Rain

It's a rainy Sunday morning here on Maui, not the picturesque conditions most people associate with Hawaii. This whole week we've been under the influence of a parade of cold fronts marching across the island chain. That cuts off the trades, turns out winds out of the south and brings rain and showers. Thanksgiving day there was a brief period of light sailable trades for windsurfers who were on the ball and waiting for it. Later afternoon as most people were sitting down to gorge themselves on turkey a few sailors actually got in a good little session from what I hear. I obviously wasn't one of them.

Since then it's been cloudy, light wind and rain. Yesterday there were light winds in Kihei, but I think they would have required larger sails than what I own. This coming week is looking like more of the same unfortunately. It's that time of year when windsurfing on Maui gets kinda rare. You get it a half dozen to a dozen days a month if you're lucky. Time to break out the surf board and start getting some paddling in.

Aloha everyone. Sorry about the lack of reports the last few days, but there has been no wind, and hence no windsurfing to report. Since Saturday, our normal ridge of high pressure was was first shoved down on top of us, followed by some cold fronts that have turned the winds light out of the south. In a nutshell, winter is making it's first appearance to Maui. The weather looks more like you might find in Seattle, albeit 20 to 30 degrees warmer. Gray skies and rain showers.

The forecast for the next several days doesn't look that promising either. It looks like we might see a very brief return of trades tomorrow, but it looks like they will be light and accompanied by clouds and showers. Welcome to winter in Maui folks. The wind gets much less consistent. Looks like we may be getting a north swell though , it may have already arrived in fact. Probably won't be much to report here for a few days, but check back next week some time. Hopefully we'll have some windsurfing to report or at least some new video footage or photos from recent days. Aloha.

Maui Windsurfing Photo of the Day

Today's Maui Windsurfing photo is again from last Thursday's competition at the Aloha Classic at Hookipa. Rider unknown.

Winds today started out pretty light as several squalls marched in along Maui's northern coastline. Around 2:oo the winds came up a notch to maybe 6.0 for guys. Stubborn me decided to rig what I wanted to sail not what the conditions warranted so I went out on 5.0/90L. Ended up at Lowers and caught a few waves but was mostly underpowered until about 3:00 when the wind picked up to nice 5.0. Course that's when half the windsurfers on Maui decided to come out and join me. Got pretty crowded on the shoulder high waves. I boogied on out of there up to Uppers once I had power where there were probably 4 or 5 other sailors total. Waves were bigger up there but not as long and consistent. Still, it was nice not competing with 12 other guys for a wave.

Reading the weather tea leaves it looks like today might have been the last day of wind for a bit. The high pressure ridge that generates our trade winds is getting shoved down on top of us by some cold fronts further north. This usually sets up a sea breeze pattern with light onshore winds in the low teens at best most of the time. Still, Maui can surprise the unwary windsurfer and add enough of a boost in these patterns to sail on big gear occasionally. Even if the wind doesn't blow this week, a new north swell is expected Tuesday-ish, so surfing is a good alternative.

Winds got a little funky today, at least at Kanaha. Up and down, gusty and shifty as hell. 5.0 was good later in the afternoon, a bit much sometimes a bit light other times. Still some big waves though the swell is on the decline. Lots of colorful action at Uppers as Hot Sails Maui was doing a photo shoot with their new sails, three riders absolutely ripping up the logo- to mast-high sets, helicopter in the air, jet ski in the water. Coming in on one wave as it was jacking up, getting ready to drop in, I had the helicopter in front of me, just a little downwind of me. It was low enough and the wave was big enough I could look inside. Seemed like I was looking eye level at the photographers. Damn! That was weird.

From what I hear, Hookipa was still closed out today. Surprisingly Kanaha wasn't too crowded.

The photo above is a shot from last Thursday at the Aloha Classic, Sean Ordonez tearing apart a clean Hookipa glassy wave.

After a weekend of light winds here on Maui, the tradewinds returned on Monday afternoon. The windsurfing has been pretty good this week. Monday afternoon was pretty mellow. I got back on the water yesterday on my 4.5/82L for the first time in a week and sailed well powered. I timed it right getting on the water early afternoon. Later on it built then steadily dropped, frustrating a lot of people who scrambled to rerig to catch up with what the wind was doing.

