ROBBY SWIFT
Winter on Maui is always special. The crowds thin out, the waves get bigger and the conditions vary a lot more than in spring / summer and fall. Out of all the different days we have over the winter, the cream of the crop are almost always the Kona Lanes days when huge thunderstorms roll in from the south of the Hawaiian islands and send SW “Kona” winds instead of the usual NE “Trade-winds”.
This day was even more special though. The waves were really big but the swell was extremely west which meant that despite the size of the waves being larger than Ho’okipa and Lanes can normally handle, they were not closing out but instead, hitting just the perfect part of the reef where they break as tall as they can get while still remaining steep. Not to mention the fact that it was windy from about 8:30 in the morning so we were able to squeeze over 6 hours of sailing into this one epic day, taking advantage of the beautiful morning light that is rarely available for windsurfing shoots since there normally isn’t any wind that early, and then milking every last drop of daylight as the sun dropped down behind the West Maui mountains. I don’t remember having so much fun on so many waves in one day for many years, probably since Cabo Verde in 2007. Words can’t really describe how epic it was; the pictures say it all! It’s always strange for me that almost nobody sails on these Kona winds days. I see all the regular Ho’okipa sailors sitting on the cliff watching the conditions and giving it a miss and I just can’t believe it. It’s definitely tricky and you normally end up sailing till you go on the rocks and destroy all your gear, so maybe that’s why people give it a miss, but it’s so good that I just keep going and going till I have no more gear left (a bit like Jason too this day ha ha!) The wind has gone back to normal now and it’s still amazing on Maui, don’t get me wrong, but those Kona days are what I dream about all year and I’m glad that I could get my fill of it that day!
