August Wrap-Up

The last few days of August we've seen some pretty consistent and strong winds here on Maui bringing a nice finish to a pretty good month of sailing. My tally for the last three days included 5.0 at Kanaha on Tuesday, 4.5 at Kanaha on Wednesday and 4.5 at Sugar Cove today. Each of those days was spectacularly sunny and warm and the wind was pretty consistent. Still no true waves, but there is some wind swell up at Camp One, Sprecks and Sugar Cove.

Looking back on the month of August as a whole, it seems like this was a better August for wind than we've had the last few years, with only last week bringing light, non-sailable winds. The last few years in August we saw more tropical storms or depressions cutting off our trade winds. This year, Hector was the only fly in the ointment.

Looks like September will start off with wind tomorrow, perhaps a little lighter tomorrow and then maybe even dropping another notch on the weekend. That's what the weather guys are saying anyway. Personally I think it will probably still be plenty windy this weekend and into next week.

Back on the Water Again

Ahhh. Feels so good to get back on the water after a week of light or no winds. Today was supposed to be a transition day according to the weather geeks, but what do they know. By late morning, trade winds had returned to Maui and by midday they were actually much stronger than I would have expected. The iWindsurf Kanaha graph is reading waaaaay to low lately for what the actual conditions are at Kanaha. Readings were in the low 20s in the afternoon, but I was very powered on 4.5 until late in the afternoon when the wind dropped. I'd guess it was blowing 26 - 27ish.

The crowds that we had at Kanaha most of the summer seem to have all returned home, the local kids are back in school, the races are over so the resident racers are only showing up on the weekends, the visiting racers have returned home, so Kanaha almost feels quiet. The visitors we do have are predominantly European right now and as you walk around the beach you'll hear Italian, French, German and other unidentifiable languages.

It's pretty interesting to have the Europeans visit. I may incur the wrath of my fellow countrymen, but it seems that on average, European visiting windsurfers seem to be more advanced than those visiting from USA. The Euros seem to really go for it and push the limits with freestyle and advanced tricks than what we see going on in the summer. Fun to watch and inspiring to go out and learn something new. And it's great to see a diversity of cultures and languages come together through windsurfing.

Winds are forecast to stick around through the week and if today was a "transition day" we should see some pretty strong winds cranking this week - perhaps we're on the cusp of another nuclear showdown. So, the wind is back, but the waves are still on holiday, playing around in the southern hemisphere. It can't be long though until we get our first north swell of the season. My prediction is we're going to get some epic swell next week - small, but clean and sweet. How do I know this? Simple, it takes the sacrifice of a resident Maui windsurfer leaving the island for a trip to the mainland to coax the waves back, and I know a couple of guys who are leaving soon for the mainland visits. Thanks guys, your sacrifice is much appreciated! ;-)

No Wind

Wish there were something better to report, but we're still stuck in the doldrums here on Maui. A bunch of low pressure systems have cut off our trade winds since last Wednesday. Today is a cloudy, sticky day here and we're expecting thunderstorms and some potentially heavy rain from those T-storms. Tomorrow is forecast to be a transition day back to our trades as the low pressures move out of our area. Realistically, I think Tuesday will likely be the next sailable day we get here.

Attack of the Lows

If you look at the Pacific Synoptic Feature map, it looks like Hawaii is under attack from a bunch of low pressure systems,surrounding us, and effectively laying seige and cutting off our supply of fresh trade winds. In addition to what's on the map, there's an upper level low between us and our trade wind producing high pressure to our north. All this has led to pretty light winds the last few days. Yesterday was light, but barely sailable on the north shore, windier in Kihei. Today and the rest of this week are looking lighter still. Current conditions this morning are absolutely calm. We'll likely see sea breezes develop this afternoon. So, if you're visiting Maui this week, it might be a good time to take up some snorkeling. There's also a south swell, so head on over to the south side - Kihei, Lahaina and get some surf.

We've seen quite a variety of wind conditions here on Maui the last three days. Saturday's wind could be be characterized as "brutal" with strong, gusty winds, very easterly and offshore with some hellacious chop. Sunday was also pretty strong.
By contrast, today was very light and mellow, at least on the north shore. Overall the winds today were very northerly, meaning pretty light conditions prevailed at Kanaha. Timing was crucial. I got there around 1:00, when it looked like a nice mellow 5.0, but within a half hour it dropped down into the low teens and stayed there. So, even though I rigged up my 5.7 it was a slogfest.

