331-25

Been either paragliding or hiking every morning since last entry.  I haven't been able to make myself jog so I've been walking up and down the Waihee ridge trail for excercise.  Checked my log book this morning and I've done 64 flights here.  I'm just starting to get comfortable with a little rougher air.  I'm off tomorrow and will paraglide in the AM and hopefully the wind will be good for kiting in the PM.  Haven't been on the water for quite a while.  The wind has been blowing >20 every day for the whole month.  It's supposed to turn SE and get lighter this weekend.  That means the Vog will probably return.

Below is a description of thw Waihee ridge trail.  No pictures because I'm at work.

Route: Beginning at 1,000` elevation, trail climbs the windward slope of west Maui through a brushy guava thicket, a young stand of planted trees, and wet native scrub forest. Views of Waihee Gorge and Makamakaole Gulch can be seen along the way. On the peak, at 2,563` are panoramic views of Wailuku and central Maui, the Kahakuloa slopes, and Mount Eke. Weather at the summit varies from clear to overcast with showers. No drinking water is available along the trail. Camping is not permitted. Wear bright colored clothing. Be aware thay you may encounter hunters who may be hunting off trail. Stay on trail.

325-25

Paraglided in the AM.  Tried to kite in the PM.  The wind was East and real off and on on the beach.  I launched my new 7 and it alternated between picking me up and luffing.  Tried to get out 3 times with no success.  Might have made it if there hadn't been so many other people around.  On the other hand some of those people helped relaunch and catch my kite.  The wind is supposed to be east for the next few days.  Hopefully it'll back a little north and be a little steadier on the beach. 

I guess there'll be no more windsurfing adventures.  I haven't heard anything about my lost gear.  Time here is getting short.  I'll have to overcome my tendency towards laziness and get more water time.

322-30

Finished up my paragliding lessons yesterday morning.  I'm now a P-2 rated (beginner) pilot. Now I can fly on easy hills without an instructor.  Stopped by kite beach on the way home and people were out on 6-7m kites.  I was going to buy a used 8m Switchblade, but a few people told me that although it has more wind range, it would be as powerful as my 9m Waroo.  So instead of buying that, I'm buying a 7m Waroo from my boss at work.  Price was also a factor.  The Waroo is $200 and the Switchblade is $700.

I took this morning off.  Went for a walk down the beach.  There was a woman there with a butter knife prying limpets off the rocks.  I asked here if she cooks them up.  She said no, she doesn't eat them but those that do eat them raw.  Does anybody really enjoy eating raw mollusks or is it just some sort of a macho thing?

It's windy again, has been for almost 3 weeks straight.  I'm just going to laze around for a while and go to work.  So far I haven't adjusted well to afternoons.  I always wake up early and by about 8pm I'm getting pretty sleepy. The last couple of hours of work are tough.

No sign of my windsurf gear yet.  I guess I'll just sell the rest of the gear and forget it.

319-30

Demoed a Cabrinha Switchblade 8 and a Crossbow 7 today.  Both kites were real nice but I couldn't say which one I'd like better.  The wind let up a bit while I was on the 7 and I was a little under powered.  Guess I'll look for something used.  A new one costs as much as a good new refrigerator.

It's nice that there's so much wind here but the access areas are so limited that it can be really crowded on the water.  Windsurfing in a crowd isn't half as bad as kiting in a crowd.  That's one nice thing about home; it's never crowded.  The water tastes better too.  Guess that's about it.  Everything else is nicer here.

0318-30

The wind seems to be here for good now.  It's been blowing over 20, usually 25-35 or 40, for the past week and shows no signs of letting up soon.  It's too windy for my 9m kite so I'm shopping for something like a 7. The kites in use today ranged from 5-8, mostly 6's and 7's.  Guys 1.5 x my size were out on 7's. I could have saved some luggage weight by not even bringing the 13.  I've only used it twice here and one of those times, I wished I had the 9.

Tomorrow Cabrinha is hosting a demo day on the beach.  I'll probably get sucked into buying one of their expensive kites.  People here seem to think that they are worth it.  They are by far the most popular kite on the beach (or in the air).

 

0314-20

Kanaha finally opened today.  It was a real busy day at work today but not so busy that I couldn't check out the Kanaha web-cam which showed plenty of ws and ks activity.  Some duffis called in sick though and I had to work until 6.  I also found out today that my boss is color blind.  He color codes the schedule.  6am shift is red and 1330 shift is orange.  He intended to put me on all orange this month but printed my schedule out in red.  From now on I'm afternoon shift.  I think it'll work out alright though.  Now if I wake up early, I can go for a bike ride before it gets too warm.  Then after 1100 I can head out to the beach for some wind sports, after which I can get some lunch and go to work and rest.  Now all of the time that I'm awake and it's dark, I'll be at work.  Who could ask for more?

0312-15

Paraglided this morning.  Got lift on one flight and circled up to cloud base (not real high, but fun).  Headed to kite beach to check out the wind but found a bunch of kiters cleaning up the beach.  The wind was marginal and nobody was out.  All the beach between the sewage plant and Kanaha were closed.  It looks like 4-5 feet of water came over those beaches and across the road in some places.  Nothing else of note today.

