2007 Fizzles Out

Monday, December 31, 2007 at 3:00 pm HST

The last two days of 2007 ended in a dud and a fizzle. After days if not weeks of strong gusty winds, yesterday's winds were a complete dud with calm conditions taking over. Today had potential, but an upper level trough brought rain over Maui all day long, putting a damper on the possibility of ending the windsurfing year with a bang.

Thinking back on it, I think this was a pretty good year for wind on Maui. I think we had a higher number of sailable days this year than in past recent years. I set a personal record this year with 164 days of sailing. And tallying up the number of days that were windy enough for me to sail (anywhere between 4.0 to 5.7 for me at 180lbs) but that I didn't sail due to work, travel, injury, snobbery or because conditions were just nuts - an additional 86 windy days. This is a pretty subjective measure, but that all ads up to at least 250 days of sailable wind on Maui this year! I'd bet that for those guys who have formula gear, they could get another additional 50 days of sailing in if they wanted to.

What will 2008 bring? My confidence in the weather forecasters has gone downhill the last few weeks, so I won't venture a guess as far as wind and waves right now. But, when they do come back, I'll be on it - sailing it, riding it and/or getting photos and video of it. I'm looking forward to getting lots more photos and videos posted here in 2008 so stay tuned and check back often. Happy New Year!

Comments:

Wink wrote:

Happy New Year Thanks for the great site

Susan wrote:

I too added up my windsurfing days in 1999. I sailed 180 days in a row from April to October when I went to Israel with my 92 year old father who was born in Jerusalem. Tells you something about the Maui wind. When I went to Eilat, I windsurfed on the Red Sea. They thought I was a goddess because I was from Maui. I was almost to Jordan when I jibed. My father was very glad when I came back to shore. If he only knew I was kitesurfing now. Hau'oli Makahiki Hou! Great blog!

Holiday Humbug

Saturday, December 29, 2007 at 9:00 am HST

No denying that there's been plenty of wind the last few days. It's the quality of the wind that is questionable. After Christmas Day's sunny, and mostly consistent condtions, we've been plagued by abundant showers on the north shore, high clouds bringing gray skies across most of the island and marginal, sloppy small surf.

Stopped by Hookipa on Thursday only to find rainy conditions and gusty wind. Three Simmer guys were huddled under the lifeguard shack avoiding the rain. Stopped off at Kanaha afterward. Got reports that it was super gusty. Matt K., who's probably got 30 or 40 pounds on me said that he needed his 4.2. And it was rainy, cold and gray. Pass!

Similar conditions yesterday. I heard through the coconut telegraph that Hookipa was again super light and offshore and no waves to make it worth while.

So, bottom line - it is sailable, just not very fun conditions for the last few days.

Mele Kalikimaka

Tuesday, December 25, 2007 at 5:30 pm HST

In the days leading up to Christmas this year, quite a few Maui windsurfers had visions of wind and wave sugar plums dancing in their heads. The forecast was calling for Santa to bring in a north swell from the north Pacific on Christmas Eve accompanied by strong trade winds. After yesterday's sailing though, the metaphor that kept coming to my mind was how the Grinch stole Maui Christmas rather than Santa Claus.

I had hoped to sail Kanaha early, get a couple of hours in before the crowds, then head to Hookipa. I guess I must have been naughty this year though because instead of that nice present I got the meteorological equivalent of a lump of coal - almost.

The Grinch presented himself in the form of numerous showers and squalls, stealing along Maui's north shore Whoville. Consulting radar, satellite and wind graphs, it wan't looking good, but by 12:30 I had to get out and go check to see if just maybe I could catch Santa delivering the goods. I headed to Hookipa first. Arrived there around 1:00 to find lots of surfers, zero windsurfers, offshore wind and only marginal waves. Ok, no Santa at Hookipa. So, I headed down the coast. I did spot one sailor out at Kuau, which in hindsight might have been the best conditions I saw. I headed down the coast and stopped at Baby Beach to check out Secrets. Secrets didn't really look like it was happening either. Saw a couple of Naish sailors down at Sugar Cove, but nothing epic in the wave department. On to Kanaha.

I arrived at Kanaha to find people downrigging. Apparently it had just been blowing 4.5 for guys. Didn't look that windy to me so I went with 5.0. Mistake! Not too big, but too small. The wind just kept lightening up. I was barely able to make the 5.0 work, 5.3 would have been a lot better. There was somewhat of a north swell happening but it definitely wasn't Santa Claus level stuff.

I came in and started derigging and was suprised to see Levi Siver come in. I overheard him say that he was headed to Hookipa, so, thinking he had some good intel, I headed back up the coast to Hookipa.

