Onshore Hookipa VideoFriday, October 31, 2008 at 3:45 pm HSTSome radical action from Hookipa on Wednesday as a large north swell hits Maui's north shore along with light onshore winds. A bit rushed and rough on some of the filming end editing, but worth watching for some big aerials, goiters, wave 360s, and whatever it is that Mark Angulo is going for. As for the sailing report, waves are on the decline and wind is still pretty light - mid-teens at Kanaha (except in the late afternoon when I've had other committments). I hear Hookipa has been fun, logo- to mast-high yesterday and head- to logo-high today - still onshore. The SUPers have gotta be loving these conditions, but it's a bit light for my quiver, so I haven't made it down to the beach the last few days. Hopefully tomorrow.
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Hookipa Video TeaserThursday, October 30, 2008 at 5:30 pm HSTA short preview of some Hookipa radical action from yesterday. I'll probably have the full video up on Halloween night. CommentsHi- I absolutely love the site and regularly check it for the video content especially. I live in Scotland and although we have great conditions here, it's good to see what it's like when you don't have to wear a wetsuit! My question is if you have plans to publish a video podcast of the videos? It would be VERY cool to be able to watch it when I'm travelling! Cheers and keep up the good work. Ken Thanks Ken. I appreciate the positive feedback. I actually have considered doing a video podcast, but that's as far as it's gotten. It would be cool and if I had more time to put into this site, it would be near the top of the list of things to do. As it is, between working (yes, I actually do have to work - the website does not pay the bills and I'm not rich or retired) and sailing, there isn't a lot of time left over to do much more than write some blog posts and shoot some photos and videos. There's so much going on in the windsurfing world on Maui and so many key players here, that there's a big opportunity for somebody to do a Maui Windsurfing podcast. I actually think the industry players here - manufacturers, shapers, sail designers, team riders etc. are missing a big opportunity to do more with social media like podcasts. I'd love to step in and do that, but this is essentially a hobby and I just don't have the time for it. But, I'm not ruling it out. Maybe someday. Cheers and Aloha! Makani |
Hookipa Rocks AgainWednesday, October 29, 2008 at 7:15 pm HSTAfter several days of super light wind, stronger winds arrived today along with a new large north swell. A high surf advisory was posted, meaning over 15 foot faces with 20 foot faces in the larger sets. Kanaha was still lighter and more onshore than I wanted so I headed to Hookipa. Lots of great action on the water with regular cast, including Mark Angulo, Kevin Pritchard, Robby Naish, Robby Swift, Ross Williams and more, charging hard. First set of photos below and I got quite a bit of video too - probably enough for a couple of different videos. Should be a Hookipa video-fest here next week. For now, you'll have to settle for photos. 
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Rocktober Hookipa VideoSunday, October 26, 2008 at 2:00 pm HSTVideo from Thursday. A new swell rolls into Maui's north shore, Hookipa's rock stars hit it up, and lots of gear and people end up on the rocks. Starring; Robby Naish, Kevin Pritchard, Ross Williams, Levi Siver, Anthony Ruenes, Mark Angulo, Kai Katchadorian, Keith Teboul and more. As is often the case, Mark Angulo is a guy to watch. Not sure if he was going for his trademark 'Mutant' or if these are "just" big air wave 360s, but it's always entertaining to watch him go for it. I almost missed his biggest attempt while tracking another guy. In the segment captured above, Mark comes screaming in off a bottom turn from out of frame to throw himself into this move. I slowed it down a bit so, to show it off better. I gotta learn to keep a better eye on him when I'm filming.
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A Few More Hookipa PhotosSaturday, October 25, 2008 at 9:15 am HSTHere's a few more shots from Hookipa on Thursday. The north swell continued yesterday but the wind went kaput - averaging around 10 or less on the north shore. Winds will likely be super light again today through at least Monday. Trades should return mid-week next week along with a new north swell. Look for new Hookipa video from Thursday sometime tomorrow (Sunday). 
