Maui Windsurfing Blog

Maui Windsurfing Blog has Moved!

2006-09-20T20:48:00.000-10:00

The new home for Maui Windsurfing Blog is:

http://www.mauiwindsurfing.net/

I'll probably keep this site active, just for the 2 1/2 years of archives, but all new content will now be on the new site.

Mahalo,

Makani

It's Windy

2006-09-19T17:27:00.000-10:00

Maui winds have pumped up a couple of notches the last two days - just as forecasters predicted. Amazing! Yesterday I sailed 4.2 at Kanaha - pretty wound up quite often but there were some holes. We had a pseudo-north swell yesterday. At least I think it's trying to be a north swell. Maybe the waves are having tryouts or something. They were pretty unorganized and unreadable. Using the tryouts metaphor, if our waves were trying out for the varsity football team, yesterday's wannabe's were the kids in tryouts who were tripping up all over themselves, running the wrong way, shoulder pads on backwards, fumbling the ball ... you get the idea. Not exactly first string, starting line-up. What they were good for was some steep ramps for launching into orbit - if you happened to time it right.

Today was Sugar Cove day. Word was that we were going to get a small bump in the north swell. Didn't really materialize much. Sprecks had some mushy, unorganized stuff, but it had quite a bit of wind swell influence in it. Upwind at Spartan reef there were some irregular sets rolling in occasionally.

As for the wind today, it was a bit funky. At 11:00 at Sugar Cove, it looked like I'd want a 5.3. By 11:30 it looked 5.0. Another 10 minutes and it looked 4.7, so that was what I rigged. Wind was pretty easterly and very holey - until about 1:00 or so when it majorly kicked in - with averages in the low 30s. Oddly enough, Kanaha kicked in earlier than Sprecks and Sugar Cove today. Usually the upwind launches get a bit more wind than Kanaha, but some refugees from Kanaha reported than before noon, guys were debating rigging 3.7s and 4.0s. The forecast guys are calling for it to continue to be strongly windy tomorrow. And, since they seem to have gotten this forecast right, maybe I'll believe them. After that, things are supposed to settle down to normal levels.

Weekend Wind Report

2006-09-17T17:01:00.000-10:00

Yesterday morning I was pretty dubious about the prospects for wind, but I was pleasantly surprised when the trades kicked in late in the morning. My wife was due to teach her 79-year old windsurfing student at Sugar Cove again so Sugar Cove was the default venue. When we arrived, I was pleasantly surprised to see some small remnant north swell rolling in at Sprecks. It was infrequent and small, but a site for sore eyes. The wind was on the light side so 5.7/90L was my sail/board choice. Headed to Sprecks to try to get some of that action, but the sets just weren't coming in so I cruised up to Spartan reef where I had seen some waves coming in too. Got one or two rides on some small waves, but I think the waves must have been elsewhere. From what I hear, Hookipa was about shoulder high and offshore yesterday. Looking downwind, it looked like Kanaha had some good sets. I'll have to rely on a report from Speedy or someone else who sailed there yesterday to find out what I missed.

Today was an early session at Kanaha - 5.0 and big board again to get through the holes. A lot of guys chose 5.3 and smaller boards which I think was probably the better call. Up at Uppers and Camp One, there were some occasional north swell sets coming in, though most of them were pretty sloppy and unorganized. My best ride of the day I got three bottom turns in on one wave, but most of them mushed out after about one bottom turn. When it got a little crowded at Uppers, I headed up to Camp One to sail with some Team Gaastra folks - Matt, Erin and Jazz. The waves and water in general were much smoother - and there were only 5 us up there. Sweeet! Should have gone further upwind earlier.

Conditions are looking like winds will build a bit through the early part of the week - high presssure to our north looks to be establishing itself for a nice bout of trades for the next week or so.

Saturday Morning Surf Report

2006-09-16T09:06:00.000-10:00

We're starting the weekend off with virtually calm conditions everywhere across Maui this morning. They say that hope springs eternal. With that in mind, I think there is some small hope for sailable wind today, but I think tomorrow is the day we'll likely see our trade wind return.

So, what's a Maui windsurfer to do on a Saturday morning when there's no wind? Surf the web for windsurfing-related stuff of course. Couple of items of interest this morning for my "surf report." According to Glenn James, Maui's unofficial weatherman, we're starting to see an El Nino pattern set up in the Pacific. What this means for Hawaii is "less than the normal amount of autumn and winter into spring rainfall amounts; lighter than normal winds; more than the normal amount of high surf events; and the possibility of late season tropical storm activity this autumn."

The other item of interest related to Maui windsurfing that I came across is, The Windsurfing Movie. If you haven't hear of this, John Decesare and Jace Panebianco are in the process of making a full-length windsurfing motion picture - for release in movie theaters next spring. Check out their website, - they've got a trailer for the movie, which, if you can get past the first minute or two of credits and setting shots, has some killer action shots of sailing on Maui, mostly Hookipa. The film looks like it will tell the stories of four windsurfers, Robby Naish, Kai Lenny, Jason Polakow and Levi Siver. Definitely some big names and big talent. Looking forward to seeing that on the big screen here on Maui. So, if it doesn't look like you're going to get on the water and sail today, check out the trailer and get stoked for the next time you can get out.

Disappointing Winds This Week

2006-09-15T16:30:00.000-10:00

This week has been rather a disappointment in the wind category for Maui's north shore. Winds have been predominantly out of the north, making Kihei the windiest sailing venue on the island. Wednesday was the best shot at sailing north shore winds. I sailed 5.0 well-powered at Uppers with some pretty steady and consistent wind - playing around in the little backside wave garden near Camp One. Yesterday and today have only managed to get into the mid-teens on the north shore.

The forecast is calling for winds to be fairly light again tomorrow then pick up on Sunday and next week, with the potential to get pretty windy according to the latest forecast discussion.

Lively Up Yourself!

2006-09-13T10:34:00.000-10:00

Much has been written over the last few years of the new windsurfing generation, the crop of teens and pre-teens that are shaking up and revitalizing the windsurfing world. But what about the other end of the spectrum? Despite some mention of Team Advil in some of the magazines, I think the older generation isn't getting it's fair share of publicity. After all, they are also reshaping our notions of an active lifestyle, pushing the boundaries, shunning the rocking chair, knitting needles, cards and bingo for the latest boards and sails. Here on Maui I've had the pleasure to know many very active windsurfers who are redefining what we can do in our 70s and 80s. One was Bob Peck, a 77-year old inspiration and now legend among Kanaha regulars.

Recently I've had the pleasure of getting to know Barb Guild, a 79-year-old-going-on-29 year old local Maui windsurfer. Barb sails out of Sugar Cove here on Maui and is as anxious and eager to improve her sailing as the 9 year olds are eager to learn the latest freestyle moves. Click the image to the left to see some video of Barb sailing with her instructor at Sugar Cove (QuickTime, 2.1 MB).

Last winter, she was thrilled to experience great improvements in her skiing, thanks to a smart boot-fitter helping her optimize her equipment to work for her, and to working regularly with an instructor on her technique. She decided to see if she could make the same kinds of changes in her windsurfing this summer. She works with a personal trainer 3 days a week to build her strength and endurance (being already blessed with remarkable flexibility) so she can windsurf 3 days a week, wind permitting! At this point, those sessions are with an instructor, gradually improving her efficiency and technique, but her goal is to feel confident and competent enough to sail independently. She's lived most of her life near the beach in California and Hawaii, and loves being in the water. One day, when the wind wasn't cooperating, she taught her inland-raised instructor the basics of body-surfing!

Over the past 10 years, she's combined her passion for the beach with her UCBerkeley engineering background to lead successful "beach nourishment" projects to rebuild the eroded beach at Sugar Cove, not only protecting the homes there from harm, but also providing a much-used and -loved beach for fishers, divers, boogey-boarders, surfers, kitesurfers, and windsurfers.

At any age, a person like Barb is an inspiration. At 79 years young, she is living proof that age needn't be a handicap or deterrent to doing anything you want. As boomers contemplate their next move, they needn't look far to see people like Barb showing the way.

Barb has a personal attitude she shared that we would all do well to adopt;

"Willingness to become as a little child and to leave the old for the new, renders thought receptive of the advanced idea. Gladness to leave the false landmarks and joy to see them disappear, -- this disposition helps to facilitate the ultimate harmony."

Maui "Real World Conditons"

2006-09-13T10:15:00.000-10:00

Many people have the mistaken impresssion that Maui windsurfing is only about radical wave sailing. Not true. As this video (3 MB, Real Media Player), sent in by Steve R., shows, Maui can also get some pretty mellow cruising conditions. This video shows Canadian Kanaha regulars Ted and Nora freesailing around on their slalom gear, eh. Pretty ideal conditions for what a lot of people are looking for.

More Summer Sailing

2006-09-11T09:11:00.000-10:00

We've seen a continuation of summer sailing season over this last weekend. Saturday I sailed Sugar Cove which got a bit gusty and funky, in large part, I believe, due to the cane fire just upwind of us. I think Kanaha was a bit better with the ladies on 5.0s and the guys on 5.5s.

Yesterday was a backloop-a-thon at Uppers. Wind swell rolling in made for some steep waist- to shoulder-high ramps rolling in at the perfect angle for backloops. Lots of the local guys were out throwing backloops and pushloops so much it was hard to tell which way was up. Even tried one myself and got further around than I ever had and didn't even break an eardrum this time. Stoke!

Summer Conditions Prevailing

2006-09-08T20:29:00.000-10:00

The last few days we've seen summer conditions prevailing on Maui - fairly strong winds and no swell except wind swell - at least at Kanaha and Sprecks. I think the early session yesterday was probably best. I got on the water around 2:00 yesterday at Sugar Cove with 4.5 but by then it had gotten a bit holey. From what I heard, the early session was more consistent and a little better.

