18 seconds barrel

Unreal... check this out!

This must be a world record, I thought.
So I looked up "longest barrel ever".

This is not too bad either.

Then I clicked on this one.
Not exactly what I was looking for...

Anyway, the quizzes on the previous post are still unresolved. You guys are incredibly close, but not quite there yet...

the north shore is coming back to life...

I love this time of the year.

For many reasons. Here's a few:

- the island is not too busy with tourists
- the water temperature is in the low 80s (as I type it's 81 in Kahului= 27 celsius)
- it's a transition time in which you can often have waves on both shores
- you can feel the north shore is coming back to life because... even a small stupid north Pacific fetch of wind oriented towards Hawaii will generate waves!

I'm going to explain this last one. But first, let's have a look at the first main page deserver of today: Francisco Porcella.



So, let me ask you a question: what do you do every morning if you're a windsurfer?
Easy... you check windguru to see the latest forecast, right?
I don't. 'Cause windguru sucks.

First because it's way more fun to try to do your own forecast.
And second, at least for Maui, it doesn't take into account a bunch of local variables, the most important of which being:
a) how much the wind will be amplified by the Haleakala, depending on the wind direction
b) how much the waves will be eventually shaded by the west maui mountain and the other islands, depending on the swell direction.

Second main page deserver: Nico again!


Instead, I check a very simple thing called weather map (you can find the links to both north and south pacific weather maps on the right in the links section) and do my own forecast.

During three long months of summer, I observe huge storms with hurricane force winds spinning east of New Zealand and I get all excited about the upcoming south swell...
"It's gonna huge... Maalaea is gonna go off, I'm gonna surf that spot and then that other spot"... that's what I dream at night.
In reality, most of the times, the swell happens to be rather small. Fun, but small.
Hey, I'm not complaining at all! I'm just trying to describe you how I feel.

Then September comes and a small storm spinning west of Oregon shows up in the north Pacific weather map. I just barely notice it.
"Yeah, there's a small tiny fetch oriented towards us... what's that, 30 knots of wind? Whatever, we'll get something in 2-3 days... cool, Hookipa will be fun... small but fun."
I'm not particularly excited about it, for sure I don't dream about it...

Then I go to Hookipa and I see those head high + lines breaking in the bay...
I stare at them in awe and go: "Oh my god! I can't believe it... that was the smallest, shittiest, lamest, most insignificant fetch I've seen in a while (three months, exactly)... look at that!!!"

Less travel distance makes a huge difference. Even if I know that well, it feels bloody great to figure that out again every time in September...

The third main page deserver photo is from Monday and was taken by Sharon, who did her own little post too.
It's Andres in an air chacho attempt. Water start-landed. Good job...


The early session today was soooo good. Ten sailors out for about an hour, very light wind on the inside, plenty glassy waves, no more than one guy per wave. Really, really good.
Me, Norm, Bernd, Skyler, Nori, the other kid on the NP... mmm, can't remember the others. But they know what I'm talking about...

Here's the rest of the photos.

Last, but not least, here's a couple of quizzes...

These are some very fine windsurfing legs.
Quiz 1: Who do they belong to?


And this is a very cute windsurfing bum.
Quiz 2: Who does it belong to?


Let's see who's the first (not anonymous!) that leaves a comment with both correct answers...

8 28 Hookipa longboard sailing

Thank god I found the time to edit this video, but the backlog of clips to edit is still huge...

This is the first longboard sailing video that I shot from the front of the board.
Love it!

Even though the waves were small and the wave sailing action is somehow repetitive, I didn't feel like cutting it more, because I think that that mix of blues (the sail, the water and the sky) is just a pleasure for the eye...
So, excuse me the lenght (6 min.) and let me know if you agree with me.

I also saved it at the max resolution that WMM allows (2 Mbps) and the resulting file was 92 MB. I assume that youtube compresses it, but let me know if you could watch it ok.
Please, somebody gimme a feedback on this!!

Choosing the soundtrack was, as usual, the best part. Incredible number of good songs at around that lenght. Here's a few that didn't make it:
- Kruder Dorfmeister, Useless (this one in particular was bloody perfect...)
- Pink Martini, No hay problema
- Porcupine Tree, Fadeaway
- Ziggy Marley, Kosmik
- Lucky Dube, My game
- Zero 7, Likufanele
and a bunch of others, including Mozart, piano concert 21, second movement Andante...

But the final preference went to an italian rocker... actually to THE italian rocker: Ligabue.
I love the simplicity of his songs (most of them are four basic chords) and the lyrics go straight to your heart.

On September 10, 2005, Ligabue held a concert in Reggio Emilia to celebrate his first 15 years of activity. This attracted the record audience for a single artist pay concert in Europe, with a crowd of 200,000 coming to listen to his songs.
Too bad I wasn't there...

If you like the song, search Ligabue in youtube and listen to plenty more...

Enjoy.



PS. Don't you love those "related videos" that youtube shows at the end? Check the second but the last: Volcom Stone's pufferish surf series and watch the kids ripping at Pavils...
Surfing, what a superior sport!

PPS. Little north bump on its way for tomorrow. I predict (and hope) head high at least. Yu and hu!