The fall and winter Maliko report

[stoneaxe]

Kinda weird being 58 and wanting to be like your big brother when you grow up.......

[covesurfer]

So, today was the first Maliko run of 2016. Woo Hoo!

We have had terrific surfing conditions with waves and no wind. Today, we were in-between swells and, like a miracle, we had smokin' easterly wind. Maliko was on! Only 6 of us showed up for the shuttle but Kelly seemed stoked to run us up to the top. Four of us in boats, LPB and Kathy in their skis, Southbay and I in our OC1's and two peeps on standup, PB and Southbay's buddy, Jamil.

It's definitely been awhile since I've done a run, a couple of weeks to be exact. And, I haven't done a Maliko run since early November. Still, I didn't feel too bad and going in the OC1 gives you a lot of surfing advantage over standup. Kind of a nice way to ease back in.

Conditions were smokin'. Wind was pretty much straight east, there was even been a bit of south in it. I went waaay outside and I was being extra careful to steer well and never get the boat 'out of shape' - out of the perfect window where it doesn't round up on a wave face. The wind got weird as I got closer to the harbor entrance, probably due to the ESE direction. The waves stayed good all the way, but you had to paddle hard to get into them as you got on the inside, unlike on the rest of the run where you were fully exposed to the wind.

Some of the drops were unreal, 10 to 15 feet I'd say. And big, smooth, and pretty steep slopes to run down. Super fun but definite potential for boat carnage with poor technique. I spent many waves fully stretched out, my back on the deck behind the seat. Lots of fun. I managed a 1:07 without putting in serious effort. I think it would have been a record time for me if I hadn't gone outside so far but I did not want any drama.  Just surfing the boat and surviving. Hope this is a sign that 2016 will be all-time for downwinders.

[covesurfer]

Here's a little video from today. This so does not do the conditions justice but it's still cool, at least I think so...

[PonoBill]

You must have taken that "go until you see Waikiki and turn left" advice seriously. I never saw any of you guys until I saw Shep just before the harbor, though I started with a big lead. I knew you would all go by. I guess my "hug the reef" line wasn't popular.

[Off-Shore]

Here's a little video from today. This so does not do the conditions justice but it's still cool, at least I think so...

Those look like awesome conditions and you had some great glides. Nice to see some OC action for a change. Thanks for sharing Cove!

[covesurfer]

In watching the vid and remembering the lines I took, I realized that I pretty much went straight down or at a very shallow angle on most all of the glides. I've found that angling more, whether on the standup or in the OC, gives you faster overall speed and allows you to make better connections. So, typically, I try to avoid going straight down the faces and instead try and steer a line across the waves.

However, although you can't tell from the video, yesterday's drops were so big and so fast that I was very aware of the danger of getting rounded up at high speed (due to loss of rudder, from high speed cavitation or because it simply came out of the water), possibly resulting in a major and potentially disastrous crash. A friend on O'ahu just broke his boat into 5 pieces in an 'ama down' cartwheel on a large wave face that he was trying to angle across. So, I was being extremely cautious. I also took a conservative line, far off-shore, to avoid any large, rogue surf. I was by myself, no other peeps nearby, and I knew a broken boat would mean a very long and dangerous swim.

Of course, the fisheye GP lense makes it look like a 2 foot lake swell but it was big, steep and very fast.  When you are by yourself, you are also very aware of the ocean's size and risks involved in playing out there on Neptune's magic carpet ride.

[Southbay]

You look like you are going right alot.  I seem to only over turn when going left...strange feeling being a goofy foot and preferring to go right!  haha.  What kind of boat was your friend on Oahu in?  I find that Kai's boats (Kai Wa'a) are much better at staying up on the swell.  I borrowed my buddies Pueo and it was super easy to catch a bump, but seemed to side slip down the bump to the bottom.  IDK, not good enough to really handle either boat, but that what it felt like to me.  You are looking good in the vid.  Dam good time too!  I had a couple really fast miles that day, mile 2 I did in 6 min 14 sec, which is damn fast for me.  Hoping maybe a Kihei run tomorrow....keep up the filming!

[covesurfer]

Wow, SB, 6:14! That's over 9 mph average!

My fastest was Mile 4 @ 6:45, which was 8.9 mph average. But, I really was holding back a lot. If there had been a few others close by, I would have pushed it and no doubt set a personal record for the run. A 1:07 while you're holding back is still pretty fast and almost every mile was well over 8 mph average.

I'm not sure if having the XM at my weight is such a good thing when it gets really big like Sunday. More volume makes the boat skip on top of the water when you really get it going. The XS would be a better fit for me. Even when I'm wearing my winter fat, I'm still only about 153 lbs which is pretty light for an XM.

Interesting observations about the Pueo too. I have never paddled anything other than Pono's big full Scorpius and my XM. I need to try some other boats, but I'm especially interested in the XS. Kihei is going to rage on Sunday it looks like. Frontal passage on Saturday is supposed to leave us with strong, dry, north winds on Sunday. It will probably be a day for standup downwind on Kihei. I'm down for going in the boat whenever there's enough to push us even a little bit. Let me know if it's looking good and I'll rally.

