There we go, the Hookipa show is on again! Part 3

Another grand day at Hookipa. Let's start with Robby, 'cause Robby is always Robby.




The waves were a bit smaller, the crowd was overwhelming (almost 40 sailors in the water from 2 to 3pm), the wind was cranking, the chop was pretty annoying. Not my kind of conditions, I waited until 5 and scored a short but sweet session on waves that got glassier and glassier. Unfortunately at Hookipa you can't sail till dark because at one point the surfers will go out (no complaints, they have their right to enjoy the waves too!). That's why I love winter time when it's big enough for Kanaha...
Anyway, Nico didn't seem to mind the conditions instead.


This is Andres, who broke the tip of his mast. The Hot Sails Maui are the only sails I'm aware of, that have an almost undestructable webbing on the mast sleeve that will prevent the sail from tearing off when the mast breaks. Andres kept sailing for 30 minutes like that, getting worked pretty bad in a couple of waves and the sail was still absolutely intact when he got out of the water.
"I wanted to see if I could break that thing, but I just couldn't!"


Stratosferic backloops are not uncommon at Hookipa, but super high forwards are more rare. Philippe was in a jumping mood.


Seen the fins? Here, have a better look.


If I'm going to get a custom, there's no doubt that I'll get it with 5 fin boxes and spend the rest of my life trying all the possible fin configurations trying to figure things out. In the meantime, I'm looking forward to try some quads when I came back from Italy...

What's today? Monday. It's going to be epic, the best day of the swell, for sure. The Waimea buoy went up to almost 6 feet, 14 seconds from 345. With a 2+ feet high tide at 1.13pm, that means mast high at Hookipa. I may go take some photos before sailing my beloved sunset session somewhere else.
In the meantime, here's the slide show of ALL the other 81 photos I took yesterday. Sorry, no time to edit the caption. Take it as it is and be glad that there's someone that does this for you. Talking of which, Jeff got some shots too.

Goodbye, Danny Boy...

Andy and I looked at the leftovers at the pier this morning and sighed. We really were hoping for a little more, despite yesterday's gifts. I called Karen, and told her not to bother. She had to go into work early anyway, and these disorganized dribblers were not worth rushing around for.

After standing there for a bit, Andy suggested the possibility of just looking at Matanzas, just to see if the sandbar might be working. All I could think was that it was outgoing tide with a bend to the north now in the swell. But, hope springs eternal in a surfer's mind. As we walked back to our cars, that same guy from yesterday, the one I couldn't remember exactly, approached us, smiling, reaching out to grab my hand. I shook it, and moved on quickly, whispering to Andy that it was the guy I had thought was a bit flirty yesterday. It had bothered me how he stared at me and wouldn't look away. Andy looked at the cars in the lot, and saw a black pick-up parked next to mine. "Betcha that's his truck." I looked at it as I pulled away, and there on the back of the black truck, airbrushed in huge white letters, was, "Jesus loves you! So do I! Ask me about it!"

I had been punk'd by a religious zealot, mistaking my possible salvation for flirting.

We drove on down to the overlook, and ended up only sighing again. But, there was one more chance...

We decided to just look at the south side. Good thing we did, because we ended up going right out after seeing some green crystal peelers reeling off in the sunshine. It wasn't much, but it was so pretty out there sparkling, and warm, that we just had to. It ended up being pretty fun. Andy was laughing his head off on that aqua-colored eleven foot barge, and I had fun on my 6'10". We took turns catching peeling rights and wedging lefts for a good hour or so, before the tide dropped and things began to change for the worse.

Up in the car park, it was almost like a family reunion. Kathy was talking to Andy, Brian was telling us about his encounter with a seven foot cop yesterday. Joe Beach was talking about one of his students, a first grader, who was talking trash to him in the first week of school. Then Vinnie said hello, and we caught up on things. I could hardly get out of there to get to work! It reminded me again about another reason I love surfing so much. We all depart, go do whatever it is we have to do, and then return to the sea again, meet up, reunite, as if hardly a moment has passed...

There we go, the Hookipa show is on again! Part 2

This post has 25 photos and 2 videos. It's a new record, I think...



The swell built in size compared to Friday and yesterday Hookipa was solid head to logo high with some mast high sets. Only 11-12 seconds between the waves and very consistent set arrivals made for a lot of people on the rocks.
I had two sessions at a downwind break: a early one and a very late one. Clearly the latter was the best, since both the wind and the tide dropped and the waves got cleaner and hollower.
In between sessions, I took photos from the bluff.
The above one is my favorite of the day. Nat Gill is always a pleasure to watch.

The other ones are in chronological order. Laurent.


Nils in foreground in a photo that shows a typical set.


Dunno this guy.


