I'm either dreaming or dead (and this is heaven)

Here's the description of the situation that led me to think that today.

On a secluded beach of Maui, five gorgeous sexy women were begging me:"Giampaolo, you have to tell us how you like us, what you want us to do! Put your hands on our bodies and move them the way you like it best!".

May my balls drop to the floor if I'm talking bullshit.

Amen.

A few quick updates

The ASP contest at Jeffrey's bay started in perfect conditions... what a wave that is!
All the heats of round one available on demand here.

This is Kelly's heat. Check the 360 in his second wave...



Connor Baxter and Andrea Moeller won the Maui Molokai SUP paddling race last Sunday. Congrats to both.

Next race is a Maliko - Kahului on Sunday and that is going to be packed.

The weekend after that, the big one: the Molokai - Oahu. Jeff Denholm will compete again... still with one arm only.



And Mark Matheson will compete too, without the use of his legs. In my book, these guys have won already.


New edition of the Windsurfer International, with an interesting article about a new fin system.

Lastly, from Surfline:
What seems like the endless run of moderate but fun southerly swells continues today for southern shorelines. Most locations have some great waves in the waist to chest high range with larger sets in the shoulder high+ range at channel entrances. The Kilo Nalu buoy has consistent readings of 2.5 feet @ 14.8 seconds...so watch for this swell to remain steady throughout the day. Increasing tradewinds winds will provide typical offshore conditions for town shorelines.

My arms are about to fall.

the road between heaven and hell

That's what Kalakaua Avenue is.

On one side, the most perfect example of how our species has deviated from its natural path. An astounding Babilonia of make-up, nail polish, high heels, trendy boutiques, electronics, artificial foods, colors, smells. Everything on this side is about look and money and is man made. Even the occasional bird doesn't look too natural when hopping on concrete.

On the other side, the most perfect example of gorgeous untouched nature. Waikiki and its beautiful, gently rolling waves.

Like a small magnet between different polarity magnetic fields, my spirit is repelled by one side and attracted by the other.
Ironically, my favorite way of immersing myself into the nature is by the means of a very artificial man built object. That's why, maybe, this time I bought one that looks pretty and has the green color in it...


Well, not really... they had two 7.6, but the one with the airbrush had Future fins, so I dropped the extra cash for the sake of testing (at the shop, we have plenty of those fins to demo...).

7.6x21 1/2x2 3/4... a bit on the thick side for my taste.
I know that the glide offered by long water lines can't be replaced by thickness, but I wanted something that would get in almost as early as a longboard yet a lot looser... we'll see how that goes. Right now I'm waiting for the right tide and time (working people, go to work!) and then... Publics, here I come.
Later.

My favorite pieces of art

If someone visited me when I was in Naples and asked me to show him my favorite piece of art, I would take him to see the Cristo Velato.
Yes, that's marble.


If someone visited me when I was in Rome and asked me to show him my favorite piece of art, I would take him to see the amazing statue collection at the Galleria Borghese museum.
My favorite is Pluto and Proserpina.


Here's a detail. Yes, that's still marble.


If someone visits me in Maui in the next couple of months and asks me to show him my favorite piece of art, I would take him to see Francky's photo exhibition at the Green Banana Cafe in Paia.
This Honolua Bay surfer is my favorite.


I was all mesmerized staring at it in awe when I saw a little detail that made me go:"no way!". Let's see who sees that first.
All the prints are for sale and I'm seriously thinking about getting a couple.
This one is my second favorite (you have to see the print!!!).

This was many people's favorite.


I hope that Levi gets this one for his place.


Allright, topic change.
Good luck to all the participants of the Maui Molokai race that are paddling their asses off as I type.
I've been doing some Maliko-Harbor runs and honestly all that hard word got in the way of the fun. I don't really know if I'm cut for this racing business...


Yesterday, instead, I lucked out into 30 minutes of glassiness (in between wind cycles) with the right tide at thousand peaks and those 5 waves I caught were super fun.
In the afternoon I even went windsurfing, almost 3 months and a half after my foot injury! Planing with no footstraps on my 80l was a bit tricky and I couldn't really do much on those windswell waves at uppers. Footstraps don't feel good yet, so I guess I'll stick to surfing.

I'm caressing the idea of going to Oahu this coming week, let's see if I can get a schedule re-arrangement at work.
Uncle Pat predicts two feet at the buoy all week with light trades and that makes for super fun waist to head high conditions all day long at Waikiki...
Needless to say, I'll keep you guys posted.

