surf-matic

Testing testing testing prototype sails means that every session is full of analysis...and off the lips!

Maui is the center of the windsurfing universe right now. I know because there are a million people on every single wave at Hookipa. Enter photoshoot season. And it doesn’t help that the winds are f***ing strong at the moment! It’s like 30 knots or nothing. What’s up with that? After using basically a lot of 4.5s and 3.7s, a 5.0 felt strangely big (and 5.0 is my favorite size!).

More protos! The new sails are going to be insane after all this testing.

I will add that it’s nice to see the windsurfing industry in bloom. The beach becomes much more social when all “the guys” are here to chat about waves, wind, and nothing else. And with 7 or 8 photographers in the water, us Pro’s feel that the sport is alive beyond our delusions.

During these days, I am not photoshooting. Quatro has their photoshoot next month. And with Ezzy, we’ve already done our flat water shoots and will do the other sails as needed– the advantage of living on Maui! But I AM testing and training. Testing sails is good. There is so much to test! At Ezzy, we’ve been working on 4 batten prototypes for about 3 or 4 years. Until now, everything was less stable than the 5 batten sails. We decided that we would not compromise. So, if we were going to put a 4 batten into production, it would have to be better than the 5 battens in every regard. I won’t spill the beans on how this process is going but I will say that because we use a completely different method for creating windsurfing sails than the other brands, we’ve come up with some special stuff. And I’m not just talking about our little joke against the industry and the media, the 3 batten sail (if you don’t like it, we’ll send you the 4 batten free! hahahha). I should say that the proto sails that I’m on in these photos are exactly that: prototypes. They will not be available ever. There will be some sexy new sails unveiled after the summer for that release. Until then, we are testing and prepping to make those sails f***ing excellent.

I’m also testing a lot with fins. K4 has sent me a massive package of new styles to try. We’re playing with shapes and materials. Only good things can come from testing!

I've learned a new style of 360 and they are so much fun.

Training is learning. Learning is failing. I do a lot of falling. But falling is good. Well, that’s what I tell myself.

It seems that despite however many million years that I’ve windsurfed, I still learn new things about the basics like the bottom turn. And not just small very technical things. Over the last week, I’ve figured out some very basic things about the bottom turn and how to use it effectively to do good moves off the lip. The key? Commitment, no matter what happens.

Windsurfing is so hard. In what other sport do you spend your entire career (in some cases professional career) learning the basics?

I guess that keeps it fun. Humans like a challenge. Humans like solving puzzles. Windsurfing then is the ultimate human recreation. No matter how smart or physically talented anyone is, they will never be more than a novice. We are all novices, just of varying degrees.

On that note, I’m going to bed. Here’s what to expect from surf-matic for this week: the final installment of Ireland (yes! it is written and just waiting to be posted… it’s begging actually), some updates from Maui (especially if I get around to pulling off photos from the camera memory), and a special treat on here and the umi channel with a new move (be excited!).

Signing off!
G

I’m out of the country again, but I’ll be back on Maui by the end of the week. Here are some pics from Hookipa in the meantime.

Time on Maui means one thing: Research and Development. A lot of fin and sail testing especially! The sail testing is actually pretty intense. Every day there is a new sail to test, getting everything perfect for the 2012 summer release. It’s tiring but lot’s of fun… and even more prototypes!

I’m back on Maui and the conditions are super fun, but here is a flashback to last month’s Irish adventure.

Bombing down the line of a green Irish roller.

4.
It makes sense to go in wintertime from warm Hawaii, home of the best waves in the world, to cold Ireland in search of waves. Right?…wait… Am I insane? “Never leave wind to find wind,” that’s the maxim windsurfers are so fond of saying at the beach. Yet, it’s not a rule we often follow. Our sport is migratory. In fact, to be a windsurfer is to be a nomad.

Of course there are the famous pilgrimages in our sport to the various Meccas. The Canary Islands for Europeans. The Gorge for American windsurfers. And Maui for everyone. But even the guy that never leaves his local lake travels when he sails from one side to the other and back again and again. “That’s not travel!” I hear someone shout, “he’s going in circles”. But ah! this circular nature is—in fact—definitional of travel. Travel is just as much about the going as it is the returning home with new eyes.

But this is not completely true for us ocean sailors. For us, ocean travel is two-faced because our home is the sea. Going from the Pacific of Maui to the North Atlantic of Ireland is not travel for me; I am simply seeing a different angle to the beauty of my mistress, the sea. And this is important because if you don’t know all her forms, you cannot begin to understand her or see her as she is. It is for this same reason that people who don’t sail generally don’t see whitecaps on the waves.

