A Solid Change

        Damn where did winter go...  When they say "things go crazy on Maui when the waves go away," they weren't kidding.  I recently have been affected by some changes in my lifestyle that have challenged me and my ability to be passive. 
About 4 months ago we lost the HangGlide cite know as 6k.  This is the Greatest Thermal Flying cite of the Pacific.  Here two air masses 1. Trade winds of the Pacific 2. The convective heating air from central Maui and the Shadowed area of Haleakala standing at 10,000 ft.  Given the right day, it is an incredible Thermal producing, Safe, and easy place to Fly!  My father and his friends have pioneered this amazing flying cite for the past 20 years.
          On the better side to the situation I have been re-pioneering the flying site on the West Maui's known as Sea Cliffs.  I live about 5 mins down the road, and have kited the same winds for the last 6 years at our Windswell break Sandpiles.  I love this area of Maui and have Surfed, Hiked, and Kited here consistantly.  Adding the Ridge Soar Hanggliding has given me my own personal heaven in a 10 mile radius.  It hasn't been until recently have I had any problems flying this cite, until a Homeless Squatter guy, who has always been real nice and supportive, went crazy on me with threats to my Body, Gear, and Future.  This greatly disturbed me and has been a bother.  So I am down to zero confrontation free soar-able flying cites.
          With the banning of Haleakala flying, I knew my summer was in danger so I dedicated myself to finding a Job.  I looked on Craigslist and saw a listing for Haleakala Bike Tour.  I love this mountain so I gave it a call.  On first conversation with the boss, "Your dad Puts flew me from the Crater to Hana on his Hangglider."  Lets just say, I got the job.  My Goal was to get a job that I could get time after work to go to Kite,Surf, or Hang Glide.  I start at the ridiculously early time of 1 a.m. and I finish at the time of 1 p.m.   I won't say it is the easiest of hours, but I am strong and have been going 6 days a week for the past 3 months.  I enjoy the Job, the People (Tourist and Company), money, and the time afterwork.  I do fall asleep at 7 p.m. everyday though.
        As of lately I have been Coaching Kiteboarding with an Awesome family.  I have recently Quit a job I have been working Part Time for 6 years.  I am changing kite companies, away from the ones I have loved for the last 6 years.  I saved more money than I ever have before. And I just can't wait till summer is over so I can quit my job and Surf/kite/ and illegally HangGlide everyday.
       Some people say that they are Proud I am working hard.  Some people yell and scrutinize me for trying to have fun.  Some people thank me for doing a great job.  Some people are disappointed I have quit.  I myself am happy I am handling not doing alot of the things I love, and dedicated an enormous amount of time to making some savings.  I hope in the future I made all good decisions and I will be able to live the life I love.

Winters Review

It's been awhile...
    To Start we had the KiteSurfPro at the end of December.  This was the only Kite surf competition of the Year, held at Maui local spot, Ho'okipa.  I was asked to help out by Kristen Bosse, and I was happy to help.  I ended up setting the speaker system and soundboard up at the pre-party, and ended up DJing the whole event.  I rocked my favorite Music at Ho'okipa for almost a week, and I was beach announcer, with my friend Rick D.  Got to say that alone was fun.

     As for the contest, I had been riding lanes in all conditions the month before, and was rocking a 5'10 Rusty Surftec,  I felt on my game.  My first two heats I won with high scores and many waves!  Even though I was only kiting 15 minutes a day, I was having a blast!  The last day, I was in a Quater Final against last years winner, Keahe DeAboitz,.  The waves were bigger, and I hooked into my first wave off the back, getting two nice backside hacks.  On the landing of the second turn, my quick release blew open releasing my kite.  I tried to duck the wave and use the safety, but the kite ripped the saftey out and flew away.  I swam in from the surf, hustled, and Pete Cabrinha helped me out with his kite.  I was able to get a few more minutes.  I ended up with a 12 out of 20, not enough to beat Keahe, but i didn't really get to play the Heat right.  Kinda killed my buzz for the Contest, but everyone said I did great, and tied for 5th.
      After a full beach week I was ready to Fly.  I dedicated the end of the Month to my HangGlider, and scored a few good 6k flights and a couple odd SeaCliff days.  Then the wind shut down, I decided that I would have to give up the Glider for the winter, and dedicate life to Surf and Kitesurf.
      This was a great choice, Surf is Great!  I have been surfing more every year for about 5 years now.  I am happy to say that I don't completely suck anymore!  My winter surf spots include Lanes, Ho'okipa, and River mouth.  Then the series of Giant swells came.  A kiter friend Brad Price recruited me to be his tow surf partner, which I have been lucky enough to have a lot of experiences from previous seasons.  We towed Outer Sprecks on a few big days, and I got to get a share of Bombing Surf experiences!

