January Summary

Well January turned out to be a pretty pathetic month for sailing this year. It's rarely if ever stellar here in January. I thought last year was bad only getting 7 days in. This month, I only got 4.

Ended up sailing very light NNE wind at Kanaha yesterday on my 5.8. Rarely planed and usually had to pump and bear way offwind to get on a plane. Waves were in the head high category, but with such light wind (and it was even lighter outside the break) I didn't really feel comfortable in the break. Despite the light wind, it still felt pretty good to get on the water at Kanaha. It was warm. It was sunny. The water was clear and blue and beautiful. You gotta love being able to do that in January!

For those who like statistics and numbers, here's how 2004 shaped up:

155: Days windsurfed in 2004
50: Estimated wave height of biggest waves at Jaws on December 15, 2004
19: Days surfed in 2004
7: Days wore shoes in 2004
6: Visits from friends or family in 2004
3: Sails worn out in 2004
2.69: Average price per gallon for gas on Maui at year end
1: Boards destroyed in 2004
1: Trips to the mainland
0: Days it snowed on Maui in 2004
0: Days the high temperature was below 70 degrees on Maui in 2004
0: Times I’ve wanted to move back to the mainland

Gaastra and The Team part ways

Apparently it's official. Just found the announcement on the Gaastra website. Gotta say I don't understand Gaastra's logic in this. Having watched The Team at work at Kanaha for awhile now, I can't imagine a more-hardworking, methodical, professional team of sailors. It's very common to see Barry Spanier and Phil McGain, along with Matt and occasionally Kevin Pritchard tweaking and testing sails with engineering precision. They test what you and I might think are irrelevant little changes and take copious notes. They measure with GPS units on the water. Watch where The Team ends up next and keep an eye out for whatever sail line they get behind - it will be damned good.

January Doldrums Continue

Winds are still pretty light and mostly SE here on Maui. Some light NE winds did kick in on the north shore on Wednesday. So light I didn't even realize it until looking at the iWindsurf graphs the next day. Mid- to upper-teens.

Thursday saw some squally, gusty winds. The iWindsurf graph looks like an EKG readout.

All this lack of winds has most Maui windsurfers going nuts. Everyone's itching for some good strong tradewinds.

Another aspect of living on Maui is hearing all the rumors about changes in sponsorships. From what I've heard and read, Josh Stone is leaving JP and Neil Pryde to work with his bud Fransisco Goya on his new board line. Former Neil Pryde sail designer and guiter wizard Nils Rosenblad of the Voodoo Suns (www.voodoosuns.com) has taken over as Naish's new sail designer. All kinds of rumors are flying around about big changes at Gaastra. Could be that The Team and Gaastra are parting. They're being pretty tight-lipped about it. We'll have to see what shakes out of that one. Anders Bringdall is also getting into the board business. We've seen several of his slalom boards at Kanaha and he may be developing a freeride board in concert with local shop Hi-Tech. World champion Matt Pritchard will be putting on a wave sailing clinic with Alan Cadiz's Hawaiian Sailboarding Techniques (HST) on February 19. For more info on that check out http://www.hstwindsurfing.com/MPclinicFeb05.htm

NWS Quote of the Day

From today's National Weather Service Honolulu weather forecast discussion:

"AS FOR PERSISTENT TRADE WINDS...FORGET ABOUT IT."

Let this be a lesson to anyone planning a windsurfing vacation to Maui during the winter months. In a word ... don't!

Light Side-Off at Kanaha

Since the forecast today didn't look promising for wind, we decided to try to surf. Surf at Lowers when we got there in the early afternoon looked waist to shoulder high, with light winds. Great. Got changed and started paddling out only to find the wind was up, making for a helluva a paddle. Paddling out to Lowers is bad enough, but it really sucks when it's windy. Realized surfing was going to be no fun so came in and rigged. Unfortunately it was windiest when we were paddling/surfing. It was so offshore that I didn't even bother launching, but Windsurfing Wonder Wahine sailed 5.0 and a half dozen or so other sailors slogged their way out to play in the surf. Me? I stood on shore with my 5.8 watching the wind get lighter and lighter. Oh well. It was sunny. It was warm. Just glad I'm in Maui and not in the east coast blizzard.

