Uncategorized

Maui has been a good place to be lately if you are a windsurfer.  It has been blowing all day and night for at least a week now.  The forecast is for more of the same and there is another big swell coming for early next week.  It’s nice to see this weather pattern, because the last couple months were not very windy at all.  Hope it continues!

Here are two shots taken by Dave Baker.  He is an amazing photgrapher and always comes out with some really quality pics.

Before the Tsunami

This morning I was woken up on Maui’s North Shore with sirens blaring at 6AM.  I checked the news and it said there was a Tsunami on the way, generated by a massive earthquake in Chile measuring 8.8 on the Richter scale.  Thankfully, the Tidal Waves were rather small, and nothing serious came of it on the Hawaiian islands.

Yesterday, I rode giant waves that were much bigger than the Tsunami.  My estimate from the biggest one that I caught would be double mast high!  Conditions were very difficult with the wind blowing nearly straight offshore, and most of the waves were closing out across the reef.  I was lucky to get out and catch a few before I got cleaned up by a big set.  I had  a long swim for my gear while I ducked mast high white water.  Fortunately when I tracked my gear down, it was unscathed.  I was pretty tired, but I wanted to catch one more.  I tried and tried for about 30 minutes to get back out doing chicken jibe after chicken jibe, when the waves finally opened up to let me through. 

Giampaolo stopped by and took a couple pictures of my efforts.  You can check out all of his shots on his blog at www.mauisurfreport.blogspot.com.  Check ‘em out and see the size waves we were out in.  I was glad to return to the beach without any broken pieces, myself or my gear.  Not everyone was so lucky.  My friend Art broke a mast and tore his sail, but he made it back in safely.  That was one crazy session.

Thanks again Giampaolo for taking these shots.

A Good Day

I just had one of those days that makes you feel very thankful to be a windsurfer on Maui.  The forecast was for no wind, and there was an advisory level swell on the way.  My expectations for windsurfing were low. 

I had work in the morning from 10-2 and the wind started to build by mid-day.  When  I got to the beach after work, I was welcomed with an uncrowded break and mast high waves peeling across the reef.  The wind was blowing perfect side-shore at about 15-20mph.  This was just enough to make it out with my 5.0 and 75L board.  I sailed for over 3 hours, catching wave after wave.  It was an epic day, considering I didn’t even expect to sail.

One of the first waves I had was a big one that peeled for what seemed like, forever.  I probably got 6 or 7 solid bottom turns before kicking out to catch the next one.  It was one of those days where you could just pick and choose any wave you wanted.  On my last wave, I went for an aerial on a big one, and shot up to clear the breaking section.  I landed in transition going down the face of the wave.  Unfortunately, upon landing, my back foot came out of the strap and I was riding with only one foot connected to the board.  I rode it out for a second, but decided it was better to bail, than to risk reinjuring my foot.  I dove off and got tumbled for a bit.  I had a short swim, but it was well worth it.

Check out these pics that Steve Hamman sent me.  The shots are from a recent session I had with fun sized waves.  Thanks Steve.

Happy New Year!

Well, I haven’t posted anything in a long while. The Maui windsurfing has been pretty non-existent for the past month or so. There has been the odd day every now and again to go sailing, but mostly just a lot of watching and waiting for the wind to come up. Hopefully the trend will change soon.

We did recently get a three day stretch with some Kona winds, which was nice for a change. The Kona winds are very challenging because they tend to be almost straight offshore and are extremely gusty. They can however, be very strong at times. I sailed at full power for about an hour and a half on my 3.5 a couple days ago. It was a treat to have such strong winds, because it is very seldom that I would use this sail on Maui.

Anyway, here’s hoping for a windy 2010, with lots of good sessions and pics for the blog.

A Few Water Shots

Here is a sequence of me that I came across on Francky’s website (http://www.mauiwatershoot.com/WELCOME.html). He captured my Pushloop while Cyrus rode the wave. I remember it was a good clean jump that I landed. Maui has a good forecast for this upcoming week, so check back for more.

It has now been 3 weeks since I injured my foot, but the healing process is going well. I was on crutches for 10 days, and have steadily improved since. I think I was lucky it wasn’t worse. I had no broke bones, and both my knee and ankle escaped without any pain. Moving forward, I think with some strategically placed tape, I will be on the water in just a few days.

Russ

Back to Maui!

I returned to Maui in August, and have been blessed with top notch conditions throughout the period. I have been sailing almost every day. There has been a steady supply of small windswell waves to play with, and more recently a large out of season North swell arrived. The North swell provided some really epic conditions with 4.2 winds and logo to mast high+ waves breaking across the reefs. It was nice to have good power in the sail giving opportunity for massive jumps and powerful waverides.

I was having a great time when I crashed on a pushloop. My foot got twisted and yanked out of the footstrap injuring some ligaments. Fortunately I do not have any broken bones and look to be back on the water soon. For now, it is a very sore foot and no sailing.

I did get a few nice pictures of sailing, prior to my foot injury on that day. The water shots were taken by Dave Baker. He can be found at http://hotsurfphotos.com/view_photog.php?photogid=3. The jump was provided by OES Australia Maui.

The Oregon Trip Continues

   

Oregon Trip

I left Maui to visit Oregon for the month of July, and it has proven to be a good trip so far. Shortly after arriving I got the call that the Coast had a big swell and lots of wind to go along with it. Myself, and a few others packed into a truck, and headed to Florence, Oregon. We arrived to 35mph wind and overhead swell. We were sailing right next to a jetty, so the waves were not all chopped up from the wind. There were some good waverides to be had, but the jumping was really amazing. I was using a 3.5 and had full power all of the time.

More recently I have been hitting the gorge spots. We had a great 4-day run where I sailed on a 4.2 once and 3.5 every other day. Chris Boston took a few pictures while JP and I sailed at the Wall last Sunday. Also, Dave Troup took some video for his blog on Monday at Arlington. You can check his site out at epicsesh.blogspot.com for some insane footage.  You may have to type the address in.

The trip is only half over, so there should be plenty more sailing and blogging to do before it is up. See ya on the water.

The Wind Returns

In my previous post I mentioned the wind was taking a break.  Well, it took a long break.  I did a lot of surfing, which was a nice, but I really prefer to windsurf.  In the last 2 months there was probably less than 10 days of sailable wind.  To most people, that probably doesn’t sound too bad.  Maui, on the other hand, is one of the windiest places in the world.  I know people that came here for 3 week vacations and didn’t sail at all.  I feel sorry for them, because Maui is supposed to provide wind all the time.

It is finally back and kicking at full force.  I have been able to sail every day for the last week and the wind has been exceptionaly strong.  There haven’t been to many waves to speak of, but it is plenty fun to go blast around and jump the wind swells, lit up on my 4.2.  I don’t have any new pictures, so I’ll just throw in an old one.  The shot was taken by Steve Hamman at Kuau, and I don’t think the situation looks very good for me.  If you look at the wave, you can see that the spray is going straight up, which meens that there is virtually no wind, except for a little blowing directly off shore.

More Wind, and Finally a Break

This has been an extremely windy spring.  It has been blowing non-stop for about a month now.  We are finally getting a short break, which is actually nice, because it is giving me a chance to wax up the old surfboard.  There is a decent swell running right now so tomorrow ought to be a good surfing day.  I managed to get out today for a surf after work, but only had about 40 minutes of daylight left.  I still was able to make the long paddle (about 15 minutes) out and catch one good wave.  It was pretty big, coming in at a couple feet overhead.  Nothing spectacular, but quite fun.