The smokin spring and summer Maliko report

[LaPerouseBay]

Here is a cool video with Oscar.  Both paddlers are in V-8's.  Very fast boats.  Very stable too.  

He's the maestro of downwinding.  12 times Molokai to Oahu champion.

He's coming to Maui and spending a week, doing a clinic on May 11th.

The other guy in the video is Boyan, also a great paddler.  He runs the Epic surfski center in Tarifa.  Oscar is part owner of Epic kayaks.  He's building surfski centers all over the globe.    

[LaPerouseBay]

Smoking south shore today.  Sunday should be blasting too.  Good footage today, I may post a vid later.   

Here is a pic of a close whale encounter.  Massive creatures.

[covesurfer]

We went canoe club to Polo. Great run, wind was very offshore most of the way. No whales today but I almost hit a pair of mating turtles!  Headmount also spotted two good sized sharks just off Polo Beach. Looking forward to tomorrow. Left was the word of the day.

[surfinJ]

Here is a pic of a close whale encounter.  Massive creatures.

What a pic!  You guys live a gifted life, good for ya

[LaPerouseBay]

Thanks surfinJ, we certainly do.

The wind is really strong here tonight at midnight.  Sunday should be epic.   

Here's some video of Saturday.  The ski was flying through this section.

Cove, the wind was offshore for us too.  It was tough sledding for me in some sections.  We should have started at KCC. 

[PonoBill]

We should have done a second run. I don't know what I was thinking of. I'll even take the surfboards off my truck today so we can do two easily.

[covesurfer]

As off-shore as it was, I was pretty happy with our single run.

It is rainy and cranking wind up in Wailuku. S side cams already showing wind. Hope direction doesn't get too east. Like you pointed out a while back PB, the S side seems tame but when we get the wind turning out to sea, especially with the strength it's going to have later today, it takes on a whole different character.

LPB, that's an amazing picture! Must have made you jump a little yourself!

[LaPerouseBay]

cove: actually, that whale sighting relaxed me.  I remember being uptight about something, then the whale came by.  Seeing whales always reminds me of how tiny we are on this planet.   

Fun maliko today.  My favorite Martian passed by about half way through the run.  I went full gas to try and keep up, but didn't last very long.

[covesurfer]

Nice video LPB. I watched it on FB earlier and kicked myself - gently - for not going. Conditions looked stormy from my house so I opted for a rest day. Signed up for the 1030 tomorrow with dreams of a double run, perhaps. It would be my first time for a double so I want to see how conditions look first. Hope to see you out there.

[PonoBill]

That video looks like something from a CGI bench. Flat light, grey water, strange, unmoving clouds. Then JR comes by and runs all over the place without paddling. Weird.

[Southbay]

Maliko was definitely smokin' yesterday!  Headmount and I met up with Cove, after his first run, for a 1pm run. The wind looked a little north on the way out to Maliko, but once in the water the direction was just about perfect. Plenty of horsepower and some good sized east swell running made for some big drops and lots of surfing.  Headmount and I stayed together for the entire 10 miles. It's not often on a Maliko that you can stay near anyone, but when you can, it's so cool. HM was standing on the tail just surfing for the last 4 miles. Once back at the harbor there were smiles all around. Somehow Livio and Jeremy beat us to the harbor without me even seeing them....usually I get to at least watch them pass like I'm standing still!  Ninjas for sure! 

This was also my first run on my new, to me, Bullet 17. It had become clear to me over the last few months that a hollow board is the way to go for me.  My foam board currently weighs 43 lbs!  The hollow board is 32lbs, and I could not believe how different it felt. So happy I bit the Bullet, literally, and bought the new board. First thing I did after buying it was replace all the rudder wires. Some of the nuts were really stuck, so I used some wd40.....cut to me jumping I the water at Maliko and realizing that the deck was covered with oil!  Probably would have been my fastest run ever if I hadn't fallen at least 15 times!  What a bonehead move. Haha!


All said, awesome day had by all!  Sorry Pono.....see you all soon.


Southbay


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[Southbay]

Baldwin Beach to the harbor mouth, the wind was literally turning the surface water into vapor.  The drops were huge, and surfing was about as good as it gets.  None of that got my heart racing quite like whatever hit me, hard, at Upper Kanaha.


There was not all that much swell today, but enough that the outer reef at uppers was breaking occasionally.  I was a few hundred yards upwind from the reef, when I saw it break.  I took a hard right and moved outside a couple hundred yards further.  That's when I noticed that the nice guy, and good paddler that I sat next to on the shuttle, was heading right at the break.  I was paying attention to him, hoping that I was not going to be faced with a ethical decision, should he be taken out by the wave!  It didn't seem to bother him, he just paddled right at it, as very large wave broke right in front of him.  He caught a bump at what looked like a few feet from the breaking part of the wave and just skirted past it.

I was focused on what looked like his certain death, when something hit me hard, right under my feet.  I cannot think of a time that I focused harder on staying upright on my board and catching bumps fast then at that moment.  I told myself that it was a turtle, tried to quiet my brain, and put my head down and pushed all the way to the harbor. 

Once in the harbor, the wind was so east, that it was a brutal upwind paddle to the canoe hale.  I was so exhausted that I almost forgot about the incident, until I flipped my board over....Looks like I probably did hit a turtle!  Strange that the scratches are right to left, but what ever happened, it was most likely not a tiger shark, and that is good news to me! 

Maliko.....always an adventure.

Check out the pic:

Best of luck to the Maui to Molokai guys tomorrow!  Can't wait to hear all about it.

[covesurfer]

Whoa, I hope those are turtle scratches! Conditions for m2m look epic. Hope I can get some sleep!

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[LaPerouseBay]

Glad the "turtle" didn't take out your rudder! 

I was on the shuttle with SB.  It looked mild on the drive up, but we knew it would open up.  A rain curtain was uphill a few miles calming things down, but they pass.

Sure enough, just as we hit Baldwin the wind unleashed.  Big east swell along with a strong wind was pure magic all across the reef. 

Very fast run.  Wind, swell and current was in synch.  My confidence to zoom along in faster bumps finally returned after a long winter hiatus.  Got my mojo back on the north shore!

They are going to score heavily in the channel today.  Excellent conditions.

Paddle Imua maliko benifit for the kids is May 10th.  Oscar downwind clinic is the 11th.  Hoping for good conditions. 

Here's a clip from yesterday.  Gloomy looking, but super fun on the water.  Big bumps. 

[LaPerouseBay]

Whoops, Paddle Imua is May 3rd, not the 10th - next Saturday.     

Astonishing volunteer support.  All for a great cause.  Sign up early!

http://imuafamilyservices.org/paddle-imua/