calling for a rest

That's what my body is doing.

Another day of extraordinarily strong and gusty (=awful) wind here in Maui. I chose the right week to test sails of four different brands I have access to... clearly they're all NOT MADE WITH DACRON and my body is suffering unimaginable physical abuses.
It's like driving a car without shock absorber on a very bumpy road.

Please don't even ask which brands they are and which ones I like. So far they're all good, nice, powerful and awfully stiff and they all like to torture my body. Hey, this is not a sponsorshit talk (no, that's not a typo). I would say exactly the same of a Fire.
It's that when the wind goes from 18 to 33, there's nothing like a Superfreak for an old fart like me.

18 to 33? No way... it was more like 5 to 40, really.
I was out on a 3.7 today and I got slammed twice into the water by a gust just sailing along.
Power is a dreadful thing in these conditions and with my non-pro abilities.

Clearly Victor and all the pros don't mind all that power (even though I saw everybody falling in jibes, catapulting, etc...) and continues to make it look good.
If you click on this photo, you will enjoy how his shorts match the colors of the superfreak in the background...


Another in form sailor today was Alex Mussolini.


The rest of the photos in this slide.

The wind forecast calls for a couple of more day of ugly strong East wind, then Friday and the weekend the models say ENE and slightly less strong. If they're right, that slight difference in the angle would make a huge difference in the quality of the wind on the north shore of Maui. Let's hope so.

The wave forecast calls for a fat WNW swell peaking on Thursday afternoon. I believe that is going to be a fun day to watch at Hookipa, with all these pro sailors (and pro photographers) competing for the ultimate shot. I'll try to squeeze an early session somewhere and then focus on my duty of reporter from paradise.

Stei tiund (that's how 'stay tuned' would be written with the italian pronunciation rules). Ai laic it. Meibi ai uil start raiting laic dis...