I finish an Irish bottom turn on one of the prototype 4-batten wave sails.

All this nonsensical talk of travel was what I told myself over and over as I had the most difficult session of my life. The water was cold, the air was cold, the current was strong, the rocks were slippery and big, I’d never sailed in booties before, my board was a floater I’d never tried, and I’m not used to port tack. I could barely get high enough up wind against the current to catch waves. I was the only windsurfer sailing that day though, so at least it wasn’t crowded. Hahahah. But Ireland never gets crowded.

[pause] Actually, it is strange that there are no crowds. Ireland has some of the best surfing and windsurfing in the world. While waves all over the world get more and more crowded every year (mainly by Brazilian and Australian surfers… how do they do it?), the Irish coast remains quite virgin.

My friend and companion Brendan has his own theory: the Irish people turn their backs on the sea. Once heard, this revelation seems obvious (as the most clever statements tend to do). The Irish culture centers itself around agriculture—cows, farming, and sheep—not fishing, despite being an island (and a pretty small one at that!). The houses aim their windows landward, leaving the sea-views vacant. Unlike most countries, the coastal towns are less busy than the completely landlocked ones. Brendan asked the caretaker of our cottage about his observation and the man (a kind farmer named Donal) agreed. Donal has lived in the same area for his whole life and near there is a pier protruding out into the sea. In all his years (over 50 of them), he has only been on the pier twice. The Irish turn their backs on the sea.

Brendan films background footage and observes the Irish culture in the process.

Why? Why does the Island look inward and back at itself? Well, Brendan says, “People are the same everywhere, but here the sea is different.” Here in Ireland the sea is violent. The same waves and wind that I traveled around the world to ride are too extreme for coexistence between the locals and the sea.

In Ireland, I hoped to meet a new personality of the ocean. And as I worked like hell to get upwind and to the waves’s peak to catch another ride, I laughed at my life: going through all the trouble of traveling with truckloads of gear to sail in the cold. And despite all that, I was skunked. Yeah I had a few days on the water, but I did not get the 40 foot swells and 30 knot wind for which I hoped. And then I realized that living for the sea—as we windsurfers do—is about existing in desire. I’m reminded of a Camus essay that I don’t want to look up because I’m afraid it’s not as good as what I remember. Basically one of the premises is that it is better to exist in desire than hope for satisfaction. A life of loving the sea is a life of nothing but building desire and a tension that builds with every session, brims with ecstasy, and sits on the verge of climax. This is how to love the sea.

Coming around in a taka on a 4-batten prototype.

Maui is windy! Like really windy. Like hurricane, gail-force-wind windy. Like why-am-I-even-trying-to-bottom-turn-in-this-insane-wind-windy. Who-opened-Aeolus’-bag windy. But despite all this, I’ve managed to find some fun waves…and sore right ankle.

I’ve got to say: windsurfing in strong wind while trying to ride waves is hell on the body. Brawzhino said to me whilst derigging, “Today is the kind of day you get hurt”. He’s right. Each gale gusts makes every move more uncontrollable, and I think the problem is mental too. When the wind howls in your ears, you can’t think. While the wrists and ankles get sore from being pounded in the surf, the brain fails to realize the tired state of the body. You keep pushing it, and injury is inevitable. After a certain point, the constant shhhhhhhhhhhhhh in your ears shuts up any voice of reason– you huck moves that aren’t radical but stupid, going big without a chance of landing. … Well, that is at least what happens to me when it starts howling and I’m trying to down the line ride. Did I mention that the windiest places in the world also have the highest suicide rates? Hmmmm…

That said, I did have a ton of fun in the wind. But how my body aches now! Skin ripped from palms and severely unhappy back muscles scream at me now that the wind has died for the night. The amazing thing about windsurfing, though, is that this pain or any pain is literally nonexistent on the water. My foot might be falling off from a severe gangrene infected dog bit, but I’d limp to the shore, I’d plop my board in the water, and I would not feel a ounce of pain for my entire session. Who needs advil when there’s windsurfing? I’ve always thought the painkiller effect was from the adrenalin and joy of windsurfing, but now I’m inclined to hypothesize that it’s just the wind! : )

Ok, I go sleep off these salty sprains. Here are some photos from the last days courtesy of Giampaolo Cammarota and Jimmie Hepp (thank you both). Oh and expect more from the Irish saga later this week.

Rigging up! (photo: GC, maui surf report)

Getting some tweak on (photo, GC again)

Throwing a mutant!

These shots are from the weekend. I’ve got more goodies from Monday. Take care!