Folks around here definitely cannot complain about the quality and frequency of the big surf we've had this winter. We had our first big Jaws day way back on Nov 2, which seems like an eternity ago from here. And yesterday Jaws was breaking again for the nth time this winter. Unfortunately I couldn't make the morning drive to watch the action, but our friend and Hood River neighbor (and awesome gorge sailor) Sven Esslinger got down there and took some kick ass photos which he shared with me. So all the awesome photos below are Sven's, with a tiny bit of editing on my side.
I edited the photos to provide both a long view and a close up of the action. Jaws is so huge I think you need both to get the entire picture. Sailors include Levi, Jason Polakow (with a jet ski being hurtled over his head), Kai Lenny, Brawzhino, Robby Naish (who has a rare wipe-out in last photo), and Michi Schweiger. Check them out...
Also Ridge Lenny (Kai's brother) put together this very nice video of the action. Enjoy!
Also here's a link to Jimmie Hepp's video showing the jet ski getting sucked over the falls above Jason Polakow's head. Yikes!!!
The damage on Maui from the tsunami is pretty minimal, though Kanaha was flooded and is still closed. Big bummer for us Kanaha regulars, but given what's going on elsewhere we're very happy and thankful that's all we have to worry about. All other beaches on the north shore are open for business, and we spent the afternoon at Hookipa trying to capture some of the action. There's been a steady dose of both wind and waves lately, in fact this week looks to feature some big combinations of the two, so from a windsurfing perspective we're having excellent early spring conditions. There's even a forecast of a decent south swell coming later this week.
