pov from Oahu
I generally don’t post on Sundays and I normally don’t like POV footage, but today I must make an exception for both. This clip is really beautiful and provides a fresh angle on wave riding from Bob Bohn.
surf-matic
waves, culture, aphorisms
August 28, 2011
1 comment
August 27, 2011
Make it or Break it? Vol. 3, REVEALED
(Click on photos for better, bigger versions. Photos by Ezzy/D.Wong.)
CRAAAAASH! This 1-handed goiter went bad. I flung it around but couldn’t get back on top, and I ended up landing head first into the sail and mast. It was years ago but I still remember colliding with the mast.
Tom and Aron got it right. Congrats!
In the next round of “Make it or Break it,” the people who guess correctly will win Ezzy stickers and a keychain, which will be mailed to them by me! The details will follow on the next “Make it or Break it” post.
August 26, 2011
foto friday
Your favorite part of the week has finally arrived! Here is foto friday:
I’m going to start adding little captions for the photos, but I don’t want to break up the photo flow, so they’ll be under here.
1. This is the album cover of “For Lovers” by Wolfman and Peter Doherty. The song “For Lovers” is hauntingly beautiful. The b-side track is “back from the dead,” and it’s a bit quicker paced but still damn good. And the cover art, aside from being a work of art on its own, captures the feeling of the album.
2. I found this photo online years ago and it creeped the hell out of me. I think it’s a negative of a castle on a cliff, but I’m not really sure. Love it anyway.
3. I had this as my desktop background for about a year. The monk’s poise and concentration as he burns himself alive is amazing– and motivating. He has so much dedication and focus. If I could achieve half that, I’d be happy.
4. I took this photo in Hatteras last year right after winning the Hatteras Wave Jam. I loved the setting sun’s light coming in through the old open flag.
5. Does this photo really need a caption?
6. Cliff diving is insane. I used to do normal diving competitively in high school, but we just did 1m and 3m. These guys do 30m. Holy shit. This shot is of Francisco Porcella, showing that his talent is not limited to windsurfing.
7. Just some great cartoon art.
8 & 9. Love it.
10. I nicked this from Mart’s (the editor of the dutch magazine Motion) Facebook. I like the philosophy.
August 25, 2011
dirty pretty things
Music is an important part of windsurfing. Listen to a song before going on the water to get pumped up. Play a playlist to relax after coming off a sick session. Every windsurfing film’s soundtrack is an integral part of the film itself. Hell, when I hear the songs from the second Polakow movie, I can follow a mental movie of the action in my head (my obsession with Polakows About Time is a little bit neurotic I admit; and maybe, after seeing something thousands of times, it should be imprinted on the mind– or at least I hope that it is).
So here is an album that I’ve been really into lately. I like to listen to driving to the beach, rigging my sail, and even as I’m changing so that I only have to take my earphones out at the last possible second. “A Romance At Short Notice” is Dirty Pretty Things’ second album (btw, Dirty Pretty Things the film is decent too). A relaxed rock vibe powered by smooth-yet-powerful british vocals. Here are two songs from the album. If you like them, buy it.
PS I’ve got the final part to my Baja trilogy almost ready to be released and with it will be a fun little clip with never before seen footage of the event.
August 24, 2011
surfism vol. 3
When water rushes into a bay, it must also leave the bay, otherwise there would be a pool of infinite water! And frankly, that makes no sense at all. So the water leaves the bay at a rate (gallons/minute) similar to the rate it entered. When the waves get bigger and more water comes into the bay, this rate increases, resulting in a stronger current. Anyway, it is imperative that the water leaves the bay, so the H2O exits by flowing around the edges and exiting out the sides. For example, at Hookipa, to the right of the sandy beach, the current flows to right, along the coast and out to the edge of the bay. And to the left of the beach, the current flows to the to the left, around the rocks, and out the channel.
So here is the surfism:
when water comes in, it must also go out.
Meaning, among other things, that where lots of water comes in, there will always be a large channel. And strong current flows along the edges of a Bay.
It’s so karmic. Each action being a logical consequence of the previous action. So simple.
August 23, 2011
Make it or Break it? vol. 3
(Click on photos for better, bigger versions. Photos thanks to EzzySails/D. Wong.)
(Click on photos for better, bigger versions. Photos thanks to EzzySails/D. Wong.)
Over 5 years ago, I was the first person (I believe) to do one-handed goiters with my backhand off. Boujmaa had done a couple with his front hand off, and the best freestyle boys had done some flat water ponches with the backhand off. So, it wasn’t very original, but I was the only one doing goiters in the waves with my backhand off. And I got into doing them really big– going high on mast-high Hookipa waves. Sometimes I’d stomp them clean and be really stoked, but many times I would have horrific crashes. The one in the photos is from 2007– so was it mastered or disastered? Answer in the comments.
August 22, 2011
Maui Monday: Aug 15-22, 2011
Pretty poor conditions at Hookipa in August
The rock has been less than rocking. Think of going to see one of your favorite rock bands live. The opening band shows up late. OK that’s not so bad. But then they turn out to be just some lame high school kids. After their set, you think, “Oh finally here is what I came for!”. You keep waiting and waiting. Nobody comes out for some time, and then the opening band–ya those high school kids– returns to announce that due to bad weather, your favorite rock band can’t make it to the show. Instead of just going home, you stay around to yet another set of shitty songs from the terrible opening band. Yeah, that’s Maui lately.
