Monday, April 06, 2015

4 6 15 morning call

Yesterday turned out to be a trifecta day, so that automatically goes into the good category.

South shore was perfect for SUP and longboards, as the two photos below show.

Well this one shows some beauty.
 
 
 
 
 Head high for this kid, who was actually ripping.


After that, I attempted a shortboard session, but that didn't go too well. It just wasn't enough power, but I'm constantly testing boards and I don't want to miss out on any opportunity.
In the evening I ended up having way more fun that I thought I was going to have at Hookipa. My buddy Maurizio took some pics.



My Hot Sails Maui Firelight 4.3 is my favorite sail in the world. Haven't tried them all, of course, but working at Hi-Tech, I tried a bunch. Now listen to me: that doesn't mean that's the best sail for you also! They crack me up every time they ask me what you think about this sail and this board etc...
I mean, it's good to have an opinion (like this one you're getting here), but you need to filter it. We are all so incredibly different. What's good for one can be shit for someone else.
The sailing I do is quite different from the sailing 90% of the windsurfer of the world do.
I hate the strong wind, I think planning is overrated and I love slog and surfing, just to give you an example.
Back to the sail, here's the two main reason I like it so much:
1) It's the lightest sail in the world. It's even lighter than any 3 battens sail I've tried. You can throw it around like a feather and that, specialy in light wind, it's an incredible advantage.
2) It's pretty flat. I hate full bellied sail and all that power they generate. 90% of my turns are tacks (as the one pictured below) and a flat sail makes the tack SO MUCH EASIER.
I believe it also makes you trim the upwind sailing better. And lastly a flat sail is way more responsive than a full bellied one when you pump it to get on a wave (which I do a lot, since I love being always underpowered).


Today's buoys at 5am show a tiny little bit of difference (thank god) compared to has been the norm the whole past week. Not much to make a difference in the water, but at least it's comforting to see some periods bigger than 10s again.

NW
5.3ft @ 9s from 83° (E)
3ft @ 14s from 291° (WNW)
1.7ft @ 5s from 102° (ESE)
As you can see, 291 is a westerly direction that gets blocked  lot, so we won't see much of that energy on the north shore.

Waimea
4.2ft @ 9s from 36° (NE)
3.1ft @ 7s from 44° (NE)
1.1ft @ 5s from 39° (NE)
0.9ft @ 16s from 309° (WNW)
 
Pauwela
6.3ft @ 9s from 74° (ENE)
3.8ft @ 5s from 68° (ENE)
0.8ft @ 14s from 27° (NNE)

That means that the swell still has to hit Maui. We'll see some lines later in the day, but mostly it's gonna be windswell.

Lanai
1.8ft @ 8s from 174° (S)
1.4ft @ 13s from 193° (SSW)
1.4ft @ 4s from 154° (SSE)
0.1ft @ 25s from 262° (W)
South shore still not flat.
 
The wind today at noon looks like not as strong as the past few days, but still windy enough to get moving on a wind propelled water vehicle.


Wind map shows one fetch. One fetch much better than no fetches.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

Nice photos, good update. Many thanks!