what a fantastic Sunday! (part 1)

This island is magic.



I've lived here for almost 8 years now and I'm still impressed (almost shocked, actually) by its beauty and by the all it has to offer to the ocean lovers (and not).

As I wrote in the previous post, Sunday morning I didn't wake up early enough to go dawn patrol on the south shore. So I went to check Hookipa and found that even though already windy, there were head high peaks to be surfed and one guy out. Evidently the out of season south swell was big enough to be known by everyone (or everyone in Maui reads my blog...), so I guessed that everyone was on the south shore.
Michelle called for a report and we decided to paddle out, just to say:"hey, we surfed The Point with only another guy out". Actually she ended up having some good fun catching the very first waves on her brand new 6.0.
I cut my session short to save my energies for windsurfing and managed to take a pic of her. Good style, shoulders right above the board and no one else in sight!


That's the other guy. Not a bad wave to be caught without any competition at all!


At 11am I hit the water with 72l and 4.5 together with a couple of other early sailors. The first hour was super fun: I caught tons of waves before the usual crowd showed up and the wind got even stronger and gustier. I quit at 12.30 and ate my lunch with the appetite of a hungry wolf.
Two different people happened to take photos of me, but I'll publish those tomorrow.

While I received an afternoon invitation to a free Ukulele festival at the MACC, I followed the call for more ocean action and drove Makena side. As usual, the kids were challenging the impressive shore break. Some of them, very, very close to the rocks on the east end of the beach.




I love this shot. Pure fun and joy to play with your buddies. So cool! Click on it to appreciate better.








And now the surfing. These are some of the best surfing shots I've ever taken. The light was beautiful and the stiff offshore wind created a huge white spray that stood out in contrast with the black lava rocks in the background. The water color was unreal. But that's too many words, I'll let the photos speak...















Well, the photos make it look epic, but it was super crowded and the SSW direction often didn't allow to make the whole wave. So there was a massive number of people dropping in along the way and sometimes that created some hairy situations. The following clip shows a small set.


Occasionally the wave opened up better and if you were lucky no one would drop in. That's the case of the photo on the very top. That's Michelle again, "everyone's best surfing buddy" as Juan once defined her.
Here's a little cronicle that wave. It was the last one of a big set, so the face was a bit frotty, but most people had already gone for (or got washed by) the previous waves. She did a big drop, a sweet bottom turn, the awesome top turn that I caught in the picture, then she trimmed the board halfway on the face of wave, got completely barreled on the final section and even came out of it.
A perfect 10 from the italian judge. Very good job sistah!
"best first day on a board ever!", she commented in a Skype chat we just had... I believe that!

Around 5pm I decided to go to Little Beach. Met a couple of friends, surfed the left over there, drank a beer, watched a great sunset, admired the fire dancers and the stars.

As I said: fantastic.

week recap + Hookipa Rockstar Contest sponsor updates

Been busy... doing what? Here you have it.


Thursday 15: absolutely epic, glassy waves most of the day. Unfortunately I had already committed to helping a carpenter that I hired for a small construction project at my new studio, so I had to work with him from 8am to 5pm. Probably the last time I worked all day like that was my last day of work at HP in Italy, circa end of January 2001.... omg, does that suck or what?
Reduce your needs, work less and play more you guys, that's all I have to say.

Friday 16: I had a day off and had to make up for the day before. Hence I surfed for 1.5h, took a yoga class for 1.5h, took a fat nap for 1.5h and then went sailing super fun waves with super light wind at Hookipa for 2.5h. Ah, much better now.

Saturday 17: I sailed Hookipa with more fun waist to head high waves and very light wind on the inside. Sunset surf on the south shore with the new south swell on the rise.

Sunday 18: didn't manage to wake up early enough for south shore down patrol, so I'm taking it easy... at this point it's gonna be crowded no matter what. But I know that already, so I won't care and I'll have fun anyway. Where and doing what? Somewhere beautiful and something fun. Plenty of both in Maui.

