Slalom Practice Video

Saturday, March 31, 2008 at 7:30 pm HST

Winds on Maui have been cranking for the last several days. Caught some video action at Kanaha today of Kevin and Matt Pritchard, Jimmy Diaz and more tuning up for slalom season in cranking Kanaha winds. I did a real quick editing job on this. Less than 4 hours from the beach to your home or office. Now that's fresh video!

Video Slalom Practice

As for the rest of us, it's been 4.2, 4.2, 4.2 every day for the last 3 days. No waves, only wind swell up at Camp One. Beautiful weather though. Just like summer conditions.

Video Hookipa Hootenanny

Saturday, March 29, 2008 at 9:30 am HST

Video action from Hookipa on Thursday. As you can see, it was pretty crowded - lots of photographers in the water and Team Pryde out on their new lime green and purple Prydes. Notable stars in this video, Robby Naish, Kevin Pritchard, Kauli Seadi, Levi Siver, Antoine Albeau, Jason Polakow and more.

Video Hookipa Hootenanny

Yesterday we saw winds kick in a little bit stronger. I caught the later afternoon session, getting on the water around 2:30ish with 4.7/85L. Wind was super light inside but pretty strong outside - strong enough for 4.5 really, but not so strong that the 4.7 wasn't manageable. Pretty fun session.

The north swell episode from this week is virtually gone now. All we saw at Uppers yesterday was wind swell. Some nice ramps for jumping though. No new north swell planned for at least a few days, maybe a small bump next week.

As for winds, the high pressure is supposed to be building, which should amp up the pressure gradient and therefore the winds too. It's been an above average March for wind with sailable wind for at least the last 18 days in a row and it looks like we'll finish the month off with continued strong trades. If you're on Maui on your windsurfing vacation now, you should be getting your money's worth.

More Fun

Friday, March 28, 2008 at 7:15 am HST

The wind and wave fun continue here on Maui. Leftovers from Tuesday's swell continue to roll in - not as big, but still pretty fun. Wind has been a bit up and down at Kanaha at times. Wednesday I timed it during a down period, so that session was a bit of a slogfest.

Yesterday I hit up Hookipa and caught some video action. Lots and lots of people out on the water. Team Pryde must be doing a photo shoot or something. Had to be at least a dozen new Pryde sails out there, featuring their new color palette - including purple sails with orange accents and lime green sails. Can't say that I care for their colors this year. Anyway, got a bunch of footage so I'll start editing that today or tomorrow and post within a few days.

After Hookipa yesterday I went to Kanaha and got a nice 5.3 session with some head high waves at Uppers. Had a lot of fun. Conditions were just right for me to feel like I could push myself, hit the lip later, get more vertical. A lot of fun.

Should be more wind today, but I think the swell has dropped another notch according to the buoys.

More Fun

Friday, March 28, 2008 at 7:15 am HST

The wind and wave fun continue here on Maui. Leftovers from Tuesday's swell continue to roll in - not as big, but still pretty fun. Wind has been a bit up and down at Kanaha at times. Wednesday I timed it during a down period, so that session was a bit of a slogfest.

Yesterday I hit up Hookipa and caught some video action. Lots and lots of people out on the water. Team Pryde must be doing a photo shoot or something. Had to be at least a dozen new Pryde sails out there, featuring their new color palette - including purple sails with orange accents and lime green sails. Can't say that I care for their colors this year. Anyway, got a bunch of footage so I'll start editing that today or tomorrow and post within a few days.

After Hookipa yesterday I went to Kanaha and got a nice 5.3 session with some head high waves at Uppers. Had a lot of fun. Conditions were just right for me to feel like I could push myself, hit the lip later, get more vertical. A lot of fun.

Should be more wind today, but I think the swell has dropped another notch according to the buoys.

Back on Island, Back on the Water

Monday, March 24, 2008 at 6:20 pm HST

Took a short weekend off this weekend to go play tourist on Waikiki. Kind of felt good to get away from the normal routine, but I definitely wouldn't want to spend more than a weekend there. It's tropical and the water is pretty, but it's way overcrowded. Got back on Maui and wow, what a contrast.

