Sunday, September 28, 2008

Backloops, shark sighting, bums, lost screws, glassy waters, pieces of art.

Not much to report about this week after that last epic one... well thank god, otherwise how much longer would this post be?!?

Still, there were some waves to be ridden. I remember in particular Thursday (head high and offshore wind). Too many surfers at Hookipa, I sailed at Lanes alone and had a lot of fun.

These photos, instead, are from Friday. They all show Glenn's backloops. I'm posting them all because I just realized that I'm not sure what's the best way of photographing a backloop (or a high jump in general). Let's talk about it.

Photo 1. Probably the best. It would be nice to see the wave though... that means less zoom and/or aim a little lower.


Photo 2. In this one you can see the wave, but it would be nice to see the sky too. Again, less zoom or sit lower on the cliff. Stylish knee overlapping, by the way...


Photo 3. Oh, finally you can see both the wave and the sky, but it's not a particularly high jump. We'll blame Glenn...


Photo 4. A bit too close, don't you think?


Photo 5. A bit too close and a bit too late. You can't see the sailor. The sail looks great though...


Photo 6. This one was pretty close already. I cropped the wave and now it's just the sailor mid air. Can't tell how high he is, the focus is only on the subject of the photo. Not sure...


Photographers and non-photographers, please feel free to express your opinion with a comment.

More photos, this time taken by a friend on Thursday.
All the surfers were ordered to get out of the water, because the lifeguards saw a shark from the tower. Later in the day (as soon as the lifeguards left, maybe?), they all got back out.
Thank god they didn't bother me at Lanes and I could happily keep sailing. I guess the reason is that I was windsurfing, not surfing. In fact, Kaleo did come to Lanes with the jet ski to grab a couple of surfers, but they looked like beginners getting blown downwind, so I thought it was another kind of rescue...


Well, my friend is a blog reader and I guess I must have inspired him... thank you so much for this one!


Now, how about this one? I must have lost the screw of the fin and I didn't even know that!!!
Actually I did notice that it took me forever to sail back from Lanes to Hoo (poor angle and slow speed), but I blamed that on the gusty wind.
I wonder if I even rode a few waves like that...


Today is Sunday and I had a really fun SUP surfing session at Thousand Peaks. No wind, sunny sky, perfectly peeling two footers... what a blast! From one to two feet, I really dig SUP surfing.
Here's how the ocean looked like with Lanai in background.


And here's how the blog author looked like with the Mauna Kahalawai (hawaiian name of the West Maui Mountain) on the background.


Lastly but not leastly, you guys remember the broken Goya?
30 dollars and quite a few hours later, here's a piece of art.


The fix came out so good, I had to sign it...


How did I get the rocker so perfect without the original rocker jig (damn, what's the other and more used word for jig?) and a vacuum bag?
Let's see if anybody guesses the brilliant, yet very simple idea I had...
Can't wait to put it in the water and see how much the added weight (yes, it did take some weight) will influence the performance. I'll have Cookie (the original owner) ride it and tell me the difference...

By the way, what a bloody great blog this is! You guys so lucky... I just got to improve the post titles a bit.
Modesty: always been one of my many qualities...

PS. Last minute addition, I forgot about this one. Check the reflection in my glasses...

17 comments:

Lano said...

Hey GP, this blog had everything, sailing, sharks, boards, sails, bums and surfing as well as ageography lesson, board repair lesson, how not to sail with your fin hanging out of your board.....back in form!

cammar said...

And when you posted your comment I didn't even add my last photo! ;-)

BTW, I didn't mean that only this post was great... the whole freaking blog is!
Just a healthy moment of self appreciation...

How's life donwunder?
Kisses to the girls! (in the family and at the office)

mystery bob said...

template; ass fixation; happy...

I like the view from a wide angle lens shot from the water because it incorporates the sailor, sky and wave best. A distant shot using a telephoto flattens too much.

cammar said...

Hi Bob,
I like that point of view too, but I was only talking about the photos taken with the zoom... since that's the only camera I got!

And thanks for the template suggestion, but that's not the word I'm looking for.
A template is something you put on the side of the blank and cut around it in at the start of the shaping process.
The thing I mean is something specifically for fixing broken boards. You stick it under the board, glue the board and wrap everything into a vacuum bag so that the board adeheres to it... damn, what's that thing called?!

Anonymous said...

The 1st one is great. The spray from the wave provides perspective for the height and the horizon adds something that I like. It’s nice to see the sailor looking over his shoulder. I also appreciate that a fair amount of the sail is noticeable.

Jon

Anonymous said...

Hi GP,

I really like the first two photos...thank you so much for all of them. In my dreams this would be the ultimate perspective:} :

http://www.ehteaminc.com/glennhaslbeck/glennHookipaBack.jpg

As far as jumping photos go, in general, I like it when you can see the track of the sailors board going up the wave face and then still have the entire rider in the frame...

