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Big SurfDecember 30, 2006
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Gray skies, rain and big, big wavesDecember 28, 2006After a few days of light wind, Maui and all of Hawaii saw a definitive change in the weather today. A cold front marched down the island chain bringing clouds and rain and turning the wind from the north. Along with the weather change, the cold front's parent low pressure system has generated the biggest swell of the season so far this year. Big surf started arriving first on Kauai earlier today, is still building, and is forecast to be 28 to 32 feet this afternoon through early Friday with some speculation of occasional 40 foot sets. This huge swell would usually have the big wave surfers out in force, but the stormy conditions have made the surf extremely choppy and blown out. Even on Oahu's famed north shore, few surfers ventured out today. Here on Maui, conditions on the north shore really weren't that inviting. Onshore winds ranged from the upper teens to upper 20s. Best winds in northerly conditions like this is usually Kihei, but things were a bit up and down there too. Skies should clear up a bit tomorrow and winds should shift to the more normal NE direction. Swell will still be huge.
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Holiday ReportDecember 26, 2006The first 20 days of December here on Maui had me convinced that we were on Santa's "good list." The last several days, though beautiful and sunny and warm, wind-wise we've been scrooged. Winds lightened up considerably starting last Thursday. Things looked promising on Friday and the readings on the sensor even coaxed me down to take a look. There were a few people out sailing, but it looked a bit too light for my 5.7. Saturday and Sunday brought even lighter onshore sea breezes with winds maxing out around 10 knots both days. Christmas day turned out to be a bit gray and showery on the north shore, with light onshore breezes. I hear that Maui Sunset in Kihei was actually sailable mid-5s for guys. Winds today are again light and onshore but we've got sunny, warm weather so it's hard to get too disappointed about the lack of wind. The forecast is for light winds again tomorrow then a bump up to moderate trade winds on Thursday and Friday.
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Double Digit DecemberDecember 20, 2006It’s only December 20 and already I have to call this the best windsurfing December I’ve had here on Maui. Today I hit 10 days of sailing this month, the first time I’ve ever hit the double digit mark in December. And what’s really amazing is that there have probably been another 5 or 6 days of sailable wind that I haven’t sailed, due to injury, work or just because conditions were a bit nuts. By my count, we’ve had probably 16 out of 20 days of sailable days here this month. Today’s catch phrase was, “the early bird gets the wave.” Getting on the water at lunch time proved to be the right call today. 5.3 was again the sail of choice - plenty powered. And the waves were substantially better today than the past two days. I was fortunate enough today to catch head- to logo-high wave after wave at Uppers today, with only about 3 other guys up there. Waves were pretty clean, offering lots clean, smooth rides. All in all, one of the better session I’ve had in this wave season. Though it was a bit short-lived because the wind dropped off substantially by 2:00pm that session was a dream session. As I post this, I’m sitting in front of the TV watching the evening news. Looks like another big swell is due to arrive by tomorrow with 15 - 20 foot faces and an even bigger swell this weekend. Winds may get a little lighter tomorrow, not sure, but the weather is nothing short of spectacular here, especially as I see that the midwest US is getting hit with a giant blizzard that will dump 2 feet of snow. Here we have sunny skies and Kahului topped out today at 82 degrees. Couldn’t ask for a better present for the holidays. |
Mellow Wind and WavesDecember 19, 2006After a few days of honking winds, Friday and Saturday, the wind died down to very light conditions on Sunday. Yesterday they rebounded slightly, enough to get a very mellow 5.3 session at Uppers, with some very small mushy waves. Nothing epic but after a few days of howling extreme sailing it felt really good just to get a mellow session in tame comfortable conditions. Gone now are most of the tourist crowds, so Kanaha is very uncrowded, both in the park and out on the water. Air temps and water temps have cooled off a bit - almost time to break out the shorty wetsuit. Winds will probably be on the light side this week. Forecast is calling for fair weather - sunny days, light to no precipitation. We’re in a weak trade wind pattern but the high pressure is weak, so the overall wind speeds are pretty light. Just have to keep an eye on it each day throughout the day to see if Maui will work its magic enough to bring sailable conditions. |
