Surf's Up

Our time on Maui is quickly winding down.  How fast two months can fly by!  There has been little wind the last few days - actually a light Kona wind came up today - but that hasn't kept us off the water.  Last spring during a period of no wind we decided we should give this surfing thing more of a try.  We have been staying in a lovely house in Waiehu, which happens to look down at a local surf sport known as "sand piles".  Actually not much sand there now, more like rock piles, but maybe there once was...

Looks like rock piles to me

While the trades are on this can be a blown out choppy break, but after they fade the east trade swell lives on for a few more days only without the wind - and piles can become a very fun place...

Sand Piles with fun surf

We can see piles from our porch here and last spring during one of the no wind - nice wave episodes we were in Costco and picked up a pair of their soft top "wave storm" boards.  $100 each.  Now I know what you're thinking - cheap boards from China.  True.  But we had nothing else and very little surf experience and besides (let me catch my breath) I watched an instructor give lessons to a student at piles on this very board and she caught some waves.  More interestingly, after the session was over he took the board out for a solo sesh and not only caught waves but made some turns with this board that proved that it could, well, at least turn.  Which is nice.

Plus we got to try one ourselves at sand piles and I was able to catch enough waves to feel like I was accomplishing something.  So we got a pair of these boards, which are essentially 8ft thick mini-tankers, and rode them several days there, and took them to the south shore, and Launiupoko, and lowers and weird wave (Kanaha), and when the waves were small enough (which seems hard to believe was ever possible considering the non-stop back to back giant surf we're getting now) to Hookipa.  We were having fun with these boards and I thought, what would a "real" board be like?  So we rented an 8.5 ft Elua Mikani from Second Wind and we both had a fun day riding it.  I was concerened this board would feel too small and be hard to paddle or catch any waves, but on a easy 3-5ft day at Launiupoko neither of us had any problems. So at least we knew we had the potential to move up from the "wave storm".

Now we normally wake up before dawn because I work on a west coast schedule here.  A cool sight to see on mornings when the wind is totally calm right after the trades have quit is all the SUPs catching rides before sunrise.  Yesterday was like that, with clean overhead waves and about a dozen SUPS out before the sun cleared the slope of Haleakala. 

How they all know so early that conditions are right is a mystery to me, must be an early warning sand piles SUP dawn patrol alert system, but after they go off to work or whatever they do, then the paddle surfers take over.  (OK - I realize there is a bit of a turf war between paddle and SUP surfers, but at least here the SUPs get out early enough to leave some waves for everyone else).

After watching a bit, Julia and I drove to Maui Windsurf Company to rent a pair of NSP 7'6 Funboards . We'd seen these when demoing the Goya board (these guys are the Goya test center and they're really nice so check this place out next time on Maui) and Stephan over there thought we should be able to catch rides with these sticks.  Now a 7'6 board is way smaller then anything I'd tried before, but these are epoxy and therefore light, and, as I discovered, thick and wide enough to float me decently.  We paddeled out into what turned out to be some overhead sets (bigger then we thought). Julia got tumbled by a wave pretty good and didn't stay out too long, but I was able to catch enough waves to be stoked that such a small board could work for me.

Today the waves at piles were a touch smaller, though the north swell was much bigger (piles gets some north wrap but is fairly protected) and we got in another quick sesh before returning the boards.  This time we both had no problems catching and riding, the board felt quick and responsive, stable,, and I could even duck under the bigger waves when going out.  In other words, this was a "fun board".  So when we come back in the spring we're going to be looking for some surf boards and the question is what to get?  Seems like everyone tells me based on my relative lack of experience that I need to get at least a 9 foot ot maybe even a 10 ft long board.  Uh, that won't fit in my car dude, and I don't have a rack.  These 7'6 boards seem to work so nice, I'm wondering why not try to find something like that, or maybe 7'10 or 8' at most?  Plus I'm pretty convinced we want epoxy boards (SouthPoint, or NSP maybe). So, any thoughts out there on that?

Jaws Forecast

OK, I mentioned earlier there was a big north swell today.  Yeah, just 20-26ft.  Pretty much nothing considering what's lining up behind this. Check the forecast table below and note that Saturday is showing up to 30 ft waves. That's already Jaws potential. Now check out Monday: 36-46 ft waves! This is the really huge day we've all been talking about. And it could be bigger - in fact the "better exposed outer reefs", which I suppose is another way of saying "Jaws", can add another 50% to the wave height due to the magic mojo that Jaws posseses. So maybe 60ft waves at Jaws is possible. We'll just have to wait and see.

