Makani Classic+New Style

I've been having blogin(blogger login) problems this week but I got in now and I'm going to make up for the lack luster posting performance. Here we go...

In my creative writing class we were taught that your writing is an expression of yourself and you must not censor yourself. Only by expressing yourself can your writing truly grow. Thanks Mrs. Matsuda, so I'll be honest with you I only took your class because it was a writing intensive(need 5 to graduate) and your English 100 class was so easy a fat Thai Kid could have passed it while practicing for American Idol season 37 see video here.

Anyways, I'm going to start being honest on this blog. I'm getting bored with "wind and waves were great life is awesome" posts, even though it is. Sorry if I offend my loyal readers(all 12 of them), shit there I go lying again, I'm not sorry. I hope you're offended. Complacencly leads to an agonizing death of ones spirit. Maybe you will get to see the world through a small piece of the lens that I see it through. Maybe you'll learn something and teach something in return. Maybe you'll tune out, I don't care.

There will be more videos, more pics, and more music, I'll try to keep in ocean sport related but I can't promise you anything.

On a different note, in Hawaiian tradition this time of the year is the beginning of Makahiki season. This was a time of celebration, competition, and relaxation for the Hawaiian people. Crops were harvested during the fall and with the oncoming swells, and storms fishing and agriculture went on hold. People stopped working and enjoyed a three month vacation from most day to day duties. Sounds like fun huh. In the spirit of Makahiki season, on to the contest!


Sam has done an amazing job and to see the stoke of nearly everyone down at the beach is incredible. All the sponsors and everyone dedicating time to this event has made something really special. For me contests don't put me in a good state of mind. I get edgy and start snapping at my girlfriend for nothing. I think they aren't for me, but whatever. I enjoy the time on the water for sure but I don't feel the need to prove myself to anyone else. What do I care if you give me a 2 or 9 for my wave? I'm having fun.

We still have two days to go we could see some amazing conditions.



Check out this video from the Goodwins. Inspiration. They are traveling the world with their small children promoting a simple lifestyle. Some day I might have to courage to do the things I want.

The Goodwin Project from Avocados and Coconuts on Vimeo.

When I'm sailing I usually have a song stuck in my head, this was last weeks song lyrics are below

Peace

[Nas Talking - Intro]
Here we are
here we are
Yeah
This one right here is for the people

[Hook] (Sample -MAMADOU & MARIAM, “SABALI”)
Sabali, Sabali, Sabali, yonkontê
Sabali, Sabali, Sabali, kiye
Ni kêra môgô
Sabali, Sabali, Sabali, yonkontê
Sabali, Sabali, Sabali, kagni
Ni kêra môgô

[Nas Talking]
Ay yo D. Lets go all the way on this one.

[Damian Marley - Verse 1]
Some of the smartest dummies
Can’t read the language of Egyptian mummies
An’ a fly go a moon
And can’t find food for the starving tummies
Pay no mind to the youths
Cause it’s not like the future depends on it
But save the animals in the zoo
Cause the chimpanzee dem a make big money
This is how the media pillages
On the TV the picture is
Savages in villages
And the scientist still can’t explain the pyramids, huh
Evangelists making a living on the videos of ribs of the little kids
Stereotyping the image of the images
And this is what the image is
You buy a khaki pants
And all of a sudden you say a Indiana Jones
An’ a thief out gold and thief out the scrolls and even the buried bones
Some of the worst paparazzis I’ve ever seen and I ever known
Put the worst on display so the world can see
And that’s all they will ever show
So the ones in the west
Will never move east
And feel like they could be at home
Dem get tricked by the beast
But a where dem ago flee when the monster is fully grown?
Solomonic linage whe dem still can’t defeat and them coulda never clone
My spiritual DNA that print in my soul and I will forever Own Lord

[Hook]

[Nas talking]
Yeah, Sabali. Thats patience. That’s what the old folks told me…
Discovering the World before this World. A World buried in time.
Uncover with rhymes. It gets no realer.

