surfing and wave sailing

I am being reminded of the song, Toots & the Maytals Country Roads right about now

Kanaha opened a large can of woopass on me this afternoon!

I’m sitting here trying to remember my last surf sesh.
It’s real hard to focus on any single wave other than this one.
At the beginning of the sesh I dropped in on a couple of bombs that were nothing but a big clean drop to a big close out.
Then Kanaha started really showing her teeth and she was in a foul mood.
Not many guys were going for the set waves and I found out why.
I was sitting pretty far out when something rose up on the horizon.
I immediately started paddling out as fast as I could.
I paddled for a long way and I didn't know if I had gone far enough.
By the time the set got to me I still wasn't clear of this makker set.
I paddled up vertical faces that I don't have any I idea of how big they were, but, they spooked me.
One after another I paddled over three of them and just barely cleared the lip before it threw.
I kept eyes on the horizon as I caught a couple smaller waves that were closeouts as well.
I was hoping for one good wave and then I was going to call it a day.
I was sitting off to the left of what I thought was the peak when this smaller looking glassy peak rolled right up to me.
It was a perfect right hander.
I hardly had to paddle.
I made two strokes and popped up into a low aggressive stance.
I dropped down the long smooth face.
I charged back up that smooth face for almost as far as I had dropped at the peak.
Just when I was initiating my top turn the wave decided to throw.
And boy did it!
I had a full head of steam when I collided with this exploding peak. I was thrown far in the air and my board was thrown even farther. When it had stretched my leash as far as it could the board rebounded. It powered back at me like one of those paddle balls on a rubber band.
I remember seeing the fins as they passed by my face.
Then it happened!
I landed right in the epicenter of the force that the wave was producing.
I was violently pummeled and held under for an uncomfortably long while.
When I came up I only had time for one deep breath before the next equally sized wave dumped on my head.
This went on for several more waves.
Each one of them delivered a severe beating.
All I could do is breath when I got the chance and try and protect my board as best I could.
When that set subsided I paddled back out and caught a couple more smaller waves before calling it a day.
I was asked by several guys how my sesh was and all I could tell them was that I caught some big waves and I paid for them.

Thought I would post some random images:

Victors last ride of 2010

rainbows most of the time

Karen

Jace

Tracy

Francisco

I get these great sunsets most evenings. .

I surfed with my old friend Mike Waltze for a while yesterday. Other wise I had Nori's all to my self. The sets were still pretty big and they were hard to paddle into. I did get some waves one right and two lefts stand out in my memory.
One of the lefts was as good as any wave that I have ever ridden.
I got drilled pretty good a couple of times as well!

mele kalikimaka

Great last few posts guys. Im headed to CA tomorrow. Ill have to tell you about my trip and share photos when I'm back.

We have a new swell this Christmas Day! It's a present that I'm going to share it with all my friends here in Hawaii.

900 AM HST SAT DEC 25 2010

HIGH SURF ADVISORY FOR NORTH AND EAST FACING SHORES THROUGH
MONDAY

Surf along north facing shores rising to 12 to 16 feet today through Sunday morning, then lowering to 10 to 12 feet by Sunday evening.

The legendary Mike Waltze at Jaws back in the 90's

Mele Kalikekanaka....

A North swell at Honomanu sounds dreamy right about now. Been a pretty flat December here. Supposed to snow flurry later... I might go log the knee high slappers just to say I did.

Merry Christmas and looking forward to the the New Year!

Olaf Mitchell wrote: I think PTZ that if you keep reading this thread you might get a clue.

I get it, its a sick thing to do, but the ocean is a dirty, violent, shark and reef infested place. The best perk is the chicks in bikinis admit it. It is a part sun worshiping culture that we all have in common.Having that sun beat down on you is intoxicating in any sport. I can't beef on anybody doing anything outside. No matter what the activity as long as you enjoy yourself and it is outside more power to you. Go surf do your thing. That means less people rock climbing.

Hay, PTZ thanks for your input dude!