So, today I tried the early session - Kanaha 4.5 around noon to 1:30. The 4.5 was pretty good. Sailed Uppers to Camp One where there's some wind swell for backside riding, but the small north swell bump we had the other day is gone, at least at Kahaha. Hookipa may still have a little bit. Later in the day the wind kicked in a little stronger, probably into the 4.2 range, but I had called it a day by then. All in all, a very nice day for sailing with sunny skies, hot temps, blue water and strong winds. Looks like we'll get a couple more days of this then things get a little more uncertain. Winds could drop as early as the beginning of next week and the latest forecast is calling for winds to really lighten up the latter part of next week.

Patience Pays Off

2006-09-06T21:13:00.000-10:00

Pretty wacky day of wind at Kanaha today. Midday readings looked very promising, with averages in the mid-20s. Got to Kanaha to see people coming off of the water saying it was dropping off. Sure enough, the wind soon dropped to virtually nothing. The iWindsurf graphs prove it too, showing the wind drop down to about 4 or 5 for an average and from an SE direction. No wonder the water was glassy. Usually I would have bailed, but I hung around. Around 4:00ish the wind was hinting at coming back and a few guys went out. I still had my 5.3 rigged so I decided to give it a try though I wasn't expecting much. But, to my pleasant surprise I was able to get planing, and after a few reaches of kinda funky wind, it settled in a bit and even built to a very powered 5.0 range. Very cool. But the best part was we actually had some very small north swell today. It was mushy and unorganized, but a nice surprise and fun to actually bottom turn instead of going backside all the time.

Judging from Norm's comment in the previous post, Hookipa was probably the place to be today. Bigger, smoother waves yesterday and the wind looks like it was more consistent though a little lighter today so it was probably decent 5.7ish again today.

2006-09-05T18:34:00.000-10:00

Light northerly winds have prevailed on Maui's north shore the past few days, so the place to be to get your sailing fix has been Kihei, which always gets stronger winds than the north shore when the winds are northerly. I didn't make it to Kihei myself, but local keener Jazz sailed 5.3 on Saturday at Kihei and I just got a report from Speedy that he sailed 5.0 at Maui Sunset yesterday. Meanwhile the north shore was seeing average wind speeds of about 12 - 14.

Looks like high pressure is rebuilding to our north which should begin to usher in strong, more typical trade winds starting tomorrow.

Meanwhile in the far north Pacific near the Aelutians, several storms have been brewing, cooking up the first north swell for our 2006 wave season. The latest wave forecast is predicting some small surf on the north shore next Monday or Tuesday. Ooooh yeaaaaaaa!!!!!

Maui Burning

2006-09-02T08:15:00.000-10:00

The big news yesterday and today on Maui is a very large brush fire on the west Maui mountains above Maalaea, threatening the new windmill farm, closing down the road to and from Lahaina and the west side and otherwise wreaking havoc on Maui traffic. The fire started early Friday morning (cause still unknown) and burned throughout the day yesterday, burning on both sides of the road, virtually stranding everyone on the west side where they were and keeping anyone else from getting there.

The fire of course has been fanned by strong winds. Yesterday we saw winds in the 5.0 range for guys at Kanaha and the location of the fire was probably blowing upwards of 40mph - it is after all, the windiest spot on the island - hence the location of the windmills there. It was pretty surreal to watch the line of flames burning from my lanai here in upcountry Maui last night.

This morning it looks like its' still burning, as evidenced by lots of smoke. What's all this have to do with windsurfing? Not much. Unless you're vacationing here on a windsurfing vacation and staying in Kaanapali or Napili. If so, you're either trapped on the west side and unable to get to the north shore (they've closed down the backside route around the west Maui's to local traffic only), or you're trapped on the north shore with your gear and unable to get back to your hotel or condo.

So, consider this a tip if you're considering coming to Maui on a windsurfing vacation and thinking of staying on the west side. Don't. Getting in and out of the west side is usually a slow, pain in the ass anyway with frequent accidents shutting down the road and mainland-style traffic jams clogging access in and out.

Winds this morning are so far looking pretty light. Looks like I might have been wrong about getting sailable wind this weekend, but we'll have to see. It could still come up pretty quickly. I'm actually kind of hoping it remains light to give the firefighters a better chance of containing and controlling the fire.

For more details on the fire, you might want to check out the Maui News website, www.mauinews.com, although they're site is currently down - perhaps being flooded with traffic trying to learn more about the fire.

August Wrap-Up

2006-08-31T20:26:00.000-10:00

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

2006-08-28T19:16:00.000-10:00

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

2006-08-27T08:53:00.000-10:00

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

2006-08-23T08:19:00.000-10:00

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.

2006-08-21T21:48:00.000-10:00

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

2006-08-19T09:14:00.000-10:00

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

2006-08-17T17:12:00.000-10:00

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

2006-08-15T16:48:00.000-10:00

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

2006-08-13T16:33:00.000-10:00

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

2006-08-11T08:07:00.000-10:00

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

2006-08-10T07:43:00.000-10:00

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

2006-08-09T09:23:00.000-10:00

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

2006-08-08T19:26:00.000-10:00

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

2006-08-08T08:40:00.000-10:00

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

2006-08-08T07:51:00.000-10:00

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

2006-08-07T20:35:00.000-10:00

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

2006-08-06T18:17:00.000-10:00

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

2006-08-03T18:24:00.000-10:00

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

2006-08-02T20:42:00.000-10:00

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.

Weird Weekend

2006-07-30T15:55:00.000-10:00

Continuing the trend for 2006, the winds for this weekend have been rather weird. Yesterday was the last race of the Maui Race Series, the state championship. I made it down to Kanaha in the early afternoon to see some of the last heats of the "morning" - the age class heats. Winds were about as light as I've ever seen at a Maui Race Series event, probably averaging 15 or so.

When the racers took a break for lunch, I decided to rig - I was seeing some steadier whitecaps upwind. I made a typically foolish decision and rigged what I wanted to sail vs what I needed. I should have rigged 5.7 but rigged 5.3 and spent the next hour slogging my way upwind to try to get into the smallish waves breaking at Uppers. It was a valiant effort if I do say so myself, but it wasn't going to happen. I tried the 5.7 and was able to plane a couple of reaches, but then the wind decided to get serious about taking a siesta. The racers had gone back out by this time to resume, and I watched as several pluncked down in the water and struggled to get waterstarts, others were towed in by the jet ski. The common sentiment I heard from racers after they called it for the day was "what a weird day."

Meanwhile, over in Kihei, things were cranking. Winds were strong enough to warrant guys rigging 4.2s. We've got high surf advisory on the south shore right now, so there were some decent waves too. Speedy, who like me, isn't usually much of a Kihei fan, was regailing me with tales of logo high surf at Maui sunset. I was pretty surprised that he actually seemed pretty stoked about a Kihei session.

Winds today have lightened up even more. North shore has been reading about 10mph from the north and even Kihei is barely hitting 20 or so (subtract about 5mph from Kihei graph to get a more realistic idea of what it's doing there). The weather guys are saying that we have an unseasonable upper level low that will shut down the wind for a couple of days and make it hot, stagnant and muggy here. Winds are supposed to return around Wednesday.

Thanks for the replies to the previous post on wave sailing right of way. Good comments and contributions.

Daniel and Right of Way Rules

2006-07-29T08:15:00.000-10:00

Former Hurricane Daniel passed through the islands yesterday, mostly just bringing wet and gray conditions to the north shore. Winds got a little crazy in the afternoon, with averages in the low-30s. Didn't look inviting to me at all so I passed on it. Today's skies are dawning bluer and hopefully we'll see less rain and some decent wind. The last of the Maui Race Series is being held today. I haven't made it down this year to see any of the races, but I may go down and shoot some video of a few races today - as well as get a little session in. Winds are supposed to be with us today and tomorrow then slack off on Monday for a day or so before returning again.

A comment on my last post asked about posting wave sailing right of way rules. I posted a comment, but I'll repost that here. Any feedback from others on the subject is welcome:

First of all, the sailor headed out from the beach has right of way over someone coming in. I see this one violated a lot. It is considered courtesy at least here in Maui to let the guy on the wave have the wave if you're going out and you can work around it, but technically, the guy going out has the right of way.

Second, the first sailor on the wave has right of way and third, if two (or 3 or 12) sailors catch a wave at the same time, the one closest to the critical section has right of way. These two get violated a lot too. Granted there's enough people some times that it's hard to tell who caught the wave first. That's why you need to know the third part, about the one closest to the peak having right of way.

In my opinion, as long as someone isn't blatatly and flagrantly breaking these rules, if they at least seem aware of the rules and seem to be trying to follow right of way, I'll cut them some slack. Otherwise they get a dose of serious stink-eye from me. ;-) And I think most people I know are willing to share a wave with someone if that person demonstrates an awareness of your presence and is making sure not to put you in danger or ruin your ride.

Kihei ... um ... hmmm ... well ....

2006-07-26T20:51:00.000-10:00

It had been awhile since I've made the trek over to the south side to sail Kihei. Winds didn't look like they were going to happen on the north shore today and it looked windy in Kihei. "What the hell?" I thought. "I'll give it a try." Anyone who knows me knows I'm not a fan of sailing Kihei. Today's session reaffirmed that feeling.

I arrived mid-afternoon to find all parking within a quarter mile of the launch already taken. The lawn was littered with gear. Checking things out, it looked pretty light inside and blasting outside. There was a small, waist-high wave breaking on the reef, and every one of the 4,456 windsurfers there today was fighting for their piece to shred. Since I wanted to fight with the rest of them for my piece of that action and it was so light on the inside, I rigged my 5.0.

Just as I suspected I needed every square centimeter of the 5.0 on the inside, but a few hundred yards out, the wind was way stronger, like 4.2ish. It didn't take long before I realized why I don't like sailing Kihei. Kihei, in my humble opinion, is perhaps the gustiest place I've ever sailed, and today it lived up to that reputation. Even on the outside, there were strong 4.0 gusts and anemic 6.0 holes. On top of that, add 90 degree wind direction shifts and short-period wind chop making for some of the harshest knee-pounding sailing around. The saving grace were those occasional waves. Nothing epic mind you. But, the waist-high waves were the biggest waves I've seen here on Maui in 2 months. Caught a few decent rides, but since I try to respect right-of-way rules, I had to let many of the waves go to other sailors.