Trade Winds Return .... Kind of

Trade winds returned to Maui last night, but as anyone who watched the Hula Bowl on TV today should have seen, they were pretty light. Watching from my wind monitoring station in Pukalani, the highest wind I found was about 15 at Kanaha, but most of the time it was in the 8 - 10 range. I couldn't even see whitecaps on the water through my binoculars and I only saw one kite. All that wasn't enough to even tempt me down to take a look. Winds are forecast to turn SE tomorrow and Monday and trades are supposed to return on Tuesday, though I suspect they will still be pretty light.

Kona Winds Backing Off

The Kona winds we've been having have slowly been fading the last few days. As I predicted, wind strength slackened considerably on Monday and Tuesday. Probably windy enough for big gear in Kihei. I have heard reports of some killer conditions at Lanes Ho'okipa. We've been having a huge swell. Heard the pros have been sailing double mast high at Lanes in these Kona winds. Should be some cool photos of that in the magazines this spring.

Winds are even lighter today, but another cold front is supposed to drop down in another day or two so that may usher in more Kona winds. So far the trade winds have yet to make an appearance this year.

Kihei Kona Winds

We've seen Kona (south to southwest) winds here for the last several days. I didn't bother going over Friday, but I've been told it was somewhere in the mid- to upper 5s range for guys, even 6 and above for the racer types.

The wind was forecast to go up a notch yesterday so I pulled a Maui-style dawn patrol and headed over to Kihei at 8 am in order to get parking before it got too crowded. Sailed 5.8 and big board initially, but then the wind kicked in another notch and I was able to go to 5.0 and my 83 liter CultWave.

Winds were pretty much due south, so sideshore - much better than the SW onshore stuff on Thursday. iWindsurf was reporting 28- 29 ish, but it was still pretty marginal 5.0 for me. Had to really work it. By midday, it was an absolute zoo. Seems like every windsurfer and kiter on the island converged on Kihei yesterday. The water was crowded, South Kihei Rd was inching along as late-arriving windsurfers searched in vane for a parking spot. People were double parking other people in. But, it was a beautiful sunny warm day, and for people who live for mellow 5.5 cruising, this was epic. Also lots of freestylers throwing all kinds of tricks 20 feet from the beach.

I thought today might be even a little bit windier than yesterday, so I headed over early again to get a spot. Got on the water at 9:30 with my 5.0 and once again found that I was wanting a bit more - sail or wind. Direction was due south again, but we had a little bit waves today - wrap around I suppose from the big WNW swell hitting the islands currently. This provided some mushy knee- to waist-high waves to play in a bit, and made for a horendous shorebreak for the less experienced.

I sailed about an hour and the wind started backing off. As the hordes begain descending on the park, I decided I didn't want to be part of the crowd today so I called it a day and headed out. Looking at the iWindsurf graphs looks like my timing was pretty good. Wind dropped at least another sail size after I left, though it did come up again for an hour or so in the afternoon.

Regarding the wind speeds reported by iWindsurf for Kihei. I think on a South to Southwest wind you have to take about 25% - 30% off of the reading to get an actual 'on the water' wind speed. The only time I really felt powered on my 5.0 the last few days was when the sensor was reporting 30 - 32 or so.

It will likely be windy at Kihei again tomorrow, though I'm betting it will be fairly light - 5.8 or bigger. And with the holiday it will probably be pretty crowded too. Hmmm, starting to feel pretty snobby about going there tomorrow.

First Day 2005

Got up this morning and checked the weather on the computer. I was shocked to see that Kihei was reading 29.5 SSW on iWindsurf (incidentally, what is up with iwindsurf and their new feature of reporting wind in 1/2 mph increments? Like it's really so much more helpful to know what it's only blowing 29.5 instead of 30! Give me a break!). Anyway, I hurriedly got some website updates done for a client and charged over to Kihei with my windsurfing wahine.