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A New Swell ArrivesThursday, October 23, 2008 at 9:00pm HSTAnother good sized north swell hit the north shore today. Wind was a bit up and down but overall a pretty fun day. I headed to Kahana early on seeing readings over 20 there, but got there to find that the wind had tanked. Rigged 5.7 and waited for the wind to come up a bit. Finally around noon it did and I headed to the big waves at Uppers. Uppers was pretty sweet today. Glassy big waves and I had the place all to myself for a few waves, since everyone else had rigged too small. Soon the wind picked up and I had too much sail and too much board. Really wanted to go in and rig down to 5.3 and get the smaller board but it's so rare to have waves all to yourself that I decided to just tough it out while it was still pretty deserted. After 45 minutes it was getting ridiculous trying to hold down 5.7 and 95 liters on the mast high waves so I charged in and rigged down to 5.3 and 85, and rushed back up to score more waves while it was relatively uncrowded. The 5.3 was good for about 10 or 15 minutes and then it was too much too. 4.7 - 5.0 would have been much better. Still some great rides. Hung on until 1:30 until it was just too much again and more and more people were showing up. Ok, good enough for now. Time to take a break and head to Hookipa and shoot some photos and video. Hookipa was pretty crowded and some of the sets were pumping - easily over mast high in the bigger sets. Lots of great action with some big names out, including Robby Naish, Kevin Pritchard, Levi Siver, Ross Williams, Ketih Teboul, Francisco Goya, Mark Angulo, Robby Swift and more. Hookipa was charging a pretty high cover for some guys today though, with the big sets separating sailors from their gear and sending it straight into the infamous Hookipa rocks. I lost track of how many guys I saw scrambling to try to save gear today. Had to have been thousands of dollars of destroyed masts, booms, boards and sails today. The sail and board repair shops will be busy for several days. Look for some video of the action here in a few days. Meanwhile, here's a few photos... 
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Vandals on MauiWednesday, October 22, 2008 at 8:30pm HSTAfter a day of really light wind yesterday, the trades kicked it back into high gear again today. 4.5 was the call for me in the afternoon session. Not much happening wave-wise today, but there did happen to be some photo shoot action at Kanaha today. The chopper was out getting some photos of Kevin Pritchard and Ross Williams on some Gaastra sails. Later, photographer Darrel Wong got into the photo-shoot action to shoot Anthony Ruenes doing some freestyle on a Vandal sail (apparently a new brand, one I had never heard of until today) as well as more of Team Gaastra coming in hot and fast to carve around Darrell. Darrell displayed nerves of steel as these guys were pulling off moves within inches of him. Naturally I pulled out the camera after my session to capture some of the action...
Commentsyup. that was our first bit of VANDAL shooting with Darrell. Check it out over the next days, as shooting should shift to Baby Beach/ Secrets, and Hookipa. Hopefully we'll get everything (wind, sun, waves, and clouds) lined up for some sick shots and sequences. D |
2010 Gear DesignMonday, October 20, 2008 at 9:20 pm HSTAs predicted, winds backed off today to more mellow levels - 5.0ish levels for the ladies and 5.7ish levels for average guys on wave gear. The 2009 gear has just hit the shops, but there's no rest for sail designers, board shapers and team riders developing new gear. Last week we saw Robert Stro, Neil Pryde's sail designer down at Kanaha, presumably trying out some new designs. Yesterday saw Goya Sails' designer Jason Diffin at Kanaha with a new and different shape. Today it was Team Gaastra at Kanaha, Matt Pritchard, Ross Williams and Gaastra sail designer Dan Kessler, putting some sails to the test. Speaking of Matt Pritchard. A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to sit in on a Matt Pritchard wave clinic with a group of 4 women. Matt went through a comprehensive introduction to wave sailing on land before heading out on the water with the ladies. Matt has probably become THE go-to guy for wave-sailing lessons on Maui. Here's a short rough edit of some video I shot of Matt explaining some fundamentals of bottom turns. Matt and brother Kevin will be putting together more great video tips in the upcoming months to go along with what they already have on their website. Check out PritchardWindsurfing.com for more great video tips from these guys. 
