Mast-high Memorial Day

We got a beautiful Memorial Day present yesterday in the form of a very late season north swell that brought absolutely spectacular, beautiful mast-high waves to Uppers at Kanaha. The wind was better in the morning, a bit stronger than the afternoon. Once again, 4.5 was the call. The wind dropped and switched to a bit side-off so I was wanting the 5.0 to get upwind and through the break, but the offshore direction cleaned up the waves and made for big, glassy walls of water.

I took the day off from playing today to work and recover, but I hear there are still some waves and it looks like the wind is in the 4.5 to 5.0 range again today. The last few days we've seen the wind go a bit up and down. Nice 4.5 for an hour or so, then it will drop to 5.5 for an hour then come back. You just gotta time it right and you'll be happy though. Long range forecast is calling for more light to moderate trades.

Memorial Day Weekend

The holiday weekend is in full swing here on Maui. Friday we saw promising winds starting out the day, but they quickly dropped into the low- to mid-teens. Those who got the early session on Friday scored.

Saturday was the first race day of the annual Maui Race Series. Kanaha was packed with racers, and rigged gear everywhere. The racing was supposed to start at 11:30 but a buoy decided to cut loose and do a downwinder toward kite beach so racing was delayed as the committe raced to catch the buoy and re-set the course. 4.5 was the call for me as I took advantage of the break in sailing and went to Uppers to play in the surf. Soon the races started. The starting line was set just inside of the break at Uppers. The starts had to have been challenging for the racers on their slalom gear, positioning themselves for the start in the waves and chop at Uppers. While they fought their pitched battles, I played in small waist- to head-high surf at Uppers. Good fun.

I felt sorry for all the racers missing out on the waves. But then again, that just left all the more for me. I did manage to capture a couple of videos of the racing action. In this video, you can see the fierce competition rounding the marks.

The Maui Race Series sets up several classes. If you have slalom gear you can compete in age group classes or in ability level classes ranging from pro down to sport. If you just have wave gear, you can compete in the wave class. The wave class is where you'll find a lot of the young ripper kids like Conner Baxter and Kai Lenny. The few adults who compete in this class pretty much demolish their younger competition. In this video, Pete Sullivan is all by himself rounding the second inside mark. Hey Pete, let's see you throw a vulcan or spock like those kids do! ;-) Lots of good competition and good fun with the Maui Race Series.

Today we saw smaller waves at Uppers and pretty strong 4.5 wind that kind of dropped a bit later in the afternoon. Had a great time shredding Uppers with my better half, me maxed out on my 5.0, she on her 4.0. Great fun sailing with her as she gets comfortable sailing in the surf, getting her bottom turns and cutbacks in. She rips! Very cool to not only have a windsurfing significant other, but one that rips as well!

Last I looked, we were supposed to get another swell tomorrow. That should cap off an already sweet holiday weekend.

Alex Aguerra crosses the finish line in the pro class.

Pete Sullivan and Norm Roediger showing the adults can beat the kids in racing in the wave gear class. Freestyle may be another story however.

The pack approaches the first inside mark on the first Maui Race Series on Saturday.

Perfect 4.5 + Waves!!!

Absolutely beautiful day of sailing this afternoon - perfectly powered 4.5 and surprise, surprise - late season waves. Early afternoon session at Uppers had some pretty decent head high waves and an occasionally bigger set rolling in. Woo Hoo! Ho'okipa was probably mast high and beautiful. Maui delivers!

New Video

New video just posted on MauiWindsurfing.net. This video features the infamous Kanaha Triangle. The Triangle, a section of Kanaha between Uppers and Lowers. Most sailors avoid the weird wave, turbulent air and water found here. On a north swell it can be a bit of a challenge getting through this break. This video shows local sailor Norm Roediger shredding the Triangle.

Wind Dropping Off

Strong winds again yesterday at Kanaha - 4.5ish for most guys on wave gear. The racers of course were out on a meter bigger, blasting around their marks. Some fun rolling swell outside and some wind waves up by Camp One.

Today is a different story. Winds have been in the low teens all afternoon. Tomorrow? Who knows.

Racers Getting Ready

The most noticeable thing about Kanaha this weekend was the emergence of dozens of racers getting ready for the annual Maui Race Series which starts next weekend. From the looks and sound of it, many of these racers haven't been on the water since the end of last summer's series.

The Maui Race Series is a downwind slalom with the course set up just off the beach at Uppers. It's fast and furious racing with dozens of sailors in each heat blasting full-speed around the course on their unique-looking slalom boards and race sails. Lots of carnage as people jocky for position rounding the marks, booms breaking, masts breaking....

If you think Maui is only about wave sailing, come here in the summer and get a taste for super-competitive, balls-to-the-wall racing. Stay tuned for photo and video coverage beginning with next weekend's race.