FORECAST DATE	SWL HGT	DMNT DIR	DMNT PD	H 1/3	H 1/10	HGT TEND	PROB	WIND SPD	WIND DIR	SPD TEND
THU 12/03	10	NNW	16	20	26	UP	HIGH	17-21	SW	UP
	2	SSW	16	2	4	SAME	MED
FRI 12/04	6	NNW	14	10	12	DOWN	MED	11-16	N	DOWN
	4	NNE	13	6	8	UP	MED
	3	SSW	15	4	6	UP	MED
SAT 12/05	12	NW	14	24	30	UP	MED	7-10	E	DOWN
	3	NNE	9	4	6	DOWN	LOW
	3	SSW	14	4	6	SAME	LOW
SUN 12/06	8	NNW	14	14	18	DOWN	LOW	4-6	VRB	SAME
	2	SSW	14	2	4	DOWN	LOW
MON 12/07	16	NW	18	36	46	UP	LOW	4-6	VRB	SAME
	2	SSW	14	2	4	SAME	LOW

Kuau Re-Visited

Alrighty, now in another post I sort of talked about Kuau but didn't actually follow up with any photos or anything. Well I didn't have any at that time. Today, what with this wimpy little minor league swell that we're having, I decided to give Kuau a closer look.  Just to better understand what it might be like to sail or surf there on a not so big day. 

First off, here's a nice small wave breaking just outside the channel at Kuau. (As I'm sure you already know, you can click any of these photos to get an enlarged view).  So you would need to clear the little wave you see below to get to the outside.  Now consider that these waves will be more then twice as high in a few days...

 Occasionally another small wave lines up right after the first one, just to make it interesting...

This wave you might have to jump before you can get to the outside...

Julia is modeling for us below, showing the nice clean sand that you can rig on...

Ok, there are a few rocks around, but the view is nice!

Another look at the break just outside the Kuau launch. In the foreground is the channel itself.  See the ten feet of sandy bottom "channel" that you must come in and out of to get to the not so sandy beach?  If you miss this channel then you are totally screwed (or just swimming a very long time actually)...

Another look at the Kuau launch.  Makes you wonder why we ever bother with Kanaha.  Note the little 20ft waves lining up at Lanes down to Hookipa...

Again a look at a few waves just outside Kuau, just waiting for you.  Waiting for anybody actually.  Where is everyone?

Actually Dale Cook stopped by for a chat while I was taking these shots.  As you can see there is a touch of kona wind blowing a wee bit of spray off the 25ft grinder you see below, which will be closer to 40ft or more in a few days.  Not enough kona wind for any sailing this day, but Dale assured me that when there is enough he and his buddies are out there shredding up waves just like this.  I'd like to be there to see that.  Actually there won't be much wind for at least a week, but at least the surf is up!

These waves you see below are breaking just west of Kaua.  You're looking at the west Maui mountains in the distance.  If you should sail at Kaua on a normal trade day, and the wind should die or something breaks, and it was a nice small wave day like today, then this is what you might have to swim through to get to the only other possible exit a few miles down the coast.  Dale says there is a ten foot gap somewhere down there in the rocky ledge that covers almost all beach around here.  And you wouldn't want to miss that gap cause thats it.

At the end of the day we sat at Mama's beach watching the folks parking their cars so they can buy $20 drinks before their $100 dinners.  Meanwhile Julia and I were sipping our home made mai tais (much cheaper) and watched a couple of SUPs who launched from Kaua and then totally shreded these waves.  These guys, buddies of Dale, were amazing.  I'm still wondering how they managed to not get crushed by some of the bigger waves.  They always seemd to just make it over a big set right before it crashed down on them.  Then they turned around and rode the next wave, from Lanes all the way to Hookipa.  The shot below is a wave pealing just outside of Kaua, and is pretty typical of the waves they were catching.  They made it look fun (PS - these were the only dudes out, no surfers, windsurers, or kiters).

Something Very Random But Cool

Julia has had a board for sail on Craig's list.  She decided she only needed one board on account of the Mistral 76 twinzer we acquired over the summer working so well for her.  So we didn't need the 07 Goya 68 custom wave, though she never rode it much and it was a very nice ride for Julia on the windier days.  We're just trying to keep things simple here.  Plus we pay for storage.  So the board's been on Craig's list for a month and we're leaving in a few days and we hadn't heard nada, even though the price was very reasonable IMO.  Finally I updated the posting and added my phone #.  I assumed it was good enough to have my scrambed email address in there. Actually I'm still not sure that for whatever reason the email address ever worked.  I get emails from Craigs list but never one from a potential buyer.  I even sent myself a test message and got nothing.  How do we know Craigs list is not dropping half the emails?  No way to know.  Its free so you get what you pay for and everyone's happy even if the system sucks, right?  Opps, sorry I just went off on a rant there.  Ok, so I added the phone # and almost instantly we get a call from a guy with a foreign accent (which is cool) who says has name is Shaka, or at least sounds like that. We finally arrange to meet in Paia and it turns out that "Shaka" is really Shahar Zubari (and pronounced a lot like Shaka). Shahar is no less then the Isreali olympic windsurf champion, and he won a bronze medal in the Beijing 2008 games.  And he bought our board!  Which I think is random but very cool!