Kanaha was amazingly deserted today. Most people were probably over in Kihei which does get stronger wind when it's as northerly as it was today.

Looking into the future, it looks like things will likely get funky this week. Even the forecasters dont seem to be too sure what's going to happen. We've got remnants of former hurricane Hector meandering into our trade wind belt, sure to put a damper on them. We also have hurricane Ioke to our south though its track isn't forecast to come anywhere near us. Reading the forecast discussion, it sounds like winds will likely turn southeasterly later in the week. This typically means unsailable conditions here on Maui. It also looks like we've got a good chance of getting some heavy rain.

Kanaha Friday

Spent most of the day at Kanaha yesterday from midday to late aftertoon. Beautiful weather and somewhat light to moderate northerly, onshore winds prevailed. My 5.3/90L combo was perfect for planing through the holes, of which there many. There's almost no waves to speak of, just some rolling swell at the uppermost end of Uppers/Camp One. From there down to kite beach there was nothing breaking on the reef. Nice, smooth water though for practicing tricks and what not.

Winds are forecast to pick up a notch this weekend and then go back down to normal moderate levels for next week, though it looks like some moisture out in the Pacific has the potential to make things a bit wetter next week. I can't speak for the rest of the windsurfers here, but I'm really starting to jones for some waves. Seems like we usually get some kind of early season fluke early swell in August. Bring it on!

Sweet Lunch at Sugar Cove

The last three days I've gotten my windsurfing fix at Sugar Cove, just upwind from Sprecks. Sugar Cove has a very small public right of way access and there isn't much parking or beach, but for those who are staying in the condos there or willing to put up with the tiny parking, can get a sweet treat of smooth rolling summertime swells, without the harsh chop that we often get at Kanaha.

Interestingly, though Sugar Cove is probably only a mile or two upwind from Kanaha, it tends to have much stronger winds. The last two days at Kanaha have been pretty light according to the iWindsurf sensor and judging from a report from someone who sailed there yesterday. By contrast, I sailed Sugar Cove midday yesterday fully wound out on my 4.2 and today on my 4.5. Lots of fun, smooth swell for riding and slashing backside.

Erratic Winds

Winds have been a bit light and/or erratic the last few days. Sunday we saw some pretty light conditions.Yesterday was looking pretty light so I dismissed the idea of sailing, but it looks like it came up for a time in the afternoon.

Today, I got a brief lunchtime session in at Sugar Cove on 5.3. Winds were very offshore and very gusty and shifty. The Kanaha graph bears this out, so I assume Kanaha was equally as erratic if not more. The forecast discussions have been talking about an unstable airmass the last few days so I assume the gustiness has been the result of that. Just checked the latest discussion and it says the airmass is getting more stable so we should see some more typical trade winds kicking in tomorrow.

Settling Down

The wind and the hub bub at Kanaha associated with the US Nationals has settled down. Friday we saw the last day of racing action at Kanaha, capping off a very successful week of sailing. Final results are posted on the Maui Sails forum.

I think everyone associated with these races deserves an award. Great job to all the race crew and organizers. Looked to me like it went really well. The racers put on a great show, having to endure some grueling days. It was fun to watch and I'm sure everyone involved will look back on this year's US Nationals with fond memories.

The only minor negative issue I can comment on is that I think these kind of events tend to put off some of the local, non-windsurfers. Certain events over the week showed signs that they felt they were crowded out of "their" park. I think in the future it would be great if local windsurfing shops and clubs could put some effort into educating the native locals about windsurfing, get them involved. There's a very conspicuous absense of native Hawaiians in windsurfing. It's by far a haole-dominated activity. In hindsight, this US Nationals may have missed an opportunity to get some of these locals interested and involved in an activity that fits so well with their ocean-going heritage. Food for thought maybe for the next big windsurfing event here on Maui.

The racers all must have been exhausted from a week of sailing. Yesterday at Kanaha was the least crowded I've seen it in quite awhile, with a notable absence of most racers. The wind yesterday was again in the 4.5 range for me - about what it was all week long.

