surfing and wave sailing

Nice Olaf, glad to hear you're surfing. The winds were offshore and while the waves were only knee to waist, I must have gotten more than thirty rides. But I'm looking for a new feel. I think I'm going to build an Alaia sometime next week.

Hay Jasonn,The surf was even better yesterday. I got so many shoulder to head high waves that I was paddled out after three hours. There were just the right amount of surfers out and everyone got a bunch of waves without sharing. I gave so many waves away and still had my pick of the set waves.
I then bought some beer and went home and watched the Volcom Fiji Pro with my friend Mark.
It was a good day!
I think I will head back over today if the report is still favorable.
Something tells me that I should rest up for the major swell that is scheduled to hit our south and west shores on Monday or Tuesday.

Olaf, thats amazing news! Good to hear. It's looking pretty sloppy around here for the next few days, but I'm heading up to Mass for a dam release so at least i'll get some boating in. One of these days I'll make it out to the Island to surf some of those set waves!

A cool film for you guys:

youtube.com/watch?v=gqSQLT2…

A few more:

The Shack

Fin

I surfed another three hour session yesterday in similar conditions although a bit smaller than the two previous days. i went home and watched the Volcom Pro contest from Fiji.
I am about paddled out but the live video feed from "Break Wall" shows more of the same for today.
What to do?
We have a significant south swell heading our way and it should arrive a.m. Tuesday and I have the day off.
I am thinking that I should rest and try to let my paddle muscles and sunburn recover. But I will probably surf again today but maybe not as long.
Today is the final day of the contest in Fiji. It starts out with Kelly Slater in the first heat so check it out. I posted the link up thread.

Man, that sounds great. It's going to be flat around here for a while, but I just checked and a ticket to Costa is around 500... not out of the question for the later end of summer.

I don't follow pro surfing but is the event still going on, still live. What is the link?

Jason the contest is over and Kelly won.
You can go to this link and click on "heats on demand" and get the highlights.
This was one of the best sporting events I have ever watched! volcomfijipro.com/live/

Classic!

Hall Pass

Have a nice wave on this 2012 National Surfing day!

Double D @ Jaws

Awesome shot !!!

LOL Olaf, as a climber since the late 70's...

When I hear a name like Double D I think of Dave Diegelman!

trundlebum that double D would be Derrick Doerner former North Shore lifeguard and big wave surfer. He also pioneered tow-in surfing with Laird and Buzzy. Mike Waltze was also in that crew!

Photo:Rammohan Photography
After that last delightful south swell episode that I mentioned (up thread) we were blessed with a couple of small N/W bumps that were reinforced with some rather vigorous easterly wind swell rapping on to the north shore. In fact the last day of that swell I surfed three hours on the west side and then drove back home to Kuau and wave sailed with a hand full of my friends and neighbors till dark.
Since I live and work at the beach I was fortunate that I got to work full days and still have time to ride my bike home and get my gear and walk to the launch and get out for some delightful evening wave smacking in.

We have had a vigorous south swell hitting our south and west beaches for the past five days. I had to work the first two of those days but I did score two brilliant sessions of this swell. The swell was just about max for the spot that usually surf over on the west side. There were some closeouts in the bigger sets that made for long, steep, clean drops to a close out but even that was a lot of fun. Once again the line up was mostly my friends and neighbors from the north shore and there was very little or no wind to mess things up. The first day was so perfect that I surfed for a full four and a half hours with out a break. The next day was only three hours of paddling.

The waves on the west side have dropped off and it looks like wave sailing in my back yard here on the north shore is the name of the game for the next foreseeable while.
I had good wave sailing sessions for the past two days and hope that the wind swell holds. It really is a lot of fun.
I pity the di-hard surfers here on Maui that don't have a wind sport to fall back on.

Olaf Mitchell at Kuau,Maui Photo: Karen Lang

Cloudbreak, Fiji
Check out this clip of what many describe as the single best day of monster barrel riding ever captured. This was the free day at Cloudbreak during the recent Volcom surfing contest that I mentioned up thread.
dailysurfvideos.com/tv/

Michie calling it a day Photo: Olaf Mitchell

Grandma's Maui Photo: Olaf Mitchell

Olaf Mitchell at Woody's Photo: Karen Lang