oahu days 40-41 - how to break a mast

First, let me quickly mention that day 40 that was below average, both for surfing and windsurfing, because the old swell was on the way down.

Day 41, instead, could have potentially been one of the best if I wasn't such a kook!
New south swell on the rise and beautiful waves up to overhead high. Usual tricky wind conditions. Very offshore, very gusty, very light at times. Difficult to position yourself in the right spot at the right moment, but when you hit that magic combo of wave and wind, it was really sweet.

This first clip is a very good example of the extreme variability of the wind at Da Spot.
I caught a wave during a sudden strong gust that made me overpowered on my 4.7. Kook as I am, I went too late for the second turn and got worked (notice the shallow reef).
Fortunately, I was followed by Fabrice Beaux who, instead, timed it right and rode his wave beautifully. Notice how glassy the water is at the end. I remember it took me a while to water start due to the complete lack of wind. And few seconds before it was howling.


I'm not done with showing off my kookness.

In this other clip, I had just fallen in the water trying to tack and get out of the way of a big set when I saw once again Fabrice charging down the line. Instead of checking what was the relative position of the mast to the wave, the only thing I could think about was to push the button of the camera on my head and film him. So, more than kookness, I'd say I'm now exhibiting stupidity.
Of course Fabrice does a beautiful big aerial (the photo on top is a snapshot out of the clip) and of course the wave breaks my mast. I only found out later by watching the clip that the mast was perpendicular to the wave and oriented towards the beach, which is the best possible way of breaking it. I'm not even going to try to ask for a warranty replacement. That was my fault, period.


Look how happy I am that I caught the aerial on video! Clearly I have no idea yet that the mast is broken...

Now I got no more masts (I broke another a month ago) and the 4.7 is pretty trashed, but I still have that 5.3 that is for sale and Fabrice was so nice to lend me a spare sdm mast and extension (he broke his rdm mast too earlier today).
Not that I got too many days left (I'm thinking about leaving on Monday), but...
"if the wind holds, tomorrow could be one the best days of your stay... I don't want you to miss it and I got more masts at home!", he said.
What a nice guy! THANK YOU BROTHER!!

Talking about great guys, I just received the link to this really good ESPN article.

day waves: 32 + 16
windsurfing: 572
surfing: 338
total: 910
average per day (37 days in the water): 24.6

PS. While I was at it, I filmed the whole struggle of derigging the sail in the waves without losing any piece. The top of the mast got stuck in the sail (I had to use a knife and cut the sleeve to pull it out on the beach) and I could roll only half of the sail. The current took me out through the channel and I had to paddle through the next break downwind with half sail dragging in the water. It was the hardest paddle ever.
The clip lasts 30 minutes and then for some reason it stops (maybe I ran out of battery). I think it took me 20 more minutes to make it back to the shore.
Sure, I could have ditched the sail, but I didn't want to pollute (and lose the top of the mast). Please fellow windsurfers, do the same: ditch your broken stuff only if you're in danger.
PPS. The above mentioned clip would make a perfect "bonus" material for the Oahu DVD... if I'm ever going to do it!
PPPS. I just found out that a place around the corner has Guy Cruz playing live every Wednesday night. Good: I can use a beer after all that paddling...

how Kazuma shaped my custom surfboard part 8

This episode concludes the Kazuma series, I hope you guys enjoyed it.

I can only add that I love the board and it definitely catches a lot of waves. But a good board alone isn't enough. Got to get out there and paddle!



Just arrived in Italy. Completely whacked by the trip as usual.
Funny/dumb moment on the LA-Washington plane: upon the arrival, the captain announced: "We are now approaching Dallas were we should land in about 15 minutes..."
What?!? I asked the guy sitting next to me: "Excuse me, did he just say Dallas?"
"Yes!"
"But I thought this plane was going to Washington!!!!"
"Oh, Dulles is the name of the Washington airport, not Dallas Texas..."

Kinel, I almost had a heart attack...

how Kazuma shaped my custom surfboard part 7

A couple of days with no wind here in Maui give me the opportunity of a surfing related post.

Here's chapter 7 of the Kazuma saga.


And here's are a few photos that I took yesterday. Still comparing Canon and Sony. This time I had my buddy Chico (a good photographer... check that amazing bottom turn shot on KP's blog) taking photos with the Canon and yet the photos were pretty disappointing. So the conclusion is that that lens it came with is either bad or a bad "copy". It's going back.

Here's Chico's best shots (the second one is Lalo getting a little cover up).




Here's my best shot with the Canon: blurred and overexposed.


Now look at my best shots with the Sony. You got to be kidding me! Look at the sharpness, look at the colors, look at the... oh well, that's not the camera!


Lalo again.


Average file size of these photos: 300k.


And check the zoom. This is Lanes from The Point at Hookipa!


The Pipeline Masters is on. Here the live webcast.

PS. Looks like the wind just turned Kona at Kanaha... got to go sail!

---------------- post update -----------------------

Well, the Kona was pretty light, which is not a problem for me, but there were too many surfers out. I caught a few with T.E. and then switched to surfing. I surfed already this morning and my arms were kind of useless, but with the offshore wind the waves were so beautiful I just HAD to paddle out...

I had my GoPro with me and took a few shots.

Kelly hanging five. Every time I see her I always have the same atrocius dilemma: does she surf or look better? Trust me, it's not an easy one...


This one will give you a better idea of her gracious silhouette.


Alex enjoys yet another left.


A couple of shortboarders were killing it. Kind of glassy, uh?


