Shades of Gray

It's like we're living in som weird alternate dimension here right now, like living in a world of old black and white movies and TV programs. No color. Just graytones. More clouds today, but at least there was little in the way of rain. Wacky 5.0 conditions - should have rigged bigger.

In windsurfing gossip, I'd heard rumors last week of sightings of Bjorn Dunkerbeck sailing the upper west side on a North sail. Bjorn has been a long-time Neil Pryde guy. I heard a confirming rumor today. Bjorn's now on North. That's two major Neil Pryde guys leaving this year so far, Bjorn and Josh Stone. Hmmm.

In other, gear news, if you're visiting Maui in the near future, head up to Haiku to the Quatro store. You can demo their boards for free, as of this writing anyway. I chatted with Lalo Goya a bit, brother of Fransisco and a helluva nice guy, who is manager at Quatro. They will also be carrying Fransisco's new line of sails and boards, aptly named, Goya.

And, if you're going to be in town the weekend of April 9, and want to take your jumping to new altitudes, sign up at HST for the Matt Pritchard Jump Clinic. He'll be teaching forward loops, back loops, table tops and much more apparently.

And, speaking of pro windsurfers, the PWA Hawaii Pro will probably wrap it up tomorrow. Josh Angulo is sitting in the lead. Semi-finals and finals should be held tomorrow.

Best March Day So Far

Despite a forecast for trades to drop today, the wind had other ideas. Midday today turned out to be the best day so far this month with mostly sunny skies at Kanaha, a good, solid 5.0 and some small waist- to occasionally head-high waves at Uppers. Had fantastic fun playing in the waves at Uppers and scoring some lofty, floaty airs.

The great conditions would be short-lived however. By 2:00 skies upwind were darkening and soon we were once again being pelted by light and showers, followed by some fairly heavy rain. The squalls also dropped the wind down several notches, making for pretty ugly Seattle-like sailing.

Sounds like the PWA Hawaii Pro got off several heats today. They may hold the finals tomorrow.

Soggy Trades

Conditions improved slightly over yesterday, but overall, the northshore is in a wet, squally pattern. Winds at Kanaha ranged from the upper teens to mid-20s, sometimes within the space of 10 minutes. I did a short 5.8 session, but the pelting, stinging rain, dampened the fun factor.

Apparently the PWA got their qualifiers off today in these sloppy conditions. For reports on the contest be sure to check out the pwa website.

If you're coming to Maui this week, bring your wetsuit, as the clouds and showers are forecast to hang around through the week. Winds are supposed to back off a bit tomorrow too, then pick up again on Thursday.

Easter Weekend Sailing

Winter weather has once again stormed into the islands, creating cold, gray, gusty and, in my opinion, nasty conditions for sailing. But, it’s not just me that thinks it’s nasty. My normally very positive and upbeat better half called yesterday’s conditions at Kanaha “gross.” It rained all day, barely reach 70 degrees and was only marginally breezy.

Today, she described the conditions as “pathetic” and “piteous.” The rain turned to just showers, but those showers marched through on a regular basis on the north shore. I went out on 5.0 and a demo RRD FSW100 and even with that much float under me, I ended up slogging when the wind dropped shortly after I launched in the afternoon. And it was still cold and gray. Reminded me of my sailing days in Seattle (well maybe a little warmer). And, oh my god was it crowded as hell today! Seems like every windsurfer from the mainland, Europe and Japan is vacationing here now and trying to sail. Lowers was a crowded mess of international windsurfers, fighting for little, mushy knee- to waist-high slop.

Kihei was windier and sunnier, but the graphs looked like it was hella-gusty over there as it usually is, especially when we’re getting squally conditions like this. All this just goes to show that no matter where you live and windsurf, nature can still throw crappy conditions at you.

Looks like tomorrow may be the same on the north shore as the PWA Hawaii Pro kicks off. Tomorrow will be a qualifier day for any non-pro hopefulls who want to compete. Looks like they’ll get more squally conditions with some small, mushy waves to show their stuff.

PWA comes to town starting Monday at Ho'okipa

Stagnation

Overall a very light south air flow today brought in a lot of volcanic haz,e aka Vog, to Maui. Kind of a warm, stagnant, muggy day without any chance of sailing unless you had gigantic formula gear. Enjoy the picture below of sunnier, windier days. Things still look promising for wind starting Saturday.