Christmas Eve was way gnarly! I cruised the coast from Hookipa to Kanaha and didn't like what I saw at any of the breaks. I did see a couple of wave rides that impressed me at Hookipa but it was a day for the best of the best.
I moved on to Kanaha and I noticed that there were a number people paddling out that were obviously under estimating what they were getting into.
I watched with binoculars as water patrol conducted several rescues.
The sets were so big that they were visible when they cleared the horizon.
When they hit the reef at Kanaha they were throwing in excess of triple over head and closing out.
I didn't see one single wave that I thought I could make.
I am no stranger to heavy ocean conditions.
I decided not to venture out into chaos.
I went home and had some beers and washed my truck.
From my back yard I could see the lines out on the ocean all the way to the horizon.

Yesterday was another thing all together. The size had dropped a little and the waves had cleaned up their act. It was still too big at Kuau. In fact three different teams were towing in at Nori's. When I got to Kanaha I found waves that were peeling off the peak delivering beautiful rights and lefts. I paddled out at noon and surfed until 5:00.
That's a lot of paddling!

The scene from my back yard Christmas Eve day. Notice the wave lines all the way out to the horizon.

North shores - The large north swell will keep the surf breaking…although lowering during the day Tuesday. A new northwest swell, a long lasting swell train of waves, will keep and bump these shores up starting Tuesday, with peak days later Tuesday into Wednesday, then again Friday Saturday…finally, the largest of the three next Monday.= GAME ON !!

youtube.com/watch?v=qH7PH9k…

Welcome mobley!

There has been a shark attack here on the north shore.
We have had a lot of rain lately and the water near any river mouth or drainage is full of silt and is dark and murky.
Sharks don't have the best eye sight.
More shark encounters happen when the water is muddy than any other time.
It's sort of strange that I got out of the water yesterday after two waves at Nori's. It was getting late and i was all alone . It started feeling spooky!
I found this eye witness report by Kai Barger. He's one of the rescuers that was on the scene at the time.

"It was a northeast swell so we went to Ledges, and it was actually my first time surfing out there. It's a shifty, slingshot-type of wave. We scored it in the morning and then it turned onshore so we went to eat and then came back.
Dusty [Payne], Granger [Larson], Tanner [Hendrickson] and I paddled back out after lunch. And out of nowhere these two bodyboarders came out. They almost looked out-of-place being out there. They had a hard time catching waves. They ended up going about 20 yards out-the-back to try and roll into a few.
Dusty had just broken his board and was swimming in and then we hear this kid screaming bloody murder. We thought they saw a shark and we started talking about it, 'cause Tanner saw a shark there a few days before. But we looked outside and they were 20 to 30 yards out-the-back and weren't waving us down for help or anything. They were stuck in the rip and didn't get in to us for like five minutes.
When they got closer, we asked them, "What's the deal? Did you see a shark?" And they're like, "No, we got attacked." I didn't believe it, so I asked to see. And the kid lifted up his leg and his flipper was completely gone and his foot was a full-on hamburger patty. I go, "OK, we gotta go in."
Because he had a rubber fin on, we all got away with it. If it had been anyone of us, we'd have no foot right now."
-- Kai Barger

"His friend couldn't help much on his bodyboard, so it was pretty much up to Tanner and I. The kid looked like he was in a state of shock. He looked like he saw a ghost. But he was actually surprisingly calm. He wasn't screaming or crying or anything.
This kid had been bleeding for almost 10 minutes at that point but we couldn't really put a tourniquet on him in the water because of all the waves rushing. So he grabbed both our leashes and we paddled as hard as we could to the beach. The whole way in we talked him through it, like, "You're going to be OK. You just survived a shark attack. You're still going to have a foot."
When we got him to the beach, I ripped off my leash and tied the tourniquet right above his knee. He had a pretty nasty cut going all the way up his shin. His friend's dad called the ambulance. We elevated his leg on his boogieboard. We were right in town so the ambulance came right away.
Lucky thing, he had a big rubber fin on his foot. I think that's what saved his foot. The shark probably didn't like that and moved on. It was almost like that kid sacrificed himself."