Winds today have been substantially lighter than we've seen in weeks, with winds topping out in the upper teens - probably 5.5 to 6.0m or bigger sails required for most guys. I'm only speculating on that since it looked to light for me to head down the hill to the beach and check it out. Forecasters are calling for a couple more days of light trades, then picking back up to normal levels mid-week.

US Nationals Day 4 - Course Racing with Video

Yesterday was the first day of course racing here at the US Nationals on Maui and after a cloudy up and down start it turned into another beautiful, sunny, windy day. The racing started around noon and the winds were cranking in the upper 20s. The fleets chose their sails accordingly started to race and Maui's wind pulled the carpet out from under them so to speak, with the wind dropping several sail sizes in the course of a few minutes.

By 1:00 or so, the skies had cleared and the wind was returning back to it's earlier stronger levels. I took a break from watching and filming and sailed very powered on my 4.7/85L combo, scoring some cool little waves at Uppers. Meanwhile, some of the course racers were out holding down 9.5s and bigger.

Unofficially, it looked to me like Phil McGain dominated the big boys fleet today with Matt Pritchard usually right behind him, followed by Micah Buzinas. Very interesting watching the formula guys handle Maui's strong winds.

The QuickTime video footage from yesterday mostly features a crowded start, 20 yards from the beach and some finishes. After the first few clips in the video, you'll hear Conner Baxter doing the play-by-play. Conner has been sidelined on the beach the last few days with an ankle injury. Today's video clip is bigger than most formula boards, 11.1 MB, so go get a cup of coffee while this thing downloads.

Overheard an interesting tidbit from Wednesday's long distance race. Apparently Conner's dad, Keith, was following some of the long distance racers on his jet ski. His speedometer showed him going 38mph, following Phil McGain (I think) and he was unable to keep up with him. Keep in mind this was out in the open ocean.

Today's weather is looking like a carbon copy of the last few days. Today is the last day of racing action, more coures racing on tap, followed by BBQ and award ceremony afterwards.

US Nationals Day 3

The results from yesterday's long distance race are posted on Maui Sails forum.

I didn't get a chance to get to the beach yesterday, but from what I hear, conditions were comparable to other days this week, with strong Maui trade winds prevailing. I hear the long distance race was between a bouy at the Waiehu channel marker and another up at Sprecks. Adults in the A fleet did two laps, kids and women in the B fleet did one lap. Looks like Matt Pritchard took first followed by Micah Buzanis and Seth Beese.

US Nationals Day 2 Results

Marc Lefebvre has posted the results after yesterday's slalom racing on the Maui Sails forum (and elsewhere I suspsect). Here's a quick link:

http://www.mauisails.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=726

It's looking like another beautiful sunny day here on Maui. On tap today is the long distance race. I've previously reported that it will be up to Hookipa and back, but I heard rumors yesterday from at least one racer that it would be out (starboard tack) to a channel marker offshore then up to Sprecks and back - several laps possibly. At any rate, that will be tough to get video of, so I doubt I'll make it down to check on that today - gotta catch up on some work that's been piling up the last couple of days. The plan for Thursday was to still do course racing. We saw one guy out on the slalom course yesterday competing with Formula gear. Pretty tough considering how windy it was. Forecast is for continued strong winds through the remainder of the week.

US Nationals Day 2 with More Video

Another great day of slalom racing here on Maui today at the US Nationals. Wind initially started out a little lighter, but by early afternoon were actually stronger than yesterday with average winds in the upper 20s.

Got some more video footage of today's action - again, not much editing here, mostly just raw footage. In the background you'll hear Maui windsurfer and musician extraordinairre Tom Cherry and race director Rick Vetromille doing the play-by-play commentary. Today's US Nationals video coverage is about 7 minutes long and weighs in at a hefty 13 MB, in QuickTime format.

US Nationals Latest Maui Forecast

This from the Hawaii National Weather Service office this morning:

A PERSISTENT RIDGE OF HIGH PRESSURE FAR NORTH OF THE ISLANDS WILL
PROVIDE THE ISLANDS WITH MODERATE TO FRESH TRADES INTO THE WEEKEND.
CLOUDS EMBEDDED IN THE TRADES WILL BRING A FEW SHOWERS...