BTW, Victor Fernandez won the PWA wave contest in Pozo. This is the video of the final day. Impressive sailing by him and by Philip Koster who this year came second.

never a dull moment

In case you were wondering if the lack of updates was due to lack of things to post or boredom, here's a hell lot of stuff that I just didn't have the time to post.

"Never look down on the board!", I used to tell my surfing students...






These gopro photos were taken on 6 24 (the same day of the those Oahu photos of last post) on the south shore. Funny how the wide angle makes the big waves look small and the small ones (they were waist to chest high) look big!
Unfortunately, I keep having a major droplets problem. I tried many photographer tricks, but none worked, since the screen of a water housing is flat and lets the drops run easier than the very convex screen of the gopro.

Fortunately, I didn't have any droplet problem for the photos I took during the short walk on the beach between surf spots. My stalking has gone to another level.






It was the first time I used the gopro on a shortboard. That was when I found out that kicking with my feet when paddling for a wave is bad for my foot.
As a consequence of that, I'm trying to put together my broken 8.6. Unfortunately, the way it broke made the two halves not match at all and I tried filling the gap with some pour resin. Kind of got the rocker straight, but the pressure of the expanding foam made the two pieces end up not in line.
Tried this (went up to three bricks) for a few days, but it's not moving.


Plan B will be to cut three inches of the board around the break and try to stick together the two parts... I'm going to have an 8.3!
Since I'm not too confident about the result, I'm also planning on going to Oahu and getting myself one of those Tanaka mini longboards from the Town&Country factory.
7.2, 7.4, 7.6, 8.0... they all look pretty good to me.

In the meantime, I filled a hole in my SUP quiver. After I sold the Sea Lion, I was missing a short board for summer time waves. Looks like I found it...


Lately, I've been lazily trying to understand if the Canon 20D I bought on eBay is a keeper or not.
I'm not a photographer, so pretty much I don't know how to use it. But the other day I met Francky, who is an awesome photographer and does know how to use it. He took a couple of photos focusing on the mailbox of this house and I did the same with my old, cheap and trusty point and shoot Sony.

Here's the shots and here's what I sent via email to a bunch of friends that are helping me figuring out this atrocious dilemma...

I'm attaching a couple of those photos we took the other day.
Don't even know how to download the raw files (the sw didn't see them), but it's a jpg at the highest quality. Res is 3504x2336, file size is 3.8 MB. I cropped the Sony shot to have similar frames. The Sony shot is 1094x818, file size 329 KB!!!

Sure, the Sony shot looks over exposed and kinda bleached (can't see the tiles on the white wall... that's something that I can try to fix in future shots), but it also looks way sharper!
We were both focusing on the mail box, but even that is sharper in the Sony shot.
The Sony shot is taken at f3.5 and that should give it a narrower depth of field (compared to the canon shot taken at f6.3), nonetheless everything looks more in focus in it (I don't even know if that's a good thing or not).

I'm really perplexed...


Canon.


Sony.


FYI: Francky is doing an exhibit at the Green Banana cafe in Paia. The opening party is Friday 9th at 7pm. Can't wait to see the photos he selected.

Also, my buddy Chris sent me this email:
GP,
I would love it if you could give a shout out on your blog to my summer project which was initially inspired by your Oahu trip last year. Branded 60 Days of Summer. The aim of the 60 Days of Summer project is a simple one; to show that there is far more to Hawaii than winter surf and that with the right attitude, the right equipment and enough time you can find waves, wind, surf, freestyle, slalom, SUP, skate, kite, hike, bike, you get the idea, tons of action and have a whole lot of fun too – after all isn’t that what it’s all about?


Check how Chris does on his blog. My guess is that he's going to have a blast, also because it looks like he's going to get lucky right away!
In fact, I just saw on the weather maps a pretty deep storm that will send an overhead NW swell by Sunday/Monday.
This map is forecast to happen Thursday... not a bad fetch for summer time.


This south Pacific one instead is forecasted for Friday 9th. And that means that the weekend after that will see waves on the south shore. How come south swells always happen on weekends?


I saw this great gopro video on beachtelegraph.com. Fabrice Beaux and Rob Stelhik in Oahu.
I like the way they hold the paddle while filming.


And I saw this on Facebook.
Congrats to Bruno Andre for pushing the limits. My only hope is that whoever will feel like trying that, will do so in an absolutely deserted lineup. That's one board you don't want to be run over by!