No waves and flukey wind. At the start of the week, Hookipa had terribly gusty wind that made sailing pointless (see the picture I took from the car). I hate complaining about the windsurfing on Maui because it makes me feel spoiled. Obviously any sailing is better than no sailing. And after all, I have friends who windsurf on lakes in germany with no waves and with wind for only 5 minutes every 20 minutes– forcing you to wait for the gusts of wind so that you can do one or two tricks. I’ve sailed at these places and so I know that Maui is indeed very special and should never ever be taken for granted. But that said, this last week was pretty bad, especially with expecting what Maui normally delivers.
However, I was not going to let the wind go to waste, so I sailed pretty much every day at Kanaha, trying to learn freestyle on my wave board. My goal is to get my air flakes perfect (I can get some over 1.5m high on flat water) and also to get a decent shaka (a trick that really eludes me).
After a certain point, I had had enough freestyle. So on Thursday I took my best friend windsurfing for the first time in his life. I got a learners board from Hawaiian Island Surf and Sport and a 3.3 from my dad’s loft. Boy, windsurfing is hard! But for a smart, athletic 22 year old, the sport is not too hard. By the end of the day, my buddy was sailing back and forth perfectly. My goal for him is to be jumping and starting to ride waves in the next 2 weeks.
I love windsurfing!
August 20, 2011
Make it OR Break it? vol 2 REVEALED
Wipeout! This was one of the heaviest Hookipa waves (for its size) that I’ve ever ridden. Hookipa waves almost always have a lot of water, but this one had twice the normal amount and also twice the force– it just smashed me and my equipment straight down to the bottom.
Congratulations to Kuba, Ernout, and Jeroen for guessing correctly!
August 18, 2011
winning the cactus cup: part 2
Super tight turns-- trying to come back on my own lines
This is the second installment of the trilogy that is my cactus cup story, making this essentially my Empire Strikes Back– a tale of hardship and misdirection setting up the eventual return to the top in part 3. For that reason, I’ll keep this account brief. (all photos by the amazing Clark Merritt)
After driving down to San Diego in the late evening with my good friend Ruben Lemmens, we tried to find a hotel or motel for the night. But alas, there were none. San Diego is mysteriously the city of all the world’s conventions, be it for comic books (a la comicon) or something entirely unrelated like aerospace engineering. The perpetually sunny weather and stunningly sterile architecture are breeding grounds for these swarms of like-minded people. And all these people (for whatever convention they were in town for) had booked every single hotel room in the entire city. Neither budget rooms nor lux rooms were available to us. So? What were we to do?
Our answer was simply to stay up all night till the rest of the crew woke up to leave for the border at 6am in their prebooked rooms at the Day’s Inn motel. We didn’t have to leave till 10am, so that afforded us a solid 4 hours of sleep. Remember, I hadn’t slept the night before, so at this point, I’m approaching delirium.
I love 1-hand goiters down in Baja.
Ruben and I hung out exploring San Diego on foot. We basically walked the entire city in our flip flops, getting lost and asking random taxi’s for direction in our misdirected walk. At 4am, we found a 24hr restaurant that seemed the answer to something, even if that something was not the question we asked. Seated inside as one of two groups of people, we order their extra breakfast sandwich special, which is basically the highest concentration of calories and cholesterol I have ever seen: triple layerGrilled cheese with sausage patties and bacon.
After more aimless walking, we arrived at the hotel at exactly 6am, just in time to score some beds for much needed– though all too brief– sleep.
We woke at 10. Ruben went to meet his plane and I met the van that was driving me on the 10 hour journey down into Mexico to reach Punta San Carlos. Most people much prefer the more comfortable but more expensive fly-in option over the rugged multi hour drive through harsh Mexican land. However, in my tired state, I simply passed out and slept for most of the drive.
The next day we competed. I was still rusty on the wave and was unsure about which board I wanted to use– a more conventional shape or a fish. I managed some good turns on the fish and made it to 4th. I thought that a decent start but knew that I could do better. The next day promised us more waves and I promised myself that I’d finish in the top 2.
Pulling a 360 back inside the wave at The Point
With more waves, day 2 was looking to have even better waves and wind. In my first heat, I was performing exactly how I wanted. On the horn signaling the start of the heat, I threw around a massive goiter, landing bold upright. Of course, all the photographers were figuring out a boat angle and missed it, but I was pretty happy. In the next heat though, I can’t say the same. I caught one of the set waves early on and killed it. I had a sick turn into an air into a floater into a taka– it was the highest scoring wave of the heat. But I couldn’t find another wave for the entire heat. So I lost the heat!
Sitting unhappily in 7th after a good performance on the wave but bad performance competitively
This meant that after day 2, I was in 7th place overall! People were joking with me that I was possibly sailing the best but that I didn’t know how to catch more than one wave in a heat. I laughed, knowing that the comment stung with the truth.
On the 3rd day, we didn’t compete. That day, I worked really hard on my tricks to be ready for day 4. I wanted to be able to pull a goiter or a taka on call on any wave. And preferably one of the 1-hand variations. Sitting well below the podium, I pushed myself to be ready for the new start of the competition.
Only finding 1 wave but riding it well-- here's an air