Sunday, September 30, 2007

Diony's freaky Freak

Friday was yet another wavesailing day at Hoo...

Diony showed off his brand new 08 Superfreak... I can't wait to put my hands on mine! They should be here soon now...


Usually I like the super early sessions, but this time the wind was reeeally light on the inside for at least an hour and a half... check some of the photos in the slide below.


I like light wind conditions, so I insisted on staying out and burned my arms off. When I got out for a break, the wind picked up much better, but I just couldn't do it anymore. So I sat and took photos.

Here's Diony flying high...


And here's him again in a backloop.


Here's Francisco Goya's answer.


This is former Aloha Classic winner J0 Motoko Sato.
She must have been very bummed that there will be no contest this year, since she came to Maui with the whole family to train... well, she doesn't look too bored. She rips!

Friday, September 28, 2007

Yesterday's session...

..was reeeeally sweet!

A four star session for me. Went out around 1.30, got back in around 4, caught a bunch of waves, smacked a few lips, got smacked by a few lips, swam for my board, didn't go on the rocks, didn't break anything, didn't get hurt... delightful!

The light sucked for photos, but after sailing I did sit for 20 minutes and these are the late sesh pics I got.

Let's start with J39 (should be Takafumi Noguchi) for two reasons:
- it's a nice bottom turn on a logo highish one
- he's always smiling. I love sailors who smile and respect the priority rules. We are all out there to have fun, not to fight... too bad that often somebody forgets this.


Here's Tristan Boxford (late session specialist) in a well executed aerial.


Andres starts the Firemen section...


Diony continues it...


Now, check the custom graphics of Andres' board...


Today slightly smaller, but pretty much more of the same. Actually better: it's going to be sunny...

Every day I sail a little better than the day before.
And every day I understand that the gap between me and the really good ones is way bigger than I thought.
Should I be frustrated about that?... You kidding me! I'm stoked about it!!
It means I have way more things to learn and steps of progress in front of me!

I'm loving it...

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

no Aloha

Just received in my inbox:

2007 ALOHA CLASSIC WAVE CHAMPIONSHIPS POSTPONED TO 2008

Maui, HI - The 2007 Aloha Classic Wave Championships, scheduled for Nov 5 -17, has been postponed to 2008. There will be no event this year. We are sad to make this decision at this time but it could not be avoided as the title sponsor pulled out in the past week leaving little time to pursue a similar sponsor of the same caliber.

In combination, there has been a lack of rental housing available on the northshore with the Maui County's crack down on transient vacation rentals, leaving many competitors and sponsors without a place to stay during the event.
Hopefully both issues will be resolved for 2008 and we will be back on track.

On the bright side, the existing sponsors for 2007 have agreed to come on board again for next year and for that we are very grateful. We thank you for your interest and look forward to bringing you the best windsurfing wave event in 2008!


Bummer, this year I would have won it!

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Little update/forecast on the sailing conditions in Maui.

Today third day in a row of really fun windswell at Hookipa... I'm sailing my ass off.
Tomorrow a little NW swell will add on top (almost 3 feet, 14 seconds from 335 at 8pm at the NW buoy... that's promising), so it should be even more fun for a couple of days and then another similar one on Sunday. Not a bad September at all.
The only question mark will be those big clouds south of us, but they're already moving west, so I don't think they will be too much of a problem...
Oh yeah, the wind is going to be gusty... just like 99% of the times... no big deal for me and the other Superfreaks of the island!

Monday, September 24, 2007

Flat (kind of)

Most of this week is going to be flat on both shores, with the next NW swell (smaller than the Friday one) due on Thursday.

Actually there's still a little windswell and today I had a lot of fun sailing at Hookipa.
Here, this is what we call flat in Maui... Skyler Haywood making the most of it.


Tough life for the lifeguard flag at Hookipa...


Here's Skyler again... still flat.


What else we got?
PWA Sylt is currently happening. Only a few heats of wave and freestyle have been run so far. Here the latest news. Don't even bother checking the day 1 video... it's a joke... in german!!!

ASP France is currently happening too. Here the latest news. Do check those videos instead...

Talking about videos, I finally found the time to download a couple of videos from Totalvid.com. Pretty cool website with a lot of stuff to check out!

Last, but not least...
Remember the post 10 Little things I do to try to respect the environment?
Well, just like with windsurfing students, sometimes talking doesn't work as effectively as showing.