Speaking of backloops, have you seen the insane trick that Boujma is now trying:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zCjCQ_THKE

Thanks again GP!
Glenn.

mystery bob said...

That is a pretty interesting perspective Glenn.
That Youtube clip of Boujma is insane but I can't understand what you guys see/hear in that nasty music. Well, it's not the music it's that vocal. Uggghhh!!! Why not put some nice reggae on there?
Giampaolo, I asked and Bryan also calls it a template, or rocker template, or rocker stick???? So I'm looking forward to that word you're looking for. Anyway, nice looking repair. Maybe tomorrow or Wednesday you'll get some watetime with your repaired sled.

cammar said...

Jon,
I like the horizon line in the photo too.

Glenn,
that was funny! Your link looks truncated (at least on my screen), but it still works. Just in case, here it is again
Boujmaa... can we even say anything about him?

Bob, thanks a lot for asking.
When I read what you wrote, I thought it was rocker stick.
But this
is not exactly what I mean.
I mean something like that, but made of a solid wood, so that it can go (together with the board to fix) inside a vacuum bag.
The board lady calls it a rocker jig.
This, instead, is a rocker template.
Maybe there's no other words for it. Maybe I just dreamed about it.
I'll have to ask Maxi (Quatro custom board builder and repairer).
He has tons of those in his shop. It's like the negative of the bottom part of a template.

Anyway, no guesses on how I got the rocker without a rocker jig/stick? Disappointing readers...
Here, I'll give you a tip: I live really close to Haiku...

I wouldn't count too much on tomorrow (Tuesday) for sailing, since the tail of a front will be sitting right on us (might be a wet day), but for sure later on this week the board will be in the water again... can't wait!

Brian McDowell said...

Hi GP,

How about a shot of a hot girl's nice butt as she does a backloop shot - close in like you said? Not even sharks would keep me out of the water then...

Anonymous said...

GP, could this be it? You got a similar Goya in Haiku from Fransisco, put them side by side bottum down and then lift the tail and nose of the broken one to the level of the other one?
Dan

Sharon said...

Ah- ha, after looking from his perspective,-now I understand the reason for Glen’s sylish knee overlap!

As for the shark-it was probably having a tranquil afternoon until those back and white shorts showed up in his back yard, I’d be traumatized and motivated to get rid of them too!

cammar said...

Hi Brian,
good idea. I need a volonteer for that though...

Dan,
you're such a good guesser! I went to the Quatro/Goya shop and borrowed a demo 81 for a few hours. I put it on my workbench, took mark of the exact position and outline with a pencil, put blocks of wood under the tail and nose so that they would just touch the board, removed the board and replaced it with the two broken halves, matching the same outline and resting on the same wood blocks. Compared to the side to side idea, this technique also made sure that the board was glued straight (and not with the front half a bit to the left or right).
Simple and very effective... sometimes it feels good to have a brain.

Sharon, LOL.
BTW, you have so many posts in your blog's main page
that there's still Polakow at Lanes on Dec 07 at the end... check it out you guys.

Well, wet morning it is. Oahu already got big and messy waves (periods between 8 and 12 sec.), as forecasted on this blog 8 days ago. It's the first time this season that I see people in the water at Pipeline... awwright!

PS. The ASP surf contest at Mundaka started with two lay days. Forecast looking better for Wednesday afternoon and Thursday and Friday. Live coverage here.
Oh yeah, also the PWA
contest started in Sylt and they ran a few slalom races and the single elimination of freestyle. Still no live coverage.
And if not even the germans could do it, we're hopeless...

Anonymous said...

ciao GP
forse la parola mancante è "DIMA" ? non sò come si traduce in inglese, comunque in pratica è il profilo della carena della tavola fatto con compensato bello spesso (almeno 3 cm).....si infila nel sacco prima di fare il sotto vuoto per garantire che la tavola mantenga il giusto scoop/rocker
marco

Anonymous said...

I like all of them pics, but indeed this one beats them all :-)) http://www.ehteaminc.com/glennhaslbeck/glennHookipaBack

Aloha from Austria, KLaus

cammar said...

Marco, sure it's a dima. I'm just looking for the english word... no traslation for dima on the online dictionaries...

Hi Klaus, how's the weather down there? Any snow yet?

Here winter is arrived and I had my first lonely session (Glenn, you left waaay too early, the wind picked up a notch and turned more side shore...) at lower Kanaha. Stoked about the strapless performance of The Experiment...

Anonymous said...

hey gp,

great post, glenns sail looks awesome! I'd say change up your perspective a bit on your images to freshen them up a bit. Maybe shoot from up the beach a bit at middles, or a different time of day for the lighting? How many thousands of windsurfing shots have we seen with a telephoto from the bluffs?

Missing Maui, tell everybody aloha for me!

-Ray

Anonymous said...

I actually finally got a shot; although, I'm in the background of the second photo. Please get me in there sailing my new Pink and Grey Smack. One love to the dream nation. Vote Democrat!