Anyway, a lot of whining, I know. I should just be glad I got to sail today. And I it was good to get out. But, I try to call it here as I see it. And for me, Kihei sailing just isn't worth it most of the time. Now if I were smart, I should have gone out to La Perouse to check that out ...

By the way folks, if you're looking for more coverage of Maui's surf and windsurfing scene, check out Giampaolo's blog. Good stuff:

http://mauisurfreport.blogspot.com/

Sweet Sprecks Session

2006-07-26T08:58:00.000-10:00

Caught a real sweet session at Sprecks yesterday. Looking at the iWindsurf graph for Kanaha it looks pretty unsailable most of the afternoon. I know the wind is typically a bit stronger up at Sprecks than Kanaha, but I would have thought that Kanaha would have been sailable as good as it was at Sprecks. Sailed perfectly powered 5.3 for several hours in the smooth rolling swell at Sprecks. One of those rare sessions where you've got everything dialed, you're in the zone, things are all flowing perfectly. Ahhhh! Gotta love those days.

Looks like Daniel is rapidly deteriorating. Still unclear exactly what effect he'll have on us. Forecast track is for him to pass south of us some time Friday - Saturday. Could bring increased rain and wind.

2006-07-25T07:48:00.000-10:00

Maui winds continue their atypical pattern for July with mostly light winds on the north shore over the last several days. Trade winds have been weak enough to allow day time sea breezes to set up and prevail most days. Friday and Saturday we saw light, sailable conditions on the north shore. Thursday and Saturday however were a bit too light for most people's quivers. Yesterday looks like it was a Kihei day. Winds at Kanah never got above 15 and were very northerly, while Kihei saw winds hitting the upper 20s.

To further complicate things this week, we've got another member of the former-hurricane club, Daniel, heading directly towards us. Daniel was a category 1 hurricane as recently as yesterday but weakened significantly last night. Good thing too. Current forecast path is for Daniel to hit the south end of the Big Island Thursday evening and pass just south of Maui Friday morning. Projected wind speeds at that time are in the 40mph range. Until then, our current light trade wind pattern will prevail.

Bud Makes Maui Wind a Dud

2006-07-19T16:10:00.000-10:00

As predicted, former hurricane Bud is currently passing north of the Hawaiian islands and is effectively shutting down the trade winds. Winds yesterday and today have only been light onshore sea breezes during the day, hitting about 10 - 12 mph. Great stuff if you're into boards wider than docks and sails bigger than tents. Not what most people come to Maui for though.

Bud should be exiting to our west tomorrow, but on his heals is his sibling Carlotta, also a former hurricane, who, in addition to keeping the trades light may bring in more moisture. The upshot of all this is that, here in July, typically our windiest month, we're likely to see very light winds through early next week.

My experience here on Maui the last few years is that these former hurricanes often play havoc with our trade winds but it's usually in August when this happens. Guess Bud and Carlotta didn't get the memo. And if that weren't enough, there's currently hurricane Daniel in the eastern Pacific. We'll have to wait and see what his plans are.

This Bud's for Us

2006-07-17T08:35:00.000-10:00

Most people probably aren't aware that, here in the Pacific, we have a hurricane season that corresponds to the hurricane season in the Atlantic. The eastern Pacific's first hurricane this season was Bud. Bud, like it's anemic beer namesake, has fizzled to weak little surface low pressure system so there is no real threat of it doing any damage to Hawaii. But, it will most likely have an effect on our winds. It's currently stumbling along toward us, and probably won't even bring much rainfall, but it will be enough of a nuisance to slacken our trade winds a bit more than they already are.

The last few days we've had pretty light trades for this time of year - 5.5 - 6.0 for most guys. I sailed 5.7 yesterday for the first time in quite awhile. Probably could have made the 5.3 work at times. It was actually kind of nice to get some mellow sailing in after so much 4.0 - 4.5 sailing the last few weeks.

Crowds are at their peak levels right now at Kanaha - lots of local families, mainland families as well as lots of visiting windsurfers from Japan. It's interesting to see how the visitor demographics change throughout the year. I think August tends to bring a lot of folks from Italy. Germans tend to visit more during the wave season.

Anyway, looks like today might actually be lighter than the last couple of days. Then Bud will probably kill the wind a bit more for the rest of this week. Looks like more typical July trade winds return after the weekend.

Maui Winds Mellow

2006-07-15T10:48:00.000-10:00

Our strong and gusty trades that we've seen this week have mellowed a bit yesterday and today. Yesterday's wind was pretty onshore and light - 5.3ish for most guys. Things are shaping up similarly today. Kanaha is currently averaging around 18mph. Should be mellow day for the race series today for a change.

Once again, a big mahalo out to Derek who provided the photos shown below. Enjoy!

Cool Photo #3 from Derek

2006-07-15T10:45:00.000-10:00

If anyone recognizes this guy, post a comment so we can see if we can get a copy of this photo to him ( bigger version than what's posted here).

Cool Photo # 2 from Derek

2006-07-15T10:43:00.000-10:00

Cool Photos

2006-07-15T10:39:00.000-10:00

Thanks to Maui Windsurfing Blog reader Derek who snapped some cool photos from the air from a helicopter 6/28 over Sprecklesville and was kind enough to share. Cool shots, Derek, thanks. Two more to follow.

2006-07-11T11:20:00.000-10:00

The forecasters have once again blundered in their Maui wind forecast, at least for the northshore. While we've had strong high pressure, strong gradients and it has been windy as hell in Kihei, Maui's northshore has been under assualt by clouds that haven't brought a lot of rain, but have tended to dampen the wind substantially and make conditions very up and down throughout each day.

I was lucky yesterday to time my session during the late afternoon once a squall had passed and got a very fun hour blasting around on 5.3. There were even some freakish waves at Uppers to play in, although they were very small and not really breaking much, it still provided some fun terrain to play in. Fun time since it initially didn't look very promising.

Winter Winds Blow Through Kanaha

2006-07-08T08:10:00.000-10:00

Yesterday we saw a bit of a break in the day-after-day 4.0 winds we've been having and got a little reminder of what winter often brings. No, not waves - rain squalls and rainbows. Some moisture-laden clouds upstream brought up-and-down conditions ranging from 4.5 before and during the squalls to 5.3 conditions after the squalls. I opted to time my sailing for the clearing after the squalls and got some brief sailing in on 5.0 in the late afternoon.

Things are forecast to go ballistic this weekend. The forecasters are saying strong high pressure will pump up the winds into the full-blown nuclear range today through Monday with gusts into the 40s. At 8:00 the Kanaha sensor is already reporting 21 mph so it looks likely that this will pan out.

On to our Maui windsurfing video of the day. I spent the 4th of July on Tuesday sailing at Sprecks and took some video during a break. Winds were blowing in the 4.0 to 4.5 range during all this. Right after I finished taking the video I jumped on my 4.0/77L combo and blasted around fully powered. Nothing too epic in this video, mostly just a bunch of B&F (back and forth) sailing, but that's mostly what we get here this time of year.

Groundhog's Day

2006-07-06T18:16:00.000-10:00

Lather. Rinse. Repeat. Same old. Same old. Basically a broken record here. More strong winds. No waves. Video from Sprecks on July 4th coming one of these days. Ta ta.

Still Windy

2006-07-04T09:15:00.000-10:00

Not much different to report from Maui over the past few days. The wind is blowing in the 4.2 to 4.5 range for guys every day, sub-4.0 for the ladies. Skies are sunny and clear, temps are warm, waves are minimal. More of the same today and the upcoming week. This is why Maui is the place to be in July if you want guaranteed wind.

Summertime

2006-07-01T11:37:00.000-10:00

It's summer time in Maui and that usually means no waves. But we occasionally get some small stuff at Uppers, good for backside riding and aerials. Here's some footage of local sailor Jazz Glickenhaus shredding Uppers. (QuickTime, 6.0 MB) Sorry about the quality, it was pretty far away.

Winds really cranked in yesterday afternoon. By noon, lots of people were already getting blown off of the water, visitors rushing back to the shops to get smaller gear. By the time I arrived around 3:00pm it was raging. I grabbed the 3.7 that my wife had been on and headed out. Woa! Way powered. I dare say I was even maxed out on that.

We were supposed to get more of the same today, but so far winds are only blowing about 20. Maybe the racers will get lucky and not have to sail their 5.0s in 30mph winds.

Maui Windsurfing Video of the Day

2006-06-30T12:15:00.000-10:00

Our Maui Windsurfing spotlight today is on local Kanaha sailor Juan Pablo. You can find Juan at Kanaha practicing his assortment of freestyle tricks just about any day it's windy. Super nice guy, constantly working on new tricks. Check him out in the video. (QuickTime, 4.6 MB)

2006-06-30T08:17:00.000-10:00

The wind is definitely in summertime mode now. We've seen strong winds the last several days. On Wednesday it was mostly 4.5 sailing but there was a period when I went out on 4.0/77L and was well powered. Like Speedy said in one of his comments, the crowds are out in force at Kanaha. Tons of visitors, tons of locals and racers and and kid's camps. It's easy enough to get away from the crowds by heading up wind to Uppers, but you gotta sail through the crowd first. Still not nearly as crowded as the Hatchery or Event Site in the Gorge though.

Yesterday turned out to be a pretty sweet day. The wind was a bit up and down at times. I initially tried 5.0 but it was a little much. Went to 4.5, but the wind dropped down then so I decided to go back to 5.0. My plan yesterday was to sail upwind from Kanaha to Sprecks to meet up with my better half who was giving a lesson at t private launch just upwind of Sprecks. With the 5.0, I had no trouble at all motoring upwind. The only trouble was trying to refrain from not playing in the waves. Somehow yesterday and the day before we've actually been getting some occasional down-the-line sets, about shoulder high, at Uppers and Camp One. Mostly the waves have been wind swell with backside riding, but every few minutes a nice set comes through that you can get a few bottom turns on. Sweet!

Anyway, got up to Sprecks where the wind was a bit strong. The swell outside the reef at Sprecks was big, clean and sweet. Rolling into the reef there, you can get some really clean backside riding in and some great ramps for jumping. After playing around there for a bit, well overpowered by now (wind was easily 4.5 for me at that point) my arms and legs were begging for a break so we rode the swells down to Camp One, and took a break at the Sprecks Wind Cam beach.

