The fall and winter Maliko report

[pdxmike]

Another confirmation of something that gets mentioned often in rescue situations--how difficult it is to see people in the water. 

[808sup]

The wind this yr. has been as good as you could ask for. The run's that I had yesterday and today were both really fast. The harbor was outta control today blowing nearly straight in your face! The exhaust from the cruise ship only added to the misery I did see the mangled ski on the lawn and wondered what happened. Glad to hear he made it in. I'm sure we haven't seen the last of our winter swells. At least I hope we will see a few more....

[Southbay]

Being that it is nearly October, I figured I would resurrect this thread.  2012?  Must have done alot of Kihei runs last few winters! 

So today was wild....Not crazy windy 20+, but plenty of swell, so it was not really white capping.  The shuttle up was pretty empty.  Me, Devin, Vitea and a Tahitian friend.  Paddled out of the gulch and the glides were better than Saturday, but still not great.  Definitely feeling like winter.

Devin past me around Baldwin after a fall, and I could not catch her the rest of the run.  Her line looked a little inside, but I was already behind, so I couldn't waste time chickening out!  Around Upper Kanaha a set stacked up and I knew it could be close, but if I caught the first one I could skirt the reef and get out of harms way.  I caught the first one, went right hard and took it as far as I could, but it was not quite enough.  The one behind it was already feathering.  Luckily it was still just at the top, not breaking top to bottom.  I turned so it could hit me straight.  I ran to  the back of the board to keep from pearling and paddled hard.  It was a large wave, but it was still in deep water, and I was able to catch it and not get knocked off the board.  I turned right as hard as I could manage and went down the line.  The wave was starting to bend in front of me on the reef.  I was really flying down the line!  Wanted to  pull off, but also didn't want to get clipped by the one behind it.  As is started to  bend too hard, I pulled up and off, and was out of danger.  It was a 5 wave set, but the Upper Upper Outer reef was behind me and I was in the clear. 

I finished a few hundred yards behind Devin.  Damn she is fast...As we were paddling through the harbor I saw a big splash about 100 yards behind Devin and 100 yards in front of me.  I looked up and stared hard on the spot.  I have seen big rays in the harbor, and they can splash around, so I was concentrating hard on the spot and again a big splash.  Now I started to veer out away from the splash just in case it was a shark, and BOOM out of the water comes a easily 10 foot shark.  It was no BS just like the footage of the whites eating seals, completely out of the water and sort of spasming in mid air.  I am NOT saying this was a white shark, the water on Maui is like 84 right now, so very doubtful, but it was grey and white and flying through the air.  I didn't want to yell and Devin and have her slow down, so I just paddled hard and fast.  Careful not to splash, just clean and fast!  Devin had no idea what was behind her.  Vitea and his friend were about 10 minutes behind us and they also saw it. 

Very exciting day for poor wind.  I could go for some more of the traditional downwind thrills, but all in all a exciting day on the water.

[headmount]

Yeah I forgot about this thread even tho I started it.  Last week we had a four day 'trend' out of Maliko but the wind has shifted notably to a more northerly direction favoring the south shore.  Cove, Victor and I went there and scored today and I was very happy to avoid any  leaping sharks that Southbay reported.  Who knows what this winter will bring.  It certainly has been an odd summer.

Nice save and drop-in Southbay!

[covesurfer]

We need to resurrect this thread. Resurrecting anything at my age is good.

Southbay, YIKES, you had an eventful paddle. I saw your cars at the harbor when I drove past. We got a total bonus on the southside. We launched from the canoe club across from Suda's Store around quarter to three. We paddled straight out about 1/2 mile or so then turned left. HM, Victor and I all stayed close together for the whole run. It was literally nothing but three or four strokes and surf, connect, surf, connect on big, fat, smooth rollers for miles. The kind of FUN that downwinding is supposed to be about.

I already posted a report on Saturday's run down Maliko on the Smokin Spring and Summer Maliko thread. It was rugged and satisfying because it was difficult and required skill and judgement to pull off. But I'm not sure I had that much fun. On the other hand, I AM sure I had fun on the southside run.

The shark story is disturbing for a number of reasons. First, I have, on at least four or five occasions, seen something huge jumping out in the middle of the basin between the ships and tugs (the outer east end of the harbor) out of the corner of my eye and also have seen the same thing out in the middle of the outer harbor.  Whatever I saw, it was BIG and came clear out of the water. Then, a couple weeks ago, paddling harbor circles in my outrigger, I saw a smaller shark eating what I presumed to be a turtle for about 15 seconds. This one was about 70 feet away from me and probably just a reef shark - only 5 or 6 feet probably. But the thrashing was continuous and determined and 15 seconds seemed like a very long time to watch this. Anyway, that is tres spooky.

Great report SB. Maybe try for SSide again later on today....

[PonoBill]

Could be a spinner--they jump pretty high, and they get to about ten feet. Pointy nose, thresher sort of tail. they hang in tropical waters. The high jump specialist is the shortfin Mako, but they like cold water. Coulda been a white. Temperature doesn't matter too much. It's colder down where they live. If it looked like this...



...run.

[Southbay]

Just looked up the Spinner Shark, and the description of how it feeds seems correct, but the coloring looks like a gradual Grey to white, and the shark that I saw was very distinct grey and white.  If I was in the mainland I would have thought white shark for sure, but this picture of a Tiger is exactly what it looked like.  Not sure if they jump?  God I hope they don't...