TRADE WINDS WILL PERSIST FOR AT LEAST THE NEXT 10 DAYS...THANKS TO
HIGH PRESSURE MEANDERING AROUND WELL NORTH OF THE ISLANDS. MINOR
FLUCTUATIONS IN THE STRENGTH OF THE TRADES ARE EXPECTED...BUT
MODERATE TO FRESH SPEEDS WILL BE THE RULE. WITH NO SIGNIFICANT
DISTURBANCES OR SYNOPTIC SCALE LOWS EXPECTED NEAR THE ISLANDS...
ALOFT OR AT THE SURFACE...TRADES WILL DELIVER A FEW BRIEF SHOWERS
TO WINDWARD AND MAUKA AREAS...WITH RAINFALL TOTALS RATHER LIGHT.

US Nationals Results

Results from yesterday's races are posted on the Maui Sails forum:

http://www.mauisails.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=723

US Nationals Day 1 - Raw Video Coverage

It was a beautiful day for kicking off the US Nationals here on Maui today. Sunny skies and mostly steady winds averaging around 25mph prevailed throughout the day. Eight different classes of slalom were run today, each class running eight heats. If you're looking to jump straight to the video coverage, click here (QuickTime, 6.5 MB). It's a bit raw, I only did a speed edit to crop out some stuff and wittle it down to about 4 minutes. Some of it's kind of jerky despite the tripod. Sorry.

The heats started off with the kids with boys <> 50-something (sorry, can't remember the exact age limits on the classes), followed by the mid-40s to mid-50 year olds, followed by the 35 - 44, class and finishing with the men's open 19 - 34 age group.

The youngest kids and girls classes seemed to have a good mix of winners throughout the heats and were actually some of the most exciting to watch, especially at the finish line. Standouts in the other classes were Mark Boersma smoking the rest of his boys 14 - 18 class, Micah Buzianis and Phil McCain dueling fast and furious in the men's 35 - 44 class and Matt Pritchard making it look easy as he smoked the rest of the men's 19 - 34 fleet.

Really pretty sweet conditions today. Early in the races while the race committee had to track down a bouy gone AWOL, I got a quick session on my 5.0 to go check out the start line. The 5.0 was mostly good, maybe a tad much. 4.7 would have been the sail of choice for those of us who prefer sails of the wave persuasion.

The start line was placed just inside the break at Uppers, meaning the racers had to jockey for position a bit in some small waist-high waves. The Maui race committee seems to like to do this as well as place all the outside marks in the break to make things interesting.

From my perspective, looked like a great set of races, run pretty smoothly once the errant bouys were properly set. More slalom racing tomorrow followed by long distance on Wednesday and course racing on Thursday.

Aloha!

Yo-Yo Wind and Yo-Yo people

Perhaps Maui's wind read my last blog about my predicted strong winds for this week's upcoming US Nationals. Seems like the wind has been teasing and toying around, keeping us all guessing what it's going to do. I arrived at the beach Friday to what looked like strong 4.5 winds, rigged the 4.5 and started to head out, but the wind had cranked up another 10 knots. Sand was blowing so hard small dogs were tumbling down the beach yelping for help. I figured I'd wait on the beach a bit and wait. Half an hour later, I would have needed a 5.3. But, the wind teased and hinted at re-building and suckered me out, only to drop down again and leave me to slog thigh-deep in water back to the launch. After waiting around for another hour or so, I decided to show the wind who was boss and rig my 5.3, figuring that would surely bring the wind back to 4.5 levels. But no, the 5.3 actually turned out to be about right and I caught some fun little waves at Uppers - nearly had it to myself too.

Yesterday, I opted to stay away from the beach but I hear it was a bit up and down again.

Today started off with a pretty mellow 4.5 but continued to build. By early afternoon, a lot of guys were going down to their 4.0s. I held on to the 4.5 to take advantage of some occasional down the line sets, about waist high, that were rolling into Uppers occasionally. Kind of sloppy, but this time of year, we'll take any down the line action we can get.