In the above photo you can see:
- my reusable grocery bag. I keep it always in the car and have it with me when I go grocery shopping. I get out of the shop without having introduced unnecessary plastic bags in the environment and that makes me feel great. When I'm at the cashier, I try to convince her/him not to give too many plastic bags away. At the same time the people next in line are hopefully listening too and becoming aware (a few times they actually thanked me).
- a few glass and stainless steel bottles. I'm done with refilling plastic bottles... they bleach and you end up drinking toxic chemicals. Now I refill these bottles and life is even better!
- some rechargeable batteries
- under the sink you can see the reverse osmosis water filtering system. I save money and don't buy ANY plastic bottle. I think the last water plastic bottle I bought was about 5 years ago. I swear!!
- on the left of the sink (and this wasn't even staged...) you can see a ziplock plastic bag drying out together with some dishes. Ziplocks CAN and SHOULD be washed and reused... goddammit, you lazy people!!!!
Just imagine to be the turtle that will be killed by that one you just threw away...

PLEASE!

Saturday, September 22, 2007

da first da kine... report

As forecasted, the first NW swell of the season arrived right on time on Friday.

It peaked in the early morning, when a few big sets that closed out all the way from Lanes to Pavillions... pretty good surfing.
In the afternoon, even though the swell was already declining, a very gusty trade wind picked up and it was good wavesailing.
Here are the five main page deservers of the day.

Let's start with uncle Robby, who was ripping... well, I guess he's ripping since he was 13! Here's a late phase of a push loop.


Jason Stone's goiter.


As suggested from the comments, this is Nat Gill.


Andres.


Maybe not quite mast high, but even Robby is looking at that thing with respect...


Plenty more photos in this slide.


The swell went down a lot during the night and today (saturday morning) is barely still here... nonetheless, as soon as I'm done with this, I'll go sailing again.
See ya all!

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

tandem sailing

With a month delay, a video that I absolutely love!



To thank Francky for the blast, here are some photos of him that I took that same day that show how good of a sailor he is.
Let's start with a chop backloop!


Shove it.


Chop forward.


By the way, on the tandem he's on a 4.7 and I am on a 4.2 and the board is an SOS custom SUP board that he converted in a tandem board. He's looking for a partner to ride outer reef mast high waves this winter...

Monday, September 17, 2007

da first da kine one!

Now, that's what I'm talking about!

That thing is going to send up to mast high waves at Hoo and overhead at Kanaha on Friday.


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And it's only the start...

Sunday, September 16, 2007

weak post

That's what I feel this is going to be...

One more of those SUP surfing videos... you guys seen plenty already. Maybe I should use some different shorts!
But I'm sure somebody will still appreciate it, specially if sitting in an office...
Next one, I promise, will be in bigger waves. Hopefully soon!

Friday, September 14, 2007

International coastal cleanup day

Sept. 15: check details here.

And after your beach cleanup, if you got nothing better to do, rewards yourself by watching the live action at the ASP surf contest at Trestle. The only one of the first ten of the rankings still in is Kelly Slater... he's going to try to take advantage of that.
Did you watch it? You think it's boring all that waiting for the waves with no action?
Well, imagine a four men windy PWA heat instead... way more action! And still, PWA doesn't even have video clips of their events!
I think the sponsors should put some money down... it would be so worth it!

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Great waves!

Hookipa has been overhead high for the last three days.
My best session was yesterday at Lanes, sailing with the longboard.
But I don't have any photos, so I post this one instead.



It's the reef of One Eye in Mauritius. The editor of Windnews, the italian magazine I work for, went there this summer and sent me this. There will be a full report on the October issue. For the italians: accattatavill'!

In the meantime, Kauli Seadi won the fourth PWA wave contest of the year at his home spot: Ibiraquera, Brasil. Nik Baker second, Levi Siver third and Victor Fernandez fourth. Read the daily reports on the pwa site.
In the rankings, Kauli is leading Victor by only a few points (33) and with three more events to go (Sylt, Ireland and Maui), it looks like it's going to be an interesting "battle".

Can't believe there's no webcast of these events yet... I just can't get over it!

Sunday, September 09, 2007

First,
let me continue to celebrate the return of the waves at Hookipa.

This photos is from yesterday. The wind was very light and too many surfers out made me choose to sail Lanes, where I caught a few fun ones. This one is on my way back to the beach at Hoo. As a sign of respect for the 10 surfers rule (more than 10 surfers out, the spot is for surfers) I just went straight in... but I sooo wanted to ride that thing!


This sign was at Kanaha. Phil might have lost his board, but he didn't lose his sense of humor... if you've found that board give him a call.


Now check Sharon's last post (that also shows Robby Naish's interesting latest beach vehicle...).

Here's my answer to that sticker on the sign...


And since you guys liked the quiz of a couple of posts ago (btw, I just posted a comment on that post with the solution), here's another one... a bit easier!
Here are two arses.

A.


B.


Which on is from Leeds and which one is from Brazil?

Friday, September 07, 2007

18 seconds barrel

Unreal... check this out!

This must be a world record, I thought.
So I looked up "longest barrel ever".

This is not too bad either.

Then I clicked on this one.
Not exactly what I was looking for...

Anyway, the quizzes on the previous post are still unresolved. You guys are incredibly close, but not quite there yet...

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

the north shore is coming back to life...

