The trash vortex

I love these posts with a lot of stuff...


The trash vortex is an area the size of Texas in the North Pacific in which an estimated 6 kilos of plastic for every kilo of natural plankton, along with other slow degrading garbage swirls slowly around like a clock, choked with dead fish, marine mammals, and birds who get snared.
Wonna know more? Read this.
You're a lazy bastard and don't want to click on that link? Here's a quote for you:
Many seabirds and their chicks have been found dead, their stomachs filled with medium sized plastic items such as bottle tops, lighters and balloons. A turtle found dead in Hawaii had over a thousand pieces of plastic in its stomach and intestines. It has been estimated that over a million sea-birds and one hundred thousand marine mammals and sea turtles are killed each year by ingestion of plastics or entanglement.
Don't believe it? Watch this.
Wonna do something about it? Stop buying plastic if you can. Start reusing it. PLEASE!


The other day I taught a guy how to surf. It was probably the most touching lesson I ever gave. Because the guy had only one arm.
He lost one arm in a farming accident when he was two years old, and that helped, in the sense that he was used to do everything with only one hand.
I told him about Bethany Hamilton and how she still rips after she lost her arm. Check her out, she's amazing!


But Bethany knew how to surf before... that guy didn't!
I gave him a 12 footer to make everything as "easy" as possible. On land we figured a technique for standing up. In the water we figured how to paddle straight. And then it was time for him to go for his first wave. I pushed him down a wave and... he stood up half way and fell off the side... which is the average outcome of the first attempt anyway.
He paddled back out. I pushed him on another wave and there he went... he stood up and rode it all the way in.
I couldn't stop a tear...
After two hours he was able to:
- catch waves by himself
- switch to an 11 footer
- turn the board and ride the wave going to the side
All of the above is way above the average outcome of a first surf lesson of a two armed student...
Wife and three kids, vice-president of don't know what kind of company... that's a hell of a guy! Not a whiner, that's for sure...


I, instead, am about to whine about my poor, two-arms surfing performance. Last thursday I surfed a spot that gets the the NE windswell.


It was head high, fun and with 3-4 people out... too bad that I horribly sucked. I don't know any other sport that requires so much continuity to stay at the same level. It's unbelievable what a couple of weeks without paddling (bloody windsurfing all the times, not even couch potatoing!!) can do...


The two guys who had their gear confiscated at Hookipa, had to pay a fine of $80 each to got their stuff back. They've been told that the maximum penalty for infringing a rule like that, can be up to $1000 and 30 days in jail.


I'm not crazy about halloween parties, but when Friday I received a text message saying:"tonight orange party at my house", I thought if I had anything orange to wear... mmm, not really... wait a moment! I do have something orange! My old 4.7 Superfreak!


It's the sail of my one and only action photo on a magazine (other than Windnews, of course). Even though it's old and beat up I never wanted to get rid of it... and now I know why!
Here's the photos of another party I went to Saturday.

Clearly I didn't buy any of the pieces of my costume... all reused stuff. Please do the same if you're going to a costume party. Our stupid costumes are not worth the life of an animal...


If you still believe what they told you about 9/11, here's a couple of movies you can watch for free on the internet:
Zeitgeist
Loose change
I haven't seen the second one yet... I don't think I need that...

All right, and after all this shit somebody has to clean up...

Excellent windsurfing conditions

Huge amount of stuff to post and very little time... same old story.

Let's start with the report of the last two days... phenomenal windsurfing conditions made for two five stars days in a row!

Tuesday 10 23 was mast high at Hookipa and all the pros out. I wasn't there but Makani has some videos on his website.
I, instead, had two killer sessions at lower Kanaha where the waves were the usual mix of sizes from shoulder to almost logo high.

Wednesday 10 24 there was a Hot Sails Maui photoshoot at Hookipa. Very tricky conditions with waves still logo+ and wind extremely gusty and light on the inside. I sucked, but I'm sure that Diony and Andres got some killer shots. I'm just glad I didn't go on the rocks, didn't break anything and didn't get hurt... I actually had a couple of good rides too... so definitely fun.
Nothing compared to the sunset sesh at Lowers, though. After sailing Hookipa, Kanaha is so easy that it makes you feel like Robby Naish... and that's all it counts!

Here is a sequence of photos I took between the two sessions. It starts with a goiter by Diony.


Btw, the goiter is my favorite move to watch from the downwind channel at Ho'o... Here's what happens. Usually, when you're done with your ride, you jibe and you slowly slog out in super light wind. Here you have the time to watch the others. Sometimes they can be really close. I remember once the impact of the spray from a top turn by Josh Stone almost made me lose control of my sail... so cool! I told him to please provide me with some soap next time...
Anyway, this sequence will explain what I'm talking about.

Right after his goiter ride, Diony had the opportunity to watch Taka smack a lip...


