Happy, conscious, ecological 2010, folks!

Well, if you started it off by firing some stupid, dangerous, unnecessary, expensive and polluting fireworks, that was not a good start!

Here's a nice sketch by my new friend Simona.


She has three websites (mostly in italian):
- a myspace page
- a blog
- another blog

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Thanks one more time to Alex who took the following photos of a rare (in these days) wave sailing session with the Kona on Dec 31st.

Ian was the first to hit the water at 11 o'clock sharp (he's swiss!).


Soon to be followed by the blog author who instead was late (he's italian), tired (he had an epic two hours surfing session until the wind picked up pretty strong around 10.30) and cold and in need of a lil rest...


There he is, scanning the horizon with his buddy Paolo. Of course, by the time he was ready, the wind had dropped quite a bit and made the session very challenging.


But the biggest challenge was not the wind, but the surfers. Too many of them sitting on the peak made it almost impossible to find an empty wave and pushed the windsurfers way more upwind than ideal having to negotiate a big closeout section downwind. Not complaining, just reporting.
Blog author got lucky on this smaller inside one (but overall, surfing was way more fun than windsurfing for him).




This photo is unreal and magazine's worth (editors, email me for Alex's contact if interested).
That's Phil McGain on slalom gear. Hard to read too. He's clearly coming in, but either sailing at a veeery broad reach or in a middle of a jibe. Check the monster on the back!


Accidental shutter click.


Kanaha is a usually a mellow wave. Unless the Kona is blowing and that turns it into a ferocious beast. Ascanio is about to experience that.


Forecast looks quite dramatic with another giant (but very west) and long lasting swell around the corner (around tuesday) immediately to be followed by another giant and long lasting one. This might be the winter with more Jaws days...
In other words, the north Pacific is still dominated by low pressures and there's no sign of trade winds coming back whatsoever.
Eventually a few more kona wind episodes, but the Kona is highly unpredictable. A few hundred miles in the front position can make a big difference in the local wind and weather. Once again, so far we've been incredibly lucky with this last one.
The last front brought plenty rain to Oahu while Maui had continuous sunshine...

Allright, still have some Honolua bay shots to sort out, let's see when I find the time.

Respect the ocean, respect the priorities, respect the ocean users that have less chances to chatch waves... respect!