The lifeguards went to rescue a kitesurfer in distress. Fellow windsurfers, please stop complaining about the lifeguards that are only there to apply the ten men rule, because when someone is in need, they do go out and rescue people.
If you break your gear and/or go on the rocks but you're not in danger, it's not their task to come and help you. They're there to save lives, not to help you save your gear.


Julien is sailing pretty good too.


Nat air 360 off the lip.


Oh-oh. Now what?


Keith is back. As you will see from the short video below, he's very good at floating over white water.


And hitting lips, of course.


My buddy Paolo wasn't liking his old stiff sails. I let him try an old superfreak of mine (4-5 years old at least). You should have seen his smile yesterday...


The Superfreaks are the easiest, most forgiving, most gentle on your body and longest lasting sails in the world.
This is a fact.
They're not the most powerful of course. But when the wind is like this (iWindsurf.com graph)...

...who cares about the power! When it blows between 15 to 35 all you want is a sail that dampens the power and that's what the dacron construction, the wide pvc window, the two central battens that don't go all the way to the mast and a few other unique peculiarities of the Superfreak do.
And if you think this is sponsorshit talk, do yourself a favor and try one. You may like it or not, but I guarantee you that everything I wrote is 100% true.
The easiest, most forgiving, most gentle on your body and longest lasting sail in the world. Period.

Talking about sails, looks like that brother to brother phone call was a successful one. Or maybe taking advantage of the fact that he's not here, Luke just went in Levi's truck and nicked one...


Julien one hand top turn into aerial.


Luke.


Elena is the most wave sailing addicted person I know. She racks up the most hours of sailing at Hookipa every year, without a doubt. No one can compete with her in that category, not even her husband!


Good old Alex Aguera.


Nico first aerial.


Nico second aerial... on the same wave! Kinel...


This beautiful body belongs to the girlfriend of one of the sailors. I just wanted to leave her anonymous, but her face is just as beautiful. Lovely dress, btw!


Bit of a damage.


Luke.


Luke.


Nat was throwing some sick tweaked aerials. I missed most of them.


Nat.


Keith.


This first video shows a set and a bunch of "normal" sailors on it. Then Graham Ezzy pumps up the level, but you can still see how difficult it was because of the big chop due to the strong wind and extreme high tide.


Well, Keith looks quite at ease. I love the way he floats the white watery lip.

Danny...

Danny is no Bill, but he still slapped me to the bottom of the ocean floor a few times on Thursday. Yesterday, I was ready to go before daybreak, but the wind was onshore so I passed on a dawn patrol session. Andy skipped work, on the chance it would clean up, and was rewarded with a great session behind his house with Mark. I, meanwhile, was at work, doomed to watch on the computer as mid-day lit up. With light winds and the sun coming out, they had a blast with seas at eight feet at eleven seconds. By the time I got off work, Karen said it had gone to crap, that you couldn't pay her to go out, so I resigned myself to getting everything done so I would have an open slate for today.

Andy called first thing, and I said I was headed to the pier. He said behind his house it was clean, and fun-looking, but we would meet up and decide where to go. I arrived first, just in time to meet up with a guy that used to come in the shop long ago. He rushed to me and hugged me, and at first it seemed cool to have this good-looking guy so happy to see me. He gave me a compliment, something about me looking as good as the day he met me, which I could easily detect on the BS Flirt meter, even though I am rusty with all that. I instantly said I had to go meet my friends. I couldn't remember his name, but I vaguely recognized him as someone who had a past that was not pleasant. He wasn't done with me, yet. He had to get in one more tidbit about how he had been in prison for the past ten months, and how his ex and her boyfriend had ganged up on him. He proceeded to show me the scar on his head (baseball bat), and scar on his leg (bullet). GOTTA GO! As I drove away it hit me. He had threatened to beat up Dave once when Dave had gone to get a surfboard the guy had never finished paying for. Lesson #1 from surfshop 101.

Andy and I met on the south side of the pier as the sun sat on the horizon, an orange ball, and glassy walls rolled in about head high. We decided just to go out there, since it looked pretty fun, hardly anyone was out, and Karen had to be at work and was on her way there.

The water has become warm again, and green, and it felt so good to paddle out, even though it looked smaller than the last two days. Danny is drifting at 9mph to the north, sitting 300 miles south of Cape Hatteras now. Every few minutes a really good one wave would A-frame and roll through, head high, some overhead. They just lacked the punch of last weekend's swell.

Did we forget to notice that these two swells have been timed to hit on the weekends? No, we have not! Thank you God of waves!

Andy and I said we would surf until the crowd hit, and then head for his beach. It never really happened. People would edge close then drift back, and we had the spot to ourselves, pretty much. Mark came out, said Bruce and Karen were down the beach a bit, and John Blackford and Chuck Tinlin paddled over. It was pretty gorgeous out there today, green, sunny, and warm.

