I am both thrilled and saddened by today's beach cleanup at Sprecks. THRILLED because the kindness and caring nature of a few has made such a difference for so many but SADDENED because there should never be this much trash at a beach, who dumps a TV, their bed, a bible (yes there was a dumped bible!) and everything you can imagine on one of the most beautiful beaches in the world?
Everyone should take a long hard look at this and think about how they can do something for the environment because once it is destroyed it is GONE!
The message is clear, IF YOUR BEACH IS IN DANGER DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT and organise a cleanup.
On a more positive note (I think) today was a day to look for a new board because my 73 Tabou is showing signs of wear and has a nice crack on the bottom, I love this board, especially the comfort underfoot but it is not strong enough that is clear. So Bart (at Kanaha Kai) lent me a 74 Starboard Evil Twin in wood construction to try out, while a little heavier than the wood/carbon mix it seems that it is a little more rugged.
Evil Twin 74 Vs DaCurve 73
The Tabou is light and rips on the wave but I have not always been happy with it in the air, going to get out the sander and will fix and keep for wave riding at Hookipa. The Starboard felt good for jumping but I am concerned that the deck pads are not soft enough for my somewhat tired ankles and knees. I am going to test again tomorrow and see if I should part with my cash or looks for something else.
The aim of the day was to figure out a mast mount and test it on the water. Yesterday I bought the GoPro Roll Bar mount which set me back about 30 bucks. It seems strong and is big enough for a mast. To mount I first had to decide where to position, this was done very roughly and about two thirds the way up the mast (from reviewing pics it could come down slightly). The mount has 2 bolts, one which goes round the front of the mast and one that has to go through the luff so I used a sharp screwdriver to make a small 4mm or so hole for the bolts to go through. I was careful not to tighten too much and put any strain on the mast.
Once on the water the weight was not a problem and I didn’t even notice anything different. I had it set up for photos every two seconds but this meant that I developed a new jibe so that all the memory is not used up instantly; it is called the GoPro Jibe which I shall attempt to describe;
Must check it out before going on the water!
enter at full speed as per a normal carve jibe
carve hard, keeping constant pressure
flip the rig, and then comes the important bit
perform a controlled crash so that you can turn off the camera otherwise you will run out memory card space and you’ll have a ton of wasted pics.
water start away and the GoPro jibe is complete!
On reviewing the 800 or so images it seems that there is a little blurring, I am not sure if that due to condensation or something else, however I do hypothesise that it is due to the mast bending too much when loaded up because the images which are taken for example when the sail is lying in the water are clear. It was super windy and choppy so I am keen to try on a smoother day (hopefully one with waves). Despite some of the problems that I am having I am pleased with the results even if I know that they can (and will) improve. The pics would have been good today but I was struggling to find any ramps. Looking forward to trying out again with a few slight adjustments.
What’s on tomorrow in Maui? Looks like it should be a fun day!
Again not much wind forecast for today but as I checked Facebook my eyes lit up as Jimmy Hepp has posted something about South Side swell. It didn’t take long to get packed up and on our way, had a fun session at Launiupoko before checking out Lahiana Town and the Harbour where a ton of people were enjoying some nice clean fun. It was great to watch some total beginners having fun on the inside and catching their first waves while at the same time others were ripping it up outside. I had forgotten how good it can be there so will be heading back over there soon.
Nice clean surf!
Always great to see new people surf, this to me is a classic shot, I bet she is hooked!
By late afternoon there was a steady 13-15 knots on the North Shore so I quickly got myself down to Kanaha with the 8.0m. It was great to see Dan and Micah training together, these guys are so fast and watching was good but I had to focus on my own sailing and I have to say that there has been a 100% improvement from a few days back. I am starting to feel a little more comfortable and my board speed seems to have improved. I got round all my jibes (expect the last one) but need to try and exit with more speed – ok ANY speed would be nice! Looks like another light wind day tomorrow so will aim to get a little more practice in, I am finding it really tiring at the moment with the big gear, not sure if that is something that will wear off or not? What is fun is learning new things everyday; today I learnt some simple but important basics;
Kanaha is King for Slalom
Buy a Rig Winch
Get a long piece of downhaul rope
So overall, I am pleased that I am making progress but there is a LONG LONG way to go before I can race round a course at full speed. I am definitely skipping the race meeting this weekend although I will be there and may try to grab a few sneaky goes round the course while everyone is on their lunch break. I will be signing up for the event at the end the month which is the final one of the season.
LOCAL EVENT: There is a beach clean up at Sprecks this Saturday so if you are in the area be sure to stop by and help out.
No GoPro media today but I did fit the surfboard mount to my 8’0” so that is ready for action and I bought a roll bar mount yesterday for 30 bucks or so which will be perfect for the mast mount. Planning is everything so I will try to get that set up in the yard to make sure it all works, the last place you want to figuring out stuff is at the beach when there are wind and waves. I will add some pictures and info tomorrow.