Beauti-full moon.

how Kazuma shaped my custom surfboard part 6

We are now in Matt's shaping room.
This is my favorite clip of the series. I just love the way Matt pulls that screen and gives the rails the shape he wants...



We're not done yet, stay tuned for more.

In the meantime, I need to report about an outstanding session I just had with my 6.10 Kazuma that you just saw in the video. The new NW swell is picking up quite quickly. The NW buoy reads 12 feet, 15 seconds at 9am... that means that in the afternoon, most spots will be unrideble.
Instead, I timed it right and scored early morning head to overhead high perfectly peeling lefts with light offshore and just three other guys out. At the first double overhead set, I wisely decided to quit...
Absolutely stoked! Can't believe I was able to stick those steep drops...

Now a little rest (and a little post) and maybe later I'll go explore some outer reefs with the standup... what a life!

A look at the forecast. Today's weather map shows one more impressive fetch. That is going to be the most west of the three swells and that is actually a good thing, since some spots in Kahului hopefully won't be too big. Will be here Thursday and Friday. A sporadic light trades episode might even make it sailable on Friday.
If you read this from an island of French Polinesia, Fiji, Tahiti or anywhere else down there, get ready for an unusually big swell on your north shores...


PS. Crazy conditions at Sunset beach. I just watched Rodrigo Dornellas dropping in a bomb that looked like five or six times overhead... he got a 9.43 for that!

how Kazuma shaped my custom surfboard part 5 + SUP shirt initiative

Part 5 of the Kazuma series. After this, we'll move to the shaping room.





Surfing has been absolutely epic here in Maui. The lack of wind and the not too big size of the swell has brought some real gems to our reefs. Tons (literally!) of perfectly shaped A-frames. Let's celebrate that with a few blurred shots (haven't opened the manual of the new camera yet... too busy surfing!).


After a couple of fantastic regular surfing sessions I had to switch to standup (much easier on my back). Still heaps of fun, but one thing has been bugging me. About 80% of the pack of standup surfers (that now outnumber the regular ones in some breaks) is absolutely unrespectful of the etiquette and hog the waves leaving little chance to regular surfers to have their share of fun.


I thought about having made some custom lycra shirts to wear when to go SUP surfing. On the back:
"Regular surfers can drop in on me (as long as it's safe)"
On the front:
"I'm not going to take advantage of my unfair advantage in catching waves"
or, if that is too long:
"Unfair advantages bug me".


That would give a strong message to the other standup surfers, don't you think?
Please post a comment if you have ideas for other sentences or if you want to join the initiative and share the cost of it.


I also opened two threads about this on the Standup Zone forum and on the Hot Sails Maui forum.


See you in the water. Surf with aloha!


PS. Thanks to Maui Ultra Fins who decided to renew their banner (check the new twin fin one) till the end of the year. I'll use that money for the lycra shirts!

The number of blog readers keep growing, but the banner's price just went down (they follow Wall Street): 40 bucks a month!
Here's the stats of the last two weeks.

how Kazuma shaped my custom surfboard part 4

Part 4 of the Kazuma series. Mostly about how the shaping machine works.



PS. This is a really good wave sailing forecast... it's gonna be pretty damn good for a whole week starting tomorrow. I'm gonna hit some lips...
Also because Jeff gave me a mast to test. He wants to know how tough it is and I'm the man for that kind of job... one the best wipeouters of the island!

how Kazuma shaped my custom surfboard part 3

Beautiful glassy (in the morning) waves in Maui these days make for some really good surfing.
Gentle breezes in the afternoon make for superlight wind wave sailing sessions.
I can go like this for the rest of my life...

But it will change soon: more bigger waves are just around the corner and by wednesday the wind should come back, even though with a slightly more onshore direction than usual. The tail of the front that created the next swell may brush the islands and bring some rain. In the meantime, I'm enjoying these incredibly beautiful sunny days.

Ok, I wanted to end this post here, but I just ran into a photo of my lovely friends Laura and Sierra on Facebook and I couldn't resist... hi girls!


There's only one possible answer to the question "which one?": both!

how Kazuma shaped my custom surfboard part 2

Here we go, part two of the collection of little videos with Matt Kazuma Kinoshita.

Yesterday (monday) I took the board out at Lowers (first time there on a 6.10).
I was impressed by the fact that catching waves wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, but after the first two waves I commented with Michelle that I didn't quite find the sweet spot for the turns yet.

Then I caught a couple more and she saw both, one from the back and one from the front while she was paddling out. I ripped both of them apart (oh come on, let me exaggerate) and she went:"GP, what the hell were you talking about?"
"Well, I guess I must have found the spot!"

Pretty stoked, but it is so much more work. In two hours I caught something like 6 good waves. With the longboard I would have probably caught three times as many. And I was exhausted.
Getting into short board surfing at age 45 is probably going to be one of the most radical things I ever did...

In the afternoon I tested a few standup boards (for the Windsurfing magazine) and that made it for quite an intense day.

Nothing compared to today though, that was absolutely epic wave sailing. Too tired to report about it. Come back tomorrow.

how Kazuma shaped my custom surfboard part 1

This is the first of a series of short videos that I took while Matt Kazuma Kinoshita was designing and shaping my new custom 6.10.
My plan is to publish them on a weekly base. Lots of interesting information, don't miss them if you want to learn something about modern surfboards design.
I felt extremely privileged to have the possibility to see my new board being designed under my eyes and to spend some time with a super busy (and super nice) guy like Matt.
He's doing incredibly well and his boards are begin appreciated all over the world.
Here's a couple of photos of the new shop that just opened just above the Haiku cannery.




Check out their website by clicking on the banner on the right.

PS. new NW swell on Sunday.