It's Hookipa photo shoot time

It's that time of year when the windsurfing manufactures show off their preview of next year's gear (that would be 2011) for the upcoming magazine issues (which I guess would be published in late summer 2010). It's a bit like the fashion industry - you see the spring stuff in the fall and vice versa. Which to me was always a bit confusing. I mean, it's spring and I want to see summer clothes and bikinis. But the fashion industry is trying to get me excited about winter coats. That's just how it is.

Anyway, the 2010 kit is in the shops and this is what we are now buying - well it's what you should be buying, I've already done my part. But at Hookipa, the equipment looks a bit different all of a sudden. The colors are new, the shapes slightly tweaked. You just can't stop the gears of progress. The 2011 models have been designed and are now on the runway. The photographers are all out on the water along with twenty or thirty teams crowding onto every wave trying to make the best statement. Actually it's very cool to see all the new tech and riders in action.

Meanwhile the trade winds have been blowing strong and steady for the past few weeks. Almost too strong in fact. The no-pac high has assumed a dominating position and all storms have been shoved far away. In other words, not much swell lately. But still fun sailing. Julia and I have stuck mostly to uppers lately, but we managed to sneak up to Hookipa to watch the action and take a few shots. The only problem is I have too many photos and I'm suffering from picture overload here.

I'm working on incorporating some fancy web techniques so I can show thumbnails of photos which can be clicked to see the bigger picture without loading a different page. The idea is to cram a lot more photos into a single post without overloading your internet connection. I'm always thinking of you my friends.

For now I can only show a small subset of the 128 pictures I took the last few days at Hookipa, and for now mostly people I know so they'll buy me a beer later. I'll post all the pictures in one form or another as soon as I have time.

[ updated ] per Brian's request - ladies first.

Elena Pompei

Junko Nagoshi

Nayra Alonso - (she has a nice blog too)

Sarah-Quita Offringa and Julia

Sarah was out earlier ripping it up before we arrived. Sarah and Julia look good on and off the water.

Nick Warmuth

Conner Baxter

Casey Hauser

Sam Neal

I have about 100 more pictures. You can see all of todays here:

2010-04-06

And pictures from 04/03 here (preview of 2011 Goya sails in there somewhere):

2010-04-03

And the winner of the 2010 highest back loop is...

Levi Siver with an amazing back loop of 52 feet and 7 inches! This was a contest put on at Hookipa, sponsered by ShadowBox, Windsport Magazine and EpicSessions.TV back on March 31 - the day that was too windy to sail (for some of us). But not too windy to back loop, at least at Hookipa!

Equally amazing was the highest "straight" jump, by Boujmaa Guilloul at 62 ft! OK, that's bigger then most houses (the height restriction for houses in Hood River is 36 ft). That is really, really huge! I'm not sure kiters can beat that (and land in the same area code), but if so doesn't really matter cause those guys are essentially hanging from a parachute, while windsurfers are free falling with their gear, and in this case the landing was clean. (I'm amazed gear and bodies can survive that).

[ Update ] - Jake has put the whole video up on youtube.

Also check out Jeff Bennett's blog where has has both photos and a video from this event.

Windsport also has a recap of the event - (and they used one of my pictures, I almost feel like a real blogger now!)

Now for the tech details...

ShadowBox is an amazing little device that you can attach to your board while sailing. It has a built in accelerometer and GPS (similar to an iPhone) that can accurately measure the movement, speed and direction of your board in 3D space (as in the space we live in, not Space 1999). After a session you can download the data into your PC (or Mac) and then get all the relevant facts about your session. Such as, what was your highest jump, how many jumps did you try, how many jibes, how many did you blow (as if), how many forwards. And so on.

Casey Hauser showed me a demo of this and it's really cool stuff. You can check out your wave sailing technique because it picks up the pitch, yaw, and roll of your board as well as the up/down motion. The potential is pretty unlimited, as a teaching / training tool, as well as for competitions like this jump contest. Plus it's fun! And I should mention that the applications are not limited to windsurfing. You can take this skiing, biking, etc. As the software gets updated I'm sure more analysis / fun stuff will be added.