[Southbay]

More Pier 1 footage: 

[PonoBill]

Oh yeah, they jump. Not really high, they aren't that fast, but they get their body out of the water. I saw one boot a turtle ten or so feet in the air once. Didn't see the shark, but the turtle looked like a big green frisbee. This blonde girl that was surfing next to me (Blonde, I swear!) said "I didn't know they could do that."

Spinners actually look almost uniform grey, though their bellies are lighter.

[covesurfer]

Went today on Maliko. Very light attendance on the shuttle.

It looked on the light side for wind on the ride up but there was actually still plenty of swell with head high to overhead waves at Ho'okipa. The bay at Maliko was still nasty brown and the water was dark paddling out. Once outside the gulch, it was evident that the big east windswell was still running full steam. I'd estimate the swell at 10 to 14 feet which is still quite significant.  The wind was due east and fortunately, it was much better than it looked from shore. However, it was immediately apparent that this was going to be another rugged run where the swell was a huge factor, no pun intended.

Trouble was, there was a significant amount of north in the swell and you did not want to be inside with that much water moving around. So, the order of the day was to stay outside and surf right, which was really tough. There was a lot of surface chop and some nice easterly surface waves that were probably 4 to 6 or 7 feet. These were on top of the big 12+ foot rollers so it got pretty damn difficult to make connections, stay upright, keep your line and read the water.

I had managed to chase Ralf out of the gulch and start just behind him. Surprisingly, we finished very close together - which is unusual. Ralf is typically 5 minutes or more ahead of me. But, as I mentioned, it was technical, bumpy, and rugged. Not a day that you could make great time. Ralf can break an hour on a good day but today we both paddled an hour and seventeen minutes to get to the harbor. Slow going. Although I never did put many connections together today, I got a lot of really fun drops and surfs. One big bomb but lots of the smaller stuff. The wind turned out to be excellent for much of the run. There were places it was light and even almost non-existent, but for the most part, it was solid high 20's or even +.

What a difference paddling these conditions compared to doing Kihei runs the previous days. No question Maliko makes you a better paddler but I often feel like I'm just surviving the run rather than shredding and surfing like I feel on the south shore. Glad to say that there were ZERO JUMPING SHARKS on today's run. I'm ready for a few more on the south side again. A little bit of Maliko in today's conditions goes a long way for me.

[headmount]

First Maliko for me in a few months and very good.  Fair east swell running.  Wind was light for a few miles out of the gulch then lit up the rest of the way.  Looked forward to paddling with my pal PBill but he removed himself from the mix farting around... his second day back. 

Wintery conditions.  You had to be weary of outside sets off uppers and tomorrow will probably be even more sketchy with a NW swell added in.  SOme zoners from Oahu coming over so that should be fun....

[PonoBill]

Sorry about that. It looked pretty flat here about the time I figured you got in, but then it picked right up and I was kicking myself.

[headmount]

A year from now will be election day but today Southbay and I went down wind in full winter conditions.  Swell was supposed to drop but was even bigger than yesterday, a day I passed on because too much swell.  But we went today because we were ... nuts.  No problem getting away from the shore with east winds which felt good since rather hefty bombs were rolling under us on their way towards shore.  Wind was spectacular out of the gate and even though surface was a little  crossed up from the swell, drops were breath-taking and smooth until you got lifted up and out. 

Elevation changes were significant.  Southbay was just ahead of me in a trough and it seemed I was around 50 feet above him.  The ups and downs are a real workout on your legs.

We were outside beyond any threatening bombs and had a long cut left to do at the end to finish at the oil tanks.  But surf provided a quick traverse.  One wave covered around a half mile. 

We were buzzed when we got in.  Big water means safety first or maybe second or third... maybe fourth.  Here's a pic Southbay took.  I was surprised at how clean a shot his i6 takes.  I have one and will have to try it.  Anyway you'll notice that there isn't any flat horizon behind and that's the way it was.... long slopes.

[covesurfer]

Those are nice photos HM but they barely capture the energy out there today. Great color. Launching a little behind you guys, I think the wind was maybe a notch more steady with some great gusts. I opted for my OC1 and when I saw how the conditions were shaping up as I returned to the harbor to catch the shuttle, I was kicking myself for not taking my standup.

Today was probably the biggest conditions I've seen in my boat and it was technical and spooky, but I never had any drama. I did paddle somewhat conservatively as an ama down crash was a definite possibiliy on some of the big bombs - not something I wanted to test out. Drops were huge and super fun, especially at the upper end of the run. I was nervous with the size of the east windswell and a respectable northerly groundswell about the reef at upper Kanaha, so I made sure to stay far outside. It's tough to see far ahead in big swell when you're sitting down. On the standup, you can see where it's breaking and choose your line as needed. In the boat, you don't want to make the wrong call since a big breaker could pretty much dismantle you if you had some bad luck. As I made the run towards the harbor mouth, it was apparent that Pier One was showing some surf as well. I just made sure I ran far enough west and had an absolutely awesome last section towards the entrance. Lots of fun bumps in there.

I thought it was a great run, even with the big windswell and choppy surface but it was a bit sticky. I managed to come in just ahead of the fast standup girls but only because I was in the boat. If I'd been on my board, they would have trounced me. 

Hats off to Mr. HM and SB for braving the line into the oil tanks today. There's more of this on tap I think. I'm hoping the swell comes down a tad but I don't expect it will.

[TallDude]

Those ain't no bumps and troughs... I've been In some deep troughs where it seems the world disappears, but those rollers are crazy huge. You got to feel pretty small out there.