Bodyboarder rescued after shark attack on Maui

The day after Christmas at Hookipa

Crazy Train photo:Brian Bielman

Mobley:

Awesome vid.
Thankz for posting.

Do you know Jeffry Brown/ any freeskate (or Icetope) sailors from the N.E area ?

I love the freedom of the air you guys gets with the wind wings !
How are your top speeds for a given conditions ?
Or more specifically how does skates and wind wings compare with a conventional rig and board ?

Who remembers 'Wind Weapons' ?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Olaf:

Quite an experience you describe (re: the shark attack)

That young man sounds fortunate to have had you and your partner near him in the water that day.
Kudos !

Mobley I also want to compliment you on the video that you posted.
Those wind wings look very elegant when used by an expert. They would probably be a hand full in stronger winds.

truntlebum, I remember the "wind weapon" from The Gorge I only saw one guy actually doing it when I was there but I remember the video coverage.
The Wind weapon had a mast o sorts if I recall.

trundlebum, I didn't mean to give the impresion that I was in on the rescue or even at the scene of the shark attack. I was actually surfing about a mile down the beach at Lower Kanaha when the incident occurred. I was just passing Kai Barges dramatic eye witness report along. The fellow is very lucky to have a foot!

Yesterday I took the surf boards out of the back of my truck and replaced them with wind surf gear.
I had a great sesh at my favorite surf/ wave sailing spot. The waves were way down but the wind swell mixed with what little ground swell that was left made for a lot of delightful smacks. The funny thing is that the launch was almost completely deserted. I guess the many of our usual suspects were out of town for the holidays or were waiting for the real business to get here in the next few days.
I for one enjoyed ripping the tops off a bunch of waves and getting my timing down. We haven’t had any wind to speak of in nearly a month. That’s a long time for Maui. I really can’t complain because the surfing has been ALL TIME!
Maui is a mixed bag of water sports enthusiasts many of the surfers don’t windsurf or kite so when the trade winds are cranking the surfers are bummed and many of the wind surf /kiters don’t surf so when the wind stops those guys aren’t having much fun and they can get pretty cranky.
It looks like we will be getting one more day of surfing tomorrow and then it looks like Game On for wave sailing for the forecast able future with several high surf advisory level swells heading our way.

I would like to say Happy New Year!

Here’s what Glen James has to say about the upcoming surf conditions:
North shores - A new northwest swell will pick the size up again late Friday into Saturday…likely just below high surf advisory levels. The next northwest swell in line will arrive Sunday into Monday, and be large enough to trigger high surf advisory conditions. This swell will gradually drop Tuesday…followed by a third in the series arriving later Tuesday afternoon into Wednesday.

This image is painted on the wall of the "Kuau Mart". This family owned north shore land mark will be going out of business in January due to "Rick Markem's" doubling their rent."Auntie" Leona Neumora has fed and taken care of the north shore community for many years. Another local family hes been driven out of business!

Olaf Mitchell wrote:trundlebum, I didn't mean to give the impresion that I was in on the rescue or even at the scene of the shark attack. I was actually surfing about a mile down the beach at Lower Kanaha when the incident occurred. I was just passing Kai Barges dramatic eye witness report along. The fellow is very lucky to have a foot!

thanks for explaining Olaf --I too had the impresion you were there. I'm glad he had the help he needed in time to save his life (and limb). Maybe it's time to paint the bottom of your board with the text "I AM NOT A TURTLE"

Sorry to hear that the Kuau Mart is out from greed. Is that the place near the intersection of Paia town -dangit they had great potato wedgies

Hau'oli Makahiki Hou

Malu

Kua Mart to end

Waaaaah ! ! !

Had many a Musubi and soda on the front steps.

I hope that you guys don’t think that I am making too a big thing of this incident, But it is real news and it’s very close to home for me.
Here's some video and stills by award winning photographers "Elliot Leboe" and "Erik Aeder" of the shark attack at Kahului Harbor.
Kai Barger and Tanner Hendrickson tell their first hand experience of rescuing shark bite victim Vaughn Stover.
We are all wishing Vaughn a swift recovery.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4_Ri4nBq5Y&feature=player_embedded