[Damian Marley: Verse 2]
Huh, we born not knowing, are we born knowing all?
We growing wiser, are we just growing tall?
Can you read thoughts? can you read palms?
Huh, can you predict the future? can you see storms, coming?
The Earth was flat if you went too far you would fall off
Now the Earth is round if the shape change again everybody woulda start laugh
The average man can’t prove of most of the things that he chooses to speak of
And still won’t research and find out the root of the truth that you seek of
Scholars teach in Universities and claim that they’re smart and cunning
Tell them find a cure when we sneeze and that’s when their nose start running
And the rich get stitched up, when we get cut
Man a heal dem broken bones in the bush with the wed mud
Can you read signs? can you read stars?
Can you make peace? can you fight war?
Can you milk cows, even though you drive cars? huh
Can you survive, Against All Odds, Now?

[Hook]

[Nas]
It’s crazy when you feed people the truth you don’t know how they’re gonna react. You’re scared of wrong doers, people that just ignorant, You’re scared of the truth, be patient for now.

[Nas: Verse 3]
Who wrote the Bible? Who wrote the Qur’an?
And was it a lightning storm
That gave birth to the Earth
And then dinosaurs were born? damn
Who made up words? who made up numbers?
And what kind of spell is mankind under?
Everything on the planet we preserve and can it
Microwaved it and try it
No matter what we’ll survive it
What’s hue? what’s man? what’s human?
Anything along the land we consuming
Eatin’, deletin’, ruin
Trying to get paper
Gotta have land, gotta have acres
So I can sit back like Jack Nicholson
Watch n-ggas play the game like the lakers
In a world full of 52 fakers
Gypsies, seances, mystical prayers
You superstitious? throw salt over your shoulders
Make a wish for the day cuz
Like somebody got a doll of me
Stickin’ needles in my arteries
But I can’t feel it
Sometimes it’s like ‘pardon me, but I got a real big spirit’
I’m fearless…. I’m fearless
Don’t you try and grab hold of my soul
It’s like a military soldier since seven years old
I held real dead bodies in my arms
Felt their body turn cold, oh
Why we born in the first place
If this is how we gotta go?
Damn.

This goes to all the wisdom and knowledge seekers of the World. Sabali, Patience, yeah.
[End]



Read more: http://www.killerhiphop.com/patience-lyrics-nas-damian-marley/#ixzz1cLBESQos

Forecast lie...I hope

Contest starts in a week whoohoo!!! I've had quite a few people tell me what a bummer is that there's going to be no wind and no waves. Forecasts for a week out are not reliable. Have a laugh...

Political Activism

Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

I don't know if mister 100 dollar bill actually said this, but it seems that we are moving from democracy to liberty. Political activism in coming into fashion again and it's about time. Protests are springing up worldwide for a range of topics. Many of them will probably loose steam, but a few might have legs and make a difference. Maybe a law will be passed from the occupy wall street people that will allow campaign contributions to be limited to $1 dollar per person/group.

The windsurfing community here in Maui has something to fight for. Windsurfing at Ho'okipa is being threatened. Kitesurfers are trying to gain access and restrict windsurfers access by implementing a 5 man rule. Hopefully this is only rumor, but we need to have input before these rules become law. It's our Kuleana or responsibility to not only become part of the discussion but to also follow the ten man rule and RESPECT the surfers in the water. Surfers out number windsurfers by scores and they will have much more influence then windsurfers ever will.

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
Ghandi

Owned

I love that nobody is helping her...

...