Got there around 10:15, before the throngs of wind-starved windsurfers, and got one of the few remaining parking spots at Ohukai. Wind was side-onshore (almost dead onshore). Even though iWindsurf was reading 30, it was much lighter - I rigged 5.0. I'd say that iWindsurf sensor at Kihei reads 8 - 10 mph too high, at least on a southerly. Got on the water around 10:30 with 5.0 and CultWave and was only marginally powered. Let out downhaul and outhaul and went out again. A bit better - until I landed a jump on the peak of the next breaking wave and managed to break the fin-saver nut holding my fin in. It's an interesting feeling planing along sideways over 6 foot swell. My fin was still in, but dangling precariously. I somehow managed to jibe that sucker and planed in sideways, waaaaaay downwind from the launch. Hiked up to the launch and got another fin and headed back out. The wind came up again and I sailed pretty powered up.

Lots of people there today. The wind was pretty consistent. There were some fun wind swell and waves. The tide was incredibly low. I managed to ding a chunk out of the nose of my board as I went through the rinse cycle with my gear in about 2 feet of water. Luckily I didn't get any reef cuts, but my board was pretty much done for the day so I called it quits.

Interesting day overall. Forecasters were calling for 15 knots south today. The high pressure ridge which usually sits to the north of the islands and generates the trades is actually south of us. That combined with some low pressure systems to our northwest seems to have generated today's wind. Might get another couple of days of conditions like this over the weekend. We're still expecting a 25 foot northwest swell sometime this weekend. The direction on this swell is supposed to have a lot of west in it so Jaws may not go off, but northshore Oahu should be huge. We may even see some wrap around swell on the south side of Maui,. Combine that with some south wind and it could make for some interesting south side sailing in a few days. We'll see.

Teaser West Wind

Got lured down to Kihei by readings in the upper teens. Wind was very westerly, almost straight onshore and pretty light. A few guys were making it work on 7.0s and Formula boards. Lightweight women were milking it on 5.0s and floaty boards. Not enough wind for me though.

Wind has been very light so far this year. I did hear that it was windy over on the west side last Friday or Saturday even though it wasn't windy anywhere else. Sometimes on a north wind it seems to be stronger in the channel between Maui and Molokai than it gets coming through the valley in Maui.

Forecast for the next week or two is dismal. High pressure is actually south of the islands so no chance of trades in that position. In other news, there's supposed to be another giant NW swell coming, maybe another Jaws event if it doesn't have too much west in it. The northshore of O'ahu should go off huge for sure.

No Wind

No wind so far this week after Sunday's stormy SW winds. Very light trades are forecast to return tomorrow. I'll be amazed if they're sailable though.

Too Sick To Sail

The conditions here on Maui on New Year's weekend resembled Seattle windsurfing more than Maui. A cold front swept through the islands bringing very wet SW winds. Being "under the weather" with the flu the last several days, I wasn't even tempted to go sail in the pouring rain, though I'm sure many Seattle windsurfers would have loved it.

Winds today were supposed to be light NW, but surprise, Maui didn't get the forecast memo again. Winds blew a steady mid 20s SW all day at Kihei with cloudy skies and somewhat cool temps for Maui (highs in the 70s). I'm still recovering from the flu, so I forced myself to stay home and work rather than go play.

Year Ends with a Fizzle

Happy New Year everyone!

2004 exited with no real wind after Christmas Eve. Christmas day there was some light wind in the low teens, enough for lighweights or for monster sails. Wednesday this week saw similar conditions, with the winds peaking at Kanaha at around 15 or 16. Alas, not enough for me and my 5.8.

The national weather service teased us a bit with some potential Kona winds that were supposed to blast us yesterday and today, but apparently the assocatiated low pressure system is to far to the west so Maui isn't seeing it. Kauai is getting wind though - along with loads or rain.

We're in the depths of winter here on Maui now. That means we can go weeks at a time with no wind. Currently there's no wind in Maui's forecast in the foreseeable future. Even on Maui you have to suffer through windsurfing withdrawals.