surf-matic

Sticking a backloop

Every part of my body hurts. The bottom of toes are torn off by board texture and coral reef. My back and sides are bloody from the harness rubbing. Small, infected cuts and punctures wail in pain all over my skin. Getting in the water at the start of my session was a blast of deafening sirens from my body saying, “this hurts, this will make the pain worse, stop”. But of course, I didn’t stop. Hell no. I pushed against it– digging my harness into the grooves it has carved into my back and rubbing my raw soles on the rough texture of the board. This pain is not only part of windsurfing, this pain is windsurfing.

From the beginning, windsurfing hurt. The first day on the water spent uphauling and toe-stubbing, that was all pain and frustration. But somehow, windsurfing is the remedy for its own ailments– and more. After 20 minutes on the water, I can’t feel anything. Hell, I could have a broken leg or a gaping hole through my torso, I don’t think I’d notice anything while on the water. So strong is the drug that is windsurfing.

Most of my session was spent getting worked, going over the falls, and getting pounded into the reef. [enter frustration]. But I love it, somehow. I don’t really understand this relationship, but I suspect it is quite common to what everyone feels with windsurfing.

And I’m more than excited to kill it tomorrow. My frustration turns to something akin to violence that will find expression in wave rides.

Oh, and at the end of the day I made one of the new moves I’ve been trying for a while. Felt good.

Now here are a couple pics from the last days.

Throwing the tail above the lip.

Kissing the lip!

Backloops are fun.

With some decent swell, I can test boards and tune my quiver to be ready for the coming waves. With a brand new stick from quatro, I was set for a full day of testing and tweaking. The Keith Teboul custom has 5 fin boxes so I can ride the board with 4 fins, 3 fins, 2 fins, or 1 fin. Options! Options! Options!

I first went out with it as a quad and it felt good but a little uncontrollable in the turns and it didn’t connect from the bottom to the top as smoothly as I wanted. So I tried it as a thruster! In the back I had a K4 standard 15cm fin (i love the flex!) and on the sides I had K4 custom asymmetrical 12cm fins. This felt good but it ultimately was too stiff, so I switched out the 15cm back fin for a production K4 14cm fin. This set up was magic! The board was fast and loved to be on the rails. And the best bit was that the flexy fins allows me to rocket through my bottom turn top turn transition.

With my old dumpster diver quad and this new thruster, I feel ready for all of the arriving waves.

Throwing the tail out in a cutback.

Hitting the lip

I love hand drags on cutbacks.

The waves are coming! The waves are coming! This last weekend marked the return of swell. But more importantly, this next week is forecasted to be consistently full of waves and in a week or so it should be decently big!

I got a new board (pics tomorrow) and it turns amazingly! I can get on the rail so easily and the radius of the turns seems about a meter. I can’t wait to break it in this coming week.

Hopefully lots of pics and video to come from the coming days. Here’s a little preview:

Off the lip!

This week was a little slow so not much to report. So here’s a pic to make up for it!

Maui sits on the precipice overlooking the abyss, slowing rocking back and forth over the edge but never falling. At least, not yet. Winter is on the way. The gnarled big Northerly waves will come; it’s not an “if” but rather “when”. So days like this Wednesday, light wind spiced with flat water, are merely the calm before the coming storm and torment of energy taking shape in walls of water.

With no sailing to be had, Hana was the call. Despite the relentless hours of driving, I always find it stunningly beautiful– possibly the densest and most varied vegetation I’ve seen. More filming too.

The appetizers for the winter waves have already started. And they will continue to grace the sea’s palate this weekend, or so says the University of Hawaii Meteorology:

LOW-ENERGY NW SWELL WILL BRING SMALL SURF THIS WEEK TO N AND W
SHORES. A SLIGHTLY LARGER WNW SWELL IS EXPECTED LATE SUNDAY INTO
MONDAY…WHILE A SMALL…LONGER-PERIOD NNE SWELL ALSO WILL ARRIVE ON
SUNDAY. THE INCREASING TRADE WINDS WILL BUILD SHORT-PERIOD SURF
ALONG WINDWARD SHORES…

That’s nothing too exciting but it will mean sailing nonetheless. Perfect.

Signing off!
G

A taka from the long lost swell of last week.

The lack of conditions continue here on Maui (proving that it is not always windy mast-high at Hookipa). But the flat water did not stop Brendan and I from making the long climbing drive up Haleakala’s more than 10,000 feet to the mountain’s summit. One of the steepest inclines in the world (from 0 to 10k feet), Haleakala means “house of the sun” in Hawaiian. The crater reminds me of another planet, barren of vegetation and so glaringly volcanic. But the striking landscapes were perfect for capturing on film as we spent the day on Maui’s highest point.

And here is a great photo of great text:

Tomorrow’s mission will be Hana unless the conditions appear. More photos to follow!

Handplant Hookipa style.

Tuesday morning Hookipa is so flat, like summer time flat. And the next few days are not looking any better. But I guess this is good because Brendan and I can explore the island searching for interesting footage and angles. I really like showing people Maui because it allows me to rediscover my home island.

Here is a goiter from Sunday:

Goiter into the pit!

And here is a photo sent to me from one of my best friends in the world:

A good sized swell graced Hookipa Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of this week, but unfortunately the waves were too Easterly to be easily ridden. The large, storm-surf NE waves provided a fun challenge in riding them– they were not very speed, making it difficult to generate steep but the waves would also have big, heavy, pitching sections too.

Friday was big and gnarly with onshore wind with offshore gusts (and it seemed that each direction only blew when it was exactly the opposite of what I wanted at the time). Saturday the swell turned more Northerly, making it line up much better for riding (and big airs) but still not perfect. Sunday the waves were much smaller, and despite the strong wind, Hookipa was full of surfers so all of the windsurfers (except for the ones surfing surfing at Hookipa) migrated to Lanes for a fun session full of old tricks (and even some new ones).

Aside from my father, Levi is the most important person in helping my windsurfing. This weekend I rode one of his single fin boards to get some fast vertical turns. Going back on the single fin after the quad is a bit strange but for someone who likes to push really hard in the turns (like I do) the single fin is sick. I’m really keen to work with Levi this winter on some fast, hard vertical turns in big waves.

Here is a short video clip from the weekend thanks to Jeff from www.mauiwindsurfing.net:

And I’ll end this post with another photo:

I really like the look of this Hookipa cutback.

(Here is another great foto friday, and this one has a windsurfing video treat at the end. As always, hover for comments if desired.)

Wednesday at Hookipa was small and very unglamorous. But filming has begun! Brendan from umi is here, proving that umi is the best thing going on in windsurfing right now.

Here are some shots:

Backloop!

A little tweak going!