I don't like posts without photos, so I'll use the Alex files again.
The one on the top is Nico with a high jump. This one is 12yo Bernd with a backloop.


Mark Winslow did this nice SUP surfing video and I'm happy to publish it.

2 WAVES 2 DAYS 1 NW SWELL from Mark Winslow on Vimeo.

He makes the SUP Neptune paddles with an interesting shape. I never tried them and probably never will, since I'm living a very NON-SUP phase of my surfing... unless I end up winning the Hookipa rockstar contest, since he kindly offered one of his paddles as a price!

Another potential sponsor for the contest is Maui Fin Company which will add prices to the already existing mast extension from Hot Sails Maui.

So there's nice prices to be won out there, hurry up and go on the rocks you guys!

lots of surfing these days in Maui

I actually managed to squeeze in a sweet light wind wave sailing sesh on Saturday. No regular water start (only the light wind technique) and a couple of uphauls... that's how light it was. But smooth, glassy waves. At the beginning my timing was a bit off (September has been windy..) but towards the end I did slightly better. Not as good as Pascal, Jake and Peter who are true light wind masters.

Other than that, it's all about surfing. I surfed Paia bay, Lanes, Middles, Kanaha always with the 6.10. Loving it.
Still glassy conditions for a few more days, then a short spell of trades during the weekend (together with the confirmed south swell) and then the north pacific will go again in El Nino mode, as the following weather map (6 days from today) clearly shows. Doesn't look like a good winter for windsurfers, but the surfers should be stoked. The trick is to be both, so you're always happy!
By the way, the low south of the islands should bring unusual SE winds and lots of rain mid next week.


A couple of shots from the Alex files. There's a few sailors that you can tell just by watching the amount and shape of spray they throw in the top turn. Luke Siver is one of them.



Polish blog reader Michal sent me the link to his gopro wipeout video. Nice one!


It's 6.15am, waves are calling!

and that's another lovely fetch we got there, lads!

This time it's in the south Pacific...


That'll send a big south swell around Oct 17th. These "out of season" south swells go relatively uncrowded because there's waves on the north shore. So if it happens that you score thanks to this blog, I'll demand gratitude...

Couple of links.
As already seen on beachtelegraph.com, Bruno Sillac and Fabrice Beaux posted online the preview of their new video.

Francky has been shooting the awesome surfing action at Hookipa and posted the photos on his website. Nice flash light shots too! And very nice use of facebook albums. Even though I'm not the greatest fan of FB, I might have to think about it.

Too many words and not enough photos? Allright, here's a random shot from the Alex files. For once Levi is not the main protagonist of a windsurfing shot. Don't know the jumping sailor, though.


NW buoy clearly on the way up with 7 feet, 10 sec from around 330 at 6am. Nothing yet at the Waimea buoy. Here in Maui, we might see something by sundown this afternoon (Saturday). But there's still leftovers from the previous swell to be caught! I just received a report from Lowers that was still breaking... and with a 10 feet tiger shark in the lineup...
That calls for an uncrowded session!

that's a lovely fetch we got there, lads!

A bit narrow, but still lovely.


That's gonna send us some pretty big waves Sunday and Monday (as predicted on this blog 10 days in advance). The NOAA says that it will be double overhead, but still not high surf advisory (that's 15 feet faces for the north shore).
Really? What do they know that I don't know? Well, they have access to way more data than I do (like the quickscat surface wind speeds), but I bet that they will change their mind when the swell is going to hit the buoys...
Look how close the head of the fetch is to us. This swell is going to have a hell lot of energy you guys. Not particularly clean and with lots of waves in the sets and very consistent. So, be careful everyone.

BTW, I don't see any hint of the trade winds coming back in Maui for a looong while. Sunday is going to be light onshore (just enough to fuck up the surf) and eventually sailable in Kihei. And then it's going super light again.
Plenty waves though. Having dropped 99 bucks for a monthly unlimited yoga classes pass right at the beginning of a long glassy surf spell, wasn't probably a smart idea. I doubt that my body can take two surf and one yoga sessions a day (like today) for that long...
I don't even know if I can surf tomorrow!

