Well the journey has officially begun!
We packed up the gear and loaded my UTE for the airport.
We got so lucky with an awesome chick at the check in at Qantas Melbourne she checked us all the way through to Honolulu and charged us no excess! In Honolulu after all our gear turned up Phil got caught out (he blames lack of sleep!) and referred to our gear (and in particular mine!) as ‘windsurf gear’ which comes with an automatic $100 USD per piece charge! Common knowledge among traveling windsurfers is that you always refer to your gear as surfboards and never windsurf gear!!! After he checked through and left me & Al to argue with the check in guy, we managed to convince him that all we had with us was in fact ‘surf boards’ and clothes! He bought it and we were only charged $30USD – Thanks Phil!
We flew into Maui greeted by sun and lots of white caps! All our gear made it, and in one piece! We checked into our house. By lunchtime we were unpacked, settled into our house and ready to sail! We walked through some houses in front of ours, and their backyards opened up to Sprecks beach were Kauli and the Neilpryde guys were doing some freestyle.
Good fun sail with the 5.0 pretty maxed out at times.
By 9pm we were all fast asleep on the couch after a huge pizza from Josh Stones organic pizza shop!
We slept in on Tues to 11am – and realized James was coming into Kahalui airport at 11! We rushed down there to greet him just as he walked out of the terminal with enough ski and windsurf gear to start a rental shop.
He was dazed and confused still wearing a beanie and looking a little white for Hawaii. We got him into gear and rigged in our yard to sail Sprecks. Today was already much windier than the day before so we were all on 3.6, 4.2 & 4.7..
On the first run we noticed there was a huge black figure in the water.. As I got closer I realized it was a turtle.. but it didnt look right. It was struggling to swim and didnt look healthy - then I got closer and realized it was two turtles mating! We sailed right up to them!
It took a few runs and James was already starting to get back his balance, although he is fitter than most after hiking up hills, sailing is very different to skiing and he was feeling it in his arms straight away!!
Al was doing some huge running man throw away jumps, while Phil and I were working on our kook tack forwards. Sprecks is a great place for jumping; it’s just like Coronation beach in WA except the other tack.
Long smooth flat section into the break, with side shore wind.
After a few hours there, Al and I decided to tackle the famous Hookipa break..
We had watched the pros rip it apart the night before and were pretty keen to sail the hallowed waves – the birth place of modern windsurfing.
We headed out there late about 3pm. We were late as the wind was turning offshore and getting super light; the swell was sucking up and was pushing hard up into the famous rocks.. Some solid mast high sets were coming though – maybe not the best day to try for the first time?
We got talking to Jason Polakow on the beach who had just come in, and after a while he just said get out there and have a crack – when JP tells you to go out, you go out!
So James and Phil made a wise decision to sit up on the cliffs with all the pro photographers – while Al and I rigged.
It was dropping as we rigged and people were still coming in. I rigged a 5.0 Al a 4.2..
We left the small beach with a good puff and made it past the first set of rocks.. Before the first set cleaned us both out!
With no wind and huge swell, deep water starting was a mission. After about 15mins of drifting along the rocks down towards Lanes, we both managed to get out the back!
An awesome feeling of exhaustion and accomplishment! It was pretty cool dogging around out the back with guys like Levi Siver, Robby Swift etc..
Al got a good wave, got a few turns out of it then I did the same on a nice head high wave..
I got back out the back and called it a day managing to ride a nice wave all the way back to the small beach.. Al dogged around for another 30mins to get upwind enough to come in, as downwind is only reef!
We felt pretty happy to have survived Hookipa day 1, even though it might not have been spectacular – we did it!
Today the wind is up again, and we are feeling more confident. Phil and James are going to sail Sprecks now and Al and I will go to Hookipa soon. Today we will have it wired!
We got home and cooked a feast of local Tuna
Stay tuned for stories of broken gear!!!