Got on the water today around 1:30 with 5.3 nicely powered most of the time. Wind was fairly steady, no waves really - even the wind swell was tiny. I sailed until a little after 3:00 when the wind dropped a bit. Nice day to be out on the water - looked like awesome conditions for the slalom guys out tuning up.

Looks like we can expect this trade wind pattern to continue for a bit. The national weather service is saying we should get a small north swell boost tomorrow peaking at 6 - 8 feet tomorrow or tomorrow night.

Kinda Flukey

Friday, March 21, 2008 at 8:30 pm HST

Wind was kinda flukey and flakey today. Started out super light from weird directions. I had almost given up on it but kept checking the wind anyway and midday it came up to around 20. Sailed 5.3 and a prototype 85 L board. Quite a bit of slogging but the wind did come up enough to power up to Uppers and Camp One and try some backside wave riding. Kinda fun while it lasted, but the wind dropped again around 3:00.

Ran into Matt and Kevin Pritchard down at Kanaha, which reminds me to mention their new website that just went live this week. Kevin's had a blog going for some time now, but he and Matt have teamed up and have their own website with Kevin's blog, features from Matt and more. Check out PritchardWindsurfing.com for the goods.

Looks like we should continue with the trade wind pattern more or less for the next week or so. I think the wind may be a bit flukey this weekend since there's an upper level low loitering about. I'm off to Waikiki to play tourist for the weekend so I'll be away from the computer (first time in something like 6 years that I'll be away from the computer for more than an 8 hour stretch - REALLY looking forward to that), hence no reports until at least Monday. Happy Easter!

Trades Still Blowing

Thursday, March 20, 2008 at 8:50 pm HST

The nuking winds have backed off somewhat the last few days. Yesterday my body told me that I just needed to take a day off from sailing, so I obliged. From what I heard at the beach today it was a pretty gusty day anyway.

Today was kinda that way too, though I think I timed it about right. The wind was pretty offshore and I couldn't really tell how windy it was outside the break so I rigged 5.3. One reach out and back and I was downsizing to a 4.7. That worked pretty good once I got outside. Not much happening as far as down-the-line waves the last few days. Pretty much just backside riding wind swell at Uppers. Still, I had a lot of fun today - nice ramps and some fun backside riding at Uppers and Camp One.

In other news, the latest windsurfing video making the rounds on the Internet right now is "2 for 10" from Gollito and Paskowski. It's shot in Margarita, not Maui, but since I've spent a half dozen spring vacations in Margi it still holds a special affinity for me so I thought I'd share it here. This is some absolutely phenomenal freestyle sailing. Enjoy!

Nukin' Day

Tuesday, March 18, 2008 at 7:00 pm HST

Winds nuked again today. Powered up 4.2 sailing for me at Uppers. Sloppy, trashy waves, but still had fun.

On to more sobering news, and back on the topic of the silly Maui County Parks department. I got this in email.

One Size Does Not Fit All
March 17, 2008
Dear Maui Windsurfing and Kitesurfing Friends,

We need your help. You have probably heard that Parks Director, Tamara Horcajo has proposed additional rules that intend to better manage increasingly stressed park infrastructure (See Maui News, March 16, 2008, Section D, ‘Opinion’). While we agree with the intent, we strongly disagree with the method. The error is that the rules are a “One-Size-Fits-All” design - trying to fix problems at small surf parks but upsetting the wonderful balance that we have at Kanaha.

County Council intended for the Parks Department to create Rules for managing parks and activities uniquely to“maximize the recreational, environmental and economic benefit for Maui’s residents and visitors.” Each of Maui’s beach parks are special in their own way and foster a unique community of users and thereby necessitate careful attention and management to meet the stated objective of ‘maximizing benefit’ for all. The Rules will completely upset the harmonious, respectful, cooperative scenario that currently exists amongst recreational users at Kanaha.

For example, there is no justification to limit a school at 88-acre-Kanaha to two concurrent lessons – especially when they are often best conducted as private lessons. Many, many sailors will be forced to “go it alone” compromising their safety and enjoyment. Especially for windsurfing and kitesurfing, limiting instructors limits safety not only for the novice, but for other beach goers too.

