Back in Maui

Boy, does that title sound good! We got back to the island November 3rd. Ponohouse looks great. A little bird and/or gecko poop here and there, and the garage looks like someone ransacked it, but that’s how it looked when I left. I spent the first morning at Kanaha beach Park, paddling into some nice knee-high waves in glassy conditions. It was good not to have big waves the first day. I clearly remember how badly worked I got jumping into overhead conditions the first day back last year.

I was all alone at first, not even any prone surfers. Then a guy paddled out with a really interesting paddle, beautiful piece of work, a leaf-shaped blade with an interesting back diehedral. We talked a while and I tried his paddle–liked it a lot. For some stupid reason I didn’t get his name, and I didn’t have my camera handy, but I’ll get pictures ASAP. He’s going to make the paddles to sell. If they are as nice as the one he made himself he shouldn’t have a problem with that.

Then Randy (StandupZone) paddled out. You can recognize Randy from a long way away. Tall, big shoulders, agressive paddler, and very long boardshorts. He says he has a thing about his knees, but Randy jokes around enough with a gentle sarcasm that I never know when he’s serious. We talked for quite a while, catching up and catching waves. Great guy, and always fun to talk with, and a heck of a good surfer.

The wind came up a bit, so I headed in and headed home to do some cleanup on the house.

Saw Randy again briefly at Thousand Peaks the next morning. A lot more people out surfing–lots of longboarders and a few SUP. I stuck to the reef break off to the left side for awhile to be sure my surfing was good enough to be around other folks, then went over to talk with the longboarders–I know most of them. Had a nice long session, concentrating on picking up the little waves the prone guys didn’t want or can’t catch. took an occasional nice wave but then I went to the backside to leave the preferred slot open for the longboarders.

It’s really amazing how many more waves you can get on a SUP than prone. It would be so easy to be a wave hog.

The wind came up at Thousand Peaks about noon, and the surf got very messy, so I went west to Puamana. Not great there either, but better than cleaning the garage. I surfed quite a while, and then managed to cut myself badly on a rock. I was trying to beach start, but fell, and drag my foot across a rock face, slicing a four inch strip on the edge of my righ foot. I guess I’ll have to stay out of the water a few days. It’ll give me a chance to do some stuff around the house. More later, did a little video of Thousand Peaks.