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Maui Wind & Surf ReportSunday, October 19, 2008 at 9:30am HSTAfter our first large north swell early last week, things quieted down to mellower conditions for the last several days. Thursday we saw light onshore wind for a good portion of the day. 5.7 was what I needed but I foolishly had rigged the 5.3. Wind came up nicely around 2.30 though for much more powered sailing. Surf was predominantly wind swell. Friday we saw a return of stronger winds and continued sunny, blue skies and backside-riding wind swell. Nice 5.0 conditions for me. Nothing epic, but a beautiful day to be out on the water. Saturday brought lots of clouds, showers and squalls to Maui's north shore for much of the day. There was a nice break in the clouds and squalls in the early afternoon when the sun came out and the wind settled in comparatively. This brought scores of people to the break at Uppers to play in the surf - a slight improvement in surf from previous days. Sadly, we timed our session to start at the end of that sunny window of opportunity and ended up getting the squally conditions that finished off the day. Pulling out the crystal ball, it looks like we should continue to get wet trade winds today. The trades are forecast to drop off a notch or two Monday and Tuesday then pick up to stronger levels again on Wednesday for the rest of the week. As for north shore surf, another small north northwest swell will begin to increase Wednesday, then hold at moderate levels Thursday and Friday. Overall, my impression with October so far this year is that we're getting higher than normal number of windy days and lower than normal wave days. |
Wednesday Hookipa PhotosWednesday, October 15, 2008 at 6:30pm HSTThe first large north swell of the season hit the north shore the last few days. Monday was super light wind, not sailable in my book unless maybe you had a SUP board with a mast track. Tuesday was looking doubtful for much of the day as well. I was monitoring the wind cams and the graph all day hoping for some good readings. Dialed up the Maui windsurfing coconut telegraph to see if I could find anyone with a beach report. Matt P. reported that he had heard that Hookipa was super light and dominated by surfers. It was looking like a bust so I gave up on it. I should know better than that by now. Turns out, those who hung around Kanaha or Hookipa until the late afternoon session scored. I've heard several reports that the wind came up and those who were there scored epic sessions. I was convinced that today would be the day the trade winds would fill back in and that there would still be some good swell running. The trade winds had other plans apparently. It was up and down and tempting at times, but just never really filled in enough at Kanaha for long enough to get going. The wind graph looks almost as bad as a graph of the stock market the last few days. Hookipa was showing the most promising readings with averages in the mid-teens, so I headed there. It was obvious the swell had run its course. Intermittent head-high waves, super light, offshore wind and dark gray skies, only 3 or 4 sailors out and 10 - 15 surfers. Not much to get excited about but I snapped a few photos... 
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Funky Wave TeaserSunday, October 12, 2008 at 6:15 pm HSTThe buzz on Maui the last few days has been palpable. The foremost topic of every windsurfing discussion has been the first anticipated large north shore swell of the season. We've had some small and medium north swells over the last month, but the first swell forecast to reach high surf advisory levels - over 15 feet - was forecast to start hitting the north shore today. Questions abounded. Would it hit before the wind slacked off? Before dark? By midday day today, Kanaha was much more crowded than it's been the last few weekends. Lots of people eager with anticipation, hoping the swell would hit earlier than predicted. By the time I got there around 1:30 it was pretty obvious the real swell wasn't here yet. The surf at Uppers looked a bit better than Saturday, but there was barely anything breaking at Lowers. Wind was still fluctuating. I got reports from guys who'd been out that they were overpowered on their 5.0s. Recommended sails were 4.5 - 4.7. Hmm. Didn't look that windy to me. Certainly not as windy as yesterday when I was way, way, way overpowered on 4.5 at times, at other times just nicely powered on 4.5. I opted to trust my own judgement and rigged 5.0. After the first few reaches I knew I had made the right decision in not rigging the 4.5. 5.0 was barely adequate at times. 