humbling

Aloha Classic 06 day two.

Conditions: the wave were smaller than yesterday (thank god for that!) but the wind was very strong and gusty.
These are the conditions I like least.
I did my first heat without my opponent (he didn't show up, or maybe it was a mistake in the schedule) and I passed. It wasn't easy though... For a moment I thought that I was going to be the first sailor in the world to lose a heat against himself...

I did my second heat against my friend Glenn and I was happy about it, because so I knew that he would have advanced pretty easily...
I was on my small wave board and Bob's 4.7 and boy... it was gusty out there!
A very humbling experience. I loved it. Here's why.
Even though I keep saying that my only drive is the fun, it's inevitable that with all that practice I end up sailing and surfing better. And even though I keen saying that my only drive is the fun, I end up thinking that I got kind of good.
Thank god for that heat that in 10 short minutes disintegrated the stupid little ego built in years of practice. From now on it's going to be only pure fun. No ego will be in the way. I will just have to remember how hard it was for me to sail in those same conditions in which other good sailors were seemlessly ripping. I really, truly, intensly sucked.
One more time, thank god for that.
Robin, thanks for your interest in my performance in the comment to the previous post. I believe I described it clearly enough now. Just to give one more bit of information, here's what I got out of a nasty wipeout.


(Jesus, do I really have all those hair on my arm??)
And here's instead what a good sailor could do.


Well, the photo was taken around 5.30 when the wind was a lot lighter and the conditions were a little more human. Still, during the Master men contest Josh Stone did several push loops and several one hand forward loops that only one word can appropiately define: perfect!
He won the category against Phil McGain that used all his experience to get all the way to the final. Keith Teboul was third and Kai Katchadourian fourth. All good sailors, but Josh was just consistently one step higher. How can you do a forward loop taking one hand off the boom way before the impact with the wave and land it planing in full speed with still one hand on the boom? I got to ask him one of these days...
Once again, he got my highest score with another 9 for the best wave of the day.

The Open Women was won by the Japanese Maui resident Junko and Jennifer Henderson took second.

Tomorrow, the wind should be even stronger. The wave forecast for Oahu calls for waves from 7 to 9 feet faces. I predict a big show at Hookipa again. The Grandmaster (over 45) will be in the water (Alex Aguera is my pick) along with the remaining 16 of the Open Men (Josh again, no doubt!). I'm so glad that I'm only going to judge, 'cause tomorrow I could have done some serious damage to my beautiful hairy self...

Aloha Classic day 1

Well,
just to answer Lano's comment on the last post... yes, they do have wind machines at Hookipa. And wave machines too!
What yesterday looked like a lake today turned back into what the ocean in Maui usually looks like. Trade winds and a WNW swell made for a great start of the Aloha Classic 06.
We were able to run most of the Open Men division, which is now down to the best 16, which will also compete in the pro event starting Saturday.
Right now is the amateur event, in fact. Tomorrow there will be the Masters (in term of age group: 35-45) and I am actually signed in to compete. Well, not really. I'll be in the water without any ambitions at all, other than have fun. Let's see if I can do that.
In the meantime, let's check some shots I took today in those short breaks from the judging duties...

Josh Stone broke his harness in the warm up and slogged all the way in like this. I don't know why he was not directly in the pro event (probably because he didn't compete in any other PWA event this year), but it was crystal clear that he belonged to another category. I gave him a 9 in what I thought was the best wave of the day.
He made it thru gracefully.


Jessy Brown made it too.


I don't know who this guy is, but it's a top turn with a nice light on it.


In the meantime at Lanes some pros were free sailing. Oh, what a show that was... Here's Live Siver in a beautiful bottom turn (I know, I should have cropped the photo... but it's too much work...).


And here's in a beautiful top turn.


This is it. No, wait. I want to mention that I had a surf session before the competition started and I caught a really sweet left a Middles...
What a great day at the beach!

No wait. I just checked Sharon's blog and I had to steal this photo because I like it a lot. Click on it and scroll down just enough to get the whole sail and board in the screen. Don't you love it?
Or it's just because it's me? Maybe it is... oh, what the hell, this is my blog!

Halloween + white trash parties

Unusual winter conditions here in Maui. Ligth wind and small waves didn't call for much action in the water lately (I still managed to get wet everyday, though). So today's post is mainly dedicated to a couple of parties I've been too.
Let's start with Halloween. Here's what Sharon's tennants set up to scare the kids that stopped by to ask for treats...






Pretty scary, uh?
Let's move on to yesterday's party. The theme was white trash. Roy Master is a well island-kwown artist and dj. Check out some of his artworks http://www.raymasters.com/. Quite trippy stuff.
His costume wasn't particularly white trashy, but quite impressive indeed. He went to spin to Casanova after that. I assume he didn't change clothes... what a shame if he did!


Here's a sexy photo.


Here's a bum. Good one, I'd say.


Here's some legs. Good ones, I'd say. Sorry about my feet (I was leaning against a car). Too lazy to crop them...


Ok, ok... I know I pleased some readers with that. It was a pleasure taking these shots...
Let's go back to the ocean with a shot of Julie surfing a extremely secret spot...
She's a super nice girl, but you don't want to run into her while she's working... she's a CAT scan technician at the hospital.
Look at the monster breaking outside the breakwall. That was Tuesday.


The following photo, instead, was taken this morning from the webcam in Kanaha. It was the least typical day in Maui since I'm here. Not a puff of wind, not a ripple, not a cloud on the mountains. The ocean was like a lake.
This is Kahakuloa in the morning light. Looks like a cat, doesn't it?


Despite the lack of wind and waves, I had my dose of hard workout on my canoe. As you can tell by looking at my vigorous paddling in this short video...

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Allright folks. Tomorrow is the first day of the Aloha Classic and I will be judging. I need a good rest to be clear minded. It's gonna be fun. Aloha.

More...

More... Laird on Sharon's blog.
More... Hookipa windsurfing videos on Makani's blog
More... of my articles on the italian windsurfing magazine Windnews (non si trova in tutte le edicole, per cui puo' darsi che dovrete girare un po'...).
More... bionde, rosce... me piaciono tutte!