Jibing on the inside at Uppers during summertime

2005 By The Numbers So Far

By most accounts it's been a poor winter for windsuring this year on Maui. Just got an email from Kanaha regular, Steve R. His breakdown of sailing days over the years through is below:

"It's not just my imagination, but this year has not been too great for
sailing! through 19 March:

2002= 34 days
2003= 35 days
2004= 31 days
2005= 25 days"

On the positive side, things are still looking windy for next week when the PWA comes to town for the PWA Hawaii Pro. Last year's event saw some killer duels between greats such as Josh Angulo and Jason Polakow. Light winds dominated most of last year's event but the finals saw some beautiful waves and decent winds. Looks like things could be setting up for an epic event this year with winds predicted to hit solid trade winds in the mid-20s and some decent swell forecast as well. The toughest decision will be how much to watch and how much to go sail.

Great Day! .... for kiting

If your choice of wind weapons is to tea bag from a kite, today would have been an epic day for you here on Maui. Light trades in the 15 mph range. As an devout non-kiter, I was pretty underpowered though. Absolutely beautiful day here on Maui other than that though. Sunny and warm.

In today's board test, I demo'd a Quatro 100 liter freestyle/freestyle wave board. I would have thought with a 5.8 I could have gotten going on that, but even when the sensor was reporting 17, I was slogging. I planed once for about 20 feet. The latest Windsport says this board planes up super early and easy. Well I guess my 180 lbs and the 15-17 mph didn't match their testing conditions. So far, I like the 90 liter RRD Freestyle Wave the best to replace my big board. Will have to give that one another demo.

Looks like trades will drop off tomorrow as another cold front pushes the high out of the way. Saturday they're saying north winds then shifting to moderate trades after that.

Maui Windsurfing Blog 2005 Board Test, Light Trades

Light trades returned to Maui today - finally. It's been a pretty poor March for wind. Today was only my 4th day of sailing in March and the sailing was pretty marginal today. It's a pretty bad sign when I get excited about seeing a reading of 15 on the wind sensor and head to the beach based on that. It looked pretty marginal, but I wanted to try out the board I'm demoing - a 90 liter Quatro Fish. Went out on it with a 5.8 and slogged and slogged and slogged. It felt like it was windy enough that I could have been planing on my regular board (in the shop for repairs) but I just couldn't get this damn board to plane off without bearing way the hell off wind. Tried that a couple of times and ended up at Lowers and spent the better part of a half hour each time slogging back upwind. My conclusion: this board is not for me. I want something that I can plane on in these conditions - the sensor was reporting an average of 20 when I was out. That should have been plenty enough to plane (though I think that reading was a tad high). I did plane a few times, but not much. On the positive side for this board, it feels very loose, I think it would be sweet on a wave, but I want to be able to get to the waves and be powered up in them - I hate slogging through the break. So, I'll try it again tomorrow, but so far the RRD Freestyle Wave 90 was much better for these conditions in my humble opinion.

Maui March Madness

March Madness may refer to NCAA basketball elsewhere, but here on Maui this month it's referring to the mental state of windsurfers who are getting pretty much skunked. Another very light wind day today. More clouds and light wind tomorrow. Maybe light trades starting Sunday or Monday. Hmm. Might have to go out and buy a TV if this keeps up.

Northshore View

Hazy view of northshore and West Maui mountains today from my wind watch tower.

Paia Rocks the Mana'o

Not much to report in wind over the last few days. It came up for a bit in the afternoon yesterday though it was dead onshore again. More coast runs. Winds have slacked off even more today, peaking around 12 mph on the northshore.

Last night, Charley's in Paia was the place to be as local independent radio station Mana'o radio celebrated their third anniversary. Lots of scorching blues as local blues guitar phenom Vince Esquire was joined by Austin's Chris Duarte, accompanied by Voodoo Sun's sultry singer Anastasia Gillam. Blues gushing out of every pour and a fantastic blues guitar orgy on stage as three blues guitarists played Jimmi Hendrix and Bob Dylan covers among other blues greats. Awesome. If you're in town, be sure to check out the Voodoo Suns or Vince Esquire - unlesss you hate blues, that is. And, if you'd like to hear a little of Maui no matter where you are, check out Mana'o radio online at http://www.manaoradio.com/ to get live streaming feeds. Hear high surf advisories, what's happening on Maui, and above all, very eclectic music, chosen by the very eclectic DJs. No corporate, mucky-muck telling DJs what to play on this station.

