I love Doc. Bird!

I went to see him yesterday to check my foot. He did an x-ray and told me:"No broken bones, even if it hurts, you can go sailing without the risk of doing any further damage. Just ice it in the evening..."
Now, that's a doctor that knows his patients!

I got out of his office with a big smile (never been happier to pay for a visit...) and drove directly to Kanaha where I sailed pretty much all day.
I started on a 4.5, but soon I had to replace it with a 4.2. I usually don't prefer strong wind, but this time, because I had no expectations to sail at all today (and maybe all week..), I just loved it. Not too gusty, a bit choppy for sure, but not too many people out... head to overhead high waves, not a cloud...
The sunset sesh was even better. The wind calmed down a bit and the waves got smoother... a few friends out sharing waves... oh man, can't get better than that!

Talking about friends, here a clip of Glenn from the top of the mast.
It starts with a long sequence of five jumps. Notice how the sail moves like a bird wing when he pumps it... specially before the last jump. And notice how the board moves like a snake during the pumping action...
There's two backloops and a forward (together with a bunch of high jump, a table top and a vulcan)... good luck at spotting them!
In fact, a rotation jump with the camera on the mast makes the world rotate around the sailor and it's quite difficult to understand what's going on... that's why I put a couple of slow motions...
If you can't see it here, try here.

Photo Sharing - Upload Video - Video Sharing - Share Photos

What else? I got so much stuff to post...
Monday April 23 was a great day for windsurfing. I took a few shots at Hoo. Mmm... from which one do I start? Oh, what am I thinking...


The sailor of the day was Phil McGain. For two reasons. Not only because he rips at 44 (actually there was a bunch of over 40 out there that day), but also because of the veeery short kilt he was wearing at Andy's scottish party. Somebody told me that it was an hysterical vision. Some other told me he was unwatchable... too bad I don't have a photo of that...
Anyway, here he looks pretty good...


And this is Robby Naish off the lip.


A bunch of more photos here.
Got more stuff to post, but no time. Come back tomorrow.
PS. Hey, check this out: I've been added as an official Hot Sails Maui team rider... you got to be kidding me! How did I get there being such a kook? I don't know... it's one of the things I do...
Thank you guys!

on a little journey...

...that's where I'm gonna take you guys today.

A downwind run on my one man canoe (OC-1) from Maliko bay to Kanaha.
The video is 10 minutes, so grab a coffee or a cold beer, depending on your time zone...
There's a surprise ending that I will explain later on this post.
I strongly recommend not to blow the surprise and watch the video first... THEN scroll down.
If you can't see it here, try here.

Photo Sharing - Upload Video - Video Sharing - Share Photos

What happened to the canoe?!?! Not yet... I'm gonna create some suspense and tease you with a few... windsurfing photos, for a change!

It's blowing like stink these days and Tuesday 4 17 there was a decent NW swell. A lot of photoshoots. Here's Boujmaa hitting a critical section.


And here he's in a one hand aerial.


I don't know who this guy is, but this photo gives you an idea of how windy it was...


Hookipa was so busy that the JP sailors went to Lanes (the photographer was on an helicopter). Here's Alex Mussolini. I love the light.


Mussolini again in a one hand backloop.


Polakow in a huge backloop.


Plenty more photos here.

Ok, time to explain the end of the vid.
What happened is that the canoe got capsized by a wave entering the inside of the reef at Camp One. I always enter the reef there, because it's very close to the beach...
Well, this time I definitely appreciated that, since the boat capsized and after I turned it back over, a wave took it out of my hands. Swimming with the paddle is not the best and before I finally realized that with the paddle I could not reach the canoe, it was too late...