With other limits on holidays, weekends and times that lessons may occur in the park, a typical working Maui resident’s access to our professional lessons is limited to one of two allotted slots on Saturdays between the hours of 11 and 2. Is this really “protecting the parks for everybody to use?” (Horcajo, Maui News, March 2, 2008)

These are just two examples of many errors in the new Rules, and they are a mere two signatures away from enforceable. Without changes, this will be the end of [Maui windsurfing instruction], the end of discounted kids’ camps and the end of affordable private lessons. The good news is Parks Director Horcajo has the absolute authority and discretion to modify the proposed rules to acknowledge and foster exceptional uniqueness of Kanaha and windsurfing and kitesurfing activities. Our park and our community deserve the extra effort that it will take to craft appropriate rules that will enhance, not diminish, the use and enjoyment for residents and visitors alike while still protecting the resources. A One-Size-Fits-All approach to Rule-making will surely fail us all.

Please write to our County officials to ask them to carefully re-write the Rules so that our Kanaha community is not affected detrimentally. Please address your comments to:
parks.dept@mauicounty.gov
tamara.horcajo@co.maui.hi.us
charmaine.tavares@co.maui.hi.us
Stan.Zitnik@co.maui.hi.us

I encourage any windsurfer out there reading this blog who has experienced the value of qualified windsurfing instruction anywhere, but especially Maui, to write to the county officials listed above.

Video Hookipa March 14

Sunday, Maarch 16, 2008 at 3:10 pm HST

Here's some video action from Hookipa on Friday. Super gusty conditions. Only a few big names out since most pros were still over in Cabo.

Video Hookipa March 14

The wind here yesterday and today has been pretty strong. Sailed 4.7 yesterday - pretty gusty, no waves to speak of except wind swell. Similar today with 4.7 again, but not as gusty. Wind has been very east, making for light conditions inside. Wind kicked into high gear both days around 1:00 so the early session has been the best. We should continue to see strong trades for the next several days, though it looks like they might be getting a little wetter.

Comments:

Great vid as always & brilliant choice of music given the current situation in Maui County politics.
Scorpionfish

Nuclear Day

Saturday, March 15, 2008 at 9:30 am HST

Nuking winds on Maui yesterday. I opted to go to Hookipa and catch some action there rather than sail. With most of the pros sitting around waiting for wind in Cabo Verde, Hookipa was relatively uncrowded. Got some video action of some local guys, plus a few big names like Levi Siver, Francisco Goya and Robby Naish. For now, here's a few photos of the action yesterday.

Gnarly Day

Thursday, March 13, 2008 at 5:45 pm HST

Yesterday's big waves declined a tad, but the wind picked up the slack, kicking into high gear, especially later in the afternoon. The wind got going right out of the gate with average readings around 25 and more or less built as the day progressed.

I got on the water around 1:45 with my 5.0 after rigging a 4.5 and seeing that the wind had dropped. By 2:00 I was wanting the 4.5. Wind was very strong outside. Waves were very meaty and bumpy - much more so than yesterday.

Still lots of folks down at Lowers. Hookipa was blown out earlier in the day and a lot of regulars were at Kanaha again. I did hear later in the afternoon that Robby Naish and Sean Ordonez and a few others went out around 3:00pm.

Lest anyone think that Maui is only about wave sailing, here's some proof to the contrary. During yesterday's big wave event the hard core slalom contingent at Kanaha was blasting around. Phil McGain and few other Maui Sails team racers were out blasting around inside the break on their TR-4s. And Steve Robinson sent me a couple of photos of John Monroe and PWA rookie Greg Thomas (US808). Watch for Greg this season as he joins the PWA slalom tour.

Greg Thomas

John Monroe

Thanks to Steve Robinson for the photos.

Awesome Day

Wednesday, March 12, 2008 at 6:00 pm HST

Serious trade winds and big waves returned to Maui today. It's been pretty spotty for windsurfing the last few weeks but today made up for it.

I started out the day heading to Hookipa and got there around 11:30. Hookipa was pretty much closed out. Saw one guy make it out, get one wave and come in. Nobody else was even rigging. It was pretty obvious that it wasn't going to be a day for Hookipa action so I headed down to Kanaha.

