Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Kanaha Confidence

Alright, finally got some confidence up today! Good old fashioned fun sailing at Kanaha, I hung out at Uppers all day long. Again, I started off on a board that was just plain old too big (for me) for the conditions. I just couldn't get the rail to engage on the bigger, faster waves, which was honestly a bit scary! I'm just not heavy enough to drive that Pocket 85 in these big (logo high+), windy conditions. Once I switched to the Pocket 75, though.... man what a difference!! Medium power on a Manic 4.5, and the Pocket 75, and life was GOOD!! I finally found the control I was looking for, and started attacking some lips.

Uppers is a funny wave, kind of peaky and weird with these cross swells bowling up the big sets... If you happened to be in the right spot, it was super fun, but if you were 20 yards off you basically had nothing to work with. Still though, a lot of the peaks were solidly logo high, if not occasionally bigger. You just had to find them, that's all...

West Maui Mountains

I still haven't really gotten worked... at all, really... which means to me that I'm still not really pushing it... The swell is supposed to bump up a notch tomorrow, and I feel like I've got that Pocket 75 dialed after today, so it's time to get wet!

Hana Highway

North Shore, Maui

Windsurf celebrities spotted over the last few days: Fransisco Goya, Finian Maynard, Kai Lenny, Robby Swift, Jake Miller, Nick Warmuth... the list goes on and on.... Even the people you've never heard of rip out here. It's so cool to be surrounded by incredibly talented people who are just charging it... Good energy out there, that's for sure!

Can't wait to get some more tomorrow!!

8 comments:

George Markopoulos said...

keep an eye out for the "weird wave" which i think is somewhere around the left edge of uppers. comes at you at a odd angle, relative to the rest of the reef.

alot of your pics show the weather to be a bit cloudy.. has that been the case? if so, i suppose you're fortunate the trades have still be blowing!

i see that the swell is about to go up a notch. good thing you got yourself dialed tuesday. as you say, time to get wet eh?!

David said...

From the uppers psrking lot - its straight out. AVOID THIS AREA. There's a lot of hydraulic action with this east running wave, and you're better off not hanging out there at all.

Bill said...

Nice Andy, charge it! I want to hear at least one good story of the Maui wave elevator ride! "Going down!," or perhaps going up, if you catch that lip right for a floater!

Good luck and have fun!

Gary Wolk said...

Thanks for taking the trip, sending photos and writing about it. Way cool! If I can't be there I 'm grateful to hear your story. I'm feeling the thrill. Thanks.
See you in Hatteras in April

Anonymous said...

I'm reading these posts and really wishing Anne was there with you to snap some action shots. I'm sure she's wishing the same thing :)

What kind of hours are you keeping? Adjusted to local time yet?

Andy said...

Thanks for the advice, fellas. It's pretty danged easy to navigate around "The Triangle" as they call it. Shooting below it, and then working upwind on the outside, or working upwind inside the reef and then making a cannonball run out through the uppers wave seems to work pretty well.

Bill, there were quite a few lip smacks yesterday, that just kind of turned into little aerials... I can see why you like your little DTL wave board, after sailing the waves they were designed for!

See ya soon, Gary, April is right around the corner!

Hey Jim, I wish Anne were here too! But she wouldn't be snapping action shots, she'd be right out in the thick of it with me! Adjusting to local time here was pretty easy, it's going back to the East Coast that'll be the problem!

George Markopoulos said...

Andy-put up some more pics

Andy said...

I'd put 'em up if i had 'em George. I'm here to sail, not sit on the bluff taking photos................................

Anyway, everyone's been sailing the way outer reefs because the waves have been monstrous... My little camera just can't handle the zoom necessary to get even a crappy picture...