We should get a return of trade winds some time tomorrow, though I'm not sure if they'll be strong enough to sail except on really big gear.

Board Repair

Ouch! I didn't do it!

Maui Windsurfing Blog 2.0

It's been nearly a year since I started this little blog. About time to update and revamp a few things. A new template to give it a little bit lighter and fresher look for starters. Next up, photos! Blogger.com has added the feature to allow bloggers to upload photos into the blog. Cool! I've been wanting to do this for awhile, but haven't taken the time to download their app and get it set up. So, stay tuned for some occasional photos. It's not looking like we'll get sailable wind until next week so maybe I'll just post some old photos.

As for wind today, it snuck up on me. I'd given up on it, but it kicked in mid-afternoon, onshore at Kanaha. Since I didn't have such a good time on Sunday's onshore sailing, I was dubious about going down today. Looks like the wind kicked in pretty good. I'll have to wait for a report from someone to find out how it was.

Meanwhile, enjoy the first Maui Windsurfing Blog photo below. This photo was actually taken a few years ago in March. Finally, if anyone out there has any ideas or suggestions of photos or news or information you'd like to see on this blog, send me a comment.

Aloha

Sailing Kanaha at Lowers break on a small mushy spring north swell

Brrrrr!

Ok, who brought the cold weather with them? Weather here on Maui has been cool and stormy since Saturday. Saturday was a drencher for the whole island until late in the afternoon. No windsurfing that day. Yesterday, was weird. We got a weird NNW wind at Kanaha- almost dead onshore wind. We weren't expecting it. I just happened to check iWindsurf for the hell of it and saw it reporting mid-20s. We scrambled down to the beach. It was pretty weird seeing people sailing along parallel to shore, up and down the north shore coast. It was gray and cold. I went out with a 5.8 and my wave board. Got planing a few times but with the onshore wind, I really needed a bigger board to do much (I won't go into why I couldn't use my big board. Let's just say it was stung by a Scorpionfish and is out of commission). Anyway, on the few reaches where I could get planing it was pretty cool to sail up to Camp One and Sprecks, parallel to the beach.

Today's weather is just weird. Temperatures are in the low low 70s, it's cloudy, wind directions are all messed up. It's windy as hell on the volcanoes, but nothing sailable at sea level. Kihei tried to get windy, but failed. The weather models are saying we're supposed to be getting west winds today and tomorrow. West winds? This is Maui not the Gorge! What's up with that?

Brief Trade Wind Return

We saw a brief return of trade winds yesterday after getting drenched for a couple of days. Weather was sunny and spectacular Friday morning and wind was blowing from the get-go. Once again, the morning session turned out to be the best sesssion of the day. Sailed 5.0 at Uppers, pretty powered up though there were some nasty holes and nasty wind shifts. The gustiness/holiness and shiftyness just increased throughout the day. Some times it was strong enough for my 4.5, others I need a 5.8.

This morning, rain has returned, and looking at the radar image for the islands it looks like a kalaidoscope of yellow, orange, blue and green - lots of moisture and little or no wind.

Winter Weather Returns

Yesterday saw the return of winter weather here on Maui with the onslaught of a gusty, soggy cold front - ushering in SW winds and drenching the island, including the normally dry south side. Winds were strong in the early morning hours but plummeted to sloggfest levels by 10:00am and never picked back up.

Today the front has passed us, bringing a return of trade winds, but the entire north shore has been under a curtain of showers and rain. I've heard through the Maui wind grapevine that there were some pros out testing big race gear at Kanaha in the soggy mess. Proof that being a pro windsurfer isn't always about glamorous sailing in warm sunshine, blue water and perfect waves.

The wind graphs make it look like Kihei was the place to be, but again the Maui wind grapevine tells a different tale. Reports are that, though it was dry and mostly sunny, the wind was very gusty and shifty and a big obnoxious wind shadow made launching a chore.