After a brief rest it was back out to play in the waves.Got lots of back side riding and a couple of bottom turns in on the way downwind to Kanaha. Lots of fun, riding so much out of the harness on the waves and too big of a sail was taking its toll on my arms. Great fun though!

Lots of pro action happening at Kanaha too. Micah Buzianis testing Neil Pryde rigs. Robby Naish out testing some race gear. Makes me wonder if he's going to compete in the US Nationals here in August. Or, maybe he's just out testing. Who knows.

Looks like another beautiful day here again today. Forecast is for more of the same today and slightly lighter winds for the weekend.

Shot some more video the other day, so once I get some time to edit it, I'll get some more video posted ... soon.

Back on the water again

2006-06-27T19:10:00.000-10:00

After 4 weeks off the water, I finally got back on the water again today. Gotta say it felt pretty good too. I got the opportunity to sail out of a private launch just upwind of Sprecks. I had never sailed Sprecks before. I really appreciated the lack of crowds on the water. Much less crowded than Kanaha. Another noticeable difference is that it's much less choppy at Sprecks than at Kanaha inside the reef. Anybody who has sailed Kanaha when it's windier than 5.0 should know how choppy and chaotic the water can get inside the reef. Sprecks was much smoother. The downside of Sprecks is you get sand in everything and there's no showers. Personally, I still prefer Kanaha, but Sprecks will be a good option on crowded summer weekends.

Wind started out pretty mellow - I rigged 5.7 initially but quickly came in for 5.3. After 20 minutes, it was time for 5.0 and a lunch break. After the lunch break it was up to 4.5, but then backed off again later into the 5.0 range.

Looking forward to getting several days of sailing in a row. There was nothing epic today, but just being able to sail fully powered felt really good after so long without. Forecast looks promising for good trades through the weekend at least.

Kanaha Video

2006-06-23T16:15:00.000-10:00

Video action from Kanaha yesterday. Nothing epic, lots of racers out blasting around, some freestylers doing their thing and lots of just cruising back and forth. Sorry about the jittery camera. I've got a tripod on the way from Amazon.

Kanaha June 22, 2006 (QuickTime Video - 7 MB)

Maui Capitulates

2006-06-22T09:14:00.000-10:00

Facing mounting tension and threats from nuclear power upstarts North Korea and Iran (see comments in previous post), Maui yesterday backed off its nuclear program, settling its winds down just below the nuclear criteria. Though Maui's nuclear program likely hasn't been completely scrapped, in the interest of global peace and prosperity, Maui seems to have taken the high road and actually listened to concerns from the global community.

Winds today will likely be moderate and may even flirt occasionally with nuclear levels, but the trend seems to be for our trade winds to back down over the next several days, possibly even becoming verly light this weekend. Never fear however, the winds are forecast to return to normal levels next week. Perfect timing for me. I saw the doc again yesterday to look at my ruptured ear drum. Apparently it has healed quite a bit over the last week. I was told to stay off the water for one more week. So, the countdown has begun. Trade winds permitting, I'll be back on the water next week. Woooooo hooooooo!!!!

Maui Nuclear Power

2006-06-19T17:53:00.000-10:00

Winds on Maui have gone nuclear the last couple of days with average wind at Kanaha hitting the low 30s with gusts approaching 40 mph. Word of the nuclear conditions apparently reach Washington DC where the Bush administration released a strong condemnation of Maui's nuclear development program. Things could get tense between Washington and Maui as the Maui Nuclear Wind Commission has announced plans for more nuclear conditions tomorrow. Stay tuned to Maui Windsurfing Blog for the latest developments in this story.

Wind on AutoPilot

2006-06-17T08:19:00.000-10:00

The Maui trade winds have been on auto pilot this past week, with winds predictably in the 4.5 to 5.0 range for guys each afternoon. Monday and Tuesday there were waves on the north shore, but that has since declined. I stopped by Kanaha yesterday afternoon just to check it out. 4.5 conditions were prevailing with some smallish backside riding waves at Uppers. Great conditions for blasting around or trying tricks.

Lots of good swell on the south sides of the Hawaiian islands this past week, so Diamond Head on Oahu is probably going off, as well as the few places on Maui that get good wind and south swell, maybe La Perouse and the west side.

The second Maui Race Series race is today at Kanaha Beach Park, so it will be a hub of activity today. Looks like good conditions setting up for it - mostly clear and sunny skies, temps should be in the upper 80s, wind should be in the low to mid 20s. Great racing conditions.

June Wind and Waves

2006-06-12T20:30:00.000-10:00

No doubt about it, Maui spoils you. As a windsurfer living on Maui, you become accustomed to being able to sail a lot (except December through February when it can get pretty sketchy). But, get an injury that keeps you off the water for more than a week or so, and you start to go through withdrawals and remember what the rest of the windsurfers in the world go through. I'm on week number three of an injury-imposed windsurfing sabbatical and it's starting to take it's toll on my sanity.

I was managing ok, desperately grasping a slim tendril of sanity for the last few days as the trades kicked back in. But today, an anticipated late-season north swell arrived. WAVES!!!! Oh you cruel bitch! How am I supposed to stay sane with wind AND waves!!!! (I'm sure all you non-Maui windsurfers are crying rivers right now at my sob story.) I get the report from my better half that it was pretty nice 4.5 for her (that would be 5.0 for me) in the early session (11:00) at Uppers today, with some nice waves and hardly anyone out. The wind apparently picked up later by a half a meter or so. Wow, 4.5 and waves - in June! These are conditions that make the HotShots section in Windsurfing Magazine. Hookipa must have been fantastic.

I thought about going down just to get some photos, but I just couldn't subject myself to the torture. I settled on a trip to Costco instead (about a mile inland from Kanaha) where it was blowing 5.3 in the parking lot. I was so desperate I rigged a cardboard box on my shopping cart and cruised around the parking lot, terrorizing tourists, in my make-shift land windsurfer. Caught some sick air off of a VW Beetle, though the landing was a bit harsh on the ankles. Jibing was a bit tricky. Gotta figure out how to rig a mast and boom on that box. Trade winds are supposed to increase the next day or two. Might get strong enough to rig down from my Maui Pineapple box to a Kraft Cheesy Mac box. Sweeeeet!

2006-06-10T08:54:00.000-10:00

Saturday morning in Paradise. The sun is shining. The birds are chirping. The scent of burning sugar cane lingers in the morning air. Aaaahhhh! While we had some light wind days this week, Maui was able to pull off some sailable conditions if you timed it right on the north shore or if you went to Kihei. I got word from Jazz that Tuesday was sailable 4.7 for him at Hookipa and there was awhile on Wednesday when I could have sailed 5.0 at Kanaha. Unfortunately, I got confirmation from the doctor on Wednesday that my ear drum is indeed ruptured. Even though he himself is a windsurfer, he told me to stay off the water for 3 to 6 weeks! Ouch. That's gonna be tough. The fact that there are no waves right now will help ease the pain a little, but this is going to be a long drought.

Nevertheless, I stopped by Kanaha briefly yesterday to get a first hand look at what it was doing. Conditions in the early afternoon looked perfect for mellow freeriding, racing around, or freestyle. The Pacific ocean looked like a giant lake, not a hint of a wave anywhere - just mellow 5.5ish looking conditions. I drove by Hookipa yesterday. It too was absolutely flat. Nothing. Zilch. Nada.

So, wind is back. No waves at the moment, though I did hear on the news last night that the north shore might get a small bump in the next few days some time. So, summer conditions have set in here on Maui. Some time in the next few days people will be able to go on rigging auto-pilot - 4.5 for guys every afternoon 4.0 for the wahine. If you're looking to get some serious TOW and almost guaranteed wind every day - now is the time to come to Maui.

Catching Up .... Again

2006-06-04T11:25:00.000-10:00

You'd think with it being summer and all that this blog would be full of reports. Sorry. I've been a little remiss about reporting lately since last weekend I seem to have ruptured an ear drum from a back loop gone bad. So, I'm in recover mode, trying to keep my ear dry and my head just isn't in the game - pardon the pun. Not that the winds have been that epic anyway. Thursday and Friday we saw light winds. The winds returned yesterday for the first race of the annual Maui Race Series. Winds were still somewhat light yesterday, 5.0 t0 5.7ish for guys on wave gear. There was a complete absence of surf yesterday. Must have been perfect racing conditions for the slalom event.

Winds so far today are pretty light. It's a beautiful sunny warm day here on Maui though. Great beach weather unless you're looking to get some powered sailing in. But, who knows, maybe the wind will kick in a bit later. Forecast for the next few days though is for the wind to continue to decline and bottom out on Tuesday. Looks like very light wind through Thursday. This is very unusual for this time of year. Normally we should be getting 4.5 winds on a daily basis. But, this has been anything but a normal year so far.

Catching Up

2006-05-31T18:58:00.000-10:00

Sorry about the lack of reports, been busy the last few days. But that doesn't mean we haven't had wind. To the contrary, we've had some pretty nice wind here the last several days in a row. The holiday weekend turned out to be great sailing, with winds in the 4.5 to 5.0 range for guys and 4.0s for the gals with clear, sunny skies and warm temps. We had a little bit of wind driven backside riding swell up at Camp One on Sunday, but that decreased on Monday and even more yesterday. The best rides have been the rolling swell outside the break at Camp One and between Camp One and Sprecks. Clean, blue, rolling smoothies to shred - almost like the Gorge, maybe not as big and as long though.

We seem to be in the definitive summer pattern now - strong winds and no waves. All the slalom racers are out in droves practicing for this Saturday's first Maui Race Series event. The winds backed off a bit today and tomorrow may be similar, but the forecast for Saturday is for strong winds to return.

2006-05-27T18:55:00.000-10:00

Seems like winds this May on Maui have been more like March. We've had several days in a row of pretty light winds. The forecast today was looking pretty sketchy too, but upon checking all the beach weather data this morning it was apparent that the trades had filled back in. Turned out to be a pretty nice day of sailing. Lots of action happening at Kanaha with Team Tabou/Gaastra demoing the 2006 Gaastra Manic wave sales and Tabou Da Curve boards. Gotta say, both are pretty sweet. The Manics are incredibly light and smooth and the Da Curve is a fun lively, loose wave machine.

