I went out to Kailua yesterday morning. I was expecting decent wind,
nothing great, as I'd sailed a 6.2 the previous day and the wind was
supposed to be dying off. When I got there, the wind was light, but
after a while it picked up and I rigged the 6.2 again and went out on
my 114-liter board. It was very mellow sailing, and after a couple of
hours I was feeling a bit hungry. The wind was also picking up a bit
so I was hoping that I could swap boards down to my 95-liter wave
board. As I was coming in, another sailor came planing up the beach,
did a sweet, effortless little tack and headed upwind. Even at Kailua,
not too many sailors pull off this move with that kind of panache and
I thought, "there's a pretty good sailor out there today."
As I snarfed down lunch, the wind picked up even more, and before I
was finished sand was blowing across the beach and the water was
filled with frothy whitecaps. It's kind of unusual for the wind to
notch up so quickly and so strong at Kailua. So not only was I going
to get to use my smaller board, but also rig down, which is also an
unusual thing to do at Kailua--most people just rig once and live with
it. I chose my 5.3, so between board and sail change, I was expecting
a pretty dramatic increase in wind.
I also wanted to try out a big pointer fin on this board, so as soon
as I got out I started testing its upwind capability. Eddy, a local
pro who's kind of the patriarch of Kailua windsurfers, was goading me
into going up to the boat launch, about 300 yards upwind of the
launch, so I headed up there.
I got up to the launch, jibed and started heading out toward Flat
Island, a few hundred yards upwind. Just then, the guy whose tack I'd
admired earlier along with two other sailors came screaming on a beam
reach in front of me. Just as they crossed in front of the island, all
three of them swooped into these full-out laydown jibes. I recognized
Robby Naish in the lead, his board on edge, his sail and body nearly
parallel to the water. He and two of his buddies were out doing a
photo shoot for the day. They'd tried to get some waves the day before
but neither wind nor waves cooperated, so apparently they were going
to do some speed runs that day. So I spent the next hour or so sailing
a bit downwind, watching them. That spot has some of the smoothest
water on the islands on windy days and these guys were just ripping it
up.
I'm sure I'll have to be Photoshopped out of some of their pictures,
though I was on Naish sail. But it was really thrilling to watch this
impressive display of speed, power and gracefulness. Pretty good
sailors indeed.
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