On Friday we had the first unofficial true north swell of the 2007/2008 Maui north shore wave season. Although almost all the PWA pros are in Sylt competing right now, there was a lot of world-class windsurfing going down at Hookipa. Included in the line-up were greats such as Robby Naish, Keith Taboul, Jason Stone, Mark Angulo and Michi Schweiger along with future stars Kai Lenny, Bernd Roediger and many others.
http://www.mauiwindsurfing.net/videos/20070921_Hookipa.flvThe afternoon started out gray and cloudy with waist- to shoulder-high waves, but quickly built to head- to logo-high and even an occasional mast-high set. And, in a demonstration of great timing, Robby Naish came out to play just when the waves started getting bigger and the sun started breaking through the clouds. Check out the video coverage of the action. A warning to all of you surfing at work, there is a soundtrack included, so turn down your volume if you don’t want everyone to know you’re not working.
Turns out that I picked a good day to take off and edit video yesterday. Wind at Kanaha started out in the upper teens but quickly dropped into the mid and even lower teens and stayed there through most of the day. Reports from Hookipa are that the wind was so light that the surfers had control of the break. Wind came up late to marginal levels late in the day for those who had the patience to wait around for it.
Wind today was looking pretty promising up until the opening bell when the wind took a dive down to the mid-teens for a couple of hours. By the time the wind came back I had decided to get chores done and finish up editing the video, so I missed out on the sailing today. Looks like it got decent again around 1:15. Not worry though, I think we’ll have sailable conditions through the upcoming week at least.
