Thursday, July 16, 2009

Oahu days 33-34

The waves are back and I'm back in the water.

On day 33 I only sailed in the afternoon at Da Spot and it was great fun. Waist to shoulder high, as light/offshore/gusty as you can imagine. As clean as you can imagine too.
Yesterday (day 34, or voyage 34 (*) should I say) instead, I surfed Suicides in the morning. The photo below illustrates the fun conditions.


The late afternoon sailing session was a bit of a disappointer though, since, seen the beautiful shoulder to over head high waves, the place saw something like 16 surfers in the lineup. Should have gone earlier. Caught two wave and decided to go for a sunset beer with a friend at Lulu's.
Here's the great view from the terrace.


And here's a few pics that show the power of the zoom of my camera.
A set hits Publics.


A six men canoe catches a roller on the outside.


A bit of traffic in the body boarders line up.


And here's a bonus clip. Yeah, it was a bit noisy.


day waves: 16+14
windsurfing: 396
surfing: 317
total: 713
average per day (30 days in the water): 23.7

Joel Parkinson won the ASP contest at Jeffrey's bay.
Meanwhile at Pozo the double elimination ladder of the PWA wave contest started.

(*) Voyage 34 is the most psychedelic album released by the Porcupine Tree. The ending guitar solo of Phase one is my favorite guitar solo ever. Couldn't find a good version on youtube, but I found a cover version of the very similar solo of Phase two: this guy did an excellent job.
I listened to this album relentlessly during the saddest period of my life (which had nothing to do with LSD or drugs, in case you wonder), quite a few years ago. It somehow helped me face the reality.
Listening to it now, brings back those memories and makes me appreciate even more the amazing life I have now.
The power of music...

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was thinking since it´s the first time I follow your blog every day for a year now on. What´s going on in Maui for the north hemisphere summer?
Do you usually leave?

When´re you coming back?

Miss Maui so much, I´dont sail and surf since Easter. The cold winter is killing me.

Olaf H

Meesh said...

GP, when are you coming back. 5 days a week are making me tired ;)

cammar said...

Hi Olaf,

not sailing or surfing since Easter is no good. I understand how you can feel.

After "wasting" eight summers in Maui, I finally figured out the easiest possible thing to do to escape the "boredom" of a super windy and flat north shore and a weak, inconsistent south shore: spend the summer in Oahu, that instead offers amazing surfing conditions and extremely fun wave sailing too.
Maui doesn't get hit by the south swells as well as Oahu does. There's a few reasons for that. The main one is called Kahoolawe. Have a look at a map of the hawaiian island and you'll see.
The orientation of the Waikiki coastline is another huge factor. The trade winds are offshore and the surf stays clean ALL DAY!
In Lahaina (completely shaded by the trade winds by the west maui mountain), most days it's onshore sea breeze after 10am and it makes it mushy, shitty, etc...

I pretty much believe that this is going to be a recurrent thing that I'm going to do every year. Also because I have lovely co-workers that are happy to step in and replace me... Thanks Meesh!!! :)))

BTW, you mean 5 HALF days a week are making you tired!
And that's nothing. Wait until the italians show up in August!!!