I love this time of the year.

For many reasons. Here's a few:

- the island is not too busy with tourists
- the water temperature is in the low 80s (as I type it's 81 in Kahului= 27 celsius)
- it's a transition time in which you can often have waves on both shores
- you can feel the north shore is coming back to life because... even a small stupid north Pacific fetch of wind oriented towards Hawaii will generate waves!

I'm going to explain this last one. But first, let's have a look at the first main page deserver of today: Francisco Porcella.



So, let me ask you a question: what do you do every morning if you're a windsurfer?
Easy... you check windguru to see the latest forecast, right?
I don't. 'Cause windguru sucks.

First because it's way more fun to try to do your own forecast.
And second, at least for Maui, it doesn't take into account a bunch of local variables, the most important of which being:
a) how much the wind will be amplified by the Haleakala, depending on the wind direction
b) how much the waves will be eventually shaded by the west maui mountain and the other islands, depending on the swell direction.

Second main page deserver: Nico again!


Instead, I check a very simple thing called weather map (you can find the links to both north and south pacific weather maps on the right in the links section) and do my own forecast.

During three long months of summer, I observe huge storms with hurricane force winds spinning east of New Zealand and I get all excited about the upcoming south swell...
"It's gonna huge... Maalaea is gonna go off, I'm gonna surf that spot and then that other spot"... that's what I dream at night.
In reality, most of the times, the swell happens to be rather small. Fun, but small.
Hey, I'm not complaining at all! I'm just trying to describe you how I feel.

Then September comes and a small storm spinning west of Oregon shows up in the north Pacific weather map. I just barely notice it.
"Yeah, there's a small tiny fetch oriented towards us... what's that, 30 knots of wind? Whatever, we'll get something in 2-3 days... cool, Hookipa will be fun... small but fun."
I'm not particularly excited about it, for sure I don't dream about it...

Then I go to Hookipa and I see those head high + lines breaking in the bay...
I stare at them in awe and go: "Oh my god! I can't believe it... that was the smallest, shittiest, lamest, most insignificant fetch I've seen in a while (three months, exactly)... look at that!!!"

Less travel distance makes a huge difference. Even if I know that well, it feels bloody great to figure that out again every time in September...

The third main page deserver photo is from Monday and was taken by Sharon, who did her own little post too.
It's Andres in an air chacho attempt. Water start-landed. Good job...


The early session today was soooo good. Ten sailors out for about an hour, very light wind on the inside, plenty glassy waves, no more than one guy per wave. Really, really good.
Me, Norm, Bernd, Skyler, Nori, the other kid on the NP... mmm, can't remember the others. But they know what I'm talking about...

Here's the rest of the photos.


Last, but not least, here's a couple of quizzes...

These are some very fine windsurfing legs.
Quiz 1: Who do they belong to?


And this is a very cute windsurfing bum.
Quiz 2: Who does it belong to?


Let's see who's the first (not anonymous!) that leaves a comment with both correct answers...

Monday, September 03, 2007

8 28 Hookipa longboard sailing

Thank god I found the time to edit this video, but the backlog of clips to edit is still huge...

This is the first longboard sailing video that I shot from the front of the board.
Love it!

Even though the waves were small and the wave sailing action is somehow repetitive, I didn't feel like cutting it more, because I think that that mix of blues (the sail, the water and the sky) is just a pleasure for the eye...
So, excuse me the lenght (6 min.) and let me know if you agree with me.

I also saved it at the max resolution that WMM allows (2 Mbps) and the resulting file was 92 MB. I assume that youtube compresses it, but let me know if you could watch it ok.
Please, somebody gimme a feedback on this!!

Choosing the soundtrack was, as usual, the best part. Incredible number of good songs at around that lenght. Here's a few that didn't make it:
- Kruder Dorfmeister, Useless (this one in particular was bloody perfect...)
- Pink Martini, No hay problema
- Porcupine Tree, Fadeaway
- Ziggy Marley, Kosmik
- Lucky Dube, My game
- Zero 7, Likufanele
and a bunch of others, including Mozart, piano concert 21, second movement Andante...

But the final preference went to an italian rocker... actually to THE italian rocker: Ligabue.
I love the simplicity of his songs (most of them are four basic chords) and the lyrics go straight to your heart.

On September 10, 2005, Ligabue held a concert in Reggio Emilia to celebrate his first 15 years of activity. This attracted the record audience for a single artist pay concert in Europe, with a crowd of 200,000 coming to listen to his songs.
Too bad I wasn't there...

If you like the song, search Ligabue in youtube and listen to plenty more...

Enjoy.



PS. Don't you love those "related videos" that youtube shows at the end? Check the second but the last: Volcom Stone's pufferish surf series and watch the kids ripping at Pavils...
Surfing, what a superior sport!

PPS. Little north bump on its way for tomorrow. I predict (and hope) head high at least. Yu and hu!