Anyway, here's a couple of shots from yesterday.
A set hits Pavils.

Horrible drop in by the body boarder and beautiful wave screwed for the surfer. No, that's not the end of the world, but it sure doesn't feel good.

the Alex files (3)

No wind and small (but on the rise) waves here in Maui. Let's grab something from the Alex files...

This is an Israeli guy. I can't remember his name, but even if I did I would probably misspell it. Nice aerial on a beautiful pink Smack.

Shitty or challenging?

Stimulated by the comments of the previous post and by the fact that the video of the double elimination is finally available online (two days delay... almost real time!), I feel like saying something.

First, let's watch the video.


Those have been recognized as epic conditions for Sylt.
And now let's watch the video of double elimination of the 2007 Cabo Verde contest, also universally recognized as epic.


IMO, the difference is staggering.
Some may say that MOST of the world windsurfers usually sail conditions that are more similar to the ones in Sylt rather the ones in Cabo Verde and that a wave riding world champ needs to be good in all kind of conditions. I agree with that.

Let's look at the smarter, richer and better organized pro surfers. Here's their schedule of events. In addition to locations where you can expect to find perfect waves (Pipeline, Teahupoo, Jeffrey's bay) they have a bunch of locations where the waves can be either epic or average and a couple of locations where the waves will most likely be average, but it's good for the business and for the growth of the sport in general to have a contest there (specifically Brazil and Trestles).

So, nothing wrong with keeping Sylt and Pozo, but - again - can't crown a wave riding world champion based on three contests two of which are mostly based on jumping or backside riding. That's bad.
So what the PWA wave world tour needs is more contests in a better mix of location.
The first place one would immediately think of is Maui.
It's shocking that there's no wave contest in what is the universally recognized as the world's windsurfing mecca.

More spots? No problem...
This year I've seen a bunch of great independent contests organized around the world. Like the Fuerteventura Wave Classic.


Or the Reunion Wave Classic.


So it's the usual lack of money and sponsor problem, I guess.
Or is it lack of management capabilities? I don't know. It just seems odd that such a great, spectacular discipline like wave sailing doesn't get the attention it deserves with a proper world tour.

Manta rays at Hookipa + Sylt

IMO, Nico has the best backloop of all the Hookipa sailor. And considering the amount of talent in the water, that's something.


The only other backloops that would compare are the ones of the good old days of Francisco Goya. Talking about which, he just got back in the water after a couple of months of rest because of an knee injury. Welcome back Francisco and hopefully we'll see him throwing his sick backloops again soon!

Here are the other shots of day in chronological order. I tried to go lower on the rocks and I kind of like the result. I missed my beach chair though and the bipode that my arms form when resting on the chair arms.
But what was worse was to know that I would have not been able to go sail because of the wrist pain... no complaints, could be worse.
Tried to surf: doable, but definitely that's not rest (the wrist hurt a bit when duck diving). And the conditions sucked. But at least there were two argentinian asses that made it worth it...
Anyway, here's the pics.

Jason D.


Laurent.


Dean.


Nico.


Bart.


Laurent.


Guess who sometimes decides to use this vehicle to go sailing?


And now a quite remarkable encounter.


Most of the times you see a fin in the water in Hawaii, it's a manta ray.


The family.


Sylt.
Alex Mussolini won the wave contest at Sylt. Here's the double elimination's ladder.
Josh Angulo won the waves world title.

the Alex files (2) + carpal tunnel syndrome + Sylt +links

Here's another sequence from the Alex files.

If one would do a survey asking all the Hookipa sailors who they think is the guy ripping the hardest (I may well do that soon), I believe that the large majority would say Levi Siver.





This instead, is the solution to the quiz of the last post (thanks for those couple of guesses in the comments), starting from the last photo of the previous sequence.
I look still in control. Then something went wrong, maybe I wanted to hit the aerial in front of me without going back all the way down to the flat and a chop on the face of wave made me lose the grip, but somehow I lost it. Even watching the photos it's not clear what the hell I did... sometimes you just can't explain talent!









