Two Malikos

The wind has been blowing trade on Maui’s North Shore for the last two days, and the swell from the Northwest has gone down enough to make Maliko runs possible. so naturally we gotta do ‘em. Randy called me Wednesday while Diane and I were hanging out in the Department of Motor Vehicle waiting to pay my registration. I’ve gotten two tickets lately for expired tags–an expensive reminder that when you don’t live in a place full time, there are things that slip through the cracks. There was a big group planning to go, and they were going late, which meshed well with my plans. Diane wanted to look at a bicycle, and naturally once she got one she’s want to go for a little test ride. So we got all that done, got her a very cool city bike at the shop in Kahalui, and picked up a kid trailer so Sam could go along too. He’s about as good in the trailer as he is on my Stand Up Paddle board–he moves around a lot and bails every so often. I’ll have to work on that.

Diane was as happy with her new bike as any ten-year old. I think we’ll be doing a lot of riding in the near future. For me bikes are kind of utilitarian–a way to do downwinders by myself. But it’s a nice adventure for Diane and it’s fun to see her enthusiastic. She named the bike Giuseppe. No idea why.

I got to the harbor just as Randy was getting the logistics sorted out. I can tell by his body language that he sucks at that, but everyone expects him to do it for some reason, so he does. With the rigs sorted out we headed for Maliko. Randy and Chan, Devin, Bill Foote, Livio, Donna, and probably others I forgot. I also forgot to take any picture or set up my GPS. Ah, well, I was pretty excited to be doing a Maliko run.

We got to the gulch and started rigging stuff. I got ready pretty quickly so I decided to head straight out since I expected to be slow. I was riding my Foote Maliko 14, and I really haven’t gotten the hang of it yet. I’ve been spoiled by rudder boards and I’m doing a lousy job of steering this board. Sometimes I think I’ve got it nailed, and then the next time I get on a swell it goes off in some random direction. On the plus side it’s super responsive, I can jet into a swell really quickly. Now if I can just stop steering out of them I think I’ll be cooking.

I paddled out into the maelstrom, trying to get pretty far out before I let the swells and wind take me. I wanted to pass well out from camp one and upper Kanaha–I have a thing about getting caught inside there. I started getting pretty wobbly, so I decided to settle for angling out, and I turned and took off.

The first swell you catch on a Maliko run is always a revelation. Somehow I had forgotten how powerful and big everything you face there is. My board took off like a rocket, I angled into the swell and got a really great long ride. Then I fell. I said “I’m not doing this dammit, I’m not going to spend half this ride remembering how to stand in these conditions” and then I fell again. Now I’ve been on some pretty hefty southside runs lately, and in most of them I didn’t fall once. I was feeling pretty prepped. This shouldn’t be happening. And I fell again.

I finally calmed down and started riding again, getting some good swells. Chan caught up to me at Ho’okipa and passed, then Donna and Devin. Bye ladies. Right about at Baldwin I saw Livio go by on the inside. I started getting more good rides and felt like I was staying with him pretty well. Then I fell. And fell again. Randy came zooming up in his canoe, did a big swinging turn and stopped to talk and wait for Bill Foote who was also in a canoe doing his first OC-1 Maliko run. Bill came up a few moments later. We talked a little while. Randy said that we should head a little further out to avoid the Camp One swells. Bill said “nah, look the reef line is well inside us”. They headed off, I headed for the horizon. You only have to say the words “Camp One” with even a little bit of concern to get me headed for open water.

I think I got a little carried away, by the time I was catching swells again I could see the windsurfers at Kanaha–they were tiny sails waaay inside of me. I drew a line on downtown Wailuku and started catching rides. I got a nice little rhythm going, felt pretty good about everything, then two whales popped up about 100 feet away and I fell. Got back up, fell. Damn. Calmed down, caught a few little rides, could finally see the end of the breakwater and aimed for that. Got a few nice rides, getting closer, when I noticed that the entire pier was moving towards me at a pretty good clip. Actually it was a barge being pulled by and ocean tug, but it was huge and headed out through the harbor mouth. I wondered if he realized I have right of way. I slowed enough to let him get well clear, then I slid into the harbor right behind Bill Foote.

Nice run, I was slow–very slow–but steady. I felt like I was doing okay except for all the falls and the far, far outside line.

The forecast for Tuesday didn’t sound promising. The wind was supposed to veer a little southwards and drop, and the new WNW swell we are expecting would be hitting in the afternoon. I was over in Kehei, having a little breakfast with Diane after a nice bicycle ride we took when Randy called me. “We’re going to go at 12:30″. We discussed the forecast. Yeah, but it looks good now and I think we’ve got a window on the swell”. I had no handy excuse–plenty of time to finish breakfast, ride back to the cars with Diane, and do the run.

When we got to the gulch it was howling. Much bigger swells than yesterday. Once again I got into the water first and took off since I expected to be slow again. But I felt more confident after my previous day’s slow but steady run. I paddled out as far as I could without dropping down on the board, then turned and was off with a bang. As soon as I turned I caught a big ride that lasted and lasted. I felt great. I caught several more, felt like I was going good, and then the ladies passed me. Ah, well, I’ll just tuck right in behind them, and then I fell. No biggie, got up, caught a bunch of good swells. Seemed to be doing okay except the glare off the water was making it hard to see the backs of the swells, and I was puching in a lot. I tried looking in different directions, looking farther ahead, off to the side, but I kept crashing into the backs of the swells. And then I started falling for no reason. I was getting dizzy. By the time I reached Camp One my head was swimming and I was falling every few minutes. I finally dropped to my knees to rest and drink some water. The sun went behind a cloud, I got to my feet and was fine. Then the sun came back out and I started falling again. Frustrating. I wound up paddling on my knees all the way to lower Kanaha. By then the swells had opened up a bit, and my dizziness abated some, so I was able to stand and catch rides.

With about a mile to go, I was settling down and starting to relax again, when a whale breached a few hundred feet to my right. Came out of nowhere. I literally felt cold in the pit of my stomach. Scared the heck out of me. It was so sudden I didn’t really know what it was, though I’ve been around whales enough to know, but it was so..fricking..huge.

I calmed down again and headed for the harbor. Caught a lot of nice runners, missed even more. Bounced around in the reflected waves off the breakwall and fell. Paddled through the entrance on my knees. Ahhh, smooth water.

I have to say the second run wasn’t much fun. I spent most of it on my knees with my head swimming. I’m just glad I didn’t get seasick. The swells were chopped up enough to be pretty difficult. It should have been a fine run, the conditions were good, I love my board, but it wound up being pretty unpleasant.

Next time will be better. Maybe I’ll try sunglasses again.