...then Robby get some air...


...and right after that Robby again about to wipe out right on Taka's gear... look at that fin, sketchy uh? Now, how cool do you think it was for Diony to watch all this from so close? As long as he doesn't get involved in the massacre, of course...


Let's talk for a moment about Diony's sail... I mean I don't even particularly like that one (a bit too noisy for my personal taste), but do you see how much cooler it looks than anything else out there?! Here, vote you favorite sail look in this poll:

Couple of more main page shots. Here's Nat Gill with a huge aerial. No, it's not that your screen went black and white... it's the sail that is like that.


Kevin Pritchard was probably the last pro still traveling. Now that he's back too, we can officially say that all the pros are back on the island after the PWA contests in Europe. Welcome back to all of them... honestly, I didn't miss them at all... it was a lot less crowded!!


A few more shots in this slide.

Not many photos, because I mostly took videos. Here is the outcome. A bit shaky, but you know... the head rest wasn't particularly steady... ;-)


This one, instead, is a single wave ride at Lanes on Sunday afternoon. Sharon took it, thanks a lot. I left it without a soundtrack because I like the contrast between the absolute peace and silence that I was experiencing and the noise of civilization. Try to put yourself in my shorts and imagine how nice it was...


Here, this photo should help...


Hookipa was slightly more crowded.


Today the French and Japanese guys who had their gear confiscated by the DLNR police at Hookipa will discuss their case in the court. I will keep you posted.

Last but not least. Yesterday I saw the 11th hour. I enjoyed it a lot.
I just posted a few comments about it in this thread of my forum.

Houston, the stoke level is rising!

Check out this video that Glenn just received by the videographer and posted on the 08 HSM website.

I don't quite like a couple of things in it:
1) I don't remember if I put it wrong or it slid down, but I had the boom extreeeemely low for most of the session. I wanted to stop and fix it, but the waves kept coming and there was nobody in the water, so I kept going... I didn't think it would look so bad in the video...
2) it was the first time on the Starboard 12.2 on the steep waves at Hookipa... I wish I had the board knowledge that I have now...

...whatever! I'm stoked!

To thank Glenn, here is a photo of him in a killer jibe on the wave... quite some spray there!


The tension is down at Hookipa and the windsurfers seem to have had quite some epic conditions last Thursday and Friday.
Here's a young one rigging a 4.7


I don't have any action photos, because I was scoring some waves at Kanaha myself.
Here's a little three days mini report.

Thursday 10-18: waves of all sizes at Lowers from chest to almost logo high or should I say dolphin high? ;-)
I had two sessions with the 5.0 and loved both. Not too crowded, plenty 5-6 turns rides... a five starts day. Got some footage from an interesting new mounting point... one day I may even find the time to edit it!

Friday 10-19: the waves were a bit smaller and Lowers didn't look as good as the day before (too windy and choppy). I drove to Hookipa around four and got in the water with the 4.7 just when the wind decided to go superlight and offshore. Caught a big glassy one (Levi was almost on it on the outside, but he couldn't quite catch it, so I could sneak it from him and that felt kind of cool...), too bad I had no wind at all on it and I could only ride the face down the line without doing any turn... After that, I had to go in, because my arms were just going numb.

Saturday 10-20: new pulse of the swell, waves from head to almost mast high at Lowers, light wind good enough for slogging with a 5.5 and my custom SOS (which I guess is somewhere around 75-78l). Caught a huge number of waves, most of which going upwind and jumping on back side of the sail... I learned that on the longboard (as you can see from the video) and now I'm trying it on a 7.10... what a blast! So much fun... I sailed 2.5 hours from 11 to 1.30. Then at 2 I was in front of a TV watching the italian soccer game Roma-Napoli (the latter being the team of my home town). 4-4 the incredible result of a game with some serious emotions. Here's the goals.
Right after that I went back to the beach (I had left board and sail there, just in case...). No more sailing, but a fun Standup session with whatever energies I had left.
This morning (Sunday) it must have been epic surfing conditions with no wind at all, but my old body told me to stay in bed and rest... Good idea. Feeling better now, let's see what's gonna happen in the afternoon.

First though, I got to post this...
Last week I had a few kitchen visits by some kind of banana eating rodent. I bought a trap that would catch the invader without killing it and here's the result. Such a cute little one!!!


He probably had the worse couple of hours of his life in that cage, also because I called Monica (the girl next door) to check him out and she came with her cat...
The poor little mouse freaked out and was going to die of a heart attack if I didn't kick them (Monica and the cat) out...
I brought him to Baldwin beach and released him in the grass. He looked happy to run free again...

PS. For some reasons, I can't see the video with IE (it stops after 1 second... I can see all the other videos, though), but I can with Firefox. I even uninstalled and reinstalled the quicktime player. Does anybody have the same problem? Does anybody know how to fix it?