Eventually the crowd grew, and we headed for Andy's beach. By then the tide had bottomed out, and the swell was beginning to fade. Andy took out the eleven footer and had a blast. Mark and I had a couple good ones before the wind suddenly turned onshore, and we all went in together. If only the swell will hold for tomorrow... maybe, just maybe, we will ride the bikes in early to the point?

There we go, the Hookipa show is on again!

As forecasted on this website a week ago (I love when I see a swell before reading about it on some other websites) the first swell of the season out of the north pacific hit Hawaii.



It's unusually early in the season for a swell of this caliber. El Nino, la Nina, global warming? Nah, it's just that I booked a flight on September 1st and my proverbial luck is hitting again...

Yesterday Hookipa was head to half mast with occasional logo high bombs. The wind was the usual gusty offshore kind.
Till around 2.30 too many surfers (specifically, more than ten) kept the windsurfers out of the water, but when a few of them gave up the usual swap between the two groups of ocean enthusiasts happened.

I chose 81l and 4.7 (perfect, seen the light wind on the inside) and had a blast for the first half hour before it got really crowded. Still fun though. When the sailors are good, you can share waves up to three people per wave. And that's the only way to go, when it's that crowded.

With Francky shooting somewhere else, I took Erik Eader as my motivational factor. Even though he was only interested in Naish sailors (they had a photoshoot), I was imagining that he was shooting at me too and tried to sail as hard as I could.
Sometimes, all it takes is one really good wave to make a session. I had two of those, so I'm totally happy.

After my session, I took some pics myself.
Last time I took photos from the bluff at Hookipa was probably in May and I found my finger a bit rusty... so much fun though!
The one above is the first lucky shot I took. I just had the time to turn the camera on, zoom in and snap and there we go: Kim with the wipeout of the day, for sure!
And now, in strict chronological order, the other main page deservers of the day.

Graham.


Kim.


Andres.


Luke.


I can foresee a brother to brother phone call.
"Hey Levi, got any spare sails?"


Cookie is going to like this one.


I saw this one at the last moment and I'm stoked to have captured it nonetheless.
Charging hard is the only way Juanma knows.


Federico La Croce back in Maui after four years.


Pato is sailing good.


Dunno this guy, but this is a clean aerial.


Graham is going back to college on Monday. Sure enough he'll sail as much as he possible can till then.


Allright, there should be more action in the weekend, so stay tuned.

Tropical Storm Danny Dumpers for my birthday!

Happy Birthday to me and Pee Wee Herman! It started out crappy, but ended great. Got up to dawn patrol, and it's crappy onshore junk. Then I get an e-mail telling me I neglected to register for a class that is required in the first semester - DOH!

More silly hoop jumping will lead to something one day. Maybe a fancy funeral, yeah.

All day I remained under the radar, since someone had forgotten to include me on the August birthday board at work. I originally was hurt, then glad to escape the attention, then sad again because I realized I must need the attention.

All day I was tortured about the class thing, not knowing what I would do about it, and the fact that I had missed the first one of the one I really needed. At the end of the day, I decided to drop the one I had attended last night. The professor was so inspiring, never looked you in the eye, and why did she tell us that she was addicted to smoking? Now I have the challenge of my first online class - sigh - and I am not nearly as enthused as I was when I went back for Sociology a few years ago.

More hoops. Is it all worth the extra money? Or... surf trips? Okay, yes.

The surf came up this afternoon from Tropical Storm Danny. 6.6 feet at 13 seconds! I raced out there as soon as I got out of work, to shake off the day. The waves looked pretty big, but shapeless, onshore. My English Professor from Junior College waved to me, and we walked out to surf together. Boy, did that suck. All closeouts, but it was good to wash off some of the day's angst. Then I went home, and Colby saved me from an anxiety attack, by helping me register for the required class and dropping the chain smoker one.

Then, here it comes, the best part. Colby sent me a letter in the mail for my birthday, full of fond memories. There is no present on earth that can compare. If the house goes up in flames, I am running inside for that letter.

The next best part? Going to Bruce and Karen's tonight, where Brie had made the most amazing homemade pizzas, salad, and raspberry chocolate cake. Junior, Bob, Cindy, Andy, Deb, Ryan, Bruce, Karen, Brie, Lucille, and Giovanni made the party. We even had fireworks! My favorite: A penguin with flames shooting out its ass! Only wish that Magic hadn't had open house tonight. He couldn't make it in time.

Well, my friends, have fun surfing without me tomorrow. I will take the leftovers on Saturday, but I will be in and out of the water before you even roll out of your cozy little beds in the morning...