maui trip November 4-15. Aloha classic comp

From: Alain Dumesny (adumesny@usa.net-DeleteThis)
Date: Mon Nov 16 1998 - 17:42:46 PST

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Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1998 17:42:46 -0800
From: Alain Dumesny <adumesny@usa.net-DeleteThis>
Organization: Platinum Technology inc.
To: wind_talk <wind_talk@opus.hpl.hp.com-DeleteThis>
Subject: maui trip November 4-15. Aloha classic comp
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Just got back from 12 days in maui, and was lucky enough to be there
during the Aloha classic (PWA final competition) at Hookipa, which also
meant you couldn't sail there during the week of event.

The first couple days I didn't sail as I was working of fixing my
grandparent's ex condo in Kihei which we will be using as rental
and for ourselves when we go there. Should be nice... :-)

I ended up sailing 5 days there (1 kihei, 4 north shore) on mostly 5.7
and 5.2 (185#). We had 4 days of no wind but very large waves early
last week. Last monday the wind and waves came together for a great
show at hookipa - there were huge 20+ foot faces coming in sets of 4-5
with some of the worlds best sailors ripping it out. Lanes (just
downwind
from hookipa by mama's fish house) was epic with waves closing the
entire beach - ouch !

All of the best sailors of the worlds were there - kinda neat to see
them
face to face after seeing/reading about them in the mags. Both Robby and
Bjorn got eliminated that day in the 3rd round.

No wind tuesday/wednesday (went hiking up the crater at haleakala (sp)
which at 10,000 feet is a lot crisper than down by the beach). thursday
was light (still 5.7 sailable at sprecs for me) so they did the finals
on friday which got some good mast high sets in the morning for the
men's final. Dave Kamala against Jason Polakov for the winner finals,
and Kevin Pritchard
against Hollenbek (?) for the looser finals. For the final, Dave got a
huge wipeout on the very first big wave - the board took off as he was
coming down the bottom of the face. His mast broke and the jet ski
couldn't get to him for a while (waves came in crashing). Eventually
some
guy from the beach got out to give him another fresh setup. At first I
thought: gee this is nice, first they have jet skis to pull them
out then they break, then have a someone bring you a complete
replacement
rig. I wish I had that when I break down in the impact zone !!

I then realized that some other pro (F #6) went out to lend Dave his own
gear, which would explain why Dave didn't seem to be ripping it out like
his competitor was... must be hard to suddenly have to compete for the
worlds wave sailing final on someone's else gear !

needless to say KA 1111 looked amazing out there... very graceful out
there
with such big waves. Not a big guy and very polite/friendly back at the
beach. Real kind on the waves though... nice !

For a week of my stay I stayed on the shore shore in sprecs at Bob's
place
which was really nice for launching right up front. But I still like
the main sprec beach better for the waves, although a lot more crowded.
Couldn't sail Hookipa due to the event, too bad...

Overall, fun trip but somewhat flaky winds (late in the season) and
I still think some of the places here on the coast have the best wave
break I've seen anywhere. In maui a lot of the breaks are on sometimes
very swallow coral reefs that stick out. Scary to carve down the
face of a wave only to see the water pulling out under the waves and
see the reef emerge at the last minute... Yikeeess... did some
damage to the rental gear. I guess that's what insurance is for... :-)

Oh, I almost forgot. They had predicted very large waves last Thursday
(closing north shore beaches on Oahu) so I went to check Jaws that
morning. Got there late but got to see on guys being towed in by a jet
ski into what looked like 20+ foot faces (was bigger earlier). Neat to
see (from the cliff high above) especially when he wiped out in the
first wave of 4. Eventually the jet ski got the the guy thank god.
I wouldn't want to be in the rinse cycle there....

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Alain Dumesny |\ Platinum Technology inc.
adumesny@usa.net-DeleteThis | \ Cosmo Lab - VRML architect
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