I saw my canoe happily sailing away from me. I wasn't too worried because, again, the swim to the beach is short and there's a million windsurfers downwind.
In fact, once on the beach, I met a group of them and one offered to tow me to the canoe. It had a 5.8 and slalom board in 25 knots and it turned out to be Jimmy Diaz (the F2 guy).
The towing action (I was holding the back footstraps) was a lot of fun (almost planing), but the canoe was a bit too downwind and we couldn't make it, so he towed me back to the beach.
In the meantime, another guy called Steve had got a rope and sailed to the canoe. Jimmy went back out and after a few minutes he was able to tow the canoe back to shore.
UNFORTUNATELY, by then the camera had already shot for 54 minutes and the memory card was full, so it didn't shoot the rescue...

Here's what I learned:
- next time I'm gonna have a leash attached to the canoe
- if it's windy and there's no leash, immediately drop the paddle and swim as hard possible. The paddle floats and it drifts downwind, so it's easy to be rescued afterward... and it costs less than a canoe!
And I learned that much without losing anything? I'm stoked...

This little camera rocks! And I just had an idea... stay tuned.

PS. Rambo's comment inspired me to write more about my canoe. (BTW, check this crazy Makaha action on his blog).
It's a Honu (shape by John Martin), and it's quite old and heavy. Heavy means robust, so I like that. Compared to the lighter new canoes, it's slower (don't really care... the workout is actually better...), but it has more rocker, so it surfs the waves better. I'll do a proper canoe wave riding video later on in summer time.
I kept it at the canoe club in Kahului on an outside rack (too cheap to pay for the lockers) and somebody stole the ama. Then somebody stole my car in Kahului and on top of the three surfboards that were inside and the stereo components, they also took the two iakus and the paddle. So, all of a sudden, I was left with the boat only.

I built the iakus out of a windsurfing boom (prolly better than the original), bought a used abandoned ama at the canoe club (I offered 40 bucks, they said:"that's fair!") and had Malama shape me a new paddle. And now my baby is back in the water.

Oh, her name is Mergellina, which is the Naples' neighborhood where I grew up. Here are some photos and here, believe it or not, is the related wikipedia entry.

Billabong XXS Global Small Wave Awards

I received my new GoPro waterproof camera.

Here's why I think it's a fantastic product for 140 bucks:

- now there's two batteries that last a long time. I can leave the camera on and either film everything and then edit at home (like I did in the video below) or, if the camera is mounted within the reach of my hand, click the shutter to pause it and start it again when the action is about to happen
- it takes an SD card up to 2GB. That means either 54 minutes of video 640x480 (even on full screen the resolution is good) or tons of photos
- it can take still pictures (eventually also a sequence of three pics with one shutter click): 3 megapixel, 2048x1536.
- it has a wrist band that you can easily paddle with and take photos of the surfing action from the water

The result of the first water test was way beyond my expectations. Here's what I think is the coolest little video I did so far.
If you can't see it here, enjoy it here.

Photo Sharing - Upload Video - Video Sharing - Share Photos

What do you think? I wish you could see the original (dropshots compresses it and reduces the quality) on full screen...
And those were one foot waves. Imagine on a ten foot wave... too bad the winter is gone! But the south swells are just round the corner... Sooner or later, I'll take you surfing double overhead waves at Dumps...
I also filmed a downwind on the one man canoe. Stay tuned for that.

Randy saw me at Launio and went to buy the camera right away (Hawaiian Island in Kahului has it). Here's his first funny little video. BTW, if you need ski, snowboard or wakeboard equipment, here's his website.

And, since I am in advertising friends' businesses mode, here's Wardog (a man, a myth) website for all the mainlanders' surfing and windsurfing needs.
Maui sailors know already where to find their Hot Sails Maui and Starboard gear.

Let's move on to the windsurfing action that happened in the afternoon of the same Friday 4 13.

The three sailors of the day were Brouwsino, Graham Ezzy and Alex Mussolini. They were throwing rotations at every single wave. Check some of the action here.

Here, instead, I feel like posting photos of the best looking wave sail on earth. It's the new Hot Sails Fire.
Here's Glenn's backloop 32,414.


Dioni Guadagnino is a new Hot Sails teamrider.






This is another team rider: 10 years old Kalani Hunt.