Fins fins fins!

At the photo shoots last week on Maui, there were lots of fins in the water - and I'm not talking Tiger sharks! RRD was fielding a really nice looking tri fin - from what I could see, the fins were all the same size, but don't take that to the bank.

Here we have Kauli's quad finned JP. Sure it might not be for most riders out there, but it sure works for him.

You could tell by the cutbacks which riders were on twin or quad finned boards by the way the board rotated on the lip - single finned boards just don't snap around like these mutants do. It requires a different stance not only how you handle the board, but also in rig control as the board comes around quickly to point back to windward. Personally I really like the handling, but when it gets big, I prefer a single fin board with more rail drive and control.

What say you?

Hookipa Tuesday highlights

Big and beautiful. Lots of swimming - lots of carnage on the rocks. Enjoy! ;-)

Monday webcast highlights

Here are the highlights from Monday's webcast. This is directly off of the webcast camera and I've kept it in chronological order. We had some visitors who stopped by to say hello, many of whom you'll be seeing in future webcasts and in other EpicSesh videos. Also of note - Jake spent a lot of time swimming .... not sure if thats part of training, but still, he swims like a fish! ;-)

Enjoy!

ps - I've still got a TON of HD video from Monday that I'll post shortly. Of sad note - I crushed one of my GoPro's mounted to my booms yesterday. ;-(

Sunday, bloody sunday

The good news - the WNW swell arrived. The bad news? Rain showers squelched the wind at Hookipa, but that didn't keep the crew off the water.

Enjoy some dark Hookipa sessions!

Friday's Hookipa video

I shot this prior to the webcast on Friday. Of note - Josh Stone on the red Goya sail. Seriously, Josh rips. I've had a few sesh's with Josh on the Cali coast and one things for certain - no matter where Josh is - he rips. Period. And even if the day totally sucks, he's smiling. After all, even when you think things suck, its still an amazing life we lead.

Today (Saturday) was kinda funny. I was late to the webcast due to the fact that I didn't wanna come in as I was having way too much fun sailing with Jake and Pascal.... Anyway, I did go in, and get the webcast set up - and the wind backed off (as you all saw on the webcast) but while I was dealing with technical issues with the webcast, I noticed GP on the webcast chat. "Damn," I thought ... "Why the hell isn't he here?" 10 minutes later GP shows up and says, "I wasn't sure about going to Hookipa, then I saw the webcast and so-and-so was ripping and I bailed and drove here ASAP" ... or something like that. Anyway - it was cool that the webcast got GP to come out and rip it up. ;-)

Enjoy Friday's video. The next few days are gonna be amazing.

Friday's webcast archive is here.

Friday recap

Yup. Friday rocked. The weather was perfect, and the crew was on fire. The forecast is looking interesting, very interesting. GP had some nice shots - check 'em out!

The pros were out 'en force as their all on the island for their respective team photo shoots, and the action on the webcast was awesome. We'll be webcasting again today and I'll also put some GoPro's on some riders to get some extra action for everyone.

I'll be posting HD video and also the archived webcast video from Friday later today.... I'm off to Hookipa now to get some sailing in before the webcast. Catch ya'll online around 2pm HST!

Click here to watch the webcast at 2pm HST.

Perfect score

Since my first Maui trip in 1987, I've been scoring amazing conditions on the island without fail. At the risk of jinxing my current trip, here's the current forecast.

FRIDAY
East winds 20 kt. Wind waves 8 ft. Mixed swell northwest 3 ft and east 4 ft. Scattered showers.

SATURDAY
East winds 20 kt. Wind waves 8 ft. Swell east 4 ft. Scattered showers.

SUNDAY
East winds to 25 kt. Wind waves 8 ft. Mixed swell north 3 ft and east 4 ft. Scattered showers.

MONDAY
East winds 20 kt. Wind waves 7 to 8 ft. Northwest swell 5 to 6 ft and north 5 ft. Scattered showers.

TUESDAY
East winds 20 kt. Wind waves 6 to 7 ft. Northwest swell 7 ft and north 5 ft. Scattered showers.

I'm supposed to head home Sunday, but I have to admit that the swell for Monday/Tuesday is really making those plans difficult.

Really...

Anyway, I don't want to get too far ahead of myself. We have our webcast tomorrow (Friday) and I know the crew is stoked to tear it up at Hookipa. Hopefully I'll get someone to run the cam while I take in a sesh or two in front of the lens.

I'm back, and gone!

Sorry for the lack of posts. I've been busting ass at work, and traveling (for work) is ramping back up again. I did manage to get a quick afternoon sesh at Chrissy Field with Catapult and Kevin (who has a new blog - check it out!) one day while I was in San Francisco last week. It wasn't anything spectacular, but I'd never sailed Chrissy and it was cool.

Nothing going on around here - though the ice is FINALLY breaking up and I awoke this morning to open water past the 100m or so of ice still locked into our shoreline. Spring is winning! ;-) I hope to be sailing in a week or two, but first...

...I'm off to Maui tomorrow! Late notice, and its a quick trip. I'll be webcasting again this trip, so stay tuned for more details. Webcast days will be Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The wind forecast looks good, waves - eh, so-so, and I just hope we get more sun than the forecast predicts.

So, the next post will be from Maui.

Aloha!