5.3 would have actually been better. Worked up to Uppers to find some surf, but it was still predominantly wind swell. Nothing to get too excited about yet. So, when an extended lull hit, I slogged back in, let out downhaul and outhaul. Around 2:00, after making my adjustments, I saw what appeared to be a good sized set wave hit Uppers. And, the wind looked like it was back. Ok, back on the water I go and charge up to Uppers. No doubt about it, the waves definitely had a more northerly component to them, much better suited to down the line. Still pretty intermittent though. I got lucky enough to get a couple to myself before the rest of the sailors on the beach realized that the wind and waves were both up and joined me up at Uppers. Within about 15 minutes, Uppers was as crowded as I've ever seen it. Waves were pretty funky - pretty intermittent still, not really well organized - obviously the first prototype rejects from the soon-to-come wave production run. By 3:00, the waves hadn't improved any, wind was getting lighter and I had had enough of the crowds. By the time I left Kanaha around 4:30 or 5:00 there still didn't look to be a good consistent swell hitting. Looked like a couple of bomber sets hit while I was de-rigging, but they seemed to be followed by really extended periods of not much. Got the report from Jazz that Hookipa was also a crowded zoo of windsurfers, with surfers trying to exert dominance in the break and apparently the big swell hadn't hit there yet either. So, with the wind forecast to take a nose dive to super light levels the next two days, looks like the surfers will score on the big swell first this time. If we're lucky, the trade winds might return Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday while there's still some surf. |
Wind SeductionFriday, October 10, 2008 at 8:30 pm HSTAfter a pretty strong start to October, Maui's winds mellowed a bit Tuesday through Thursday this week. Still sailable at times but I think you had to be at the beach and waiting for it in order to score - at least on Tuesday and Wednesday. It was light enough Tuesday through Thursday that I didn't even make it to the beach. From what I can tell, Tuesday was the lightest day, really only sailable for a short period midday. Winds on Wednesday flirted with the 20mph range at times in the afternoon. Never strong enough for long enough to warrant a trip to the beach for us. Wednesday night was sushi night in Makawao for a small group of Team Gaastra wannabes and a Team Maui Sails wannabe. Karen and I joined Erin, Jazzmatazz and Beach-Liason-WindOrWithout Rebecca at Makawao Sushi and Deli for an evening of gear discussion and sushi. I'm not a huge sushi fan, but others in the group who are, swear it's some of the best sushi on Maui. So, like sushi? Head on up to Makawao to check out Makawao Sushi and Deli - on Baldwin Avenue a few doors down from Rodeo General Store. Light winds continued on Thursday. Heard reports at Kanaha today that the wind was pretty mellow and steady in the afternoon. Wind was in the upper teens, enough for me with my 5.7, but with flat surf on the north shore, it was tempting but just wasn't enticing enough to coax me to the beach. The teasing and taunting of the previous three days escalated to genuine seduction today. Winds were averaging over 20 by the 11:00 start time. As it turns out, it was a very up and down, gusty/holey day. Wind was pretty offshore so it was pretty light on the inside, but outside the reef was a completely different game. It's always a tough rigging decision on these days. I opted for 5.0/85L and, for the most part, that was the right call. In the holes, I was glad to have every square centimeter of that 5.0. In the gusts, I could have been on 4.5. As for surf, it was just wind swell and pretty sloppy and bumpy at that. But with the offshore direction of the wind it was possible to make some down the line turns so it was actually kind of fun sometimes. By 2:30 or so I had had enough and decided to call it a session. Good timing on my part I think. Looks like the wind went kind of ballistic after that. Looks like the Windsurfing Magazine board test crew is on Maui right now. They had a ton of gear strewn about the lawn at Kanaha today. Pretty interesting conditions to be testing gear in today with the up and down conditions and sloppy, bumpy conditions. Looking into the windsurfing crystal ball, it looks like we should see continued trade winds Saturday and Sunday. The big buzz though is the north swell due to arrive late Sunday. This is forecast to be the first large north swell of the season, with wave faces forecast at around 15 feet. That should translate to logo- to mast-high at Lowers, mast-high + at Uppers and Hookipa. The bummer is that winds are forecast to turn light on Monday and Tuesday when the swell is at its peak. But there seems to be a lot of uncertainty in the forecast discussion as to wind strength so we'll have to monitor it closely. Right now it looks like stronger trades may return on Wednesday and there should still be some large surf rolling in through then. |