Hit and Miss

Kind of hit and miss the last couple of days. Yesterday was light most of the day, but late afternoon it came up enough to get lightweights out on big gear for a short time. Yesterday was looking equally light, if not worse. Then, around1:00 the wind kicked in at 17 or so and stayed between 18 and 20 the rest of the afternoon. Enough to get the Phil McGain and Kevin Pritchard Race Clinic out on the water blasting around the buoys with a pack of eager followers. Enough to get me out on 5.8. Nothing epic, but it felt good to be on the water after a few days' absence.

Light Wind for the Die-hards

Winds today were mostly pretty light and onshore at Kanaha. Winds peaked around 20 mph. With onshore winds I find I am only marginally powered on a 5.8 in those conditions. So, 6.0+ sails were probably the call today. Skies were gray and we had several light showers too, so conditions weren't too appealing. On the plus side there was some small swell on the north shore.

I received a pretty cool video today of local sailor Norm Roediger sailing with his son Bant at Kanaha. It's always cool seeing little Bant sailing around, even in gnarly windy conditions, with his dad following along behind him, but what makes this video extra cool is a humpback whale breeching in the background - just outside the break from the looks of it. The video is huge, 9.5 MB, but if you have a high-speed connection check out "Whale Splash" at MauiWindsurfing.net.

Winds Going Wimpy

Looks like I was wrong in my last post about the winds continuing. When I stopped by Kanaha yesterday, a 5.8 would have been a stretch. Somehow sailing 5.8 after several days of 4.0 just didn't appeal to me, so I left. Turns out it picked up to 5.0 a little later - good mellow stuff for all the sailors battered by the high winds the previous days.

Today it slacked off even more and clocked around to northerly. Mid-teens and onshore winds was the best the north shore could muster today.

Looks like we're going into a light wind pattern for a few days. So, surf on over to MauiWindsurfing.net to find some new windsurfing video clips, including something called an "essex jibe" (or so I'm told) and young local ripper Kai Lenny in what looks like a flat water backloop attempt (or maybe a shove it attemtp, I'm not sure). Kai was in last weekend's Matt Pritchard jump clinic and was working on flat water backloops. According to his dad, he already has backloops wired when he launches off of a wave, and now he's working on a flat water version. Keep in mind he's only ~12 years old.

4.0, 4.0 4.0

It's like a broken record, 4.0 everyday for the past several days. The beach and waters at Kanaha were pretty deserted yesterday as it seems most windsurfers had taken enough punishment the previous 3 days. Winds were once again blowing around 30 yesterday, powered 4.0, although not quite as insanely overpowered as Sunday. Only a few of us out on the water at Uppers had the place to ourselves with some small waves still and some fun rolling ocean swell. The racer guys have been out on the race sails, mid-5s, practicing for the Maui Race Series that starts on the 28th. More good fun in store today.

Wucking Findy

Maui went nuclear again today with very strong winds above the 30 mph range. Most guys were scrambling for 3.5s and 3.7s, though 4.0 was doable with lots of downhaul. Still some small waves at Uppers to play in and some cool rolling ocean swell too. Good Sunday fun!

World champ Matt Pritchard was out for a downwinder from Ho'okipa on his 4.7. Got some cool photos (see below) and video of Matt blasting around. Got some cool video of Matt bodydragging then going into a duck tack, then followed up by a spock on the way back out. Check out the Maui Windsurfing Blog sister site for that footage.

Matt Pritchard throws a forward in 30 knots of wind at Kanaha - oh, and he's on a 4.7

Another Windy Weekend

Winds have cranked up another notch just in time for the weekend. Yesterday was a solid 4.5 and it built another notch today to very solid 4.0 to 3.7 during the midday session. Even got some little waist-high north swell at Uppers to add a little variety to the mix. Pretty unorganized stuff, only able to get one or two bottom turns in on each wave, but that's pretty good for this time of year. Also lots of nice rolling swell outside the reef to play on. Temps are up in the mid-80s now and lots of sunshine.

Looks like it should stay this windy for at least the next day or two, then slack off to more moderate conditions. Looks like there's a low pressure system to our north so that might generate some more swell too.

Maui Windsurfing Blog Multimedia Edition

Introducing the multimedia companion to the Maui Windsurfing Blog - MauiWindsurfing.net. It's great that Blogger now allows posting of photos, but it's pretty limited. And there's still no way to post video (vlogging) - that I know of anyway. So, I wanted a dedicated website just for posting photos and videos of windsurfing on Maui. I finally have a beta version available.

Maui Windsurfing

Got a handful of videos from local sailor Steve Robinson and some photos. Hopefully these galleries will grow. At some point I also plan to put some basic Maui windsurfing information on the site - stuff like maps to Kanaha, Sprecks and Hookipa. Tips on sailing these sites, basic dos and don'ts about windsurfing on Maui. I haven't found a good website yet that covers these basics and is up to date. Got an idea for any other information like this that would be useful? Send me a comment.

Thanks to Steve Robinson for sharing his videos, Tom Cherry for sharing music on some of the videos, Alan Cadiz for sharing some photos, the good folks at SolLight for sponsorship help and to all the loyal Maui Windsurfing Blog fans. Mahalo.