Today’s post would not be complete without saying something about my perfect wife Liz; it is the anniversary of our first date today. Thanks Liz for all your support, friendship, love and laughs, you are the best without you none of this would be possible!
Not much wind was forecast for today so we both got up early to exercise. I had a great 7km run along the north shore from our house, past the airport and down to Kanaha and back while Liz worked in Home Gym (more on this in a later post).
The wind seemed strong enough later on so I zoomed to Ho’okipa but things were not as expected and I had a plod about on my 5.6m, should have gone for a 8.0m slalom session, I have learnt my lesson.
A little after 4pm we hopped into the car with our visiting friends and charged up the mountain to check out the crater and watch the sunset. While it is a classic tourist thing to do it is just beautiful up there and I always love it, today was rather cloudy but very warm which was a change. The drive is always tough and I am not sure whether my brakes or I were struggling more towards the end of the decent. I took tons of pics so just posted a few interesting ones here and the rest will be on my FB page soon. I also filmed the sunset so will compress the time and post when it is completed.
10,000 ft above sea level
Chris and Liz on top of the world
Diet Coke Advert?
Looking into the crater
Just got of the phone with Tom and booked in for some slalom practice with him tomorrow which will be great, not racing this weekend but will be in 2 weeks time, I want to have more practice before I get on the course. We seem to be stuck in this more winter like wind pattern at the moment but I am hopeful that we’ll get enough wind for the big kit. I will be sure to have the camera rolling.
So a day of ups and downs both literally and metaphorically, rather tired and sore from the days exploits so off to bed!
Ever since I first saw images from a GoPro camera a few years ago I have wanted one but I could never quite bring myself to part with the cash and I wasn’t too impressed with some of the first videos I saw out there. More recently the HD version was released and this has made a big impact so luckily to my complete surprise Liz bought me one for my birthday and had sent it directly to Hawaii, so I finally picked it up this week. So I have decided to GoPro but the question today is “Should we all GoPro?” Hopefully by sharing my experiences you will be able to make up your own decision (for those of you wondering I have no connection to the GoPro company so this is impartial – well at least until they give me some money!).
I can’t say much about setup yet but chatted to GP about how he set things up so started there. I got the SURF HERO HD which comes with a sticky mount for your surfboard but also a neat FCS adaptor so you can add a FCS plug to the deck and easily install the camera when required, when I am next mixing up resin (sure that it will not be too long!) I will add this to one of my surfboards (probably the 8’0”). Yesterday I picked up the bike seat post mount which works really well on the boom and I think with a little adjustment and some longer bolts could work as a mast mount. I saw a guy at Ho’okipa a couple of days with a mast mount but didn’t quite see how it was done hopefully I can check it out. The issue with mast mounts is that you have to cut the luff sleeve and given the increase in the number of people wanting to use mounts I wonder if there is a neat way that this can be built into the sleeve during design – something for Tom to work on in the loft!
I have fitted my camera with a 4GB SDHC ($30) card but I am concerned that it will not be big enough but I didn’t want to drop $120 for the biggest 32GB one but I recon that it could be a good investment in the long run.
So today I have tried a boom mount on my wave gear and immediately learned a few lessons, firstly make sure that you know which setting you need. I thought that I had set up for stills every 2 seconds unfortunately I had it on the multiple shot mode which takes a few shots one after the other then stops. So I thought that I had captured a few good waves that I got (yes I know that it is summer but we seem to be getting some better than normal swell) but I didn’t. I went back to the beach and worked it out but both the wind and waves dropped somewhat and then the camera fogged up. While it wasn’t the most successful first run out I did learn a lot so that is good.
This was my favourite shot that I took today, many of them were ruined by the fogging of the lens, I will get some goggle anti-fog and see if that works, I also need to do something to reduce the water droplets.
My second session of the day was at Sprecks with the 8.0m GPS and I decided to try the head mount shooting video. Looks like we may get some decent waves later in the week and into the weekend, the wind should be building again by then so I keen to get it attached to my wave gear and into some surf.
Ok this is a rather boring video and the quality is not great because I am working on a slow connection but I do like the head cam videofootage. Watching the video I look rather more comfortable than I really am.
So that’s my first effort (well actually not, I did borrow one last summer when we had a few waves) over the coming weeks I will try out different options and will post my experiences and you can make your own mind whether to GoPro.
Slalom 101 Update: After my wave session the wind was getting light so I decided that it would be the perfect time to get on the 8.0m. I am finding it a little tough on my arms due in part to the very long lines on the boom that I borrowed, I should try some shorter lines and/or a seat harness and see how that goes. While I found the session hard the good news is that I didn’t fall off any jibes!
I am planning to team up with my old friend Matt Wicks (who is also doing the Maui Race Series) over the next few days to see if a bit of training together will help. I also want to get out the GPS and see if that feeds back any good info. I am starting to think that this weekend may be a little soon and I may have to wait a further two weeks for the State Championships to make my debut/comeback.