October is RockingTuesday, October 7, 2008 at 5:15 pm HSTWe're off to a windy start for October with 7 for 7 days of trade winds. Over the weekend we saw a continuation of Friday afternoon's strong winds. On Saturday and Sunday both, we got winds at Kanaha in the 4.5 range for me each afternoon. Surf has essentially been of the summer variety - wind swell at Uppers and Camp One with backside riding and jumping dominating. There have been some occasional sets though that wrap around enough to get a down the line turn or two in if you're lucky. Winds today started a downward trend. If you were lucky enough to time it right and get the early session before about 1:00, there were strong enough winds for sailing. After about 1:30 the winds took a nose dive. The pressure gradient is weakening and it looks like it will weak for the next few days before strengthening the last part of the week. The upshot of that is that we'll probably have pretty light winds the next 2 or 3 days. A large northwest swell will begin arriving early Sunday, likely causing surf to increase above advisory threshold - 15 foot faces - along north-facing shores Sunday into early next week. Public Service Announcements: This in from Australia... For immediate release. www.lancelinoceanclassic.com.au This event is a non-profit event that helps promote the sport of windsurfing to the world. So any help in promoting the event would be very much appreciated.
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Firefly - A Fresh New Hookipa VideoFriday, October 3, 2008 at 6:15 pm HSTWhile most pro windsurfers are in Sylt freezing their asses off, those who stayed on Maui enjoyed a fresh north swell under the warm and bright Maui sun this week. Dominant riders on Wednesday were Hot Sails Maui's Glen Hasslebeck on his green and blue Fire and Levi Siver on his lime green Neil Pryde Fly, hence the FireFly title. I'm pushed in a bit too tight on Levi on some of the shots in this video, but I'm pretty stoked about capturing his goiter about 2 minutes into the video. Levi is a super dynamic rider to watch with a fast, aggressive go-for-it style and sometimes is a bit hard to keep him all in the frame unless I'm pulled way back. The north swell you see in the video above declined a bit on Thursday, at least at Kanaha. Wind picked up nicely though to a solidly, well powered 5.3 for me. Still some fun sets at Uppers though it was inconsistent at times in my opinion. Lowers wasn't really happening to speak of yesterday so once again Uppers got pretty congested. Today was a wind buffet. If I had hung around the beach all day and rigged/re-rigged for all the changing conditions I could have probably rigged every sail in my quiver from 4.2 to 5.7 at some point. Fortunately I was lucky enough to time it right in the early afternoon and get a good 5.3 session, though by the end of my session I could have been on a 4.5. Overall the waves were mostly like the day before but some really nice head high + sets rolled in between 1:30 and 2:00 and it wasn't even very crowded at the time. Super fun! About that time a big squall was hitting uppers though and the 5.3 was getting to be a handful. All in all a pretty fun session today. Wind forecast looks pretty positive for the next several days. Surf is on the way down though. Tiny to small surf is expected off and on Sunday through Wednesday. |
Light Wind & Medium Surf - Hookipa PhotosWednesday, October 1, 2008 at 8:30 pm HSTAfter a cold front swept through the islands Monday and Tuesday, light onshore winds arrived today allowing us to score a bit of the moderate north swell rolling in. Kanaha was super light - average wind in the mid-teens. Tried the 5.7/95 liter combo but it was mostly slog-n-surf. Head-high surf at Lowers, bigger at Uppers with some occasional mast high sets. Up the coast at Hookipa, the windsurfers had to wait until early afternoon for the surfers to clear out. Caught some photos and video of the action in the a late afternoon. Wind was actually a little stronger at Hookipa. Lots and lots of sailors out on the water. Photos below, video in a few days...
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