FOIL STAND UP PADDLE from Surfsailing Team on Vimeo.

SUP Downwind racing season is about to peak. This sunday July 11 there's a Maui Molokai race, then July 18th the Naish Maliko Kahului and after that the Molokai Oahu.
If the wind will be forecasted to be strong, I may enter the Naish race with my 50 pounds, six years old 12.6 and wooden paddle and show them all the effort they put into making more technologically advanced gear was... worth it!

Last, but not least, I'd like to thank Dave Kalama for this inspiring post on his blog. After I read it, I stopped using the bus to go to the launching spot for my downwinders. Now I do that on the bike. If the wind is strong is not exactly a piece of cake on my old shitty bike, but sure it's a hell lot easier than paddling for five hours against the wind from the harbor to just past Peahi... you got to be kidding me!!!!

Thanks Dave. With the first five bucks I'm going to save on bus tickets, I'll buy you a beer.

what I've been missing in Oahu

My friend Bruno Sillac sent me a few photos to show me that Oahu has been good lately.

That's what he wrote:

A nice South swell arrived, albeit spotty, along with somewhat less than marginal wind conditions, however Robby Naish, Scott Carvill and Bruno Sillac still ventured out to make the best of it. Although the conditions were less than ideal it was a rare treat to personally witness some fantastic sailing. Robby Naish maybe be getting older, but you would never know it by the way he rips.

This is Bruno.


Robby.






The other photos on this gallery on the Waterproofphotography website of Francis Brewer.

Oh well, this year no Oahu for me. At least not for windsurfing.
If I find a last minute cheap accomodation, I may still pop over to check out the Surf Film Festival and grab a few waves...

harsh board test

I love testing boards.

One of the reasons I love my job is that I get to try all kinds of boards.
Lately I've been playing a lot with some short Starboard standup boards.

The report of the test sessions (kinda boring if you're not into it) is in this thread of the standupzone forum.

Here are some photos that give you an idea of the kind of harsh environment the test was conducted in.





"Don't drop in on me!" paddle holding technique.

a boring world cup post

Just watched the Italy game versus Slovakia.

Italy is out and they deserved too. 30 minutes (the last ones) of decent football are not enough to qualify.

I used to dislike football (soccer for the americans), but lately I've been enjoying it a lot. I watched plenty games of both the italian Serie A and the english Premiere Legue last season. Enough to have an opinion about Italy's performance, so here you have it.

IMO the manager Lippi did a really bad job at selecting the players. He left home players like Totti and Cassano who would have done sure better than Montolivo or Pepe or Iaquinta.

He left sitting on the bench two great Napoli players: Quagliarella and Maggio. As soon as those two entered the game (together with another great player Pirlo, who had been injured till then) the difference was clearly noticeable.

But the biggest mistake of all was to replace the injured keeper Buffon with the inexperienced Marchetti who looked and acted quite nervous. Napoli goal keeper De Sanctis (sitting on the bench) would have done a much better job.

Now that the first round is almost over, the tournament will get interesting. I sure don't want to miss Germany vs England, let's hope for a good game.
At the very beginning of the the world cup, England was my favorite. So much talent (despite all the injuries) on the pitch, let's see if Capello finally will let them play they way they know to.

That's all I have to say and to try to avoid to make this the most boring post ever, here's a lil south swell shot.

Dave Kalama's secret spot revealed

The little south swell is pumping (I know, that's an oxymoron) and yesterday I ended up behind a celebrity on the highway.

He's my paparazzi job.

a peculiar pet

The first two comments inspired me to add some information.

Average number of people killed by sharks worldwide every year: 4
Average number of people killed in car accidents worldwide every year: 1.2 millions
Average number of people killed by DOGS IN THE USA ONLY every year: 26

In contrast we are killing close to 100 million sharks per year and most of them are simply killed for their fins to make shark fin soup, a status symbol in China. Next time you go into a chinese restaurant and you see shark fin soup on the menu remember an animal that has almost the same life span as you died for that soup and his fins were severed from his body and the body dumped over the side.

Virtually all the shark attacks happened because the shark thought the victim was either a seal (in the case of a surfer think how a surfer looks from below) or there was poor visibility in shallow water. Virtually all attacks are a single bite and the shark didn't come back for more because it didn't taste like he expected. The deaths are usually due to blood loss.
For more info on shark attacks and the number of sharks killed by humans go to:
www.bite-back.com