Nov 26 Hookipa VideoSunday, November 30, 2008 at 7:30 am HSTLight winds on the inside and strong winds outside make for challenging conditions. Robby Naish, Jason Polakow, Kevin Pritchard and more still rip it up though. This video was shot last Wednesday when, once again it was nuking at Kanaha - averages around 30 knots and gusting over 40. Overall wind direction was pretty east, making for side- offshore conditions - light winds to launch and inside the break, very strong winds outside. Thanksgiving day brought occasionally sailable wind to the north shore, but pretty sketchy. I didn't take the bait. From what I hear though it was pretty up and down and not really worth the bother. Winds went light on Friday and wet blustery conditions along with a very large northwest swell hit the north shore on yesterday.
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T-Day Photo EssayThursday, November 27, 2008 at 12:00pm HSTHappy Thanksgiving everyone. Photos from Hookipa yesterday - light on the inside, nuking outside. 
CommentsHi, great photos. Who is the rider with the hot sails smack and what kind of board is he on? he is ripping! thanks for the great blog. Ben That's Andres Martinez. I'm told that's a custom Richard Green board he's riding.
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Pretty WindyWednesday, November 26, 2008 at 8:00 am HSTMonday went NUCLEAR. Average weight guys had trouble holding down 3.5s, big guys in the 220 range were well powered on 4.2s. Yesterday was a bit more manageable - 5.0 to start for me, then down to 4.5 later in the afternoon. Some fun waves at times at Uppers. Similar conditions should hold through today. T-Day should be a transition day. Likely sailable but the wind are supposed to go light and southeast Friday and Saturday. A very large northwest swell is also expected to roll in Friday and Saturday as well. Could get surf in the 25 foot range. Possibly a Jaws day (not sure if the direction is right for Jaws but the size should be big enough). |
Light and Airy Hookipa VideoSunday, November 23, 2008 at 7:30 am HSTLight, offshore dying winds and some big clean, logo- to mast-high sets at Hookipa last Thursday. Starring Keith Teboul, Levi Siver, John Skye, Fransisco Porcello, Leo Ray, Bernd Roediger, and a cameo SUP appearance by Laird Hamilton. The rain has stopped this morning, skies are a little less cloudy and it looks like trade winds have begun to fill back in. Should be a sailing day today and for the next two or three also.
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Helmet Cam Questions and AnswersSaturday, November 22, 2008 at 8:45 am HSTI've gotten a lot of comments and questions about the helmet cam, so I thought I'd address them all in one blog post. First of all, thanks for the positive feedback. It's been interesting to compare some people's comments. All of the online comments and emails have been very positive - people love the video. Contrast that with some comments I've gotten from people from the beach here on Maui who think the helmet cam videos are kind of boring. As a jaded Maui windsurfer, I agree with the latter, but I haven't gotten the camera out in some really good wave conditions yet. The last time I had it out in the waves and actually following closely behind someone, the batteries had died so I didn't get it! Doh! So, those looking for some more exciting video action, stay tuned. I'll get some better action at some point. Everyone wants to know what camera I'm using. The camera is the Helmet HERO Wide from GoPro. It's a 170 degree wide angle lens camera that comes with its own water housing. It will capture nearly an hour of continuous video with a 2 GB memory card. It comes with a variety of mounting options. So far I've only tried the helmet mount option, but I've ordered a separate clamping to attach to the boom. Some observations on the video quality. I'm pretty impressed with the quality of the video itself. For the price and size and the conditions it's getting used in, the picture is pretty crisp and clear. As for the wide angle lens, the jury is still out on that one. The wide angle lens makes everything look further away and diminishes some of the conditions. In the second video, there were a couple of waist to shoulder high waves but the camera makes them look quite a bit smaller. In order to capture someone else sailing, I think you're going to have to be within 10 to 15 feet of them in order to really capture them well. Overall, I'm pretty happy with the camera. Looking forward to trying it out some more. If you want to see what the potential is, check out this windsurfing video shot in Baja. On to the wind report. As predicted yesterday, super light winds island-wide yesterday. This morning it's cloudy and radar shows we're getting rain around much of the island. Don't expect to get any sailing in today. Looks like a chance the wind might return tomorrow, but I have a hunch it might be Monday before we see better sailing conditions. Video from Hookipa on Thursday will be up some time tomorrow. CommentsMakani, The Best Winsurfing clip was awesome. I think the wide angle mounted on the clew is cool like during that duck jibe. The head placement gets your rig in the way when filming someone going down the line ahead of you. You shouldn't underestimate the charm of even your simple Cam I and Cam II videos. I think they're superior to most Hero vids I've seen and you must have a good lens because your color is brighter!
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Storm's ComingFriday, November 21, 2008 at 8:30 am HSTPretty unsettled the last few days. Pouring rain on Tuesday until midday. Wind came up on the north shore, but still cloudy until about 1:30. Wind dropped around 3:00 so it was likely not epic sailing. Kihei was pretty windy all day. Wednesday was a little better - no rain, stronger wind and a NNE swell. 5.3 at Uppers was a bit much. Waves were pretty confused and bumpy but still fun to be in the surf. Winds at Kanaha yesterday were practically non-existant overall island-wide, trade winds turned more east and southeast. I think Hookipa was the only place with any wind and timing was critical on that. I got to Hookipa around 2:00 for what was apparently the tail end of some pretty good conditions. A new north swell was rolling in with some mast-high + sets. Winds were pretty light and offshore. I was able to get a few minutes of video as the winds continued to lighten up and sailors continued to head in to the beach. Got one lone photo of a lone sailor (Leo Ray I think) late in the afternoon eking out the last of it before the surfers took over. 
