Summer (sort of)

Same old story here. It's summertime and we're back in the gorge.  Also back to a very busy schedule so of course not much spare time for the old blog. Anyway, let me summarize the summer so far in the NW... it's been cool.  And by cool I mean not much like summer.  Those of you sweltering in other parts of the country need to come here right now. Today's high was something like 68.  It should be 85 or higher.  Also the Columbia's current has been running at max (about twice the usual summer flow).  Good news is on windy days we have giant swells at the Hatch.  Bad news is it's been very choppy at Dougs and unsailable so far at the Wall.  And the water is cold - only about 63 in the middle of July.  Should be closer to 68 by now.  Hey but you can get some nice skiing if you want - plenty of snow still on the high peaks.  Check out the view of Mt Adams from our deck:

Never get tired of seeing that.  Also I never get tired of seeing Sean Aiken riding and jumping swell at the Hatch.

Some of the best sailing has been way out east in the desert, such as Roosevelt/Arlington.  We were camping there a couple days in June had two great back to back days on a 4.2/3.7.  We brought the Goya 78 quad wave here from Maui so that's what I've been on.  The Goya quad is great for riding giant swell BTW.  I might pull out the side fins and try it as a twinzer some day.  Anyway it's a damn versatile board and has held up great.  While camping we were treated to a fine desert sunset.

Such cool colors, don't you think?  It was raining at that moment back in HR, but totally dry in the desert as usual.  But June showers bring July flowers right? I guess so cause we got lots of flowers in the yard.  Also check out the fence of old windsurfing boards.  I picked these up a few years back at a swap meet - sort of a miniature of the famous Haiku windsurfing fence.

And what else... well it was recently 4th of July here, meaning fireworks.  And I got some pretty decent shots of them, taken from a friend's "really big deck".  But it's late at the moment so those will have to wait until the next post.  Soon, very soon I promise!

It's the End of the World ...

... and I think you know the punch line. So it's another freaking beautiful day here on Maui and I guess the world isn't ending so soon. Fortunately not, as we have some late May moderate NW swell aiming at the north shore right now with some medium to high level south swell on tap for next week. Wouldn't want to miss that! Speaking of next week - it's our last full week on Maui, and then we take - what is effectively now a summer break - back to Hood River and the Gorge. We're looking forward to HR and all the fun a summer in the Gorge entails. And yet we will be missing our friends and the island life in general. Maui is an addicting place I must admit. If you get used to the lifestyle here and it's a life you enjoy, then it may become difficult to live anywhere else. Let that be a warning for those who visit too frequently.

Some of the three people still following have asked me "what's up with the two month gap in posts"? Well not much has happened in two months. Actually not true! In fact just the opposite - simply put, I've been very very busy. The thing is I have this regular job. I'll spare the details but it is in the area of developing software for a west coast startup. Which periodically has major releases and we've just been - in fact are still going - through that process now. I wake up most days around 5:45 and put in a regular work day, which ends around 1-2-ish. Then it's usually off to the beach for a few hours of sailing, surfing or whatever. I work from a home office which can in theory be anywhere, though in practice is best to be either on pacific time or, as it turns out even better, Maui time. Anyway it can be fairly challenging work when deadlines approach. So after working a full day and then a few hours of playing in the surf, when I get home I have about zero desire to fire up the PC and sit next to a desk. The couch or bed is a much better option! (Maui midnight = 8:30 for me). Unless there's something really dramatic to report (like the end of the world or lack thereof). I know, it's a tough life. Let me show you how tough - here's a typical morning view from my office after my "commute"

The sunsets from here aren't too bad either...

Whenever I step outside my office the local cats attack..

Back when winter was still "raging" we had an all night lightening storm that took out our power for a bit.

So now that my work load has lightened slightly I'm going to try to push out a few more posts sooner than every two months.
Such as...
- The epic sessions "Reach for the Sky" didn't quite happen but I got some nice practice photos
- Our Goya gear and why we love it so
- 2011 Butterfly Effect
- Another Paia fashion show
- What's it like to spend an entire winter on Maui (hint, not too shabby)
- Fins, fins, fins
- Videos - I've seen some cool ones, maybe I'll do another myself some day
- Helmets - I wear one, maybe you should too?