Awesome! was the expression I heard most often today from people describing their sessions and that was what came to my mind as well each time I came off the water. It's been long enough without wind and it was good enough to make it a three session day for me today. 5.3 was the call for me, but 5.0 would have worked. I opted to go a little bigger because there was so much water moving around from the big surf and big tide change.

Surf forecast for today was calling for 18 - 23 feet and I'd say Uppers was easily in that range, maybe bigger at times. Personally I rode or witnessed several mast high+ sets but several people recounted to me their experiences with double-mast high sets today.

A lot of the waves were pretty bumpy, but if you timed the wave right to get one of the later waves in the set, there were some absolutely glassy, clean, smooth waves. I was lucky enough to catch a couple of glassy smooth mast high + waves today. That is such a cool feeling. Nothing like it. Awesome!

I didn't even bother with Lowers today. I looked down there when I launched and it looked like a zoo. Lots of Hookipa regulars were at Kanaha today and a lot go to Lowers. The couple of reports I heard from Lowers match the Uppers reports. Awesome!

Tomorrow should bring similar conditions. Good wind. Waves should be a bit smaller but still good. I might try to hit up Hookipa for some video action if I can get my fix in beforehand.

Teaser Wind

Tuesday, March 11, 2008 at 6:30 pm HST

Light wind again yesterday, but today was actually sailable if you timed it right. Sadly, I didn't. Wind came to 20ish around 12:30 then dropped, then came up again, then dropped. I headed down after the second time it came up only to arrive when it dropped again. Even then there were still a lot of people out maximizing the light wind with some non-planing freestyle.

All indications are that tomorrow should bring better wind and also a new swell. Also tomorrow night at 6:00pm HST will be the next episode of Windsurfing Talkstory. This week's guest is board shaper Peter Thommen. If you're not in Maui, you can tune into the show over the Internet.

Super Light

Sunday, March 9, 2008 at 8:40 am HST

Still got super light winds here. Friday there were some teases into the mid teens, but yesterday it was single digits all day long.

Got an email from Norm of a new YouTube video of Bernd featuring a mast cam, called "From Above." They got some pretty cool action. Check it out:

Thanks to Norm and Bernd for sending that to me!

Still trying out the Twitter thing a bit. You can either check out my page on Twitter, or I've embedded the feed into a page here on this site.

Something New

Thursday, March 6, 2008 at 6:50 pm HST

Time to try something new here on the blog. The latest rage/fad on the internet right now is Twitter. I've known about it for awhile now, and considered trying it as a new feature to this blog, but it just always seemed a bit lame to me.

But yesterday, I watched Twitter in Plain English from the cool guys at CommonCraft and figured, what the hell, it's free, let's give it a try for a week or so. What's Twitter you ask? Well, basically it's like micro-blogging, short little posts about what someone is doing. If you want more info than that, check out the Twitter in Plain English link above.

So, if you're stuck at your desk job wondering what Makani is up to, well, now (maybe for a limited time only), you can check it out. You can either check out my page on Twitter, or I've embedded the feed into a page here on this site. I started it last night and diligently "tweeted" as the call it, throughout the day today. Wanna know how the sailing was today? Check out the Twitter page.

Skeptical? Yea, me too. But, it did occur to me that Twitter would be a great way for windsurfers to let their fellow sailors know what the conditions are the beach. You can do it from a cell phone after all. A network of sailors on Twitter could keep everyone pretty informed about the conditions - "5.3 and mast-high at Hookipa..." "4.7 and super light inside at Sugar Cove..." "Offshore and gusty at Kanaha.." You get the idea. Could be cool windsurfing coconut telegraph, (Hmm, coconut Twitter?). The PWA could also use Twitter for their live event tickers instead of what their using now. Just an idea if there's anyone from PWA reading this.

So, the MauiWindsurfing.net Twitter test is now open. Check it out. Think it's lame? Let me know. Think it's a cool idea for windsurfers? Let me know.

Hmmm. Twitter site seems to be down at the moment. That ain't gonna convince me to keep using it. Ok, seems to be working again now.