      Then Life go really nice, I was in the habits of waking up, drinking Coffee, Surfing Big Lanes, working at Maui Tectonics for a few hours, and getting another Surf or an Epic Kitesurf Session!
So many day of large surfing, and finally making turns and big sections. Surfing the Best of my life!  We had a series of Kona winds that let me work on kitesurfing front-side, off shores at Lanes.  It sounds epic, but I haven't spent enough time at it to love it.  As of recently, I have had a few Mind Blowing sessions on my 10m at Ho'okipa.  I have spent up to 10 hours there, nearly by myself on solid 5-8  10-15ft faces, feeling more comfortable than ever and hitting sections harder than ever!
     The run of large swells seems to have slowed now, and I have been putting my hang glider back on my car.  I have had a few minor thermal sled rides, and a real nice South East, non-recommended, Seacliffs flight, but it turned out to be real nice!  I am up to date, and I predict a lot of fun days ahead.

Maui Life

Video says it all

Great Week

Such a great week I can't remember when it started!
We had a few great days at our local Onshore Wave Kiting locations SandPiles Waiehu.  Me and my buddy Patri ripped some head/overhead waves to shreds.  Then came the 3 day weekend of 6k thermal flying.  Day 1: afternoon hour, Day 2:  Three hour Sky Out, Day 3:  Two hour fun and comfortable!   Then Monday hit,  Woke up and Yoga'd out for a minute with some thankful meditations and went to work.  After a few hours It was over and I headed to the beach.  Winds were good at KiteBeach,  had and awesome session reworking my mind how to Kite and stomped a bunch of Handle Passes.  Thank you Dakine   The new Harness I picked up after work feels Great!  Then went home to rest, and eat Avocado sandwich fresh from the Backyard!  The wind was blowing at my house, so I decided to drive 5 minutes to check out my new favorite ridge lift site.  Paul Franco a Paraglider/Kitesurfer was there checking it out.  A few phone calls and we were setting up.  We both had great flights in strong changing winds!  GoPro mount broke, so no footage, but here's and old one with some terrible great music!
 https://vimeo.com/35083525

Sea Cliffs Round 2 6-11-13

Round two was started in my mind early in the day.  After half a day of house painting, I decide to be off to bigger and better things.  I drive to Kite Beach to notice the trade winds have shifted East.  It was an easy decision to say No because I have kiteboarded the last few days and had got my tricks out of me.  I decide to go up the Kula and pick up my Wing for Sea Cliffs!  A couple hours later and a shopping run to costco, I'm back at kite beach.  Was windier but still east, so I booked it to the cliffs.  I met up with a friend who was flying his Zagi R.C. plane, and then I flew mine to feel the wind.  It was strong and full of cycles, maybe 15-25mph and slightly from the left.  I was  getting nervous as hell and started questioning if it was to windy.  I sucked it up and started rigging up.  Then a few paraglider buddies showed up, now I have to fly :). This was my third time flying the cliffs and first time on my own.  It was also the windiest I have flown.  We preformed some proper ground handling and I waited a few seconds for a light cycle.  I had a perfect launch and started going up.  A week ago I had my first real flight here and had a pushy launch and a crash landing, but an epic flight.  Today the winds were a bit stronger and slightly different direction.  I figured out my headwinds and drift and started doing some aerobatic turns,( the only way to loose altitude).  I am clueless on aerobatics so I just go fast and crank and bank turns.  I loose a thousand feet and withing a minute of chilling out I am already back up.  So much lift everywhere.  After an hour of exploring and fun turns I think about landing in the strong winds.  I see a Squall and a rainbow out to see and what looked like increasing winds.  I make the decision to go land.  With full speed I set up my approach and bring it to ground well.  Way better than the last landing.  Then I hike the glider out of the tall grass and break it down for Sunset.  Round 2 at the Sea Cliffs was Awesome.  Now the forcast calls for Stronger winds and big wind Swell.  I think I may spend my time down the road Kitesurfing Sandpiles and maybe fly 6k.