TTYL!

The interesting weather is about to get more interesting

Or I could have titled this... Really huge waves coming for a really long time! This is from the NWS surf forecast courtesy of Pat Caldwell...

An extreme winter weather pattern is modelled to unfold this weekend west of the dateline. A low pressure forming near Tokyo is modelled to bomb, meaning central pressure radically dropping, on Sunday as the system tracks to the northeast to about 160°E, 45°N. The pattern is predicted to occlude, meaning the jet stream level winds form a cyclonic, or counter-clockwise, gyre over the surface feature. This causes the upper and lower atmospheric gyres to broaden, the center of the gyre to stall in movement, the central surface pressure to reach a minimum, and surface wind speeds to reach a maximum. This upcoming episode is larger than most winter occlusions, with the net result of a long, wide fetch of surface winds over the 290-310 degree band within the severe gale to hurricane-force range. The strongest winds are expected mid Sunday into early Tuesday with the head of the fetch reaching to about 1500 nm of Hawaii and over a fetch that is north of the Kauai shadow on Oahu. Wide fetches allow less decay in swell height during travel, thus large open ocean swells are expected locally. Forerunners are due Wednesday, with a rapid rise mid day above high surf levels.

Exciting or scary? Maybe both! Plus this should last like forever. Taking a look at next week's weather models (which you can so easily see for yourself here any old time) ...

On Monday you see this...

Already a pretty huge storm out there.  Move to Wednesday, you see this...

Still a huge storm and in about the same place.  What happens by Friday?

It's still there!!  Going all the way to the end of the forecast maps, almost into Sunday next week...

Holy guacamoly!  It's like a giant permanent gyre has formed in the north Pacific atmosphere. Isn't that what  happened in the apocalyptic movie "The Day After Tomorrow"?  Or was that in "2012".  Is it 2012 yet?  I knew the fact that the sun is going through a period of unusually low sun spot activity was going to bite us in the arse soon.  What you didn't know about that?

Ah, but why worry when we will surely have waves,  Monster waves that is.  Perhaps **Egypt** will break (**a large outer reef beyond Sprecks which has been postulated to have the potential of producing the largest surfable waves on the planet).  If so I'm sure Laird will be on it. And then perhaps we can blame Laird for all this.

All this talk about surfing reminds me that I have a few photos from the 21st Annual Justin Roberson surf contest at Hookipa last weekend.  Only had time to watch about 30 minutes from the overlook.  Still saw some very skilled surfing in that short time...

Finally I'm finding it hard to end a post without at least one sunset photo.  I never get tired of these, even though we see this nearly every day...

November Came On Like a Lion and Leaves Us...

... well, right now looking very lamb like.  It began with a giant swell that sent tow in surfers from around the globe to Jaws.  Our friend and very accomplished videographer Tormod Martinsen (also known as the "Happy Surfer") put together this video that shows the action.

Very nice Tormod! Besides that we've had plenty of action ourselves - according to Julia's handy online calender we windsurfed 16 days, surfed 7 and hiked two out of the 28 days so far. That means only five days without any on the water action. And admittedly we could have surfed and sailed more if we we're willing to drive a bit longer or sooner. For instance one day we could have sailed the spot that shall not be named on West Maui, except the wind died about ten minutes after we arrived.  But at least it was nice as you can see from this shot I took before the rain squall hit us...

And some of those windsurfing days were really great in the moderate surf we've been mostly getting.  I mean it's not like we need giant waves all the time to have a decent life here. In fact, nothing but giant waves can sometimes be trouble.  For instance, it was just one year ago when I had my biggest wipe out and swim in the huge surf that November 2009 was regularly serving up.

Now I don't have any personal videos to show you of any of this. The thing is, I purchased a new GoPro 960P (HD, just not 1080P) at the north shore clean up auction back in October.  And I'm still waiting for it to ship (hello Jake and David, I know it's in the mail, but please!).