The park cleared out early today as everyone wanted to get over to Kanaha Kai Maui's first birthday party just up the road. Scores of people showed up for ono grinds, raffle and give aways and outdoor video screening projected onto the side of a big white van.

Now that the trades seem to have re-established themselves, it looks like we should get some nice wind for a few days.

2006-05-25T10:15:00.000-10:00

More light breezes the last couple of days so there's not a lot of powered up sailing going on here on Maui unless you have pretty big gear. The racers out practicing for the upcoming slalom season might have been able to make it work. Or, if you're a kid like Bernd or one of the other local rippers practicing for the race season, you might be able to get by with a 4.7. Here's some more video of Bernd practicing for the race season. (10+ MB Real Media video).

Fresh Hookipa Video

2006-05-23T18:40:00.000-10:00

Got some fresh video from Norm today of Bernd sailing Hookipa. It might look like a small day at Hookipa but for Bernd, it's head-high plus. This is a big video file, 10.1 MB, so if you're on dial-up, take a nap while it's downloading.

Winds today continued their downward trend. Got a call from Jazz who sailed 5.3 Hookipa and said it was epic, with logo high sets and nobody out. Report from Kanaha was light 5.0 sailing for my wahine who reported in. She said she had to work it at that. So, 6.0 + would have been required by the guys.

2006-05-22T19:10:00.000-10:00

This shot wasn't from today. Local sailor Jazz got UK photo guy Dave Blythe to shoot him at Hookipa and Jazz came through with his signature tweaked table top.

Winds today were a bit too light to launch this kind of air. Guys at Kanaha were on 5.8s in the late afternoon with some mellow sailing. Winds didn't really pick up to later in the afternoon.

Winds are trending down currently and will probably become very light and southeasterly starting Wednesday for the rest of this week. Then they're supposed to amp back up to normal trade conditions some time this weekend.

2006-05-21T07:59:00.000-10:00

After a few light days, the trade winds returned to Maui on Friday, bringing us a spectacular day of wind, waves and sunshine. A late season north swell brought us head- to logo-high waves at Uppers and the trades wind antied up some nice 5.0 wind. Warm temps and sunny skies rounded out an epic day of sailing at Kanaha. Hookipa was also firing with logo- to mast-high sets. Days like these are what help define Maui as the mecca of windsurfing.

Yesterday, the waves dropped in size a little bit and the wind compensated by kicking in a little more. After some squally conditions in the early afternoon, skies cleared out and we once again had beautiful conditions. Winds were in the 4.5 range for most guys, 4.0 for the ladies. Waves mostly around head high or so. Uppers was packed with windsurfers vying for their piece of rideable water.

2006-05-17T16:56:00.000-10:00

It's late Wednesday afternoon here on Maui and we're currently under seige by a weak cold front/shear line that has brought cloudy skies and light rain throughout most of the day. Winds have been light and out of the north so far this week - too light to sail anywhere on the north shore. Monday might have been sailable in Kihei, not sure. But I think it has even been too light there the last two days.

Things are supposed to turn around tomorrow as trade winds are supposed to return and then on the weekend they're supposed to get pretty strong.

Kids Who Rip

2006-05-14T09:01:00.000-10:00

Maui's own Bernd Roediger is a featured ripper on the Kids Who Rip website. Pretty cool to see a kid that we see at the beach every day featured. Kids like Kai Lenny, featured in the latest Windsurfing Magazine and Conner Baxter have gotten a lot of press lately, but for my money, kids like Bernd and Kalani Hunt are the fun ones to watch. Also watch out for Dave Ezzy's daughter. She can't be older than 6 or 7 but she rips. All these rippers will no doubt bring a bit more attention to windsurfing over the next several years. Anyway, congratulations Bernd!

Yesterday's wind on the north shore never really got going. I hear Kanaha slalom racer Captain Greg was the only one really planing - on his 10.5 sail and formul board. Kihea was windier again due to the northerly component in the wind. Waves were miniscule everywhere, even at Hookipa where they were reportedly about knee high. Might get a north swell in the next day or two from an area of low pressure to our north, but it may coincide with a few days of light wind early in the week.

There was a great turn out last night at Kanaha park for a memorial to our departed friend Bob Peck. Seventy or more people gathered on the beach to remember Bob. A friend of Bob's brought his bagpipes and played a mournful eulogy, bringing tears from the clouds blowing on shore. If you come to Kanaha in the future and see sailors patting a post by the bench at the launch at Uppers before they head out, and wonder what's up with that, this is our way of remembering Bob as we head out to sail.

It's Sunday morning here on Maui and we've got some rain showers along the north shore, making for a soggy morning, but also giving all the mothers out there some nice rainbows for a Mother's Day present. Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there.

2006-05-13T09:29:00.000-10:00

Light to moderate trades have continued along Maui's north shore the last few days. With quite a bit of north component in the wind, Kihei has seen the stronger winds. Thursday was a bit of a sober day at Kanaha for many of us who new Bob and were still in a bit of shock at his passing. Nevertheless, the wind called, perhaps suffused with Bob's spirit. Many sailed out to Uppers with flower leis around their necks to place and scatter the flowers in the waters of Uppers that Bob loved so much.

Wind on Thursday was mostly around 20 or so at Kanaha with little action in the wave department, at least at Kanaha. I've heard that Hookipa has continued to get some nice rideable swell the last couple of days. Yesterday, the winds swung around to a bit more northerly direction and lightened up a little more still. Lots of the local racers are starting to come out of the woodwork to start practicing for the upcoming Maui Race Series that start on June 3, as well as the U.S. Nationals in August. Lots of blazing reaches and laydown jibes.

Also seeing some interesting and unconventional slalom board designs on the beach. Jacque of Jacque's restuarant in Paia is sporting a new twin-nose (or maybe a split nose would be a better description) board shaped by Richard Green (board shaper for Neil Pryde). Lots of gear shuffling going on as long-time Maui racers change sail and board brands, testing their new gear. Seems like several people switching over to either Gaastra or Maui Sails.

Not quite sure what the next few days hold in store. I suspect winds will be light the next couple of days, but may still be sailable this weekend before dropping even more early in the week. Then it looks like the trades will build back in later in the week.

Kanaha Mourns

2006-05-10T19:15:00.000-10:00

Local Kanaha sailors today mourn the loss of a great windsurfing soul. Bob Peck, a 77 year-old inspiration to us all sadly passed away today while sailing at Kanaha. The details aren't certain, his rig and gear were found in the water, then he was found unconcious. There was a fantastic effort from local sailors who tried to revive Bob in the water while others raced in to get the lifeguards. By all accounts, local sailors and lifeguards performed heroically in getting Bob back to the beach, but sadly it was too late. The theory from a visiting ER doc is that Bob suffered a heart attack. No external injuries were apparent.

So, despite a very nice day of 5.0 sailing, we feel a sobering loss of a man that inspired us with his energy and friendliness. Bob was an active windsurfer, surfer, paddle boarder and swimmer. I'm sure we all hope to be as athletic and active as Bob. We console ourselves in the thought that he passed on doing what he truly loved - living life fully, and extend our condolences to friends and family. His presence at the beach at Kanaha will be sorely missed. Happy sailing and good winds be with you Bob.

2006-05-08T18:34:00.000-10:00

Back into a nice trade wind pattern folks. After a soggy, soaking, saturated Saturday, the rain and clouds cleared out yesterday for some good mid-afternoon 5.3 sailing. Wind kinda pooped out later in the afternoon, but good stuff earlier. Winds notched up more today. The weather started out sunny and beautiful. By midday, clouds had moved in, but not rain, and the wind was blowing a fairly steady 4.5.

Got a minor bump today in the swell department. Might have had too much west in it to really hit Kanaha. Only saw an occasional head high set at Uppers, most was waist to shoulder high and Lowers was maybe knee to waist high. All weather sources are pointing to a trade wind pattern for at least the next week.

2006-05-06T08:54:00.000-10:00

Trade winds returned, kind of, on Thursday. It seems that often when we transition from a northerly, sea breeze period into a more trade wind type period the transition days are kind of funky. That was Thursday. It looked like it was going to be light the whole day until about 2:30 when the wind decided to wake up and get going. Dubious that it would last, I nevertheless headed down. Got about 20 minutes of fairly powerd 5.0 sailing in before the wind started dropping. Wind was coming from several locations and a bit holey and the water was pretty messed up - churny and choppy. Not many people out, not very great conditions, but it was sunny, the water color was spectacular and it just felt good to be planing.

Yesterday was a soggy Cinco de Mayo. The trade wind pattern has re-established itself, but unfortunately we have lots of clouds and moisture up stream. So, yesterday's north shore was an onslaught of one squall after another. Local sailor Jazz opted to try Hookipa. His report was that it absolutely "sucked." Kanaha was pretty full of eager sailors anxious to get on the water. Sadly, most of us were on the beach, gear ready and waiting to go, waiting out one squall after another. Got suckered out a few times on 5.0 between squalls, but inevitably the wind would die after about 15 minutes. I dare say some people spent more time swimming yesterday than planing. I know I did. Too bad, cuz there were some pretty sweet waist-high waves at Lowers - clean, smooth, really nice.

Another local sailor, Speedy, yesterday reported spotting a baby whale out swimming around between the inner and outer break at Uppers. This raises lots of questions of course, like "where's your momma?" "Are you injured and is there buffet line of tiger sharks lurking around you?" Pretty late in the year for humpback whales to be hanging around here we only rarely see them off of the north shore.

Today looks like it may shape up to be similar to yesterday. Lots of clouds visible out the window. Lots of rain visible on the radar shot. Things are supposed to improve over the next few days though.

Robby Naish. Windsurfing Instructor?

