Category: Maui Surf
Hana Highway Surf in Paia sponsored a paddle race from Ho’okipa to Paia Bay today. The race was all ages including men and women and featured a variety of surf craft with 9’6″ longboards, paddle boards and stand up paddle boards. It was a good turn out with more than 60 entrants and lots of kids competing. I participated on the stand up paddle side of the event.
While rainy skies were forecasted for the windward part of the island, the storms managed to stay offshore. After registering participants, we all gathered for race instructions. From there, the racers hit the water. We paddled in mass out past Pavillions surf break for the start. A few of the stand up paddle surfers caught waves in Pavillions’ waist high wind swell as they waited. With a wave of the judge’s arms and a barely audible whistle, we were off.
This is the first time I have been in any sort of race, land based or paddle since elementary school so I did not quite know what to expect. Adrenaline played a part at first. I paddled hard out of the gate before I realized that I would run out of gas quick. There were a couple really good stand up paddle surfers who were moving like they had outboard motors. Riding on 13 foot or longer boards, they were pulling away from the pack to the point that they were a good 5 to 10 minutes faster than the nearest finishers.
After shifting gears and trying to conserve my energy for a bit, I found that I had started to slip behind the pack. Racers that had been 10 yards behind were now 10 to 20 yards in front of me. Right around that time, I found myself on a good swell and my board began to glide. A few strong paddles and I was riding another open ocean swell. I was able to link four or five of these glides together with some strong paddling. The end result was a surge that put me back in the thick of things. Unfortunately, it also expended a good bit of my energy. From there, each paddle was a little more grueling than the last.
After 31 minutes and some odd seconds, I stumbled across the finish line in Paia Bay. It was a fun race and something I would definitely like to try again. My lack of stamina on the water and the dull ache in my arms as I type are a reminder that I may need to get out behind the desk and train a little more between now and the next race.
While winter is Maui’s major surf season, the last ten days or so has brought a lot of fun surf to the shores of Maui particularly the South and West shores. As winter continues to crank away in the summer hemisphere, a series of large storm ranging from New Zealand to points east created swell trains that have headed in Maui’s direction. It resulted in a period of fun surf for many of Maui’s South and West oriented beaches. As an added bonus, a Hurricane to the east of Hawaii that rapidly dissipated also sent waves our way. While business kept me tethered to the North Shore for much of the week, I was pleasantly surprised to see nice head high waves rolling into selected North Shore surf spots on Monday and Tuesday. These swell have only bolstered local surfers appetites for the beginning of North Shore surf season just a couple of months away. In the interim, those who need their fix will be able to get some decent waves on the South side of this island through the remainder of the weekend.
I just returned from a little Jalbert family get together in Oregon. It was great to see family and Oregon is a beautiful place in its own right, but it is always nice to touch down in Kahului airport. The cooling tradewinds were particularly welcoming after experiencing record heat in Portland.
Thought I would start back on a lighter note on the blog. I have had a few posts on the blog about the sport of Stand Up Paddle Surfing. One of my blog posts was even picked up as an article in the Australian paddle sports publication Kanu Kulture. Yesterday, Maui held the inaugural Maui International Paddleboard Race. The race featured conventional paddleboarding where competitors paddle on their knees or in a prone position as well as Stand Up Paddle Surfing. It sounds like there were good numbers represented on the stand up paddle side. The event drew over 100 participants. The winner of the race was the world’s best paddle surfer Jamie Mitchell of Australia and famous Maui waterman Dave Kalama came in second. The Maui News had a brief writeup and pictures while the race site had a complete list of results.
While it is safe to say Mitchell and Kalama don’t have too much to worry about, the Jalbert brothers hope to be participants in next years event.
While Maui may occasionally experience an occasional traffic jam, today I experienced the type of gridlock that most could appreciate. Billy and I headed out for a beautiful post work stand up paddle session. This is always a great way to blow off steam and take in the beauty of Maui’s ocean environment. We decided to paddle down the coast for a couple of miles. Before long, most of the day’s worries were left in my wake. I was doing my best to synchronize my board with the ocean and ride some of the open ocean swells. I must have been in a bit of a trance because I did not see the extra large sea turtle right in front of me. I only became aware of his presence when I heard a large splash just a few yards in front of my board. When I looked up, I saw the turtles rear flippers dissapearing below the surface as he frantically stroked towards the bottom of the ocean. Suddenly more aware of my surroundings, It came as a bit of a surprise when not 5 minutes later I saw a school of flying fish rapidly approaching me. My surprise turned to shock when I was suddenly engulfed in a cloud of fish. I heard wings flapping and then a dull thud as a couple of the fish caroomed off my chest. With the great expanse of the Pacific around me, Its hard to believe that I had such a tough time finding space among Maui’s beautiful marine life. This is the type of gridlock I could grow to love!
The kona wind conditions over the last month kept our skies grayer than usual and also kept a lot of windsurfers sitting on the beach. The return of the trades has meant the familiar site of windsurfers out on the water along Maui’s North Shore. A late season winter swell and steady trades combined today to create the conditions that make windsurfers from all over the world congregate to Maui. If owning a home in the world’s windsurfing mecca has always been a dream, check out the current real estate listings in Paia and Haiku.
It has been a while since I have done a surf post on the blog. Between a busy schedule and a lack of surf, I have not had much opportunity to get in the water. La Nina weather patterns tend to mean smaller surf on the North Shores of the Hawaiian Islands and that has been the case this year. The southern hemispheres on the other hand have been a little bit more active than usual for this time of year. Yesterday, the South and West shores of Maui saw a nice swell come up. Billy and I set the alarms early this morning so we could get our gills wet. It had been far too long and it felt fantastic to get on the water. We took our stand up paddle boards to a wave a little bit away from the rest of the crowd. For the most part, it was just Billy and me splitting the waves between ourselves. In the distance, we were able to watch whales playing. After about an hour and a half, the two of us headed back to shore refreshed from the water but fatigued from the paddle. You could not have asked for a much better Maui morning.