0311

I heard about the earthquake in Japan while at work last night.  The tsunami was to arrive here by around 3AM.  Our house sits about 5' above sea level.  Scientists have no ability to predict how big a tsunami might be in any particular area so we thought it might be prudent to leave the area.  Luckily a coworker invited us to spend the night at his house which is a couple miles away and a few hundred feet higher.  It was a lot nicer than spending the night in our car.  Pia's pretty much packed to leave tonight so we just threw her suitcases in the car.  I changed into shorts and a t-shirt so that if everything washed away, I wouldn't be stuck with only work clothes, grabbed my computer and we were out the door.

Came home this morning.  Water had come over the road and washed a bunch of palm junk onto the road but otherwise no damage here.  The property manager called to see how things were here this morning.  He said that Maalaea harbor emptied out and refilled to overflowing about 10 times and all but a couple of boats washed out to sea.

After writing this we went for a walk on the beach between Maalaea and Kihei at noon.  The water level was still varying by about 8' within 20 minutes.  We found the boats that we were told washed out to sea.  They were all anchored out in open water.

The pictures below were taken in Kahului harbor at bout 3pm (12 hours after the first wave hit Hawaii).  The second picture below was taken 5 minutes after the first.  90% of the increase occurred within 2 minutes.  In the third picture the water at the bottom of the picture is near it's current high.  You can see last night's high by the level of the grass in the upper fence which is at the top of the boat ramp at parking lot level.  The 4th picture is of  a small barracuda who couldn't quite make it through the fence.

0308-25

Beach day with Pia today.  Spent the morning down at Big beach in Wailea.  Nice clear pretty calm water.  Just a little swell, but the little waves stand up and break hard right on the beach.  They are the kind that if you were to try to body surf, they'll pick your feet up over your head and drill your face into the sand.  As we were leaving they were hauling some guy about my age out on a back board with a cervical collar on.  His arms were flopping around.  I think a wave caught him in a bad position.

After lunch we headed up to Kanaha and I tried out the windsurfing gear that I bought about a month ago.  It works pretty well and surprisingly enough I haven't forgotten how to sail.  The wind was about 25 or so and I used a 4.7 sail.  It was pretty powered up at first but the wind backed off a bit and I could have used a little more sail most of the time.  The board is a wave board with a pretty small fin.  It works well powered up but it's a bit of a struggle to keep it up wind when the wind isn't crankin'.  I saw some boards with 4 short fins.  The guys who use them say that they go almost as fast a single fin boards and turn really nice on the waves.  Apparently they practically self recover from a spin-out.  They look like they'd work pretty well in the shallow water in Esky.

0306-30

Hana trip was worth the drive and that's saying a lot.  It's only 50 miles there but takes 2 hours if you drive straight there and we didn't.  We left at 7am and got to our Hana house at 6pm.  Did a lot of sight seeing along the way.  The place that we stayed Papalani was exceptional.  Not cheap but very nice.  Hiked up the Oheo Gulch to a really tall waterfall.  Lots of pools to swim in along the way.  Trail went through a bamboo forest that was dark and loud with the wind banging the bamboo together.  The drive home was longer even then the drive there.  The road is narrow, rough and has no straight sections.

 

Big Banyon Tree

Last night the Finish ladies took off for home.  Right now at  5pm they are still somewhere over the Atlantic.  Today I had to work 0600-1430 and it was windy after work so we headed to Naish beach.  It was gusty on the beach and really windy out on the water.  Wind was gusting well over 30 and my 9m kite was a little squirrelly.  I went out and back once.  I talked with a guy on the beach who weighed about 50lb more than me who said that he was sheeted out most of the time on a 7m kite.  Looks like the wind is back for at least a few days now.

 

Taller than it looks here

                                          Sand at red sand beach.  Looks like a roofing shingle.

0302-15

I'm working days this week.  Haven't been doing much after work, walking, shopping,eating, etc.  Today the wind came up from the NE and brought out a lot of kiters, me included.  I've been starting off by standing on my board on the beach and riding into the water instead of putting the board on in the water.  It's easier to get my feet in the straps that way.  I always crash when I hit the water though and today I also lost control of the kite and put it on the beach when I fell.  Guess I'll have to give up on that maneuver until I'm at a less crowded beach.  Everybody was using 8-10m kites and I used a 9.  Was a little underpowered though.  Most people were on surfboards which don't need as much power to get going.  Only stayed out for a half hour or so because the wind was getting holey and I didn't want to get stuck out there.

We went to a luau on Monday night.  They roasted a pig in the ground and had the usual assortment of dancers, fire dancer, singer, etc.  The pork was excellent and the rest of the food was pretty good also.  Nice that it was over by about 8 so I didn't have to stay up too late on a school night.

Tomorrow morning we leave early for Hana.  We'll stay one night there and then continue around the south shore and back home on Friday.

                                                             The Surfer Babes