2006-05-03T20:14:00.000-10:00

It's been a light week of windsurfing so far this week, with weak northerlies barely blowing 10 mph. Today, we saw slightly stronger winds as trades start to rebuild. The winds were good enough today to bring windsurfing legend Robby Naish down to Kanaha, but not to sail, but rather teach a beginner how to windsurf. According to one of my local Maui Windsurfing correspondents, who also happens to be a windsurfing instructor, Robby has been the subject of a CNN international piece on windsurfing. Today, he could be found teaching the CNN journalist how to windsurf.

Kanaha was pretty deserted (any windsurfer jonesing to sail would have been better off in Kihei today) as our correspondent/instructor stood on the shore coaching her student alongside Robby Naish coaching his student. How cool is that? The most famous windsurfing icon in the sport teaching a beginner how to windsurf and doing so without throngs of paparazzi and reporters around. Just hanging out, coaching his student and casually chatting with another windsurfing instructor teaching another beginner. Another reason windsurfing is the coolest sport or outdoor activity around.

Looks like the trades should be rebuilding over the next couple of days. My guess is that tomorrow may see some more sailable conditions and things will get even more windy Friday and Saturday and look to hold through at least the early part of next week. The only fly in the ointment is that we'll probably see some occasional showers along the north shore starting tomorrow which can make conditions a bit gusty at times.

Funky Saturday

2006-04-30T12:42:00.000-10:00

Saturday we saw some funky light winds on Maui's north shore, according to our intrepid Maui Windsurfing reporter. Guys were on 6.0ish sails, women on 5.0s. Nevertheless, the weekend crowds were out in force to get whatever they could. The advertised north swell did materialize, bringing some shoulder-high sets at Uppers. The high surf, along with a high tide brought some surgy, funky chop inside of the reef however, making it difficult for beginners.

If you look at the iWindsurf graphs for yesterday, it looks pretty consistent and nice, but the truth isn't always accurately reflected by statistics and data.

Today we're in a super-light pattern with northerlies sea breezes. Trade winds are essentially nil and are forecast to be that way for the next couple of days. Current predictions are for trades to return on Wednesday.

Cruiser Day 2

2006-04-29T11:05:00.000-10:00

After a period of light wind early in the day, Friday afternoon turned out to be another mellow cruising day, a bit like Thursday, perhaps a bit lighter wind and definitely cloudier. Not quite as pleasant conditions, but the 5.3/90L was pretty fun from about 3:00 to 4:00 which looks like it was probably the best sailing of the day. After about 4:00 the wind dropped substantially.

In the waves department there's really been nothing on the north shore the past few days. I drove past Hookipa on Friday and it was absolutely flat. Same for Uppers at Kanaha. Might explain why the pros are at Kanaha practicing slalom and Supercross. Team Maui Sails was out yesterday blasting around buoys, racing former The Team member Matt Pritchard and another Gaastra/Tabou guy practing for the upcoming supercross season. Watching guys race around buoys is pretty common site at Kanaha, especially this time of year as the racers start to come out of the woodwork and practice for the upcoming Maui Race Series. But, watching the guys duck jibe around the bouys and throw in the required spocks of supercross makes it a bit more interesting to watch. Too bad I left my camera at home yesterday.

Mellow Cruiser Day

2006-04-27T21:07:00.000-10:00

After Tuesday's cloudy and somewhat gusty winds and yesterday's really light wind (one local characterized yesterday as "really sucky"), we saw a return to beautiful weather and moderate wind today. This despite a forecast of really light ESE winds today. Most of us were surprised to find the Kanaha sensor reporting readings of 20 by midday. By the time I got down to the beach at 1:30 it looked like marginal 5.3 so I went with 5.7. Turns out 5.3 would have been perfect. So, after a half hour or so of blasting up to Camp One and back on the 5.7, I downsized to the 5.3. The conditions were super-mellow - no waves to speak of, the wind was pretty steady and consistent until late in the afternoon, the often choppy inner reef zone was pretty smooth, the skies were sunny, the water was clear and beautiful - all in all, just a great day for either cruising around and/or practicing some new moves or tricks.

Wicked Wind

2006-04-24T18:51:00.000-10:00

No doubt about it. It was windier today than yesterday on the north shore. In thinking about how to describe today's wind, I can't help but compare it to some wicked, evil arch villain in some dark comic strip. You know, one of those absolutely wacked-out sadistic characters that just loves to torment the happy citizens of windsurfville.

Today, our arch nemesis laid low in the morning, making all the innocent Maui windsurfers in windsurfville think it would just be a mellow day in paradise and at that at most, we might get some light cruising winds in the sunshine. Alas, Dr. Evilwind had other plans. At 10:00am he sprung, with winds that were once a very light 4 mph to a sudden spike of gusts over 30. Not to be intimidated, our intrepid Maui windsurfers ventured out on the water on their small gear, 4.0s and 4.5s. "Waaaahhaaaa haaaaa," cackled Dr. Evilwind, and promptly shut down the wind a little before 1:00pm, forcing many a Maui windsurfer to have to swim their tiny gear in.

In a sure sign of his psychotic behavior Dr. EvilWind then proceeded to crank up the wind dial on his wind machine into the 30 gusting to 40 range with an extra evil twist to make it especially gusty and shifty and loosing his nefarious bloodthirsty hellhound mascot - Chop From Hell.

It says a lot about our citizens of windsurfville that despite Dr. Evilwind's best efforts, the windsurfers toughed it out and continued to sail. Some, including world champ Kevin Pritchard and fellow Maui Sails super sailor Phil McGain, along with a few Neil Pryde test guys, mocked the wind by blasting around a couple of slalom buoys on 6m+ race sails. I'm quite sure that this only enraged the evil wind doctor even more as he cranked up his wind dial even higher, into the perilous zone, ushering in average wind speeds around 35mph. But never fear citizens of windsurfville. We will overcome. We know that Dr. Evilwind is, pardon the pun, a blowhard. He won't last. He may have a few more tricks up his sleeve tomorrow, but rest assured, he will have blown his sorry self out within another day or so. And once again our pleasant, sunny, Maui windsurfing paradise will return.

Winds Lighten Up

2006-04-23T16:31:00.002-10:00

Trade winds on the Maui's north shore have lightened up significantly over the past 3 days. Friday, Saturday and today brought light, barely sailable conditions on the north shore. Sails bigger the 6m and boards bigger than 100 liters were probably required by most guys to have any hope of planing.

Looks like Kihei was the place to be today, according to the iwindsurf charts. Readings look like they yo-yo'd between the low- to mid-20s to near 30, which in Kihei terms for me, means anywhere from 5.0 to 5.7 most likely. I just couldn't get too excited about driving over to Kihei for the typically gusty winds there. With gas prices here on Maui at $3.52/gallon this week, you start having to question whether the sailing will be worth the price of the trip. With the mileage I get, that's a $12 - $14 admission ticket to sail Kihei.

So far in April we've been pretty lucky with only a couple of non-sailable days. Looks like that may be changing this week. Winds tomorrow and Tuesday are supposed to be about like today then get even lighter for the rest of this week into the weekend.

April Swell, Day 1

2006-04-20T19:07:00.000-10:00

The eagerly anticipated north swell arrived on Maui today, and oh how sweet it was! Sure there's been some smallish waves over the past couple of weeks, occasionally, but today brought genuine, heart pumping, adrenaline surging north swell to Maui. Eager to get on it, I was on the water at 11:01 am. Conditions that early were kind of light so I had to go out on my 5.3 and 90L. Hardly anyone out at Uppers except a handful of other windsurfers and 3 pesky kiters. The morning session featured super clean, glassy head- to logo-high waves at Uppers. Wind was kind of light at times even on the 5.3, but that made the waves super clean.

After about an hour or so the wind seemed to fill in a little more and the waves grew. By 12:30 the sets were regularly logo-high with a few mast-high + sets. These were absolutely beautiful clean blue gems, but the 90L board was a bit big to really maximize the fun on these. By 2:00 the wind had built to 4.7 - 5.0 range and I could have easily been on my 5.0 and smaller board, but by then I was toast and decided to call it a day. From what I hear, the wind got a bit gusty and the water got a bit choppier so I think the morning session was the score of the day. I also heard that Hookipa was pretty much junk, at least in the morning, with huge junky waves and onshore wind. Uppers was definitely the place to be today. Days like these are what windsurfing fantasies are made of! Hopefully we'll still have a little bit of the swell left over for tomorrow.

2006-04-19T19:47:00.000-10:00

Another fun, windy day here in paradise. The last couple of days have been characterized by moderate to strong trades with some occasional light squalls that squelch the wind for a bit. 4.5 - 5.0 has been the call for most guys. 5.0 was a tad much for me today, 4.5 or 4.7 would have been perfect in the mid-afternoon that I sailed. There were a few surprising small waves coming in occasionally at Uppers, perhaps forerunners of the north swell we're supposed to get tonight and tomorrow.

That swell was pretty much the talk of Kanaha today as everyone speculated when exactly it would hit. To be sure, lots of Maui windsurfers are carbing up and getting to bed early tonight in eager anticipation for the rare late-season north swell. Can't wait!

2006-04-18T12:45:00.000-10:00

Yesterday's sailing at Kanaha was almost like a summer day - fairly strong winds, 4.5 and 5.0 for me, bright sunny skies, not much waves except wind swell. Only difference was temps still feel a bit cold, both air and temp. Talking with several of the locals and they concurred. Other than that, a pretty fun day of sailing. From what I heard about the crowded, cloudy, gusty, cold weekend, yesterday was a vast improvement over the previous two days.

Winds are currently blowing in the low 20s, so it looks like today may be another good day.

Good Times Friday

2006-04-16T09:13:00.000-10:00

Good Friday = good sailing this year. Mostly sunny skies and strong winds again along with some pretty nice waves at Uppers combined for a fun Friday. Early part of the day was 4.5 - 5.0 conditions and as is often the case, wind built later in the day to 4.2 - 4.5 conditions for guys.

I decided my body needed a day to recuperate yesterday so I didn't sail, but Maui Windsurf blog correspondent, Speedy, reported that "it was REALLY wind..... and cold!" Winds were apparently clocking in around 30ish for averages yesterday afternoon. Windchill factor and a few clouds probably contributed to the cool feeling. Indeed the last few days I've sailed have seemed a bit cool. I'm guessing a lot of that is windchill factor, but even the water still feels kind of cool - at least to those of us who live here year round. I'm sure to visitors from colder areas feel like it's plenty toasty.