Arrived just in time to find Matt Pritchard and local Gaastra/Tabou team rider Jazz derigging from their short session. They reported light offshore wind and marginal surf. Driving home from Hookipa, I couldn't help but start composing a "Night Before Christmas" type missive:

"Twas the day before Christmas and along the north shore,
the wind was all flukey, with showers galore ...."

From there on, it just went downhill, so I stopped.

So, this morning I was like a kid who's discovered he's on Santa's naughty list. Didn't really have much expectations for anything more than a lump of coal today. But surprise surprise! I guess I redeemed myself somewhere. We actually got a day of sailing in today at Kanaha with no squalls. I went out initially on 5.3, but that was just about when the wind kicked in to 4.7 levels. I held on for a bit, before deciding to go in and rig 4.7.

That turned out to be about the right size for the next hour to hour and half. The waves were mostly just wind swell generated, not that great for riding down the line, but the wind was the best we've had in several days in my opinion.

I got several reports about Hookipa throughout the day. It got majorly Scrooged from what I hear. Light offshore wind and sketchy surf. So, sadly, I've still got no new video to post. There is some small hope on the horizon as there is a small north swell forecast for tomorrow. We'll just have to wait and see though if it materializes and if the wind is decent at all.

When all was said and done, despite Hookipa getting Scrooged, I think we scored a pretty decent Christmas on Maui. Decent wind. No squalls. Sunny, blue skies. Warm weather. You gotta love all that!

We'll wrap it up today wishing Peace on Earth and a Merry Christmas to all, and to all, a good night!

Up & Down

Sunday, December 23, 2007 at 5:40 pm HST

Trade winds kicked in today at Kanaha with some wide variations and at times brutal and violent conditions. It looked pretty mellow at the 11:00 starting bell, 5.0 looked like the call for me. But gusty, squally conditions and a building pressure gradient made it quickly apparent that that was too much. Downsized to 4.5 which was better at times. Later in the afternoon the wind amped up again with averages of 30 or more, gusting into the mid to upper 30s.

Looks like strong wind continues to be in the forecast for the upcoming holiday week. A north swell is scheduled for tomorrow and another on Wednesday. Stay tuned, hopefully there will be some new holiday windsurfing video posted here in the next couple of days.

Light Friday

Saturday, December 22, 2007 at 9:30 am HST

Light winds ruled the north shore yesterday, with marginal readings in the upper teens most of the day. Looks like Kihei might have been the call yesterday.

This morning the wind has started out pretty light, but as of 9:15 Kanaha was showing an average of 13 gusting to 16. It's showing an upward trend so the wind might kick in today more than yesterday.

The big news is that starting tomorrow we can expect a return of stronger wind along with some north swell. In fact, the whole upcoming Christmas week looks really good for wind and waves on the north shore. The perfect Christmas present for all the Maui windsurfers.

Looking further into the future, Pat Caldwell had an interesting comment on his surf forecast the other day. "More days than normal of trades are expected into the beginning of the new year. Models suggest marginally high surf under fresh to strong trades for next Wednesday to Friday. With a moderate La Nina underway, an above average number of days of trade winds is expected this winter."

Kooks of Hazard

Thursday, December 20, 2007 at 7:45 pm HST

Today's guest video submission is from Michael of the Peconic Puffin. It's apparently and old Hatteras classic, featuring some vintage 90s sailing and oddly enough, a lot of shaving (not sure what that's all about - maybe it's a Hatteras thing). Check it out.

Wind today was much better, fairly consistent 5.0 for me. Waves however were junk.

Guest Holiday VJs

Wednesday, December 19, 2007 at 8:45 pm HST

Since I'm not getting any decent video this week and I'm getting some viewer submissions, I thought, what the hell, let's just throw the res of this week open to some guest videographers. I got a comment from US-77, Jake Miller the other day with a link to his YouTube videos. Some good stuff there including recent coverage of Windsurfing Magazine's board test a couple of months ago. Check it out.

Jake has also just started an online windsurfing travel business. Looking to book your next windsurfing vacation? Check out www.windsurfingtravel.com.

On to today's conditions. TL sent me this comment: "Sure looked fun over there on the web cam today. Some waves at uppers?? Is lowers breaking too ? Nothing but powder here in Bend OR... Enjoy"

Well TL it actually was kind of fun... eventually. When we got to the beach it initially looked pretty crappy, super light wind, super offshore. But after a bit the wind picked up and filled in somewhat - enough to get me to rig my 5.3. Hit the water and on the first reach out my wife and I ended up helping a guy who broke his mast outside of Uppers. So we scored some good karma points and saved a guy a looooong swim in. That felt good.