Ok, so Casey and and Jake Miller (SnakeBite Films) put this whole contest together, and the award ceremony was at Charley's. Dudes, thanks for putting on such a fun show!

I took a few shots inside Charley's, which didn't come out great (I had my small camera), but hopefully
better then nothing...

While waiting for the main event...

we watched the Windsurfing Movie (again).  Actually the movie never gets old for me, though I am looking forward to the sequel which I hear really raises the bar (not an easy task).  Below you see the lovely and talented Ingrid Larouche and Rick Whidden (from Maui Sails) hanging out, discussing the latest in windsurfing techniques, such as what beer to get next.

And now the show starts

Jake Miller put this video together.  Did I mention that Jake throws the best port forwards and push loops at the Hatch.  And he rarely sails there anymore.  Maybe this summer... ?

I already mentioned that Boujmaa threw the highest straight jump (62 ft)!
Kauli Seadi got the 3rd highest back loop.
Camille Juban scored the 2nd highest back loop.

And the winner, as we all know, Levi Siver.  On Goya sails and Quattro boards. Way to go!

So imagine the image below on your PC, only much much clearer (this is a picture from my little camera, balanced on a beer, aiming at the TV which was over the bar 15 ft away in bad light).  Anyway, you can make out the board and sail and this shows the trajectory and height of the jump, via ShadowBox. Pretty cool.

Kauli getting the 3rd prize (a handshake I think).

And Levi getting the #1 prize, which is his own personal ShadowBox. Cool! Sorry for not getting a better picture, but the crowd was surging forward, and I barely got this shot off before being trampled by paparazzi and young teenage girls (I wish).

So that's it, hope you enjoyed!

Wait, one last thing...

Time for a Maui / Paia moment.  So when we parked in the Charley's lot, there was this car next to us, and I swear it had a chia roof.  Check it out ... maybe this could be your next rental car!

New sails (oh joy!) - Goya 2010

If you read this earlier post, you'll notice that our 4.7 sail was totally destroyed during one of the many big wave day's we've had recently. The end result you'll see to the right. Now we put a lot of days on this particular sail, between us almost 90 in the past year. And that's how old this sail was - brand spanking new in March 09, in the trash by March 10. So we had to get a new sail, and we also had to ponder what type of sail to get.

We had been using mostly monofilm wave sails - which have a light easy handling feel - and were excellent preforming sails. But considering the amount of days we get on the water, we decided that a sail built a bit stronger and designed more specifically for Maui wave sailing conditions made more sense. While a wave sail largely built from monofilm is going to feel and look great during the first ten days or so, eventually monofilm breaks down and becomes fragile. You can replace the panel and return the sail to almost new condition, but what if the sail is almost entirely monofilm? And what happens if the panel blows up on a big wave day, with the current sucking you into weird wave with a 20 ft face, and the sail is now ripped in half and you have no way to sail back in? Which is what actually happened to Julia and she was lucky that nothing else was destroyed in the process.

So in the end we purchased a quiver of Goya 2010 wave sails. We got a 5.3 Eclipse with a small monofilm window (you can also get an x-ply version) and two Gurus (4.7, 4.2) which have vinyl windows. There were a lot of factors in going with the Goya sails. A big one is we have gotten to know most of the Goya team - Jason Diffin is the sail designer, and of course Francisco and Lalo Goya, Pascal Bronnimann, Keith Teboul, Bjoern Zedlick, Levi Siver, Josh Stone, and Jake Miller, to name a few, all ride and provide input into the design of these sails. These guys live and breathe windsurfing here on Maui, and their passion and love for the sport shows in the products that they create.

There's also the fact that Jason Diffin has been designing these sails for the past two years. Prior to joining the Goya team, Jason was the designer for Simmer for several years, and before Simmer he worked with David Ezzy. So there's no doubt that Jason knows a thing or two about sail design. If you looked at Goya sails prior to 2009, then you were looking at a completely different sail, and you need to check out the more recent designs. Jason is continuously improving things - you will see him and other members of the team often out on prototypes at Hookipa - and it shows in the improvements that have appeared in 2010.

Below you can click on a tab to see specific details. I'm really impressed with all the little things that make these sails easy to rig, easy to sail, and durable. Also note that all the full sails specs are available under the spec tab.