Today, we got wind and waves - both in the extra large category. Started out mellow 5.0 at noon with some smallish surf at Uppers. But as the session progressed, the waves built steadily into the logo-to mast-high range by the end of my session. After I left, the waves and wind both kept building, with the wind averaging 30 ish and the waves hitting the mast-high + range. Hookipa must have closed out as the afternoon saw lots of pros arriving at Kanaha to sail.

Big swell will continue (probably) through tomorrow then start declining. Looks like we might have wind through Friday and then it's looking like it might tank for several days or longer. Get it now while it's good.

Josh Stone, aerial off the lip at the prelims of the men's open on Thursday of the Aloha Classic. Alex Mussolini went on to win the men's open with Sean Ordonez taking second, Jesse Brown third and Josh Stone fourth.

More Aloha Classic Video

I was able to take Thursday afternoon off and get down to Hookipa to check out the men's open competition in the 2005 Aloha Classic. Some nice head-high waves throughout much of the afternoon. Winds pooped out for a bit late in the afternoon but there was some great wave sailing.

Today's Maui Windsurfing videos feature Josh Stone in one of his earlier heats with some nice turns on a wave and a nice backloop. Check out the videos at MauiWindsurfing.net

Aloha Classic Day 1 Video

Maui Windsurfing video correspondent Norm Roediger was kind enough to send in some video action from Hookipa yesterday at the 2005 Aloha Classic. Check out the video over in the video gallery.

Windy Start to November

So far it's been a windy November on Maui. My previous experience with this time of year is that the number of sailing days drops off dramatically. That hasn't been the case yet. Winds are continuing to blow. Forecasters had been predicting strong winds this week. They didn't turn out to be all that strong yesterday, pretty average wind speeds for the most part. Today they got it right though with average wind speeds bouncing between the mid 20s to low 30s.

Today was the first day of the Aloha Classic competition. Men's grand masters and masters division were held today in occasional logo-high conditions. From what I heard, Klaus Simmer of Simmer Sails won the grand masters division (over 45). Check out the Aloha Classic website for more information on the event and the line-up.

Sunday Morning Update

Spectacular, beautiful morning on Maui today. Sunny skies look like they'll prevail today. Yesterday we had some high clouds throughout the day and the winds were on the light side. I stopped by Kanaha late afternoon, but it was lighter than I was willing to deal with - 5.8 would have been marginal and the waves were pretty small.

Friday we had some good sailing. Wind was a bit up and down at times and pretty offshore, but I found that my 5.0/90L combo worked pretty good in the logo-high waves at Uppers.

Wednesday and Thursday were pretty nutso from what I hear. Winds were averaging in the 30s with gusts around 40.

In local windsurfing news, the Aloha Classic is set to begin on Monday with registration party at the Livewire Cafe in Paia. Competition is scheduled to start Tuesday with the men's grand masters division. Women are set to follow on Wednesday. Men's open is slated for Thursday and the kids are scheduled for Friday. Winds look like they may crank starting tomorrow. Waves are pretty light right now but it looks like we may get a swell late in the week. Hopefully we can get some video from our video correspondents, Norm, Steve or Jonathan of some of the competition. I might try to get down to Hookipa on Thursday to see some of it and take some photos, but it will take a back seat to work and sailing.

Still windy here on Maui. The windsurfing has been pretty good the last few days. Monday, I got the stubborn idiot award of the day. Arrived to Kanaha to find pretty light winds and some pretty good surf. Rigged 5.8/90L and just as I was launching the wind started kicking in. Opted to head to Lowers since it's often a little less windy there. Still way too much sail. Crowds were typically a problem. Got a few nice head- to logo-high rides, one all to myself, the rest shared with a dozen other sailors. Blasted up to Uppers and caught a couple of big waves. Luckily the wind mellowed a little once I got up there. Still should have been on 5.0 though.

Yesterday was well-powered 4.5 until I got up to Uppers then it dropped a bit to kind of marginal 4.5. Still some nice waves. Wind both days pretty offshore, making for some cleaner waves.

Didn't have time to sail today, but it looks like it cranked - 4.0 - 4.5 judging from the iWindsurf graphs.