Francisco Porcella, about Jaws 25.11.09

I invited Francisco Porcella, on the picture below, to write some few words as a guest writer about his Jaws experience 25.11.09. Here it is under the picture:
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Francisco Porcella:
Stocked you sticked around for the windsurf session ;) we towed all day till that rain picked up and the wind started blowing around 4:30 We had the lucture of having Josh Stone's boat righ on the channel with food water and space to stack out windsurf gear, nice to be there with all the boys like Kai Katchdorian, Keith Teboul, Josh Stone, Polakaw, Robby Naish ( witch left before the wind) Rudy Castorina and most of all Francisco Goya witch was his first time windsurfing Jaws.. so pretty special day for all of us! We had some great waves tow-in and they say I had the best wipe out of all times.. skipping down the face of the wave on my back looking at the barrel about to go over me, and then i get barreled over the falls and get worked like a rag doll.. so after that I definitely learned my lesson, and need to get a Jaws board couse my Sprecks board is not gonna work here.. anyway got some more waves after that and actually got more confidence on how much of a pounding I can handle (I can go bigger). Then the wind came and we had a great time catching some nice ones at the end of the day ;) stocked on yesterday and today is an other day.. so keep on shooting Tormod ;) Aloha and Mahalo
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About wipe out, I got a picture of one surfer in front of the white water..the picture speak for it selves...I dont know who the surfer is.

Jaws Windsurfing and Towin 25 Nov 09

It have been a long day. I have only time for some few words, but the pictures in the albums speak for themselves. To stand there at the cliff and look at the tow-in and the windsurfers is one of my biggest day in my life regarding a happening like a concert, an art exhibition, a Ibsen or Shakespeare play in the theater and so on. This surf and windsurfing at Jaws is some kind of art in my opinion. In its purity in communication with mother earth trough the big waves. It was so cool to see the tow-in surfers dynamic well synchronistic behavior. Ok enough of big words. About the pictures. It was a cind of difficult day with pictures. The day started with sun, but later it came a lot of rain and I had to put my camera away. And with the rein the wind arrived, so I don’t managed to take so many pictures of the windsurfers. The riders in the windsurf album of the name I know is Levi Siver, Francisco Porcella, Jason Polakow ..and some more I don’t remember the name on. Please mail me if I should add some names! The day started with a big expectation, we could almost feel the ground shake by the big waves hitting the reefs, there was jetskies in the water an a lot of helicopters buzzing around all over. Everybody had been taking about this day, And we had inside info from several pro windsurfers about when they was going to sail there. The peak of the swell was expected to be 20.00 o’clock so they tuned in to the session in the afternoon.

A talked to Francisco Porcella the day before, and he was hoping for some pictures at Jaws, after the big arial pictures and photo video montage some weeks ago. :-) As I understood FP has done tow-in at Jaws before, but this was his first time on windsurfing board. I can not promise anything but maybe maybe I manage to have him as a guest writer on this blog about his experience of windsurfing jaws. I feel a bit stupid when writing this..a bit like a sports reporter…ref “what did you feel when you crossed the finish line as nr 1? Anyway I give it a try!

“Edit ”: I am now happy to announce that we will get some cool words from Porcella about this day..keep up follow the blog..I will post his words probable tomorrow.

Find the right fin (s) to your board and save money Part 1

Have you purchased a lot of fins during your windsurf career you haven't found useful?

Have you got some bad advices from some windsurfing shops that will be off with some fins?

That has happened to me. I understood early that the fin you have under your board is important. I tested out several fins and used a lot of money, and I ended up with a bunch fins I was not satisfied with.

What should you do?

The Answer is simple, you do nothing, only send an email to some pro and they take the decision for you. I did that some years ago to MFC, I told them which board I had, what sail I use and what kind of windsurfer I am. Windsurfing in onshore or sideshore conditions and so on. So before I got quad fins and had a single fin board and I ended up with two fins one for strong wind and one for lighter wind. Ok, then I was finally home in the choice of fins and I could concentrate on windsurfing as best as possible, with fins in total balance with my board, sails and my style, and no longer uncontrolled spinouts. The fin under the board was then not anymore the limitation for radical moves or nice rides, the limitations was only me.