Wider Water Community: Congrats must go to 15 year old Connor Baxter who won the Maui-Molokai SUP race a couple of days back. I interviewed him few years back for Boardseeker.com and it is great to see his waterman career develop. Nice one! There are lots of pictures on Jimmy Hepps’ FB page so check them out.
Spread the Word: You have obviously read this far, you may have enjoyed what I have had to say, you may not, but do me a favour and pass on to your windsurfing and other interested buddies.
Up Next: Our friends from Bahrain just arrived today so think that I will take them on a hike or something in the morning so that is likely to feature heavily tomorrow and there are plans to watch the sunset from 10,000 ft +. I will also try to get out for some more slalom action and take some more GoPro shots/video with some different settings.
It has been almost a year since I got my hands on some borrowed slalom gear at the 2009 VMAX speed series (hopefully there will be some 2010 events coming up) and I am planning to compete in the Maui Race Series this weekend so want to get out there and see how things are. I used to race on the UK circuit when I was at school and sailed slalom gear full time until I was 18, then discouraged by my results at the 1994 Youth World in Denmark I quit racing (I know it might have been a bit rash), swapped all my slalom gear for wave kit and bought my first ticket to Hawaii. Racing was very different back then but interestingly many of he names are still about and it seems that many of my peers from that era seem to have landed themselves in Maui with the likes of Jon Smalley, Matt Wicks and Dan Ellis all regulars at the beach here. The gear has changed dramatically and the lighter winds today were a perfect opportunity to get out and try some more modern gear and see if I can still race. I wasn’t that good back then so hoping that some maturity may help me out a little!
This is Tom on his race kit and I would like to thank him and HSM for all their help so far in making this slalom dream a reality.
The first thing that has not changed is the amount of kit you need – tons! At the start of the day I had a board, 2 sails and a in but it but somehow by the end of the day I seem to have begged, borrowed and bought rather more and now boast 4 slalom sails 8.0m thru 6.0m and more masts and booms to fit, I do need to get another mast and think that with the added load of the bigger rigs I should invest in some new extensions and bases that up until now have just had to cope with my 5.0m wave sail.
With the wind steady between 16 and 18 knots (not wanting to push myself too hard) I took the 6.6m, I should have had the 7.3m up but I don’t have a mast for that yet. What was clear from my some what brief session is that I will need rather more practice over the coming days if I am going to be able to compete at the weekend. What is for sure is my level of tiredness today and the big smile on my face it was great to be out and I was amazed that it had been almost 15 years since I owned a slalom board!
GoPro Update: Managed to get a good mount so tomorrow looks like it will finally be operational so there should be some video on the next post.
Wider Windsurfing Community: I have just had an email to say that the WindSurfer International Magazine is now live which is always worth a read, thanks for your hard work Brian.
Coming up tomorrow: I need to step up the slalom training so I am considering a Sprecks to Kanaha loop. I was reasonably pleased with today’s effort but I will need to be MUCH better by the weekend that is for sure!
I was really pleased to wake up at 6:30am today rather better than yesterday’s effort. The 13 hour time difference between here and Bahrain is sometimes rather hard to cope with but the jet lag seems to be wearing off a little. Luckily I was awake enough to avoid the 3 massive centipedes who has been chilling out in my board bag over night to avoid the rain (later we found a dead scorpion in our bedroom!).
A bite from one of these can lead to plenty of localized swelling, they love to hide under things like sheets of wood, board bags etc.
Anne (Liz’s sister) is a big fan of family day and always puts together a plan for the 4 of us (5 at the moment with Liz’s mum visiting from the mainland) luckily it always resolves around the beach, today was no different and it was great to go to Kanaha to hang out, chat, sail and swim. The wind didn’t want to play game though and just as soon as Tom and I got 500m off the beach on the way to Uppers the wind started to shut off eventually leaving me to slog in from about a mile out on my 73 and 5.0m.
It was still early so Tom went Wind Fishing (for those who haven’t seen this imagine an old windsurf board sailing around with a fishing line attached to the back) and in hope of finding more wind and better waves I rode up to Ho’okipa to check it out. The waves were good by July standards with head high sets and not too many out, the wind got better as the late session went on but the crowd of surfers and SUPers were taking their toll on my wave count so I called it a day at 5:30pm.
It was a beautiful day here and while Tom was unsuccessful in catching our dinner the Mahi-Mahi he almost caught got bigger as more empties stacked up.
The Hawaiian Mahi-Mahi, rather strange looking fish, they get real big and taste great.
Tom on a more successful wind fishing day after cooking them on an open fire at the beach, perfect!
Coming up tomorrow...
The forecast is for the wind to drop for the next few days, looks like a perfect opportunity to get onto so slalom gear so tomorrow’s post will likely be dedicated to finding out how to set up some gear and working out how I am going to get round a course with 15 other guys trying to beat me on Saturday!
More to follow…