And now the second part of the title.
Yesterday I was having the usual blast riding those big windswell chops that we are blessed with these days (even better with light wind!), but I had to stop my session because my right hand couldn't grip anymore.
The problem actually started the night before while squeezing a sponge when washing dishes: "ouch! Damn, that didn't feel good..."

It's a pain in the wrist that is triggered by trying to grab the boom or just moving the hand around. Too much sailing was my easy diagnosis. Then I went online and figured it could be carpal tunnel syndrome, especially since I ran into statements like this:
"One of its many causes is prolonged windsurfing with harness-lines that are too long"
or this "Most windsurfing injuries are overuse injuries related to gripping the boom. Typical problems are rotator cuff impingement, carpal tunnel syndrome and elbow..."

Fortunately I don't have some of the symptoms, like numbness, tingling or pain at night, so maybe it's something different not as serious. For sure I'll have to rest a few days. Any experiences or grandma remedies out there?

Links:
- Congrats to Alex Mussolini for winning the single elimination in Sylt. Here's the ladder. Angulo was second while Kauli lost to John Skye a couple of heats before the final. So being the leader already, Josh has big chances to become the new "World champ"... whatever that means, since the title is based on a ridiculous small amount of contests: three (Capo Verde, Pozo and Sylt).
The number of contest to crown an ASP world champ is ten! Contest number 8 coming up soon at Mundaka.

Anyway, this is the video that shows the single elimination day at Sylt. Amazing what those guys can do in such challenging conditions.


More links.
- Fabrice Beaux hit a big NW swell in Oahu.

- Kauli with four footstraps

- in case you missed or overlooked it on the last post, this new HD gopro preview video is absolutely killer. What happens at min 3 looks like out of a video game. Once again, that is the best video I've ever seen in any genre. And the surfing one is pretty damn good too.
Forecast:
a couple of more days of trade winds and superfun NE windswell and then the big high pressure will gradually be replaced by a complex patter of lows. That means light or no trade winds and back to back, increasingly bigger NW swell episodes.
In particular, the weather map of next Friday (the last available) shows a very typical winter double low configuration. That usually evolves into a captured fetch, hence a major swell around Monday Oct 12th. But I'm totally guessing here. We'll see.

the Alex files (1) + the new (unreal) HD GoPro

Yesterday Alex brought me a memory stick with a bunch of photos he took at Hookipa lately. They are great and I will use them to fill the posting gaps when I don't have photos of my own to post. Thanks a lot!!

Let me start with a quiz.
This is the blog author in a sequence of a top turn apparently in control.






Now, how in the world do you guess that he was able to end up this sequence with this?
You guys try to imagine it. I'll publish the rest of the sequence tomorrow...


Fortunately didn't hit the rocks that time...
Talking about which, Mikey (AKA Big Mike) claimed a rock trip yesterday (and I went super close too), so he enters the rankings (on the right column of this blog). I see this contest a bit struggling to take off. Too bad because in addition to Hot Sails Maui I have other sponsors pushing to offer their prices, but I first want to make sure that there's enough competitors... come on you guys!
The current windswell episode is on the way up, that should help.
Let me remind you that to claim a point you have to leave a comment on the contest facebook page (or just tell me at the beach if you see me). Important: only the rockstar in person can claim it.
Things like: "Hey, I saw ABC on the rocks!" won't count.
It's easy to go on the rocks, but to claim it takes balls!

Ok, ok I hear you. One more photos for you guys today: Laurent.


And now check out this amazing video of the HD GoPro.
Unreal. It's the best video I've seen. In any genre. I'm in awe...

The people at GoPro never disappoint. Every year they come up with some huge improvements.
The first GoPro I bought could only record short videos and had no sd card.
Then the sd card and 54 min videos came.
Then a bunch of mounting options.
Then the wide angle.
And now the High Definition.
Can't wait to get one!