Rain and no wind, but still some fun waves to ride here in Maui.

I took this photos in the late afternoon yesterday at Hookipa.


This kid was ripping.


I, instead, sucked so much that in my morning session in a paddle-intensive spot I got caught three times on the inside by the quickly building sets, paddled for one hour without interruption and went back in with the astonishing wave count of: zero.
Sure enough it was a good workout.


Back home I tuned in the Pipe Masters and that's the best surf I did that day...
Mister Kelly Slater was enjoying a big swell with some buddies at a secret spot on the Caroline Islands, got texted what day and time his heat was and arranged to fly to Oahu just in time for his first heat...


Was it worth it? I'd say so... he won it. Not only the first heat, the whole contest.
Here's how he destroyed the opponent in heat 3 of round four of the final day of competition.
Notice some kind of kamikaze fish (a small manta ray, I'd say) jumping out of the water and into the lip at the second 10 of the video... pretty nuts!

On that same page, you can watch all the heats of the last day.
Kelly's heats are:
- quarter final 2 (great match up with Pipe specialist Jamie O'brien)
- semi final 1.
- final.
In the semi final Tim Reyes combo-ed Kelly with something like 7 minutes left. That means that Kelly needed not one, but two really good waves to advance. Under Tim's priority, Kelly sneaked a Pipe wave and scored a 9 and paddling back out he got a Backdoor right and scored a 10. Everything happened in 2 minutes. And I couldn't catch one damn shitty wave in one hour...


From one living surf legend to another. Laird paddled out almost at dark. If you're learning to standup paddle surf, this photo is a "how to paddle" clinic: reach as far forward as you can without leaning forward too much, keep both arms straight, slightly bend your knees.


Carbon paddles are notoriously stiff. Not for Laird.


In a couple of days I'm off to Italy.
I don't like going back to Italy. Specially in winter time, when there it's cold and here it's wavy.
FORTUNATELY, the forecast for the coming week looks hoorible for Maui. No good wind, way below average surf (!!!) and plenty rain. Stoked!