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Yesterday, Saturday, I spent the day exploring the northwest/north area of Maui and did the sightseeing/photo
thing. Because the surf went completely flat. I knew that coming here swell has a hard time finding it's way
into Maui and it's not the most surf-friendly place, more like a place you inter-island hop to on a moment's
notice. I think the entire island mostly works on a straight 360 north swell, and also picks up a NE swell
pretty well. But from what I've heard - and seen monitoring surf reports - is that the direct north
lights this place up, and it has to be pretty sizable to to so as well.
Another thing about Maui - it seems to be the longboard capital of the universe. At least the "south" and
north coasts, anyway, because all I ever see on racks on top of cars and trucks and SUVs are virtually
ALL longboards. The shortboards come out on the good days, I guess, or since surf is pretty elusive
on this island, more people have longboards than short. Or maybe it's just all the visiting tourists and
surfers who are cruising around with the logs strapped on top. Not me, though. I permanently put DP
in the hotel storage closet - I didn't like doing that - and full well knew that that board's days
of service in the islands was over for the rest of the trip. It was a sad thing because it was my
main board on Oahu and now it remained packed and ready to fly back home.
Since swell is more inconsistent and harder to come by, Maui seems also to me to be a "drive, search, drive,
check" type of place when there isn't alot of swell running. The north coast, where Hookipa (Ho-OH-Keep-Ah)
is seems to me to have the best exposure of the entire island and seems to be the go to place or would be
the most consistent part of the island. But that's just my guess. Everyone, no matter what the swell or conditions,
I think, starts out checking Honolua, of course, even if there's really no surf. That's no surprise because
it's the gem of the island, without question, at least for those of us who can't, won't or don't want
to surf Jaws, and when it's not 50 foot, ha. Everyone heads to the bay first, then takes it from there.
Even I conformed to that - you just have to check the potential for anything to be at the bay.
The south coast is considered to be from Lahina to Maalaea, I believe, and most of that is totally longboard
reefs. It never got above 1 to 2 foot every time I drove by that area. So it's really only two choices for
someone staying on the Kaanapali coast - the bay or to the south, if you want to stay local. If you want to
travel, then an hour gets you to Hookipa, and if you want to be adventurous as hell and take your chances,
you go to the far east side of the island that is Hana - a solid 4 to 6 hour trek, depending on traffic
on tiny route 360, two lane highway. I did research on spots down the Hana Highway and really would
have liked to surf some places there, that have red and black sand beaches and stuff. But again - the
time investment in driving and exploring that side was a bit much for me. After so much driving
from Waikiki to the North Shore for a week - at least 2 to 3 hours a day - I was somewhat burned out
driving and wanted to relax a bit.
Or maybe you check Windmills, which I did today, and decided I did not want to drive around the entire
island when it was pretty small everywhere. So I checked it and decided that, what the hey, I'm going to
paddle out and check out the reef and the coral and the water, and also to just get in the water. As I mentioned
before, it's pretty mandatory to get IN the water at least once a day to stay cool, or to cool off,
so why not paddle and sit out there and look at how beautiful everything is, regardless of surf size. So
I did a little searching for the place, which isn't too hard to find, and got into the small stuff.
There's a lookout/pullout along the road, which is where I took the two photos from, where you can check
the surf. Looked to be mostly a right to the south of a sandy beach with tons of rock and reef to
negotiate to get out to the break, which again, was very small. But the view from the water down
below was pretty stunning and beautiful - I was glad to be wearing my reef walkers for sure -
there were these huge lava rock fingers that projected out into the water that were just - massive.
There were about 10 guys out or so and it wasn't any big deal. It was a get wet kinda deal because
it was never above waist high or so, definitely almost totally faded out from Friday, which was
the last day of a decent 5 day run of N swells, from what I've been able to get from talking to other
people. So there's not much to say for catching waist high surf, other than it was like culture
shock, coming down from the North Shore and Sunset high that I had been riding for a solid week.
It gave me time to feel more relaxed and reflect upon what I had accomplished back on Oahu,
without question, with very little pressure and definitely no real fear, anxiety or threat
being out in the water. I wanted to surf as many different spots as possible, so that's what
really drove me out into the water today, rather than the allure of really good waves. Two hours
was enough for me and I went back into the sandy beach feeling cooled off and happy that I had
gotten in the water. The only thing is, I have no idea of why it's called Windmills. It was dead
glass when I was out!
- Cliff
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