Self-observation
from Ouspensky's "In Search of the Miraculous," pp. 146-49

Gurdjieff:
"When a man comes to realize the necessity not only for self-study and self-observation but also for work on himself with the object of changing himself, the character of his self-observation must change. He has so far studied the details of the work of the centers, trying only to register this or that phenomenon, to be an impartial witness. He has studied the work of the machine. Now he must begin to see himself, that is to say, to see, not separate details, not the work of small wheels and levers, but to see everything taken together as a whole--the whole of himself such as others see him.
"For this purpose a man must learn to take, so to speak, 'mental photographs' of himself at different moments of his life and in different emotional states: and not photographs of details, but photographs of the whole as he saw it. In other words these photographs must contain simultaneously everything that a man can see in himself at a given moment. Emotions, moods, thoughts, sensations, postures, movements, tones of voice, facial expressions, and so on. If a man succeeds in seizing interesting moments for these photographs he will very soon collect a whole album of pictures of himself which, taken together, will show him quite clearly what he is. But it is not so easy to learn how to take these photographs at the most interesting and characteristic moments, how to catch characteristic postures, characteristic facial expressions, characteristic emotions, and characteristic thoughts. If the photographs are taken successfully and if there is a sufficient number of them, a man will see that his usual conception of himself, with which he has lived from year to year, is very far from reality.
"Instead of the man he had supposed himself to be he will see quite another man. This 'other' man is himself and at the same time not himself. It is he as other people know him, as he imagines himself and as he appears in his actions, words, and so on; but not altogether such as he actually is. For a man himself knows that there is a great deal that is unreal, invented, and artificial in this other man whom other people know and whom he knows himself. You must learn to divide the real from the invented. And to begin self-observation and self-study it is necessary to divide oneself. A man must realize that he indeed consists of two men.

Is the revolution starting? This could be interesting...Bank Transfer day

Incredible, really hope we get a good lanes day this year...

R.I.P. Jobs

Apple.com


Steve Jobs passed away today. Thanks to a donation from Apple we had computers in our 4th grade class. Here are a few quotes from him...

"Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose." - Steve Jobs

"Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life." -Steve Jobs

Sign me up

Corrupt police with AK's, hundreds of miles of inhospitable desert to cross, freezing cold water, angry sea lion colonies, and big ass sharks. This wave was found on Google Earth by some kid on the mainland. Cory Lopez and a group went and scored. What an adventure.

Africa from French Connexion on Vimeo.

I don't know where I read it, but I believe a real adventure is something you might not return from, but if you do, you WILL NOT be the same person.

Sailing has been good here, everyone is frothing over the early north swells. Here is a sequence from Jimmie Hepp, this is the first real lip I've hit since my back went out in February, it felt really good...

Holy Shit!

Stole this from the PWA page, Thomas going huge!! It looks like he's going for a forward, that's massive though. Can't wait to see the video.

This changes everything

More waves this week, and there has been a shift toward winter. Colder nights and storms in the North Pacific. Check the vid that the little lovely Lali found...



Shane Dorian is legend.

Wow

Best South in six years! So many crazy stories! I'm pretty bummed about missing the epic windsurfing session, I looked. It was knarly.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?fbid=266809190003970&set=a.266808923337330.71557.243160842368805&type=1&theater

Hows Oahu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeoC_koEzd8&feature=player_embedded

So sick!

Surf

Summer time forecasts don't get much better then this.

"Outlook through Wednesday Aug 31: a new south swell will peak Friday night, and slowly lower over the weekend. A larger south swell will arrive on Sunday and peak on Monday, bringing surf near advisory levels for south facing shores. An even larger south swell will arrive late Monday and peak on Tuesday, bringing surf above advisory levels."

Waterfall wonderland

17 mile white sand beaches+200 foot waterfalls in the jungle+acres of undeveloped virgin land+endless surf setups=Paradise Found.

Every place I have ever been to is beautiful in its own way. The beauty is easy to see in some places and in others you have to search it out and use your imagination. Kauai is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. You can stop at any point on the island and see post card perfection views. No words can paint an accurate picture, and pictures fail to grasp the scale of what you are seeing. The vibe is slow and mellow except for the mustangs and jeeps that are on a mission to make sure their vacation is as complicated as their home lives.

I will be spending some time here in the future.
Here are a couple pictures more to come as soon as I go through them all.

Baja bound+stupid video

Baja bound!

Summer+Epic Surf

Summer and Epic surf aren't mentioned together very often. This summer has been different though. The swells haven't been over hyped, they've met even the most optimistic forecasts. As if they were making up for the last few years of advisory level ankle slappers.

Lots of smiles and lots of uncrowded waves. This last swell was the best I've seen in years and I got to surf one of those misto nameless, often mind-surfed but never ridden, breaks only in your dreams and on the right tide sort of waves. It was sick!