Week long over head South Swell.  Mai Tai Party with some friends.  Nice Kiteboarding.  Epic Flying.  Maui Hawaii

First North Push

During most rainy weeks, we be dieing to fly.  First morning of clear skies and it's a go.  First flight was clear sky.  Wind directions looked nice but I never held on to a solid thermal. I had many opportunities but the hook never sunk.  I landed after about a half hour, only to watch a friend sky out as the development started.  He had nice flight and landed.  "A little bumpy," were the words.  Driving up for the car, the conditions were looking to good.  We got to launch and cloud base was almost a grand over head and dark.  I set up quick, preparing for a nice flight.
Right of the bat I got up.  The air was lofty, after a few turns I was looking down on launch.  I stayed above the tree line for about 30 minutes before I reach cloud base. Now that I was high, i noticed that the shear line was moving further to the south.  I was high so it wasn't an immediate concern, but I might be landing in the trade winds.  Thermaling around I must have been in the right spot, a larger back bird buzzed me, as I got a nice glimpse of a rainbow.  I decided to check out going South to a different Landing Zone, that I have walked a few times.  About a third of the way there, I didn't feel to great about it so I headed back to the shear.  Possibly facing a strong head wind and landing short I routed for my first safe LZ.  I was still in good air so I worked my way down to Wounded Knee, my home Landing Zone.  Still being on the edge of the shear in lift, I could see the flags below blowing strong trades.  This landing I haven't experienced yet, but I was prepared none the less.  Over the LZ I was still finding lift so I decided to play around at a safe distance until I was forced down.
I soon found myself in a smooth big thermal.  I was gaining a lot of altitude and not moving to far away.  Suddenly I noticed clouds around my head and different level down below.  I climbed up to 5800 ft and had a change of plans. Miles South of me was an LZ I wanted to go before.  I decided to pull my vg and head that direction into the Shear.  I crossed a new portion of the hill, but didn't feel it out as much as I ran to the safe zones.  I reached Tim's LZ with plenty of altitude.  I mapped out my approach, but still didn't feel comfortable.  I decided to take one more jump upwind.  I hit some nice lifty air and headed to Poli Poli.  With a comfortable altitude and being released from being nervous and alittle scared, I was at the Mother Hill.  I was flying high above the training hill that I spent alot of time learning the sport.  Though I had not flown here in months, I was stoked and comfortable to be landing next to four wind socks and a fresh mowed field.  A nice landing and another first for the books!

Those day where you do more than you visualized in the morning are always nice.  Got up cooked some breakfast and checked out the tile job I started in the bathroom the night before.  It looked good and was prepared to finish.  Got a quick start and few hours later I was done.  Low tide at  Kite Beach is at 11:30 and looked like some nice northerly winds.  Got down there quick, pumped up the 10m and scored a sick hour of smooth wake style with some kickers!  Wind pick up so I took off to make some lunch.  All work at the house was wrapped up and the Shear line looked high.  I decided to head up the mountain to try for an afternoon flight.  Got to the LZ and it looked doable, nothing epic but not bad.  Drove up and set up.  Wind was good and had a nice hour of thermal flying.  Just a rad day on Maui!

Friday Fun

Friday Flight

After rushing up the hill from my previous attempts for a good activity of the day: Battlefield, Surf Ho'okipa, attempted to work, and tried to by a surfboard.  I was setting up at 6k, the name of our Hang Glide launch up Haleakala, Maui.  It's located near the 6 mile marker on Crater rd.  I was alone on this attempt of flying but I was feeling pretty good.  The clouds looked perfect an the wind was nice.  After rushing to set up my glider and preform the necessary harness and glider checks, I was ready to go.  Just as a low bellied cloud rolled in.   Visibility went from perfect to nothing.  There are a few tree clusters that could easily ruin a day.  I quickly called a friend on the ground for a safety in case I mess up.
        My launch clouds were looking ugly but not thick, so I decided to charge em.  I had perfect launch wind and called out a loud "Clear".  A few steps later I was in the air, ready to duck some clouds.  Getting into my harness, I experienced a PIO or pilot induces oscillation, meaning the glider swerved left and right at high speeds near the ground.  Not my best move, but I blame it on a small harness.  After gaining control, I was through the patch of clouds and seeings clear sky.  Far out in front of me, I saw cumulus clouds building everywhere.  I decided to take a straight line to the biggest darkest motha I could see.  I pulled my VG on full for my best glide to get there high.

      Beep Beep Beep, Boom it was on flew into Cloudbase and had one epic flight.

Hang Glide Maui

Hour and Half SouthEasterly Flow