The smokin spring and summer Maliko report

[PonoBill]

Good luck buddy, keep your head down. And stay away from Ponohouse with all those sliding glass doors and photovoltaic arrays. Likely to be some really expensive frisbees. Tracy Dudley needs to get down in the caretaker's cottage and stay there until all the stuff stops flying.

Be safe all you Hawaii folks, I'll be thinking of you. We can replace the crap we collect, we can't replace you.

[covesurfer]

While you guys were doing DW runs, I was digging drainage canals to keep garage from flooding and also putting all my boards inside the sail loft.  All my relatives got on the last plane out and after putting all the loose stuff away, I'm finally ready to kick back tonight.  Off and on showers so far and just the usual 30+ mph winds we're already used to.   40-50 is where it gets 'festive' as PBill likes to say.  Shit supposed to hit the fan in the next few hrs. and I'm sure Jeff is already feeling it on the Big Island.  He's got his boards inside too.

DWding seems like a dream right now...  can't wait.

JF posted a picture on facebook of his canoe and boards inside the house. Good to be able to get them inside where they won't become projectiles. Still not festive up here in Wailuku, just some rain and trade wind strength breezes. Be fine with me if it stayed that way. Some people up in Kula are getting high gusts ripping down the mountain.

With brown water and house confinement, I will be so grumpy in a couple of days that no one will want to be anywhere near me. Good thing my wife is in the PNW.

[headmount]

No damage overnight.  Some falling cocos made a racket.  No power lost and all my drainage channels worked great.  Getting some powerful gusts right now at sunrise, maybe the strongest yet but there are patches of blue in the sky.  Water looks very windy out front but weird surface.  Low pressure isn't a user friendly thing.

My pal on Piiholo lost power.  Euchs down on both Olinda and Piiholo.  In Paia, sporadic wind gusts all night with significant rain but no wind that has made the house shake.  Maybe 30-40 max so far. 

First storm got caught in the Puna hook and stalled there overnight.  They got creamed, over 20K homes without power on BI.  Guess it's just moving offshore now but has been gutted.

Second storm should slide north. 

[Southbay]

Kula was almost completely untouched the entire time.  We got more rain last week!  About 15 min of gusts at 4am and besides that completely still. Haleakala completely shielded us. Hope JF808 and everyone else FBI is ok!

[headmount]

On the BI, Waikaloa was totally shielded while in Puna on the other side of Mauna Loa, they got 12 inches of rain.

[covesurfer]

Upper side Wailuku was pretty quiet all night. A few times the wind gusted up and we got some showers but nothing too intense. Above us, on Pu'u Kukui, the highest ridge in the W Maui's, it rained almost 6", according to the news.

This morning, there are some small blue patches but lots of dark out over the ocean, which is looking pretty festive by the way. Wind this morning has been pretty gusty, stronger than what we'd get from normal trades, I'm guessing up into the high 30's. The big gusts are brief.

Keeping fingers crossed that we won't get too much worse than what we've seen already. Seems like the big mountains on the BI did their job and took a lot out of the storm. But, they also stalled it and that sounds like it intensified the effects where the storm got backed up.

Glad HM and SB are doing ok - wondered about both you guys since HM is pretty close to the water and SB is in the path of any downslope winds racing down the mountain.

[LaPerouseBay]

Light rain here now in south Kihei.  Precip is rounding south of Haleakala's shadow.  Nary a sprinkle last night.

14 inches and counting down south on the Big Island, hope everyone is doing ok.  TV said 3 inches an hour was falling at times.

Yesterday's downwind conditions on the south shore:

 

Excellent conditions all day.  An odd window of kona backed things off when we met at polo, so we did a shorter run.  As we launched it filled in and started blasting.  Loading up was brutal.  It was nuking to Makena.  No worries mother nature, we were grateful for what we got. 

[headmount]

LPB... I like the other looping vid you posted of Scarlet chomping on popcorn ... she's an 11

[LaPerouseBay]

Here you go HM.  I'm a Scarlett fan too. 



Fun run today, conditions were really good.  All the usual suspects were on the shuttle and had big smiles afterwards.  Some very fast times.

I've been practicing with 'stability' pads in my 10.  All this week over on the south shore, first maliko today.  It went better than I expected, only one fall.  I was on pins and needles the whole run.  "Just stay in the boat."  Just like starting over, very exciting.  Leverage on the paddle is much improved with the raised seat.  I can feel it in my core tonight. 

Malikos are going to be scary for a while, but south shore is a riot.  I'm having a solid insert built, very anxious to get it.  Smooth and hard feels better than foam.  I prefer sliding around in the bucket.

   

[covesurfer]

^^^^Thanks for that LPB.^^^^

Today was one of the windier days I can recall on Maliko. I had a personal best time as well. Some of my swiftness today may have resulted from spotting a tiger (maybe 8 or 9 feet) outside of Upper Kanaha. The water was exceptionally clear and I got a long look. Shiver me timbers. This gal (or guy) was maybe 6 - 10 feet off to my left and about four feet down. I came up on it fast and just kept right on going!

I had a strong motivation to stay on top of my board for the remainder of the run and had no more falls. Caught almost everything I went for, especially after the first third of the run, which initially felt slow and sticky to me but gradually got better and better. After a short while it was Stellar. Everybody was smiling and stoked at the finish. Sure feel fortunate to get days like today!

[PonoBill]

Seeing Tigers is good for your soul. The bad part about seeing them is it's like spotting deer. Once you know what to look for you'll be seeing a lot more. The good news is that whether you see them or not, they aren't actively hunting us. If that were the case I'd move to Cleveland.

LPB--that's such a fine clip. No one eats popcorn better.

[headmount]

Seeing Tigers is good for your soul. The bad part about seeing them is it's like spotting deer. Once you know what to look for you'll be seeing a lot more. The good news is that whether you see them or not, they aren't actively hunting us. If that were the case I'd move to Cleveland.

LPB--that's such a fine clip. No one eats popcorn better.

Cleveland?  Where they actually do hunt us.

I agree about seeing Tigers.  Saw the shadow of something close to the length of my board just outside the gulch a few weeks back.  If it was whale season, I would have said that.  The size kinda rattled me but that 'what-can-you--do-about-it' mentality took over.  This is like the Serengeti here in Hawaiian waters.  Many places in the world--they're gone. 

Yesterday smoked on the south side as well. 

[LaPerouseBay]

South shore has been fun this week. 

[headmount]

Damn that does look good.  Checked the cams earlier and saw nothing even tho I figured it would be smokin over there with the WD we had over on N shore.  So went for a so so run from Maliko....  What time did you launch?

[LaPerouseBay]

^Just a little after 3.

It's been excellent on the south shore if you are willing to wait for the wind to turn.  It's probably going to be good again today.

Kathy had a stellar run late Wednesday, launch was probably 4:30, due to my usual work schedule.  We launched from the boardwalk with good wind direction and speed.  Her inside line was ideal for the Halama street express.  Perfect rollers one after another.  Most fun she's ever had in a ski.

I got off early Friday.  Southbay joined in for a 2:45 launch.  It was offshore, we struggled in the skis.  I stayed behind to keep an eye out for Kathy, she had decided to follow SB's line and he was way out.  I was concerned for SB too, it can get knarly out there.  So when we finished I expected to hear SB say 'man, what a struggle' but he said 'that was the most surfy downwinder I've ever done.  Super fun'.  That new ultra light bullet must be fun under a good surfer.