Wild WindDecember 16, 2006It’s been a wild, windy couple of days Thursday and Friday here in the islands. The forecast had called for an increase in winds starting Thursday. My plan was to get down early and sail before it went too nuts. By late Thursday morning, winds at Kanaha were already in the mid-20s and when I got there it was a pretty easy decision to rig the 4.5. One reach out to Uppers however convinced me that I had underestimated the wind. I easily had half a meter too big a sail so I jibed and tail walked in to re-consider the situation. Looking at the iWindsurf graph for Kanaha that day, looks like that reach might have corresponded to a big spike in the wind with an average wind speed of 30 gusting to almost 40. No wonder the 4.5 felt a little big! The wind must have somehow sensed that I was about to rig down, because after 15 minutes or so, the wind eased off a bit and I went back out on the 4.5. Conditions were still wild and gnarly, but at least it was manageable. The water was a frothing mess. The small waves that had been so fun the day before were getting blown to shreds and crumbling into messy slop. The winds yesterday were supposed to be even stronger and in places they were. The wind sensor at Kihei paints a pretty ugly picture with gusts at times near 50 and lulls at times in the single digits. I opted out of sailing yesterday since one wicked wind gust and wave/chop combo twisted me like a pretzel and tweaked my back a bit on Thursday. Evaluating what my back was telling me and looking at the gusty conditions yesterday it seemed wiser to take an injury day or two off. Supposed to be windy again today - wind this morning is already in the low 20s at Kanaha. Not much in the wave department to get excited about at the moment, though a new north swell is due in a few days. Looks like the long term wind forecast remains promising for the next few days - at least light to moderate trades after today. Pretty rare to get so many windy days in December. Usually I get about 5 - 7 days of windsurfing in December and I think we’ve already had at least 10 sailable days so far this month with a positive outlook for more. |
Sweet SessionDecember 13, 2006The winds here on Maui the past few days have been very easterly. I opted out of sailing the last couple of days despite wind readings around 20 or so because the winds were so offshore, not to mention a bit up and down. Today I had had enough though. Winds hit 20 and I couldn’t take it anymore. I had to head down the hill to the beach to check things out firsthand. Kanaha was as deserted as I’ve seen it in many many months. Wind inside was extremely light, but whitecaps were visible outside the break. Chiropractor, Dr. Joel, slogged in as I was scoping out the conditions on the beach and reported excellent conditions on the outside. So, I rigged the 5.7 and put it on the big 90 L wave board. Dr. Joel was right. The waves were setting up beautifully, with set after set of shoulder to head high waves at Uppers and only a handful of local sailors out. Outside the break, I could have actually been on a 5.3, but the conditions were too sweet to take the time out and go re-rig. Very sweet December session. The wind definitely gets spottier in the winter here, but days like this with hardly anyone out can make it some of the sweetest sailing of the year. Winds are forecast to get a lot stronger tomorrow and Friday and a new double-digit north swell is due to arrive as well. Maybe Christmas is coming early this year for Maui windsurfers. |
Exciting New Super-X Features!
December 11, 2006
Gratuitous T&A (QuickTime, 3.9 MB). You never know what you're going to witness at Kanaha. On Saturday, while most of us where getting spanked on our 4.0s and 4.5s, one beach bunny opted to rig her 2.8 air mattress and lounge about, courting windsurfing suitors, who, like fabled knights of the middle ages or cowboys of the old west, did their best to impress the young lady with feats of daring-do.
Now you may not think that this has much to do with windsurfing, but as it turns out, there is actually some serious training going on here. You see, it turns out that the PWA found that the Super-X competitions weren't exciting enough, so they're upping the ante a bit. Those big yellow floating sausages that the competitors have had to jump over in past competitions will now be replaced by rows of bikini-clad models floating in air mattresses. Much more exciting don't you think! In this video, professional windsurfer and male model Martin Van Geenhoven trains for the upcoming grueling competition. ;)
As for wind the last couple of days, it lightened up considerably. Sunday was extremely light most of the day until about 2:30 when side offshore trades built enough to get the smaller guys out on 5.3s to snag some time on the waves. Similar conditions today. Light winds until mid afternoon. Conditions were light and offshore enough that I opted to get work done, but I think it was probably sailable with 5.5s - 6.0s for most guys. Tomorrow should be similar to today, then lighter on Wednesday then stronger winds returning Thursday and Friday.
Extreme Kanaha
December 10, 2006
Kanaha - Dec 12, 2006 (QuickTime, 8.3 MB). Here's a video to give you an idea of the sailing conditions at Kanaha yesterday, though the video really doesn't do it justice. For instance, you can't really get a good idea of how windy it really was and how bumpy the water was. Wind was pretty offshore so inside the reef was only "windy." Outside the reef was another story. There it was cranking and howling. Just one notch short of nuking.
Waves were pretty sloppy too. If you look at the video you can get a decent idea of the difference between the two main venues at Kanaha. The waves at Lowers yesterday were fairly small compared to the past couple of days. They were pretty crumbly, but when you compare it to Uppers yesterday, Lowers was clean and epic. The waves at Uppers were a sloppy mess, due largely I'm sure, from getting blown out by 30 knot + winds. The northwest swell was on the decline but there were still some big meaty monsters occasionally, but not really very rideable since the crumble and break.
