Makai to Kaimanas today. Some nuts as water out there. 30+ winds and 10+ surf. I was so happy to see china wall. A lot of me and God time! Hawaii Kai run was fun. Anyone else do em? I got some sick GoPro Video but doesn't do it justice.
Submitted by indar on Wed, 03/23/2011 - 1:44am
Post some videos of that crazy water out there today. Just from shore it looked sketchy. Cant imagine how high that water was today.
#1 Wed, 03/23/2011 - 11:45am
Post it...
#2 Thu, 03/24/2011 - 6:52am
Willy Richtenstein and I did that run on Sunday. From Makapuu went out towards the channel then ran it down from above Portlock. It was the best run of my life, huge swells like mountains and 20 foot drop-ins.
#3 Fri, 03/25/2011 - 8:03am
We did a 6 man run from makai pier to ala wai sunday and I agree it was top-notch, shorts-soiling, tail-end-of-the-bell-curve out of control conditions. We definitely did not have the right tool for the job, the 6 man had too much windage and surface area to be controllable in anything except straight upwind or downwind. There was a big groundswell rolling in from the NE, the bay in front of Makapu'u beach was breaking really far out. If you drew a straight line from black rock to the lighthouse, you'd have hit some big A-frames along the way. Because the normal line didn't look safe we took it around the backside of Rabbit to get a better line around the corner of the lighthouse. In retrospect, that was dumb, the groundswell was wrapping around the Lanikai side of Rabbit in the deep water, wedging off the cliff and sending us airborne on the way out. As soon as we hit the confused water on the back side of Rabbit we flipped it and took a good 10 minutes to get going again. Rounding Makapu'u on the way outside was nuts but manageable. It really got hairy as we came around the point and saw that way outside Allen Davies was a big patch of whitewater that I'd never seen before, avoiding it meant hanging a left turn and heading south for 5-10 minutes which exposed our left flank and ama to the shrieking winds and formidable groundswell that ainokea described. After we got around that offshore impact zone I was able to point the canoe where she wanted to go and it was off to the races... the canoe (Kapa'a) handles exceptionally well in the confused downwind from sandy's to portlock. Often the steersman can't see what's going on in the front, because the foam ball sits around seat 4 or 5, so you just hang on for the ride squealing like schoolgirls, and compare notes later. I would definitley not choose to do that run again without an escort, and would take a VHF, flares and dye instead of just my wimpy cell phone in the waterproof case. So a big nod of respect to the ocean, she has been dishing out great heaping servings of whup-ass the last couple weeks...
#4 Fri, 03/25/2011 - 10:04pm
i can take no credit for how the Kapa'a performs. but knowing that she which was built by members of the OCP Mafia and Kamanu still holds together at 188 lbs (even in such gnarly conditions) makes me feel happy.
a lot of love went into that canoe. thanks pswitzer for the story.
#5 Fri, 03/25/2011 - 10:49pm