No Hate in the 808

There are very few things in life worth hating. Fear can be used as motivation, but hatred has no purpose. Each of us has a duty to rid the hatred in our lives and fill it with love and compassion. The hatred I've been dealing with is that of missing epic sessions. I hate it when it's firing and I can't be out there. I become antsy, irritable, and turn into a pretty miserable person to be around. I'm learning though, yesterday was firing, and I managed to watch everyone surf one of my favorite spots and I actually enjoyed it! It's a small step with a long process to go, but I'm learning and I challenge everyone to conquer their hatred and learn from it. We are all so blessed.

The surf is sick and it should be good all week. Here's Luifer's first barrel!

Older brother Pipe

Oregon+Firelight

After hurting myself and not finishing last in the contest I had almost given up on sailing for the trip. The forecast was calling for wind but now swell. On our drive up the coast to the Gorge we stopped by the Jetty and scored a little session. The conditions weren't epic, head high, light gusty side side-off wind and rippable. Diego, Russ, and Sam were there already watching it and they weren't very motivated. I got super excited and started frantically unpacking my bags and rigging up. I rigged the new 5.0 Firelight and it was the perfect sail for the conditions. It's one of the lightest if not the lightest sail on the market. The sail is light like the Superfreaks but still has the crisp feel of the Fires. It's extremely easy to sail, and after two hours I still hadn't fallen in. The wind was a little light for everyone else, but for me it was the best session of the trip. Maybe it was because I hadn't hit a lip since February, regardless, I came in with a smile from ear to ear. This same sort of thing happened to me in Morocco. I had given up on sailing for the trip, the forecast was flat, and out of no where a logo high swell came in. If you keep a positive attitude everything seems to fall into place.

Oregon Pics+Duck Surfing

The contest didn't go as well as planned but the trip was one of the best ever. The sailing was really fun the day before the event, 3.7 and logo high onshore waves. Sick. The first day of the contest started with light winds and small waves. The wind slowly built all day and by my heat it was solid 4.2. Then it really started nuking. I started my heat with a tweaked jump(notice the hoodie)

and then got destroyed on a forward. .













Here is the sequence;








The take off was good

Here I am just starting to sheet in

Now I start to get into trouble if you click on the photo you can see that my frozen hand has slipped off the boom.

At this point I have hit the ejection bottom and I am trying to get as far away from my gear as possible. I know it's going to hurt but I should land far away from my gear and be fine or so I thought...

My foot got stuck in the strap and my sail sheeted in again, launching me even faster at the water, at this point I'm out of control and saying my prayers. I think the booties had something to do with getting stuck. This is my favorite shot of the sequence and my new facebook profile shot.

I'm blessed to not have landed on my gear. The wind got knocked out of me, I was seeing stars, and coughing up blood. Not the best start. I managed to finish my heat but kind of just sailed back and forth for most of it. I coughed up blood for about an hour, but besides a sore neck and back I was fine. Super thankful because it could have been much much worse.
More stories to come, but I got to get in the water now. Warm water whoohoo!
This is just funny.

Duck surfing

To the Gorge

We're heading up to the Gorge now and looking for a place to stay. Adventure after adventure; river floating, camping, redwoods, and long drives.

We had some really fun sailing yesterday, I'll have more pictures up as soon as I find a fast internet connection.

It's a wrap!

Contest is over. Nate Mershon won and he deserved it. He was ripping the whole contest. Zane got robbed in the stand-up contest, he killed it! I didn't do so well, I haven't sailed much since February and my back was bothering me. I'm uploading some picks and should have them up by tomorrow morning. We've had some great adventures, and some really good luck, Sonya won a new stand-up paddle board at the drawing!! Pics to come tomorrow.
Aloha,
Nick

Forecasts

The forecasts are looking good. Pistol river looks like it's going to be very windy and maybe even a swell! Check it at Americanwindsurfingtour.com. Long range swell forecast for Maui is looking great too. It could be the best south swell in years if it pans out. It should set up very close to the islands and from a good direction.