Kona Winds Kick in Again

It's been a very Kona wind winter on Maui this year. Konas kicked in again today. Though I stayed Upcountry working all day, I just got a report from fellow Pukalani windsurfer Mike that conditions were very good in Kihei today. He sailed very powered up 5.8 with steady wind, and some nice smooth rolling swell and even some small breaking waves. It was also apparently very crowded - parking problems, grass full of rigged sails. South Kihei road must have been a zoo going by the park.

I'd like to get a firsthand report from Ho'okipa. I think it must have been epic Kona sailing at Lanes today. We got a big north swell last night with faces in the mast t0 double mast-high range. I heard radio a radio report of the outer reef at Ho'okipa going off with some incredibly long, smooth, glassy waves. Looking at the iWindsurf graph for Ho'okipa it must have been windy enough to sail too. If it really was double-mast high, pretty much only pros would probably be out. Probably an epic photo shoot day.


Kona winds are supposed to continue tomorrow ahead of an oncoming cold front. Once the front passes us on Thursday, the winds should clock around to trade wind direction, but the forecast is for the wind to be pretty soggy.

West Maui Mountains

Looking at the West Maui Mountains over the last few days can pretty much summarize the weather here. Usually, in a trade wind pattern, the north side of the these mountains have clouds bumping into them, obscuring the tops and keeping much of Wailuku in shadows. However, when the overall weather pattern reverses and we get a south or southwest flow, we actually get to see what the tops of these mountains look like. As today dawns, we're getting a good view of this for a third day in a row. Beautiful warm weather - great for sitting on a beach, snorkeling, golf. But not for windsurfing.

South winds picked up for a little bit yesterday at Kihei, maybe enough for forumula gear, but that's pretty much what the wind has been limited to. Looks like light wind for several more days, with the next chance of wind on Thursday as a cold front approaches.

Light Winds Take Hold

As predicted, light winds have taken hold of the islands. Looks like several cold fronts will be passing through the island chain. They're apparently going to be pretty weak, so they won't bring much in the way of rain, but they will push the tradewind-producing high-pressure ridge away from it's favorable position north of us. If you're on a windsurfing vacation here in Maui over the next week or so, the best chance for wind may actually be SW winds on the Kihei side. There might be some north winds on Saturday, but when winds are due north, it's best just to go to Kihei.

So, while the winds are light, check out photos from the recent Matt Pritchard wave clinic held at Kanaha a couple of weeks ago. Not the highest quality photos, but you get the idea of what was going on. For those interested and on island later this month, Matt will be holding another wave clinic on March 19. You can get more details at HST - Hawaiian Sailboarding Techniques, who are putting on the clinic in conjunction with Matt.

Ridiculous! Puffy! Evil! Ok.

The theme in the headline is, adjectives used by windsurfers today to describe the wind (two of them are mine- guess which two). The wind came up pretty strong in the afternoon when I got to the beach though it was pretty easterly (offshore). Very light inside and tough to even beach start to slog out to the wind line. After slogging thigh-deep for 20 yards I ended splashing in and having to swim my 4.5 and JP 77 out another 100 yards to the windline to catch a puff. Once outside the reef, I was very powered on the 4.5, but it seemed punchy/gusty and way east to me. Water was pretty choppy. Wasn't having fun, so I said screw it and came in.

My sentiments were mirrored by all but a few people. Captain Greg thought it was ridiculous. John visiting from Seattle said "it sucks." Fellow Pukalanian Mike, also thought it sucked. Antonio from the Bay Area said, "it's a great day to do some other sport."

Not all reviews were negative however. Maui transplant, JK, seemed to have fun as did my windsurfing wahine Karen, as well as visiting Maui Windsurfing Bloggian Michael. (Michael, feel free to send in your comments on the sailing today, as well as yesterday's sailing since I didn't even make it down to the beach yesterday - might be cool for other windurf bloggians to get someone else's perspective in addition to mine.)

Looks like the weather may be transitioning to a non-trade wind pattern for a bit. Sorry Scorpionfish, doesn't look like you'll be getting wind for the first few days you're here next week. Plenty of time to take care of those other errands.