Today looks like more wind so far. As I write this, the iWindsurf Kanaha sensor is reporting 24 and radar shows a rain squall marching down the north shore, but mostly sunny skies elsewhere and temperature at the airport already at 73 degrees. Probably similar day as we had yesterday. Long range forecast for the next week or so is promising for trade winds to continue. And, and extra bonus, we're tracking a late season north swell which may arrive Wednesday/Thursday time frame.

2006-04-13T16:46:00.000-10:00

Thursday's sailing was a windy one. Averages in the afternoon were in the 30s, with gusts hitting 40. Not many people on the water as you can see in the photo. Surprisingly some of the waves were pretty nice - surprising because inside the reef was ginormous hell chop. Got a couple of good shoulder- to head-high waves at Uppers, before my forehead had an altercation with my mast. Doh! Nevertheless, good to get out and sail in the sunshine.

This Afternoon's Tune

2006-04-11T17:58:00.000-10:00

Got down to Kanaha this afternoon and got a half hour in on my 4.5/85L before ....

Here comes the rain again
Falling on my head like a memory
Falling on my head like a new emotion
I want to sail in the open wind
I want to loop like pros do
I want to jibe out on the ocean
Is it raining with you?

Ok folks, name the tune, the artist and the album, that the above lyrics are adapted from. For extra credit, name the color of the lead singer's hair.

Cloudy Monday

2006-04-11T07:37:00.000-10:00

They call it cloudy Monday. Thank god Tuesday's not quite as bad (yet). I guess we can't complain too much, after all it isn't dumping rain on us anymore. But Maui was covered in a layer of clouds yesterday. I sailed very briefly, 5.3/90L, though in my opinion it wasn't worth the price of gas to drive down. Cool, gray, gusty conditions. Amazing to see the Kanaha parking lot so jammed full of cars for such a mediocre day of sailing. Lots and lots of windsurfers visiting Maui on vacation right now.

Sky conditions are looking a little better than yesterday so far. Winds are supposed to be strong today. Not much if anything happening in the swell today except wind swell.

Weekend Report

2006-04-09T19:42:00.000-10:00

Perhaps I got a little too optimistic about the forecast for this weekend. That might explain my disappointment with the sailing. I was eager to get to the beach early yesterday for the predicted swell, predicted sunny skies and strong trades. I got to Kanaha shortly after 11am to see sunny skies and mellow wind. I probably could have done 5.7/90L at that point, but there were no waves yet and I was confident the wind would build. Why rig my 5.7 when it will be 4.7 within an hour, I thought. Mistake. By 12:30 the first of several squalls began their assault on the north shore. In essence, this shut down the wind except for brief periods of 5 - 6.0 ish wind that would last for 20 minutes until the next squall ambled onshore. By 2:00, word was getting out that Kihei was windy and sunny and the full parking lot began to thin out as the hordes began their trek across the island. I held out hope that the skies would clear, the wind would build and the waves would appear. Visions of head-high waves all to myself on my 5.0 played through my head. Alas, it just wasn't going to happen. Turns out, if you wanted to sail sunny and windy conditions, you had to be in Kihei yesterday. I hear it was pretty strong and gusty, 4.2 - 4.5 for guys.

Today on the north shore started off where yesterday ended, light winds, clouds and rain showers on the radar map. By noon, it looked like this was going to be the pattern all day. So, tired of being a slave to the fickle wind, I decided to not even bother with it today. I think that may have been a mistake. I'll have to rely on comments from Norm or Speedy to hear how it was, but the graphs showed some pretty steady 4.5ish wind at Kanaha in the afternoon.

Ahhhhhh!!!

2006-04-07T17:31:00.000-10:00

It feels sooooo good to have our trade winds back, combined with warm sunshine. Kanaha today was like classic summer sailing, strong winds, warm temps, small waves. My 4.5/85L was about as perfect as you can get today. Uppers had some sloppy, unorganized wind swell, great for launching into orbit, not that great for down the line riding except for a couple of occasional sets where you could get a bottom turn, ride backside while the wave formed a bit better then go down the line and smack the lip again. Not epic waves, but really, really fun. Today was also photo-shoot day for team Fanatic. Had to have been at least a dozen Fanatic team riders out playing around for the helicopter at Uppers. Forecast is still predicting lots of wind and sunshine for the next several days.

2006-04-07T08:18:00.000-10:00

Aside from a couple of squalls that put a damper on things for a bit, yesterday turned out to be a pretty nice day of sailing. We had to put up with a nasty squall between about 11:30 and 12:30. Once that cleared away, it was 5.3 conditions. Too bad I went out on 5.0. Still had fun, but just wanted that extra bit of power a 5.3 would have given me. Lowers still had some occasional waist-high sets, pretty clean and not that crowded. Uppers was a bit sloppier. Conditions stayed in the 5.3 range for me throughout the day, aside from another couple of brief wind-killing squalls. More wind on tap today, tomorrow and the next several days.

Light Wednesday

2006-04-05T20:43:00.000-10:00

Today turned out to be pretty light tradewinds. Kind of frustrating since we had a nice late-season swell today with mast-high conditions at Uppers and Hookipa. Hookipa was very crowded as every pro and pro-wannabe was out to score some wave rides. Kanaha by contrast was pretty uncrowded today as most of the rental shops didn't have big enough gear to rent out. I tried my 5.7/90L combo and was able to plane a few times, but had to bear off and pump like a mother to plane. The racer guys were out blasting around on big gear however. Team Neil Pryde seems to be in town testing and photo shooting. Winds should pick up a notch or two tomorrow. Hopefully we'll still have a bit of swell around too.

Trades Continue

2006-04-05T07:18:00.000-10:00

Looks like we're finally on track with trade winds - several days in a row of solid trades now and looks like several more on tap. Monday turned out to be a nuclear days with guys on 4.0 - 4.2 and the wahine on smaller stuff. I found myself with power to spare on the 4.0/78L. Feels so good to be back on the water with blue skies and sunshine.

Didn't make it down to sail yesterday, but my reporter tells me that it was a bit gustier than Monday. The weather was a tad cloudier yesterday as the remains of an old shear line passed over us. No doubt that affected things a bit.

Today is dawning clear and sunny. Lighter winds are forecast but I think it should be sailable. There's also a northwest swell forecast so we may see some wave action today and tomorrow. Long term forecast is promising trades and favorable weather for the next week or so.

Trade Winds Return!

2006-04-02T19:36:00.000-10:00

After what seemed like endless days of rain and no trade winds, Maui's beloved NE trade winds returned this weekend. I didn't make it down to the north shore yesterday so I'm not sure if it was sailable, might have been at times. But today was definitely a return to trades. I didn't think it was going to happen when I read the forecast this morning, but figured I should keep an eye on it just in case. That paid off. By midday, the wind had hit the upper teens then the low 20s. I got to Kanaha in time to see the wind back off from the mid 20s to barely sailable 5.7. Rigged it anyway and went out. Slogged a bit for the first few minutes then the wind kicked in to nicely powered 5.7 and I motored up to Uppers where a bunch of people were vying for the small wind swell - mostly backside riding. After a bit the wind kicked in even more and soon I was pretty OPd on the 5.7. Toughed it out for another hour until the wind started backing off. There was a mass exodus from the water at that point. I decided to tune my sail a bit and head out again. Very glad I did. Well powered 5,7 again with hardly anyone out. The wind built again to the 5.0 range, but by 5:00ish I was spent and a very big nasty squall could be seen marching downwind. Got derigged and out of there before the thunderstorm with its 35 - 45 mph winds hit. Over all a great day back on the water. Really sweet sailing outside Uppers and looking up at Haleakala, where the sun was spotlighting all the green that our recent rains have brought. Spectacular view!

Hope on the Horizon

2006-03-30T18:10:00.000-10:00

Maui weather today saw a slight improvement over the last few days. Still no wind, but we actually had a few thin spots in the clouds - enough to actually cast shadows! The weather guys are starting to talk about trades returning, possibly as soon as Sunday, but more likely not until Monday. This has got to go down as one of the worst Marchs for windsurfing in Maui history. Speaking of historical windsurfing stats, I got a cool link from Kanaha regular Steve R. yesterday that shows historical wind data. Check it out, there are indeed better days ahead:

Windfinder.com

Maui Kokua Classic

2006-03-29T08:26:00.000-10:00

This week and weekend, Maui was supposed to have hosted the PWA's first wave event of the season at Ho'okipa Beach Park. While I don't know the details, that event has been postponed to later in the year (probably the fall) due to some "sponsorship issues," whatever that means. Turns out that was probabably a good thing as our wind is just not cooperating. However, the upcoming Maui Kokua Classic, an event for the kids, was scheduled to coincide with the PWA event. The Kokua classic is still a "go." Here's the details:

The event will consist of a beach clean up on Saturday, April 1st with a competition for April 2. It is a no entry fee event.

04/01/06: Day 1 of the Maui Kokua Classic:

07.30am: Meet at Ho’okipa Beach Park, event site, for a welcome to all involved and a blessing by a Kahuna for a successful weekend.
0.800am: Beach Clean up begins at Hookipa Beach Park
10.00am: Beach Clean up shifts to Paia Bay in conjunction with the Youth Center
12.00pm: Lunch at Ho’okipa Beach Park and
1.00pm: Skippers meeting for Bull’s Eye Expression Sessions
1.30pm: Pro Men’s Bull’s Eye Expression Session
2.45pm: Women’s Bull’s Eye Expression Session
4.00pm: Legend’s Bull’s Eye Expression Session
8.00pm: Red Bull Party at Jacques Bistro, Paia

04/02/06: Day 2 of the Maui Kokua Classic – Keikis (kids)
10.00am: Meeting for Keiki Contenders at Ho’okipa Beach Park and start of competition workshop by top Windsurfing Champions
12.00pm: Lunch
1.00pm: Skippers Meeting for Keikis
1.30pm: Start of competition
5.30pm: Hawaiian Style BBQ at Paia Youth Center, Paia and Prize-giving for Keikis - Traditional Hawaiian Music and Dance – Community event

There is some possibility that the wind may cooperate. Some of the weather models are predicting a return of a trade wind-like pattern some time this weekend. Others are pushing it out into next week.