A lot of people discovered the true face of fear yesterday as they tried to bottom turn on some big swells at Uppers, while being hella-overpowered and going 40 knots while dropping into a mast- high mast-eater with wind-swell cross chop to make things even more interesting. All in all, a challenging, adrenaline-pumping day, but not many people were rating it a very fun day.
It's supposed to be windy again today, with another NW swell but so far, as of 10:15 am the winds are calm.
Wind and Wave ReturnDecember 7, 2006After a couple of days of very light sea breezes, wind and waves returned to Maui today. A high surf warning was posted last night and the talk was we’d see 20 - 30 foot waves. Didn’t quite materialize that big, at least at Kanaha. I ended up having way too much work to do today to break away and sail, but I got the scoop from Jazz who sailed Lowers in the afternoon. According to Jazz, Lowers had logo to mast high waves, Uppers was logo to mast and a half. Wind was in the 4.7 - 5.3 range. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to get out tomorrow. Waves should be a tad smaller, but probably mast-high at Uppers still and wind may pick up. Forecast for the next several days is for trades each day. Kind of weird to get a long stretch of wind in December. We’ll see if it pans out. |
Drying OutDecember 4, 2006The weather on Maui the past few days has dried out considerably and our beloved trade winds have returned. Saturday was a soggy mess on Maui. We received almost 5 inches of rain in places in 12 hours. Yesterday dawned gray but dry and the trades were blowing. Arriving at Kanaha, we could see the effect of all that rain - the water was a disgusting brown soup, filled with debris, palm fronds, sticks logs and who knows what else. A lot of people refused to go out - citing the water, all the nasty bacteria in the water and of course, the fact that most shark attacks occur in murky water. I was a little dubious myself but opted to give it a shot. 5.3 was the call. Wind was pretty squirrely and gusty and the water had so much crap in it, it felt like sailing through a mine field. Didn’t take too long and I decided it just wasn’t worth breaking a fin and swimming in amidst the tiger sharks. Today was a bit better. Wind built to 5.0 levels and the water was a bit cleaner though still far from clear. Wind was a bit gusty at times but there were some occasional nice set waves at Uppers. Pretty decent sailing for this time of year. Forecast is pretty good through the forecast period. Winds are supposed to drop a notch tomorrow and Wednesday then build back up on Thursday just in time for a good sized swell that’s due to arrive Wednesday night or Thursday. This one is forecast to be 15 feet or more, but there’s a potentially massive swell due in some time next week. Big storm in the north Pacific could generate some 30 foot swells. If that holds then we’ll see our first Jaws event of the season. I hear Maui Land & Pineapple has closed the field overlooking Jaws. On a big Jaws day the bluff overlooking the wave will have hundreds of people on it watching the spectacle. The only other option is finding someone with a boat and hanging out on the shoulder of the wave. Not sure what the spectating options will be if in fact they’ve closed the access to the bluff. |
Soggy Sailing
December 2, 2006
PWA Aloha Classic - Women's Final Heat #2 (QuickTime, 3.9 MB). Here's a really short video from the women's final heat in the single elimination round. Just a couple of clips each of Iballa Moreno and Junko Nagoshi. This is the last of the women's video clips that I have.
As far as sailing conditions here the last couple of days and today, we're in a very wet weather pattern this morning. Trade winds are blowing already this morning, but the rain is pouring down hard. Very unappealing conditions for me.
Yesterday was somewhat soggy, with squalls off and on along the north shore. Kihei was where a lot people went I suspect since it was sunnier and the wind averages were higher. I opted to try Kanaha when I saw the wind sensor hit 21 and stay there for few readings. Once we arrived at Kanaha though, the wind had dropped considerably. The skies were gray and there were ominous darker gray skies upwind. Nevertheless, we waited it out. Seemed worth waiting for a bit because there were some really sweet looking waves at Lowers. Clean, smooth, head- to logo-high wave goodness.
I took out my 5.7 and floaty wave board when the wind seemed to fill in a bit and headed to Lowers. The waves were indeed pretty sweet, but I found that I had much to big sail and board but held on for several wave rides anyway. It wasn't even very crowded for Lowers. When my arms were feeling a bit noodly, I came back in and got 5.0 and smaller board and tried the waves at Uppers. Bigger, not quite as consistent and clean or as long rides but pretty fun. After a short time the wind started backing of and getting a bit more funky and it looked like another squall was about to hit, so I called it good. A fun short and sweet session. While talking on the beach earlier with a guy, we had joked that "this could be REALLY good, or this could REALLY suck." Happy to report that it ended up on the REALLY good end of the spectrum, even if it was a bit short.