Today was registration day for the US Nationals and the park was crowded. Kanaha is usually pretty crowded on weekends anyway with the local windsurfers out with their families, plus the local non-windsurfers out with their families BBQing, having picnics and birthday parties complete with those silly inflatable bouncy castles. Today took it up another notch as US mainland windsurfers arrived to register. The lawn was littered with board bags and sail bags and suitcases and rigged gear.

Which reminds me of one kooky episode today. Apparently not all windsurfers have been taught to never leave their rigged sails unattached to their boards (or tied to something). One kook today apparently thought it would be okay to take his rigged sail down to the beach and leave it unattended while he went back and got his board. Keep in mind the wind was blowing about 25 knots side-onshore. But our intrepid kook thought he would show is brilliance by throwing a bit of sand on the head of the sail to weight it down a bit. Too bad he still left the rest of the sail exposed to the wind and no sooner did he walk away, than a nice gust comes along and picks the sail up, extra sand and all, and carries it end over end into some trees 10 or 20 yards away. Fortunately, nobody was in the way and no one got hurt. Fortunately, he had a couple of nice new holes in his sail to perhaps reinforce the lesson a little stronger. NEVER LEAVE A RIGGED SAIL UNATTACHED AND UNATTENDED! IT'S LIGHTWEIGHT. IT'S GOT A LOT OF SURFACE AREA. IT'S A SAIL. IT'S DESIGNED TO CATCH THE WIND!!! WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK IT'S GOING TO DO!!!! Sometimes it's more dangerous just hanging out on the beach than charging around in the wind and waves. We're all lucky it didn't bonk some poor local's kid. A lot of the locals already don't like windsurfers for taking up so much of Kanaha. Something like that would have the potential for the local parks department and harbor master (who hates windsurfers) to shut down our access. (Makani shakes his head and takes a deep breath). Sorry, I'll step down off my soap box now.

Anyway, wind continued to build, the parking lot continued to get fuller, people got more creative with their parking, "Hey, I've got a Hummer, I can just drive up on the sidewalk and grass and park wherever the hell I want to" kind of attitudes started to prevail. Can't help but think these kind of events today paint a very unflattering picture of windsurfers. Oops, how'd I get on that soap box again?

As, I've mentioned, US Nationals start tomorrow. Slalom is planned for tomorrow and Tuesday. Wednesday will be the long-distance race up to Hookipa (and back I think). Thursday starts the course racing. The forecast is for the winds to drop down to moderate levels, which of course means that it will either continue to nuke or drop down to very light conditions. I'm hoping to get down to get some video and photos this week so stay tuned. Ok, I'm outta hear before that damn soap box sneaks up on me again.

Maui Wind Building

Just in time for the US Windsurfing Nationals here on Maui next week, the wind is kicking in to our normal summertime strength. This afternoon was a nice comfy 4.0 day for blasting around, hitting some backside surf at Camp One and bump and jump galore on everywhere.

The speed demons are also out blasting around getting used to the conditions that next week will likely bring. Those who've got some TOW under their harness sailing Maui's high wind and bumpy race course will have a definite advantage over those who arrive late and have to get used to these conditions during their race heats. It will be interesting to see how all the various classes do. According to the US Nationals website, Formula and Olympic classes will be competing as well as slalom. There's a very good chance we'll see average wind speeds like today with the wind averaging 25 - 30 mph and gusting into the mid- to upper-30s. If you're coming to Maui to race and you're used to racing in wimpy little 12 knot breezes, you better start eating extra helpings now to put on a bit of extra poundage or you will likely get pounded! A few Maui locals are stoked at the high wind forecast for next week. A definite advantage for the home team.

Wind Returns

After a few days of very, very light sea breezes, Hawaii's trade winds returned today. Things started out looking pretty light, but the wind kicked in with gusto in the early afternoon. My 4.7 was too much for the extremely gusty and choppy conditions today.

Looks like the wind is back for a few days at least. We're expecting "moderate to fresh" trades through the weekend, which in windsurf-speak means hella-windy. Just in time for the US National which start next week. We're expecting an absolute zoo of windsurfers at Kanaha over the next week and a half. Word from at least one of the rental shops is that all their gear is reserved. If you're planning to come to Maui to visit next week and you don't have your gear reserved, better get think of some other options.