Another upcoming clinic

Maui Wind vs Forecasters

Maui wind continues to beat forecaster expectations. Forecaster predict winds in the teens and Maui delivers wind in the mid to upper 20s. The last 2 or 3 days were supposed to be just sea breezes, but actual wind speeds just go to show why Maui is the windsurfing capital of the world. Even when it's not supposed to be windy, it turns out to be windy. The last 3 days have seen winds top the 20 knot barrier, despite the light predictions. Even had some small waves the last few days from a small NW swell. More of the same on tap for the weekend.

If you're going to be on Maui in the next couple of weeks, be sure to check out a couple of clinics with the pros. This Saturday, Matt Pritchard is hosting another jump clinic. The following Saturday, pro racing guru Phil McGain and world champ Kevin Pritchard will be giving a racing clinic in preparation for the upcoming Maui Race Series which starts May 28. See the poster above or contact HST for more details and to sign up.

Bump-n-jump

Sunday saw another hella-windy day - most guys on ~4.0, women on 3.5 and smaller. The winds slacked off a bit today, about a half meter in strength. The small, confused waves we saw on Saturday are tapering off too. If you like bump-n-jump sailing, Maui is delivering. Forecasters are saying the winds will back off the next few days. WindGuru is predicting winds in the mid-teens, but I think Maui will pull its magic and blow in the upper teens.

Hella-Windy

Another hella-windy day here on Maui. Don't believe the iWindsurf graphs. It was at least 10 mph higher than they were reporting. I got on the water at 11:00am to get on it before it went super nuts. I had rigged 5.0 because when I arrived it looked 5.5ish. By the time I hit the water, it had built to a solid mid 20s. Sailed 15 minutes and decided it was just stupid to stay on that. Came in and went straight to 4.0. Sailed that well powered up at Uppers where there was actually some small wave action, albeit kinda confused and weird - NW swelling combining with east wind swell I guess. After an hour or so the wind cranked in even more. I decided I had had enough. I think I could have been well powered on 3.5. Probably more of the same tomorrow before backing off some on Monday.

Rag Doll Afternoon

The wind returned to Maui yesterday. Yesterday was pretty light - 5.8. The north shore looked like a big, blue mellow lake. Not a speck of a wave anywhere. Just flatwater and 18 - 20 mph winds. Not even any ocean swell to speak of. Still, it was a beautiful day, perfect for putting it in cruise control and heading upwind to explore the coast.

Today was a different story, wind-wise that is. Winds kicked into the 30 mph range and as a result there were people getting launched, catapulted and rag-dolled all over the place today. 4.5 was way too much for me, but I sailed it anyway. Sailed up almost to Sprecks looking for any hint of waves, but couldn't even find any up there. Some decent rolling swell up out from the big house with the tennis court by Camp One. Coming back downwind was a bit of a white-knuckler at times.
More wind tomorrow and probably Sunday. Then it looks like they may slack off for a day or two. Looks like there might be a chance we might get a small bump in north swell tomorrow too.

More details now on our top story ...

According to the Maui News, a 47 year old man from Reno was surfing with a buddy at Tavares Bay yesterday and at about 10:30 am was bumped from below and knocked of his board. He got back on his board, paddled and caught a wave in. At some point, the shark bit the rear of the board. The photo in the paper doesn't show much of a bite. The guy's buddy says he saw a tail fin.

They closed the beach and patroled the area. They'll patrol today and assess whether or not to open the beach back up. No determination on the size or type of the shark.

Tavares Bay is between Kuau Bay and Mama's Fish House - prime windsurfing area. According to the paper, the last attack on the north shore took place in 2000 when a French windsurfer was bitten on the leg off of Kanaha.

Wind is still forecast to return on Thursday or Friday.

Maui News now has the article posted on their site now, along with photo of the board.

Shark Attack

Heard on the radio yesterday that there was a shark attack on a surfer at Tavares Bay near Paia yesterday. I don't have a lot of details, but they said there were no injuries, that the shark bit the board and the surfer came away unscathed. Lifegaurds closed the beach. I'll have to pick up a Maui News today and see what else I can find out. It's not showing up on their online version yet.

Kanaha Windsurfing Access

There's a potential conflict that's starting to brew over Kanaha access that could affect anybody wanting to windsurf Kanaha.

Apparently the Kahalui harbormaster wants to adhere to a supposed 1988 law that apparently designates a pretty big portion of Kanaha beach park as a swimming area. I've heard 3rd hand that he has ropes and bouys to start roping off areas. Not sure where the areas would be, but they're supposedly much bigger than the current little swimming area and I believe would include Uppers as well as Lowers.

Details are still pretty sketchy since everything I've heard about this is third or fourth hand, though from reliable sources. Should know more this week as there may be some confrontations between windsurfing representatives and the harbormaster.

No Wind

No wind to report on here in Maui since last Tuesday. Very light sea breezes around 7 - 10 mph is about all we're getting. Pity too. Got a little swell action happening on both the north and south shores. Wind is predicted to return Thursday or Friday this coming week.