The smokin spring and summer Maliko report

[Southbay]

Today was a really really fun run.  Glides right out of the gate and all the way to the harbor entrance!  Kathy and I stuck together and just surfed the whole way.  I brought the new GoPro again, and I tried to keep Kathy in frame when I could.  Man, these things sure make everything look tiny.  You can see the bumps alright, but I swear some of these were 6-8 feet.  Trying to film someone else is tricky too.  Kathy was right next to me and in the video...not so much.  Regardless it is fun to relive the run after the fact.  Tiring...but fun. 

Averaged 8.5 today for a 1:04, which is a personal best!  I think I can get under an hour (with wind like today) if I push and quit f-ing with the camera.

Hoping to go again tomorrow....can't decide if I am going to be a boat dork again, or man up and take the SUP?  M2M in April, and I want to do it on the OC-1, so trying to get all the boat time I can.  Hope you enjoy!



Southbay

[PonoBill]

Man up you weenie. Kathy too. Ah, well, okay, lady up, dammit.

I went looking for some old winter maliko threads. This one is pretty fun. Looking at the dates we were pretty much going every day, all winter, except when we just had to rest. http://www.standupzone.com/forum/index.php/topic,18380.0.html

And by the way, it's winter Shep.

[covesurfer]

To be fair, SB offered to let me be in the movies too. All I'd have to do is paddle next to him. And, in spite of the fact that it looks like he is hardly working in the vid, I could not catch up to him and Kathy today. I mean, I started out maybe 10 yards behind these two and they scurried away from me as if I was going backwards! So, no stardom for me today.

I was working my butt off trying to steer into the glides and paddling in bursts at the right times but it didn't do it. At the end of the run when I found out that I was only 5 minutes down, I felt pretty good about that. Of course, at the speed we were going, that's damn near a mile behind.

SB and Kathy stayed barely visible in the big windswell. By the end of the run, I lost both of them completely. The harbor entrance was crazy. At one point I got my boat completely sideways to the harbor mouth with waves pounding into my ama trying to flip me. Crazy water. Intense east wind. Wish I could go again tomorrow.

[PonoBill]

It's 6:52 and there's whitecaps. Saddle up, buckaroo.

[headmount]

SB, Liked seeing the back end for a bit.  It didn't seem to be lifting out of the water as you dropped in so that's pretty cool. 

Been thinking about that distance between the ama and boat.  Going for the farther distance to  get more stability might result in the opposite out in rough water where a bump farther away would lift the ama and tilt you to the right.  i used that 'more stable' setting in Bill's boat and could feel it lifting me to the right.  Drove me crazy then but now I think I understand it.

[Southbay]

HM, you are on the right track.  Bringing the ama in makes it easier to track with the boat and makes it easier to "fly", which outweighs any additional stability.  Yesterday was so fun.  I could not stop thinking about the run all night.  Unfortunately I just found out I had a meeting change times, and I can't go again today.  Hope you guys get it good, and HM feels better. 

Pono, if its smoking Maliko I am going to post here!  haha

[covesurfer]

It's a bit counter intuitive. Bringing the ama in closer makes balancing easier for me, even though it's supposedly less stable.  With the ama rigged stable, my boat always felt like it was on the verge of a huli. I'm out today too so have fun if you go and post a report.

[PonoBill]

Man, was it wicked today. The wind howled all night, and my assumption was that it would groom out the insanity of yesterday. Wrong. Not only was everything crossed up and crazy, but the wind was gusty, and the wind swells were huge. The baseline stuff was probably five feet as compared to yesterday's three feet, but the big mommas weren't ten feet like yesterday, they were twenty. And they were totally inconsistent.

I started off way inside, but the far end was covered in haze so I couldn't pick the usual landmarks, and the big stuff was coming though sounding like a pickup truck with bowling balls in the bed. The backsides of the big guys were covered in skeins of whitewater, which meant they were breaking in various places. I had a few breaking waves whip past my knee, but nothing tagged me. I was doing fine until Camp One, when everything went totally to shit. Big and small swells, all mixed together, going every which way. I saw wave shapes I've never seen before. W's, U shapes with a mound in the middle, big holes with swells falling into them. Seriously screwed.

When I finally could see the landmarks I realized I was further out than I've ever been. I knew I was catching a lot of rights, but that was ridiculous. I angled in and started catching long lefts. Fun but spooky because the big swells were refracting left. I'd catch a small bump and suddenly be looking down a huge, steep wave face. My rudder didn't seem to want to bite, probably because the faces were so bumpy that it wasn't in the water all that often. Most of the big drops ended with the same thought "Wow, okay, didn't die that time."

As I was passing Kanaha I was still angling in, but I was keeping a close eye out for the mysto Upper, outer, upper Kanaha. I know pretty well where it is, and there was nothing breaking on it. I decided I was through the worst of it and clear for a run to the harbor, when a big monster roared through, sounding like a jet taking off, sucked a big hole on top of UOU Pronounced Uh, Oh) and then fell into it with a crash.

Holy shit, thinks I, that was close. And then the board and I got picked up vertically and tossed into the pit. No chance for style. Helpless. Never saw the truck that hit me officer...

I hit the end of my leash going down under the water, which is unusual on a downwinder. Usually you kind of skip on the surface. I told myself to relax, don't waste energy, then I looked up and the surface looked like it was forty feet away. I swam like a madman for air and crawled on my board, gasping.

I sat there catching my breath, and realized how alone I really was. You're always alone on a Maliko, but none of the usual crew was with me except Kathy, and she was on a surfski--probably sitting down to dinner about then. If my board shattered and sunk or my leash broke no one would have any idea I had to swim for it. Even my wife is on a plane to Portland. It would be tomorrow before anyone even thought something might be wrong.

Ah, screw it, I thought, not that much different from any other time. I'm good with it. And I headed for the Harbor. About a hundred yards from the mouth, a pod of whales wandered in front of me. "Out of my way, I'm going in." I yelled. The milled around a bit, but left me a path.

Naturally there was a wicked cross wind in the harbor. Tonight I'm drinking beer and eating pizza. Because I can.

[yugi]

^ 

[headmount]

Because you can.  That was a great report.  Could relate to that lonely feeling.  We've all been within eyesight so much recently, especially on the southside, that getting out of sight on the north shore gets a little freaky.  Swell was coming up a tad today as well.

Well good you got a run because it looks grim for awhile.

[covesurfer]

Yep, great report PB. I couldn't help thinking about the message you left me though, rubbing it in that I couldn't go today. 

Maliko is the wild lands. Sounds like today it lived up to it's wild heritage.

[Southbay]

That was a damn fine report Pono.  Most Maliko runs end with me thinking "well I'm alive!".  It is seriously an adventure every time.  Jealous you got to go today.

Checking the report for tomorrow and its calling for 20MPH north winds, then 20MPH south winds?!?  Strange....

[PonoBill]

Might be a southside in there if we time it right. 2K shows a real clusterf$#k

[covesurfer]

I don't know what forecast you're looking at but the only water game in town today looks like surf on the west or south side. There is a little swell over there. I went over to Kihei yesterday with my wife and I was shocked that something was rolling in again. Heading over now (8:30 am), will try the peaks first.

[PonoBill]

There's whitecaps in the bay, with the wind from the east, and a pretty big swell. don't know where any of that came from, it's not in the forecast. I think it might be short lived, and the swell is from last night's wind.