March Madness

2006-03-27T19:34:00.000-10:00

To most people in the U.S., March Madness means NCAA basketball. To Maui windsurfers this year, it means the mental condition we're in due to the incredibly wet weather. Yep, more rain folks. While the other Hawaiian islands have been getting more rain the Maui over the last month, Maui saw its fair share today, with some huge downpours and even a tornado warning.

I suppose it was technically sailable at Kihei today. If you subscribe to iWindsurf, check out the graph for today. If you don't, well, let's just say that the wind in Kihei was a bit up and down. Starting in the morning with average wind in the low 30s gusting into the 40s, that dropping back into the 20s, then to absolutely 0 mph, followed by another gusty period with winds averaging in the upper 30s, gusting to the mid-40s, followed by a drop into the 20s and then lower. I'm interested to here from Norm if he and Bernd sailed there today. I can't imagine anybody could have picked the right sail at any given time.

Anyway, believe it or not, the forecasters are finally saying that this weekend may see an end to this rainy madness we've suffered through for the last several weeks. And our very own Speedy has unconditionally guaranteed that the wind will return even earlier, perhhaps Wednesday or Thursday. Personally, I'm a bit dubious about Speedy's prediction, but I'd love to see that come true. My personal prognostication is for light trades to return on Friday at 10:13 am with NE wind at 13 mph building to 17 with occasional episodes of 19 or so in the afternoon, then sailable trades on Saturday, starting in the mid- to upper-teens in the morning, and hitting the low 20s in the afternoon. But, what the hell do I know.

Kihei Day

2006-03-23T17:00:00.000-10:00

Following Norm's advice from yesterday, I decided I better monitor Kihei's winds today. Sure enough, Kihei was reporting low 20 readings to start the day. Normally I wouldn't get too excited about this since Kihei reads a bit high on the wind sensor. But when I saw it hit the mid-20s, I decided I was desparate enough and headed over.

I got there around 11:30 and the place was already a zoo. Almost parked out, rigs all over the lawn and lots and lots of sailors and kiters on the water. South Kihei road was gridlock as wind junkies jockeyed for position along the shoulder of the road. Knowing how Kihei can be lighter than it seems, I rigged my biggest gear, 5.7/90L. Wind was side-onshore from the south, no waves despite a very slight south wind swell. The 5.7 turned out to be barely enough and at times I found myself slogging along with lots of others. The only people who really seemed be powered up all the time were those who rigged 6.0+ or the rubber-boned freestyle gumbies putting on a show 10 yards from the beach (there was some very impressive freestyle action goin' on). Looking at the graph afterwards, the readings were still saying 24, 25-ish for averages. Definitely reading at least 5 mph too high.

By about 1:30 the wind had dropped so much, there was a mass exodus from the water. So, props to Norm for reminding me to keep my eye on Kihei. It was pretty marginal sailing at best, but still good to get on the water after 2 weeks of being dry.

Correction

2006-03-22T18:07:00.000-10:00

I stand corrected. Norm just replied to my previous post about just getting off the water in Kihei. Sure enough, according to the graph, looks like the wind came up. Probably coincided with that mass of rain that hit us earlier. We'll have to ask Norm to report on the conditions - cloudy and rainy sailing?

Norm is right though. In these Kona-type conditions, Kihei is the place to keep your eye on. When I lived in Kihei it was nice to be able to just jump in the van and be at the beach in 5 minutes, on the water in 20. A definite benefit of living or staying in Kihei this time of year.

Doldrums Continue on Maui

2006-03-22T16:42:00.000-10:00

We've still got some pretty funky weather going on here. Lots and lots of clouds, some rain, hardly any wind. There's a Kona low northwest of Kauai pulling up lots of moisture and clouds. Unfortunately that low isn't really bringing the Kona winds that these lows often do. It's just effectively shutting off the trades. Things really don't look like they're going to improve in the near term. Here's a quote from the latest National Weather Service forecast discussion:

"THE GFS 150
SHOWS MUCH DRIER WEATHER STARTING NEXT TUESDAY AS THE WINDS ALOFT
SHIFT TO NORTHWEST. THE GFS 150 STILL SHOWS NO RETURN OF TRADE WINDS
THROUGH THE END OF THE MONTH."

2006-03-18T17:50:00.000-10:00

No good windsurfing news to report. Last Monday was the last day of even marginally sailable wind. This week has been characterized by very light winds, and lots of clouds here on Maui. Kauai and Oahu are getting super-saturated with heavy rains. Luckily we've missed out on the heavy rains here on Maui. But that's not much consolation for the wind-starved. Today might have been almost sailable for the super-desparate with really, really big gear - formula gear. I wish I could report a change for the better this coming week, but after just going through all the weather sources it looks like we're going to have our pesky low pressure to our west continuing to spin up moisture from our south and no trade winds. The poor guys at the weather office aren't painting a very rosy forecast for the next 5 days or more.

Rain

2006-03-14T18:30:00.000-10:00

This weekend's plethora of wind has turned into a dearth of wind with lots of clouds and rain showers on Maui. Looks like we're in a pattern of lots of moisture and rain over the Hawaiian islands for the next several days. At least on Maui we're being spared the flooding conditions on Kauai and Oahu. But still, this March is starting to look a lot like last March - light on wind and heavy on the clouds and rain.

Yesterday was actually sailable if you timed it right and went to the right place. I spoke with Jazz (the guy doing the table top in the photo at the top of the page) last night at his birthday bash and he said he sailed Hookipa yesterday for about an hour. He said it was really offshore wind but fun since there were only about 4 other guys out. Meanwhile, Dave Blythe, the guy that took that photo of Jazz tried sailing Kanaha but ended up swimming in down by the canoe hale (house) at Kanaha.

Today, was a no wind day. Looks like the same tomorrow as well. The buzz around the Maui windsurfing society this week is that Jace Panebianco, Levi Siver and company just returned back to Maui from the Cape Verde Islands were they reportedly scored some epic swell with huge, glassy clean barrels. Word is that they captured this on film and video. Look for the photos in upcoming mags and video sure to be released by Jace's video studio.

You want wind? We got wind to spare!

2006-03-12T18:03:00.000-10:00

Very windy weekend here on Maui. Winds have straightened out a little bit to a slightly more normal direction the last two days. Yesterday we saw wind in the 4.2 - 4.7 range for most guys. Pretty gusty, still light on the inside and really strong outside. Water really choppy, not much wave action to speak of.

Today was a bit like yesterday, but on steroids. Readings on the wind graph were already averaging 30 by midday. I went down anyway thinking things might mellow a bit. Conditions by all accounts were nuclear under gray skies and the constant threat of rain showers. Guys today were on 4.0s and 4.2s mostly. Nobody stayed out very long and nobody seemed to like it very much. Me? I didn't even bother to rig. Just didn't look any fun. Somehow ambling down the aisles of Costco with 1,000 other people seemed more fun. As it turned out, I saw several Maui local windsurfers doing the exact same thing. Looking at the wind graphs at the end of the day, the wind stayed above 29 most of the day, with a bried stint into the mid-30s with readings of 35 and 36, gusting into the mid-40s.

Happy Aloha Friday

2006-03-10T08:15:00.000-10:00

Friday morning here on Maui and we've got mostly cloudy skies. Looks brighter than yesterday however. Yesterday was a gray day all day. If you monitored the wind graphs, you know there was wind on the north shore. As I monitored it on the web however it looked too offshore, gray, cloudy and cold to bother with. A report last evening from Speedy confirmed my decision was a good one. According to Speedy, who ventured out on his 4.7, it was super-windy outside and dead inside the reef. He said a 4.2 would have been better outside, but getting there on a 4.2 would not have been possible.

Things should be improving as we move into the weekend. Wind should start swinging around to a more normal NE direction by Sunday (that could mean today, tomorrow or Sunday). After that, the forecasts are calling for a long stretch of trades through next week.

Just a Quickie

2006-03-08T19:59:00.000-10:00

Managed to sneak in an unexpected mid-day quickie session today. It wasn't supposed to blow today, but when I checked my online sources everything looked good to go. So, time to postpone mundane obligations and head down. On arrival, wind looked to be blowing around 20, light on the inside but maybe stronger on the outside. Rigged 5.3/90L. Great for about 15 minutes then the wind picked up about 5mph. Soon the 5.3 was more than a handful. 4.7 would have been ideal. Not much wave action. Just sloppy waist-high stuff, so jumping was the preferred adrenaline fix over wave riding.

So, the forecast is still calling for SE winds - which usually means no windsurfing on Maui - through Saturday. But, wise Maui windsurfers know, not to count out the possibility of sailable winds here regardless of what the weather geeks say.

5 Days in a Row

2006-03-07T08:05:00.000-10:00

Yesterday I logged my fifth day in a row of sailing. That may not seem like much, but considering that the wind can be kind of spotty this time of year on Maui, it's worth noting - to me it signals that spring is here and summer is coming. Times when it's possible to sail 20 or 30 days in a row if your body can handle it. Personally, my body is started to complain after 3 days in a row. But, it has been a fun 5 days of sailing. The wind, for the most part, has been pretty good -- good direction, only slightly gusty sometimes usually strong enough.

Yesterday was a little lighter than Sunday. It was a tough decision whether to rig a 5.0 or 5.3. I opted for 5.o and 90L board. That was fine for awhile, but later in the afternoon the wind started tapering off. The 5.3 would have been better so I came in and got that. But the wind then decided to drop some more, to the point a 5.7 would have been more appropriate.

The waves have been on the decline each day in this stretch of wind. Uppers barely eeked out some waist-high sloppy sets yesterday. Still fun to bash around in, but nothing to get your heart and adrenaline pumping.

Looks like maybe another day of wind today, then the winds are forecast to turn SE in response to some low pressure systems to our west. Might bring some rain and clouds for a few days, but then by next week it looks like we have a shot of the trades returning again.