[Southbay]

What about the race saturday?  West winds?!? WTF

[covesurfer]

Today we got a break from the large swell that has been hitting the north shores of Maui for the last week or 10 days. And, the wind that has been holding off for the past 5 days or so, allowing for some epic surfing conditions, came back nicely today. We're briefly right in between our last major swell and the forecasted 13 to 16 foot monster swell that is supposed to hit us this evening through Tuesday. Maliko looked like a summer day, small leftover surf and wind from the ENE at 20 to 30 mph. Pretty much perfect conditions for a Maliko run. And knowing that it would be a very brief window to make a run, was motivating.

Despite that, not a lot of folks interested in paddling today. Three of us rallied and self shuttled to do the run early afternoon. Devin and PB were all in for it. We launched around 1:45 and Pono took the lazy line, turning down almost as soon as he was out of the gulch. On the south shore, that would be the 'chicken line' but not so on the north side. The further inside you are, the more you are likely to encounter, from breaking surf to diminished winds and more current. Not always, but this time of year, it's a gamble. Devin and I went pretty far outside, at least 3/4 to a mile out, and then turned down. I think the outside line qualifies more as the chicken line.

Graciously, Devin gave me a nice head start of a couple minutes. We stayed outside pretty far and it was lighter wind, maybe 15 to 20, but great bumps, all the way to Camp 1/Sprecks. Lots of fun, but don't stop paddling! At Camp 1, it really started to kick and the bumps got really good and surfy as the wind piped up to about 30 mph. Around Kanaha, Devin finally caught me, but the conditions were so good that she didn't blow by me until almost the end. Of course, she's on a 14' while I'm on a Bullet 17. Check you ego at the door paddling here, there's plenty of peeps going to blow your doors off 

Pono stayed on the more inside line the whole run and told us he'd had to fight the push onto the reefs as he got on the lower third of the paddle. There was definitely enough north in the wind to make the outside line a bit friendlier, especially at the end when you could finally turn down and run for the harbor entrance with absolutely lined up wind and swell.

Awfully fun to go with these two characters. Wish PB would be around longer this year but I'm going to make a nuisance of myself and get in his program as much as I'm able.

[yugi]

What's Devin riding?

[PonoBill]

That was fun! I had a few spooky moments, the swell that came last night and is pounding pretty hard this morning was preceded bu the super long period stuff, which can break at upper Kanaha because the ramp is so long. A few serious bombers missed me by not very much. If I'd been tagged it would have been time for a new board, and maybe a long swim in. Then Outer, Upper, Upper went off a couple of times. I was well inside it, but it broke while I was going by and scared the crap out of me. Reformed before it reached me, as I thought it would, but geez, that's a horrible looking thing to see on your first run of the year.

I had no business being so far inside, and it was slower because I had to keep scratching out. the wind and swell were conspiring to shove me onto the reef. But lots of fun all the same.

Devin figured out why you were so insistent about waiting for her to get back from the south side--you didn't have to drive me back to the crapmobile. I guess I better do some work to that thing, it might have to last more than just the next few weeks.

I think Devin is actually on a custom 15 with Bullet rocker. Perfect size for her.

[PonoBill]

Boy, that was fun!. Bill Boyum and went about noon, set up to come in at the oil tanks since the cruise ship was in the harbor. The wind on the north shore has been off the charts lately, blowing night and day and fetching up 2000 miles of gnarly wind swell. We haven't done Maliko runs because the storms coming through make the surface just insane. Today was no exception, though the storms were far out to sea. Not much groundswell from the north, but the east wind swell is fricken' huge. The rock island off the end of Uaoa Bay is my swell gauge. when the north swell is crashing over the top of the 30-foot high island, Peahi is breaking. Today the east wind swell was smashing over the rocks, throwing spray three times the height of the island. I've had Ponohouse since 1999 and I've never seen that before.

I wanted to go, but I was a bit nervous. Looking at the ocean on the drive to the harbor did nothing to calm my nerves. Huge. Fricken' huge, and blowing like stink. When we got to Maliko Gulch the mouth looked like the gates of hell. OK, yeah sure, let's paddle into that.

Once we got out and I started catching bumps in the immense conditions, I was nervous and tight. I fell three times right away.

the key to doing a big Maliko is to be loose and charge hard. If you go slow you're like some loon doing thirty in the middle lane of a California freeway. If you charge hard, you're going about as fast as all the scary shit around you--like trucks, only twenty feet high. And when you drop into a big swell and see all the crazy crap down in the trough, jinking and popping, waiting to smack into you, if you're going fast enough, they're all moving with you. You have time to react and steer--though steering is a little challenging when you're balanced on the tail of your board, going 20+.

Once I got going well, and stopped screaming "HELP!", I started having fun, and one big drop led to another. Pretty soon Boyum and I were flying. I'm sure he couldn't hear all my yelling, but I was crying havoc and having a blast.

We rock and rolled all the way to Kanaha, where we had to turn in. The wind was due east and decided to double in speed just to fuck with us. I convinced myself I was going great when I got hit from the side with ten feet of whitewater. So that didn't work. I Pocahontas-ed my way over the reef, and then got up in time to catch some nice refracted waves that had faces and everything. Rode a few pretty much all the way to the beach, then fell one last time just to maintain my humility just before I hit the beach.

Boyum and I were babbling like kids. Great run, and we didn't die or nothin'.

[Argosi]

Wow, sounds like a downwinder to remember. Gotta get one of those on video so the rest of us can enjoy it also!

[headmount]

It was a day things could go wrong if you didn't play your cards right.  We thought we stayed well outside the outer reefs but still saw a few breaking just inside us at a certain point. 

After we got the boards on the truck, I exhaled and felt like I'd gone 15 rounds.