I'll post some video this weekend of the action, including Keith Teboul, John Skye, Levi Siver, and a cameo appearance on a SUP board by Laird Hamilton. As for the next few days, forecasters are predicting "TRULY PRODIGIOUS PRECIPITATION LOCALLY" as winds turn light and southeast and a cold front approaches from the west, drawing up a bunch of tropical moisture from the south. Looks like it will be a very wet weekend in some places in Hawaii, though now it's sounding like Kauai, to our west will get the worst of it. Regardless, winds will likely be too light for any sailing until Sunday at the earliest.
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Nearly Windless North Shore WeekendMonday, November 17, 2008 at 8:00 pm HSTNearly windless weekend here on Maui, at least on the north shore. Trades were super light late last week, then a winter cold front moved down the island chain over the weekend. Cold fronts on Maui typically mean light and variable wind before the front passes Maui then the winds turn north making Kihei the windiest spot on Maui. Light onshore wind typifies the conditions on the north shore and that continued again today, accompanied by a decent size north swell. Kanaha was super light and onshore, not windy enough for me to be powered on my biggest sail - 5.7. Lots of people working the waves at Lowers though. Not many people had the juice to get up to Uppers. Got the report that Hookipa was also onshore and a bit tricky, but heavy mast high + waves were the reward for those who made it out through the super light winds in the channel. Couple of more days of wind, probably like today's, on the north shore and then it will die by Thursday. North swell should continue to pump at similar levels to today for another day or two.
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Kanaha HelmetCam Take 2Thursday, November 13, 2008 at 9:00 pm HSTLatest installment of Kanaha Helmet Cam. This is from Sunday when the wind was blowing 25 - 30 knots. I was way overpowered on 4.7/79 L. The camera doesn't really pick up on how windy it was. Light winds again today and that will likely continue tomorrow and Saturday before the trades kick back in either Sunday or Monday. CommentsLove the helmet cam! Its been too long since I've been sailing. Hope to see some wave riding soon!! Hi, Great cam footage with the gopro. Which model do you use ? The gopro website shows several. I guess the wide is the model to go with. Will it tak a beating from messed up back and forward loops ? Thanks, keep up the good work. Rob (Holland, next week 2 degrees !) Fun! Are you using the Go-Pro? Thanks for the comments guys. Yep, this is the GoPro- the wide angle version. I'm not convinced that the wide-angle is the way to go. It distorts the conditions a bit and you have to get really close to other people sailing to really get them in the action. I think the camera and the housing would be able to take a pretty good beating. My hesitation would be on the helmet mounts. I'd suggest some kind of tether in addition to the mount in case you break the attachment mounts.
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New Hookipa VideoWednesday, November 12, 2008 at 5:00 pm HSTTricky conditions at Hookipa from last Sunday, with a northwest swell, offshore wind, light on the inside, blasting on the outside - lots of wipeouts. Winds are trending down and we're heading into a light wind stretch for the next several days. Probably too light to take advantage of the new big northwest swell about to hit. |
Kanaha HelmetCam Take 1Monday, November 10, 2008 at 11:00 am HSTMy new GoPro Camera arrived last week. Got a chance to strap it on a helmet one day last week, Friday I think, and test it out. The short little clip below isn't very exciting, but I think it shows the potential of these cool little cameras. It's amazing how mellow the camera makes it look. The wind was actually blowing in the mid-20s. I was on a 4.5 well powered, but the whitecaps hardly even show up on the camera. The wide angle lens also distorts things a bit - chop and waves look a lot smaller than they actually are. Anyway, if you're stuck in your office at work, wishing you could be out blasting around on the water, check out the video for a little vicarious session. More helmet cam and Hookipa video to come this week.
CommentsGreat cam video Makani. You were passing everybody there at the end. It may be the first one but it caught the beauty of what we do. Oh, someone said that Rain-X (for auto windshields) will get the water droplets to slide off (but I don't know if it will f-up your lens?). Anyway, thank you. MB Thanks MB. Planning to get the Rain-X, just haven't gotten around to it yet. Definitely need it. |
Crazy BusySunday, November 9, 2008 at 4:45 pm HSTSorry about the lack of reports. Been crazy busy with other stuff and photos, video and even sailing had to take a back seat. Been pretty windy the last several days. Northwest swell running too. Tricky, challenging conditions at Hookipa and some really ugly conditions at Kanaha at times. I did manage to get out for a short session a few days ago with my new helmet cam and then again today. Crazy windy today at Kanaha today, way too much on 4.7. 4.0 would have been plenty. Tried out the helmet cam again today. Went to Hookipa afterwards and shot a little bit of video. So, should have some new video up this week - both helmet cam action and some regular video action from Hookipa. Stay tuned. |
Weekend UpdateMonday, November 3, 2008 at 7:45 pm HSTSaturday, more light wind sailing and still some north swell running. 5.7 and 95 liters was marginal, enough to get planing and barely make it to Uppers, but just not enough juice to get up to Camp One where the bigger waves were hitting. Looking from behind on some sets I could only see the top panel of one or two guys up there - logo high. Only head high-ish at the lower end of Uppers. Lowers was smaller still. Sunday was funday. The wind kicked in a bit more and there were still some fun head high sets. Lots of fun. Had the 5.7 but the 5.3 would have been perfect. By contrast, today was a "technical" day. Super gusty, super bumpy. 5.0 was my choice, but 4.5 would have worked often, then again 5.3 would have worked at times too. The waves were also a mess, no real pattern, mushy, sloppy, messy and super bumpy, On the up side, it felt really good to be really well powered today, so it was still kinda fun in that respect. Looks like wind may go away for a couple of days after tomorrow, but then return Friday, along with a big northwest swell. Might have too much west in it to hit Kanaha, but Hookipa should get some (I think). |
