Didn’t see it in the surf forecast but we got some more out of season waves on the north shore. It was a bit of a surprise driving down the hill to Kanaha this morning to see some surf at Kanaha and Sprecks. I’m guessing it was wind-swell generated but it had a lot more north in it that most wind swell we get.
Some fun waves at Uppers - not as clean or consistent as a winter swell but still good fun nonetheless. Wind got pretty strong today. My 5.0 was way too much from the get-go – 4.5 would have been a better call. Short session for me as some of the bumpy conditions inside the reef jarred and tweaked my back.
So we headed upwind to Hookipa to check out the wave situation there. Lots of folks out on the water and the line up there was looking a lot better than Uppers. Some good sets over head high in the bigger sets. Graham Ezzy, Kevin Pritchard and Keith Teboul and the Goya crew were out working it as I showed up to snap some photos and shoot some videos. The report from Kevin was that it was pretty fun. Some photos of the action:
More photos from Jimmie Hepp on Facebook
Sailing the last few days has been pretty good at times, pretty bad at times. Squally conditions yesterday dominated for most of the day. Those who stuck around Kanaha for the 4:00 session scored.
Got a nice birthday present from Maui winds on Tuesday – nice 5.0, pretty steady and some northerly wind swell rolling in providing some small, mushy waves to play in for an occasional down the line set at Uppers. More of NE surf direction at Camp One and bigger sets. Fun backside waves setting up, pretty clean, good for trying out me backside aerials – which I’m not really getting yet. Fun day!
Pretty decent conditions again on Wednesday on Maui’s north shore. Very powered up to overpowered on 5.0. Still some fun little wind swell surf at Uppers and Camp One.
By far the most memorable experience of the day though will be my first shark sighting. I’ve lived here for 7 years sailing 150+ day per year and today was the first time I’d ever seen a shark while sailing.
On my second reach, straight out from the beginner’s cove at Kanaha, pretty far out I saw something on the surface out of the corner of my eye, then it was obscured by a rolling ocean swell. After the swell passed though it was pretty obvious – classic shark – big dorsal fin and a smaller vertical tail fin about 6 – 8 feet behind, brownish gray body between. No white or black tip on the fin. Didn’t notice any stripes. It was headed upwind at a 90 degree angle from me. Decided I was just going to keep sailing for awhile before jibing.
I pondered, should I just go in and not sail? But, thinking about it, my wife was just launching so I wouldn’t be able to catch her and tell her and she wouldn’t be phased by it anyway so I just opted to keep sailing and do the buddy system sail with my wife. She blew a couple of outside jibes out there so I kept an eye out for our friend. No more sightings though.
Interesting having actually sighted one now. They’re always out there. It’s just easier to put them out of mind when you don’t see one at close range.
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