So while I'm waiting for that, I have no videos.  However Nick Warmuth, who is my personal favorite sailor to watch at Kanaha, managed to get himself into a nice video. Unfortunately it's on FaceBook, so I can't embed and can only provide a link (and you need a FB account to see it.  Damn FaceBook!).   And as long as I'm linking to other peoples videos, I was stoked to see GP put this one together where he surfed a board at lowers that he had snapped in half and then repaired and also made the music for the video himself. See his blog for the whole story.

Julia and I also had some great surfing at lowers last week. One of the goals of our endless summer is to go well beyond the "learning to surf" phase. I'm not sure how far we can get, but if possible all the way to trying short boards. Last fall we had our costco blue "WaveStorm" boards. Those were fine for getting ourselves into the water, and since we were living right next to sandpiles at the time we had ample opportunity. Last spring we stepped up to "real" surf boards - that is 8'0 and 8'6 Elua Makani long boards. We've had some great days on these sticks, particularly at Hookipa and lowers the past few weeks.

So yesterday 2nd Wind had their huge after T-Day "Surf Saturday" all day sell-a-thon and party  (which motivated a certain individual to chug a beer to obtain a Miss Reef 2011 calender). But besides that, we also picked up a 7'7 Southpoint mini-hune (tanker) (also known as a "funboard"), which is a hybrid between short and long board. (at really great price too)

I paddled this out at Hookipa today and had a very fun day, which seems appropriate. More specifically I had better traction and control on the bigger waves, but found the paddling and catching to be only slightly more difficult than with the 8'6.  So the plan is for this to become the regular board and then, maybe at some point later, try a true short board.

So back to the November being a lamb thing.  Right now it's looking like small to moderate surf at best for most of the week, with some possible rain, and no wind for a few days.  That might sound bleak, but the trades are supposed to fill in by Wednesday which is about when the next swell arrives and builds into Friday and the rain is likely to be pushed south of the islands by the building trade high.  Also I can't complain too much when I see forecasts like this (for Hood River) ...

Overnight: Areas of freezing fog. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 24. Light west wind.

Monday: Snow likely after 4pm. Areas of freezing fog before 10am. Snow level 300 feet. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 33. Calm wind becoming east around 6 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. Little or no snow accumulation expected.

Monday Night: Snow likely before 10pm, then snow, possibly mixed with freezing rain. Low around 27. East wind between 5 and 7 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. Little or no ice accumulation expected. New snow accumulation of 2 to 4 inches possible.

Tuesday: Rain, possibly mixed with freezing rain before 4pm, then snow, possibly mixed with freezing rain. Snow level 300 feet rising to 1500 feet. High near 27. East wind between 3 and 6 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New snow accumulation of 1 to 3 inches possible.

Tuesday Night: Snow, possibly mixed with freezing rain before 10pm, then rain likely. Snow level 200 feet rising to 1500 feet. Low around 27. East wind around 5 mph becoming west. Chance of precipitation is 80%. Little or no snow accumulation expected.

Oh yeah, no complaints! And besides all that, the weather models ,which I can now pick up from my own page, show decent fetch  potential setting up over the weekend, which would bring better surf here by next week. Way too earlier to get excited, but at least we got that going for us.

Next I wanted to show what the Maui version of a family mini-van looks like, when all the kids are in place.

And finally, two pictures from the big day of feasting.  As we were leaving our neighborhood, we were very thankful to see the friendly neighborhood rainbow putting on a show.

We got to Kula just as the sun was setting.  The view from up there, looking over the entire central valley, south Maui, the west Maui mountains, with Lanai in the distance, is so awesome.  I barely had time to park the car, grab the camera, and run through the ohana and onto the deck and take this shot as the sun sank below the horizon.  I think the effort was worth it. Hope you do too.  Aloha!

It's Another Pukalani Sunset

Driving home last night on the great Haleakala highway, had to pull over, grabbed the trusty P&S, climbed onto the roof of the minivan, and took these shots. Everyone else drove on without even a glance. Maybe they've seen too many sunsets or don't care or didn't bother to look or were just too damn busy texting their BFF. Anyway, I'm glad I stopped for the ten minute show and wanted to share this moment in time with you.