Catching A Wave with Kevin Pritchard

One of the many great things about sailing in Maui is that you're often sharing a patch of water with a pro. Ely (Long Island Ely, Yahoo Long Island Windsurf Group Ely, wave kook Ely) shared a wave with KP a few days ago, and has a great helmet cam clip of it to boot! Here's Ely's description of the day:

Monday, April 9th.

My last day on Maui, my flight leaves at 10:30pm. Despite arriving in paradise 10 days ago, this was the second day of sailable wind, the first being the previous day, Sunday. Yesterday's sailing was epic, with occasional bombs over mast high (14 foot faces). No one was sailing at Ho'okipa that day since it was all closed out, so all the pros were at Kanaha. Being easter Sunday and having quite the dry spell for wind, parking was really tough, but we got really lucky, another friend Gary was pulling out from my favorite parking spot under the tree! With such big waves on Sunday, you really couldn't go for it as you would if the waves were a little smaller. It was an extremely fun day though, my buddy Brook who I was travelling with called it his best day of sailing EVER! It was his epiphany, he finally "got it" and became a self-confirmed wavesailing freak! Monday's sailing, captured in the video clip, promised to be even better, with more consistent winds and slightly smaller waves. When we first arrived at Kanaha, the waves looked like they decreased in size by half, and the wind was on the light side. Brook could only lick his lips since he had an early afternoon flight (Never leave Maui on your last day before 9pm!). Surprisingly, by the time I got on the water, the waves were consistently head high with many sets logo high (6 to 10ft.). My first session on the water was great with my 83 liter quattro and 5.6 Simmer wavesail, it was shaping up to be my best day at Kanaha in 6 years. You could really commit to the entire wave, it wasn't scary big like Sunday. After 1 1/2 hours of fantastic wavesailing, I came in and took a break, and had something to eat. When I got back on the water, the wind was pretty fluky and I was only planing 30% of the time. It was beautiful to be out on the water anyway, schlogging out past the reef and waiting for the big ones to come through. You would just stand there on your board and wait, looking towards the horizon until you would see the sea level rising in the distance and ramping up into a nice downhill slope of water. Then, if you were in the right place at the right time, you would pump onto a plane, catch up to the wave and accelerate down the face, bottom turn and ride back up the slope to meet the breaking crest. If you were lucky, you could get 3 or 4 bottom turns on a wave as the peak of the wave travelled downwind.

To make a long story short, I decided to record my last sesh on the water for posterity. I hate having to go home without nothing to show from my trip! as the afternoon progressed, the wind got lighter and lighter. I was shouting out to the wind gods to give me one last big fat juicy wave, and all of a sudden, I see the sea level rising in the distance with the promise of a nice swell heading in towards the reef. With no one else competing for this wave, I pumped onto a plane and my board started pointing down the wave's face. In the distance downwind (about 20 yards away) I see world champ Kevin Pritchard on the same wave. Having rights, I chase down the face of the wave and bottom turn. When I get to my turn off the top of the wave, there's Kevin, now upwind of me with a big smile, ready to head down the face of the
wave behind me. We're perfectly set up to share this wave! I do my top turn while he bottom turns below and downwind of me. I head down the face of the wave again as he hits the lip. As I ride up to hit the lip he flies down the face of the wave and heads upwind for more! There I am, the wave passes under me, and I can't stop laughing, hooting and hollering! Pure bliss! The wind gods delivered big time!

Ely
wave kook

Thanks for sharing that, Ely!

Comments

[Ely]

Hey Michael,

Thanks for the post!

See you on the water,

Ely