Rescue mission accomplished and back on the water. The wind was pretty gusty, and a bit flukey. I wouldn't have bothered to stay out long in it, but surprise, surprise, some north swell started rolling in at Uppers (didn't really see it hitting Lowers) - some pretty fun shoulder- to head-high sets. Best direction it's been for awhile at Uppers. A little bumpy but, some pretty fun riding for awhile, then the wind cranked it up into the strong 4.7 range. Hmmm... the forecasters said it was supposed to get lighter. I shoulda known that would mean it would get windier. So, bottom line was the wind was kinda crappy, but the arrival of some north swell made it a fun session.

So, any other viewers out there have some windsurfing video on the web somewhere that you'd like to share with a few thousand windsurfers around the world? Drop me a comment and we'll see about linking to it (I've got the comments set to reject full links, so skip the http and www part if you send me a link). Limited time offer though, since it still looks favorable for a good swell arriving this weekend so we should be able return to our regularly scheduled Maui Windsurfing videos next week - just in time for Xmas.

Holiday Trades

Tuesday, December 18, 2007 at 6:00 pm HST

Happy holiday trade winds continued today, starting out in the mellow 5.3 range and then kicking it up a sail size or two midday. Still kind of gusty and offshore in my opinion and the waves have gone down to near zero, but still, it's pretty awesome to be sailing in warm sunshine this time of year.

After sailing I headed up to Hookipa to see if there was any leftover wind swell coming in, but when I got there (~1:30) there were no sailors on the water and only two surfers - the surf was really tiny by Hookipa standards, maybe 1 - 2 feet. So, no new video from Hookipa today. Sorry.

But I did get an email from a viewer with some video. I don't usually do this, but since I haven't been able to post any new video in a week or so, and I know how eager all of you are for your regular windsurfing video fix. So, here's a little Bonaire light wind freestyle action. Pretty amazing stuff. Check it out. Thanks to Michael for sending this.

Squalls Take a Break

Monday, December 17, 2007 at 7:20 pm HST

Trade winds finally dried out a bit yesterday and today. From what I hear, yesterday was ok sailing at Kanaha. I missed it. Today was actually pretty good. 5.3 for me from about noon to 1:15. Then a break when the winds dropped a bit then another pretty good session late in the afternoon. Waves are just wind swell-driven but they were better than I thought they might be.

Looking into the future, trade winds are forecast to persist through Christmas next week though the weather guessers are saying the wind strength will drop a notch after the middle of this week. A small WNW swell is progged for Thursday, but it's really west so I doubt will see much of that on Maui's north shore. Looks like next Sunday we might see the return of big north shore waves.

Sorry about the lack of fresh video or photos. I may head to Hookipa tomorrow. I've heard the wind swell has been pretty decent there so it might be good for a little bit of footage. Otherwise, looks like maybe next weekend will be the next good chance for some good footage. Just in time to give you all a little Christmas video present.

Squally Trades Dominating

Saturday, December 15, 2007 at 9:00 am HST

While it's true that we have a trade wind pattern set up right now, the fact is that the north shore is also getting lots of rain squalls blowing in on the trade wind flow, making the sailing conditions a bit frustrating. Over the last few days we've seen a similar patter each day of brief periods of strong 4.5 - 4.7 wind followed by long stretches of almost glassy conditions with people swimming in and doing the walk of shame up from Lowers.

It looks like this basic pattern will stick around for another week. Lots of opportunity for sailing but the wind quality is probably gonna be on the up and down side. The trick is to time your session between rain squalls. As for waves, no major north swell events expected - just small stuff.

Hookipa Video December 12

Wednesday, December 12, 2007 at 6:30 pm HST

Kinda frustrating day sailing Kanaha today. Winds cranked early, way powered up on my 4.5 until a squall came through and killed the wind. Waves were pretty sloppy and bumpy. By 2:30 the wind still hadn't come back so I headed to Hookipa to check it out. First sight of it looked pretty good with a head- to logo-high set but it seemed to deteriorate after that. A few big names on the water even though conditions weren't epic - Josh Angulo is on island, as well as Nik Baker, and Camille Juban is still ripping it up along with the always-ripping hard Levi Siver.

Hookipa Dec 12

Trade Winds Return

Tuesday, December 11, 2007 at 6:50 pm HST

Trade winds returned to Maui yesterday afternoon, mostly pretty light until the late afternoon. Conditions only improved today with solid 4.5 to 5.0 for most guys. The downside was that Kanaha park was closed - at least the entrance to the upper parking lot. Apparently there's still a lot of water covering the road so they have the gate closed. That meant plan B for us - Sugar Cove.