When you get advice from pro and if they are good they are sort of able to read between the lines in what you write or say, and really give you the best advice for a good choice of fins. There are probably a lot of fin companies who do that, but my choice is Maui fin company. At their web site you will find a contact tab on the right site of the page. My advice is simply test it out and send them an email. I am not in anyway sponsored or so by MFC. I have just had the Idea of this article for long time because it gave such big advantage to myself, and hopefully it can be a big help to other windsurfers and finally find the right fin and save money.


I am also happy to announce that I have invited, the President of Maui Fin Company, Pio Marasco to write some thoughts about the philosophy behind the fins. Keep following the blog and look for the part 2 of this article with the first guest writer on my blog by Pio.

Tow in and padle surf at Honolua bay 12 Nov 09

Ok..here we go. I have promised some pictures I took at honolua bay some days ago. I had plan with some sequences but I rather put out some of the highlights. First of all from a definitive non Honolua bay skilled surfer perspective that I am, I think the conditions that day was not epic at all. I have seen the waves there much much more cleaner and mush more in system. It had probable something to do with the direction of the swell? But the waves who was there was in what I could judge wery fast, and there was a loot of current in the water. And about epicness there was really some clean clean glassy waves there, as you can see from some of the pix it looks like the rider probable could check his hair style before the ride was over :-) There was only few paddle surfers in the water. If that was because of the messy waves or because of the current I don’t know. We sow a surfer paddling out at the point outside the last parking spot, and when he was in the water I think he mowed about 0,5 meter/min in paddling. When he finally got a ride, as he afterword called a shitty wave, I think he got a long one completely past the cave, and was driven back again by a car..and was going out again.. And about the tow in at Honolua bay this day, I think the few paddle surfers out there gave the opportunity to do some rides with the tow in. And again I don’t know why they did the tow in there, maybe because of a nice day to practice tow in and really tune in the communication between the surfer and the jetski driver, and then be prepared for bigger waves later. And I must admit I was impressed about their timing and communication for safe rides. About Jetski, I don’t know if I like them around. For me as a now in the start of being a real surfer I really have started to like the purity of it. For sure the trip here to Maui for me is mainly windsurf, but I most admit that after a surf session and when you have had a couple of nice rides, in small waves for me, you are in a state of mind with balance and calmness after a kind of clean communication with mother earth and the nature. But anyway, I must admit, if someone asked med, would you like to do some tow in? I will probable had said yes. But such an offer would have been unthinkable anyway, so I'm spared the dilemma, and I can keep myself on my 9" Kazuma performance board in small gentle waves and be a happy surfer in that way :-)
I know about the potential surfer windsurfer, and the windsurfer kite surfer conflict, but I don’t know about there is a potential conflict between tow in and paddle in surfers. But as you can see from pictures below I don’t think there was any grounds for conflict there. Everybody help out each other in the strong current.
So for me it was super cool to be there, watch the waves, watch the paddle surfers and be impressed of the timing and the speed in the tow in surf, and in my own opinion take some cool pictures, and as I could see the tow in surfers has so fun, clearly smiling form ear to ear…truly some happy surfers!

"Anybody there?"

And for me. Super nice windsurf together with a windsurfing friend Florian at Upper Kanaha 2 days ago. I think it was my best up there, with the conditions, waves here, there and everywhere. Finally after so many sessions up there I now understand how it can be there on windswell days like this. I heard that Sprcks was filled up with a lot of pro windsurfers that day..take a look at pix on: Mauiwatershoot

Yester day super nice surf session at the southshore together with windsurf and surf friend Andrea and more, now in waves with a bit more power. Some nose dives when the waves was steap in the take off, but we got many nice rides.
And to day I tested out upper again with Petsch and Andrea. It was for me definitely no good day up there, and after brake I ended up at lower K together with Florian and Jim and for me I had ia super nice session there, super fun in small waves but some to turns on even up to 3 small bottom turns, even when the wind sometimes was quite gusty. Tomorrow hopefully there will be more swell coming.

Thunderstorm at Maui in the dark

I manage to take some quite cool pictures of the sea at Maui during the thunderstorm this evening. The plan was to try to take a picture of a flash of lightening with a long exposure time on my camera. But I ended up with these pix ..maybe hard to understand but it is totally dark in the sea, and the light is from a flashes in the thunderstorm, and it gives the strange light. The pictures is not edited except the lightest one where I had to turn down the light in the pix. The lightening made it like sunlight in a short second and the thunder was so extreme that the ground was shaking.

I am totally stoked about this nature experience