• Overview
• Padding
• Reinforced
• Guide
• Outhaul
• Grommets
• Height
• Stretch
• Downhaul
• Batten
• Sleeve
• Decal
• Manual
• Key
• Stitching
• Top
• Specs

I'm holding our new Goya 5.3 Eclipse.  Did I also mention that, besides the awesome handling and control these sails provide, they also look great?

The sail foot padding is very cushy and protects the entire area that could impact the board.  Have you ever had the rig land on your foot while attempting a heli-tack?  It can hurt - trust me, padding is good thing.

Looking closer at the foot of the sail, you'll see the area is reinforced with two hard plastic seams.  The foot of the sail often hits the board, so extra protection here can be critical.

Further up the foot you see the guide in a very convenient place for rigging.  Note that the recommended mast for the 5.3 is a 400.  Which is nice because the 400 is also the best mast for the 4.5/4.7.  I've also been able to use a 400 on the 4.2, though the preferred mast there is a 370.  Bottom line, a 400 can be used from 4.2-5.3 which is all you really need here on Maui.  Since Julia and I had only one 400 and we already had a 430, I was able to purchase on the cheap an extra 400 bottom ($120) and combined this with the 430 top I already had.  This combo, a 415, works great on the 5.3.

You'll find the outhaul indicator near the outhaul (makes sense). I find that two finger widths is around 2 cm, and I usually set the boom so I get at a bit more then that (about 3 cm) .  From there I can loosen the outhaul if the wind is lighter.  Note that you should not change the downhaul tension to accommodate lighter wind.

The outhaul has two grommets.  This allows the boom to be set higher, lower, or in the middle as I've done here.  Higher puts a bit more power into the sail (better pumping) and lower a bit better handling.  Also if you set you boom height low or high at the mast then you might choose the matching grommet height.  Good to have options.

And speaking of mast heights, there is a nice indicator for that.  I'm a 135.  Once you determine your height, it's easy to rig it correctly for any of the sails.

Jason's trade mark stretch control system. This brings stability and strength into the main body of the sail.

Near the top of the sail is the downhaul indicator.  This means you want to feel looseness, or see a wrinkle, in the fabric out to this point.  Jason told me you can downhaul a bit beyond this point for windy days, but never under downhaul the sail!

At the end of every batten is a sewn in protector.

The top of the mast sleeve, which takes the most abuse (think reefs, rocks and broken mast tips) is heavy duty material.

This little stitched in Goya plastic decal is not just for decoration.  It serves a useful purpose - it widens the opening of the mast sleeve to make inserting the tip of the mast easier when rigging.  As Yogi Bera once said "The little things are big!"

Every sail comes with a complete rigging manual.

And a batten tensioning key.  All battens need some tensioning when new.  The lowest battens need the most tension, and the higher battens progressively less.

Stitching detail.  All the seams are glued and stitched, with critical seams double stitched as you see here.

The very top of the sail has this kevlar reinforced material that can withstand both reefs, asphalt and rigging on the rocks at the hatch.  Which some of us do from time to time.

Sail specs for the Goya 2010 Eclipse and Guru Wave sails:

Guru 2010
Size	Boom	Luff	Mast	Head
2.7	128	310	340/15	adjustable
3.0	134	327	340/15	adjustable
3.3	139	348	340/15	adjustable
3.7	145	376	370/17	adjustable
4.0	150	393	370/17	adjustable
4.2	155	397	370/17	adjustable
4.5	159	407	400/19	FIXED
4.7	163	417	400/19	FIXED
5.0	167	427	400/19	FIXED
5.3	175	427	400/19	FIXED

Eclipse 2010
Size	Boom	Luff	Mast	Head
3.4	142	352	340/370	adjustable
3.7	148	372	370/17	adjustable
4.1	155	387	370/17	adjustable
4.4	160	397	370/17	adjustable
4.7	165	407	400/19	FIXED
5.0	170	417	400/19	FIXED
5.3	175	427	400/19	FIXED
5.7	180	442	430/21	FIXED
6.2	189	457	430/21	FIXED
6.8	199	472	460/25	FIXED