Sugar Cove was pretty sweet. Sailed a couple of hours, just the two of us out. We sailed up to Spartans where there were some occasional nice waves, but it was mostly wind swell with an occasional nice set wave. Also tried out Secrets which had the more consistent set up today with some fun waist to chest high sets.

Came in around 2:00 to find Team Naish launching, including Robby himself along with Micci Schweiger, Norm and Bernd Roediger.

Looks like the trade winds are here through at least this week and they could go pretty ballistic. In the wave department, looks like a small bump up in north shore swell maybe on Thursday. Nothing big and epic, but should be decent at Hookipa and with strong winds it could be some nice jumping so I'll plan to hit up Hookipa after sailing on Thursday and shoot some new video and photos then.

Oh yea, Kanaha. I hear that some people still sailed there today. They just parked on the road outside and schlepped their gear in. You can also park in one of the lower parking lots near the Canoe hale. That means you'll probably end up launching from kite beach or near the lifeguard tower - much further downwind that most people usually launch or even sail.

Kona Lanes Captured 5

Sunday, December 9, 2007 at 3:30 pm HST

I had a couple of requests from people to show some of the less glamorous action from the recent Kona Lanes day - stuff like wipeouts and the incredible slog and launch. I don't have much wipeout action, but I did get a little bit of footage of some of the guys like Kevin Pritchard, Ross Williams and Camille Juban launching. It was super, super light inside the break. My hats off to anybody who was able to just get out. I saw a lot of people try and fail in just launching. Hookipa can be a tricky launch on normal trade wind days. It's even trickier on a Kona day. It took a helluva a lot of skill for these guys just to get to the point where they could catch waves. Check it out. Oh yeah, I had to speed most of it up, most of the clips are a lot faster than real-time. It was just too boring at normal speed.

Kona Lanes Captured 5

Transitioning

Sunday, December 9, 2007 at 9:30 am HST

This morning it finally looks like we might be transitioning away from the wet Kona Low pattern we've seen for the past week into a trade wind pattern. The last few days we've still had Kona winds at varying strengths, sailable in Kihei and even the north shore in places at times. The caveat has been the rain that was pretty consistent until Friday, and also the murky, debris-filled water. I sailed once last winter right after a heavy rain and I'm not very keen on doing it again. Brown water filled with all kinds of fin-destroying garbage to a avoid, plus lots of nasties in the water ranging from big tiger sharks to microscopic bacteria.

The forecasters are saying that the Kona Low is moving away and that high pressure will start to build in. Should be a light wind day today and we should see light trades beginning tomorrow and the trade wind pattern should stick around through the upcoming week.

For those of you following the north shore vacation rental fiasco going on here, I stumbled on this website, which might be a source of information.

Kona Lanes Captured 4

Thursday, December 6, 2007 at 5:50 pm HST

Next installment of Kona Lanes Captured. Tonight, Part 4...

Kona Lanes Captured 4

Although not quite as bad as yesterday, it was still rainy today on Maui and the Kona winds have backed off quite a bit. This storm we've had the last couple of days has hit Maui pretty hard. As I understand it Kihei and Kula are still without power. Lots or road closures and property damage. The good news is that it looks like we've seen the worst of it. The Kona low that is causing all this is supposed to be moving out, gradually bringing drier conditions over the next few days and a return of normal trade wind weather by Monday.

Drenched

Wednesday, December 5, 2007 at 3:20 pm HST

Gale force winds and drenching, flooding rain are pounding Maui today. The summit of Haleakala reported a wind gust of 122 mph this morning. The rain has been falling monsoon-style all day long. North shore beach parks like Hookipa and Baldwin remain closed due to flooding and high surf. A new high surf event is hitting today with bigger buoy readings than the surf that produced 60 foot waves on Monday. On Monday, the buoys were reporting about 20 feet. That swell generated 60 - 70 foot waves on the outer reef at Baldwin. The buoy today is reporting 26.9 feet! It would no doubt be spectacular to see - from a distance, but I doubt that was possible today with driving rain making visibility extremely poor and beach parks and road closures all over Maui.

Lots of power outages today too. Haven't gotten a chance to finish editing Part 4 of the Kona Lanes Captured video series so you'll have to make do with just photos today. Part 4 should be posted tomorrow though.

