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Maui Postcard No 7 - The Swell Train We are heading home tomorrow night and thought we would send you both one final email for your web sites. See you in a few days. Carmen. At last the swell trains have started to arrive, with a new pulse of swell arriving every 2 or 3 days. If you are coming to Maui for the wave season, bring a surfboard and know how to use it. We have been doing a bit of surfing, but the waves quickly become too big for us to Finally, the wind has come back over the last few days and it is all go at Hookipa. The wind has been very offshore and very light. Over the last couple of months the wind has been very Easterly, which is quite offshore for Maui and apparently not normal but hey when was the last 'normal' weather pattern in this age of global warming and weather weirdness. In these kind of conditions there are really only a few places to sail here on Maui; Hookipa, Lanes and Kuau. All these spots are really light on the inside and, with big swell, really windy on the face. It seems that all of the South Americans that were here have left and there has been an influx of French and Poms. All of the world cup sailors and emerging pro's arrived in November and will stay through the winter wave sailing season. It is hard to spot an unsponsored sailor out at Hooks these days and even harder for schmucks like us to catch waves amongst such talented sailors. Hookipa is busier than ever. Friday, in particular was big and light - 'gnarly and difficult' was the word on the street. Lee was the only non-sponsored sailor out. Huge waves, light winds, people on the rocks, gear being washed in, people swimming after their gear, sails being blurred into the white of the waves as guys went over the falls, spray hurling off the back of waves, waves thundering as they closed out, white wash well over head high, massive mast high sets lining up one after another, sailors and gear littering the impact zone as they tried desperately to swim into the current of the channel, fast and sick wave riding as the guys bolted down the line to smack the lip for an aerial - if you ever wanted to see 'epic' wave sailing conditions, this was it. There was a lot of action but due to the conditions most were erring on the cautious side. Sailors like Keith Teboul, Kevin Pritchard, Josh Stone, Robbie Swift and Anne-Marie Reichman were really pushing it, going for big airs on mast high waves. These guys have no fear. After Lee had a little session on the rocks, he was pleased to see guys like Ross Williams, Keith and Josh getting a little rubbing from time to time as well. The young stand out was Moroccan Boujamma who was going for broke with massive airs and wave 360's. Keith was on fire as usual, always on a wave and carving up the mast high plus sets coming through. And Josh - the guy who epitomises the 'Aloha spirit' both on and off the water - while sailing out saw a rig getting washed toward the rocks while its sailor was still 100m out getting pounded in the sets. He grabs the gear and swims both rigs around the rocks toward the relative safety of Lanes. Everyone loves this guy. When the waves get mast high at Hooks there is an innate method installed in every sailor for getting out through the mast high freight trains coming through - launch, head down wind, cross in front of the rocks, get into the channel, grovel out through the sets to the wind line, crank up wind as much as possible (often tacking several times out the back just to get up wind), come in on a roller out the back, head way down wind towards the rocks riding the wave and then out the channel once again or swim across the rocks and out the channel. Due to the light winds on the inside there is carnage all around, with anywhere up to ten people down in the water at any one time - guys riding giants, negotiating waves, rock, close out sections and downed windsurfers in the water - these pros are all skill. This is a great way to finish our time here on Maui as we fly home Monday night. See you all on the water soon. Rock on.
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