Comments:

I like the twitter news! It's a nice, easy reading escape into the world of a windsurfer's day on Maui. I'm in Ptld. and I just felt like I escaped to Maui.
Lee

Cool. Thanks for the input Lee. That's one vote for Twitter, 0 against.
Makani

Windsurfing Talkstory

Wednesday, March 5, 2008 at 4:15 pm HST

Probably too late for most people, but just a reminder that at 6:00pm HST tonight you can catch the folks at Windsurfing Talkstory interview Ray Masters, the owner and operator of MauiWindcam.com. If you're on Maui, tune into 89.5 FM. If you're not, you can listen to it over the web live, at RadiOpio.

I just got done uploading the archive of last week's show in which Josh Stone and Maui county councilman Mike Molina discussed a lot of hot political issues here in Maui and Hawaii that affect windsurfers, including transient vacation rentals on the north shore, the proposed Senate bill to ban windsurfing withing 200 feet of swimmers and surfers and most recently the Maui County Parks department gestapo-like crackdown on ocean sports instruction, including windsurfing. Here's last week's archive (it's got a minute or so of silence at the beginning):

Maui County Councilman Mike Molina & Josh Stone - February 27, 2008
A discussion about political issues on Maui and Hawaii affecting windsurfing.

And here's the classic Josh Stone interview from January.

Josh Stone Interview - January 30, 2008
Josh leaves everyone stunned with amazing his amazing windsurfing stories.

Light wind still dominates here. It was light but marginally sailable yesterday at Kanaha, though I opted to get other things done. Today was even lighter - big slalom gear weather. It's a light wind pattern and each day you just have to wait and see if it will amp up into the 20s like it did on Monday or stay in the low teens like today.

Surprise Session

Monday, March 3, 2008 at 7:40 pm HST

The forecast for today, all this week in fact, was for light trades, so I didn't have any expectations of sailing today. But, out of force of habit I still check the wind sensors every few hours. So, I was shocked around noon to see average wind in the upper teens. Not quite enough to get me off my butt yet, but worth checking more frequently.

Within half an hour or so the reading was up with averages at 20 and gusts in the low 20s. Ok, that's enough to get me off my butt. Finished some work, threw together lunch and headed to the beach.

Spectacular weather with clear blue skies, warm temps and 5.5 conditions. I debated between 5.3 and 5.7 and opted for the smaller of the two. Turned out to be marginally powered initially then once I got up to Uppers it was a bit mo' betta'. Not much to speak of for waves - almost summertime conditions as far as that goes, but there were a couple small sets occasionally. Still, what an awesome day to be out on the water! Fabulous weather, super steady winds. Picture perfect slalom or freeriding conditions. This goes to show that even if they're calling for light trades, you still gotta keep an eye on it. That's the forecast for the rest of this week, but who knows, maybe we'll get repeats of today. New swell coming tomorrow so that would be sweet!

In other news, there's still a lot of controversy over all the stupidity our local and state governments are doing, plus the general attitude of "locals." Someone sent me an interesting link today about how a lot of people in Hawaii don't really like tourists. Strange since the state economy runs on it, but here's a different perspective:

Hawaii: tourists make lousy neighbors

Wind Gone Again

Saturday, March 1, 2008 at 6:40 pm HST

Well, we got two days in a row of sailable trades, Thursday and Friday. Friday turned out to be a bit lighter than Thursday. I timed it wrong, hitting the water around 1:00 on my 5.7 and floaty wave board. Barely got planing and since there was no way I was going to make it up to Uppers I decided to just try Lowers.

First reach out and I spotted a nice set coming so I jibed and got on the wave. Had to dodge a few guys heading out, but then it was a gorgeous head high wave. Got about 5 or 6 turns on it and by the time I kicked out I was down past the lifeguard stand around kite beach. Took me the next 40 minutes of slogging to make it back up to the launch at Lowers.

It was a nice ride, but I was sick of slogging by that time and figured the slog/wave ratio wasn't worth so I decided to come in. It didn't look to me like it was going to come back so I opted to make a Costco run. Bad call. Turns out while I was in Costco the wind came up to about 22 G 26 for some awesome uncrowded conditions at Uppers. Doh! Still kicking myself for leaving early.

Today brought another round of light winds, mostly under 10 knots all day on the north shore. Looks like we'll see a few more days of this and a possible return of trades on Wednesday. Whether or not they'll be strong enough for sailing on my wave gear will remain to be seen.