Kona Lanes Captured 3 + Wild Weather

Tuesday, December 4, 2007 at 5:30 pm HST

Another segment of Kona Lanes video but I'll get to that in a second. The big news here, like a lot of other places right now is the wild weather. Here in Hawaii we saw another wet day yesterday but the biggest news was the massive surf. The surf was so big that the county shut down Hookipa and Baldwin Beach parks. Surf at Hookipa was reportedly in the 30 - 50 foot range and at the outer reef at Baldwin was even bigger - 60 - 70 foot faces. Jaws must have been even bigger. The Maui News has an article about this if you want to read more.

Today was mostly sunny and south Kona winds amped up again. It was a tough decision for me - deciding whether to go sail Kihei or to go to Hookipa to catch the action. Tom wrote in:

"Hope you got some shots and video today 12/4 at Lanes. It looked huge on the web cams at Kanaha. Thanks for the great videos. Tom."

I opted for the selfish route and went to Kihei with the plan of heading to Hookipa afterwards.

Kihei kinda sucked in my opinion - mostly because I rigged too small - 4.5 when I should have had a 5.0. Well, at least I got out on the water. While there, I heard Hookipa and Baldwin were closed so I bailed on the idea of heading to the north shore - sorry Tom.

More wild weather coming our way. We're expecting strong Kona winds to continue in the 30- 40 knot range for the next few days, but they'll be accompanied by lots of rain too. We're also expecting more big surf but it's gonna be wet and wild.

Ok, now on to our next installment of Kona Lanes Captured. Tonight, Part 3...

Kona Lanes Captured 3

Kona Lanes Captured 2

Monday, December 3, 2007 at 3:45 pm HST

Part 2 in our ongoing series of videos and photos from Saturday spectacular Kona action. In this one we rejoin the action from where Part 1 left off, with Victor Fernandez, Julien Taboulet and Camille Juban joining Kevin Pritchard and Ross Williams.

Kona Lanes Captured 2

Still More photos.

Getting some great feedback about this latest video. Brian from the PWA website was kind enough to make this Kona Lanes footage a news item on the PWA website. Very cool Brian. Mucho Mahalo! For those of you who don't already check out the PWA site on a regular basis, I highly recommend it. Great coverage of the events, and some great photos and video.

In another nice comment, Jeroen wrote in saying, " Aloha, This summer I have been spending my vacation at Maui and hence been following your blog since. Just wanted to compliment you for the great pics&vid's - great food for thought during windless days. And a nice fyi - Martin van Meurs has broken the famous 50knots barrier last Sunday! Check the gps-speedsurfing.com website for the great story.
Mahalo, Jeroen"

Thanks Jeroen and thanks for the heads-up about the 50knot barrier.

Weather on Maui today is wet, wet, wet and no wind. Too bad. The surf is HUGE - according to the buoys anyway, probably in the 20 - 30 foot range. Looks like stormy weather will continue through this week. More Kona winds coming tomorrow, but it looks highly likely that it will be raining still.

Keep checking back for more Kona Lanes video segments coming this week. Still to come is action from the afternoon when it got windier and the sets got bigger - consistently over mast high - and legends like Levi Siver, Nik Baker, Jason Polakow and Robby Naish came out to play.

Kona Lanes Captured 1

Sunday, December 2, 2007 at 4:00 pm HST

It's another Kona wind day today but a cold front passing through the islands today is making it a wet day as well. I wasn't too motivated to get out and sail or shoot more video in the rain so, it's been a video editing day. Here's part 1 of action from Lanes yesterday. This starts in the late morning hours with just Josh Stone way down at Lanes near Mama's at times, and Kevin Pritchard and Ross Williams with Lanes to themselves.

Kona Lanes Captured I

More photos.

Fresh Kona Lanes Captured

Saturday, December 1, 2007 at 6:35 pm HST

Kona Lanes conditions came through today with some spectacular conditions. I got to Hookipa around 10:30 to find lots of surfers on the point and also at Lanes and one lone windsurfer way downwind at Lanes near Mama's - turned out to be Josh Stone. After a little bit, Kevin Pritchard and Ross Williams showed up and by 1:00 the Lanes line-up was a who's who of windsurfing's elite, including Robby Naish, Jason Polakow, Nik Baker, Victor Fernandez and more. Lots of twin fins out today - definitely a hot trend in the pro wave sailor circuit at the moment. Lots of spectators, pro photographers and videographers on the bluff watching and capturing all the action. You'll be seeing shots and video from today in all the windsurfing media no doubt.

Enough talk. I got LOTS of video and photos. Here's a quick chainsaw-edited preview video of coming attractions. I'll probably have at least a 3 or 4 part series of videos from today. Look for the first one by some time on Monday.

Kona Lanes Captured Preview Video

And some photos. Notice all the twin fins.

Kevin Pritchard

Ross Williams

Robby Naish

Nik Baker