24 HOURS AT HO’OKIPA!
24 HOURS AT HO’OKIPA!
Ho’okipa Beach Park in the spring becomes the epicentre of the wave sailing world. With most of the major brands converging for their annual product shoots in Hawaii, any half decent day at this legendary break usually ends up in a frenzy of activity, with all the team riders joining the regulars and tourists in the battle for waves in order to nail their shots for the catalogue. With the hill overlooking the action acting as a natural amphitheatre; every turn, every jump and every crash is under the spotlight from the crowds and photographers watching. From dawn ‘til dusk barely a wave goes unridden by either a surfer or a windsurfer, while many waves are shared or squandered in the heat of the action as the crowd overloads on the available swell. John Carter joined the annual pilgrimage to the wavesailing mecca in early April and has compiled a 24 hour timeline of the entire goings on from one of the best days of the season. Read on for a day in the life of Ho’okipa beach.
Words & Photos JOHN CARTER
(This feature originally appeared in the April 2015 issue of Windsurf Magazine. To read more features like this first, Print and Digital subscriptions are available. Prices include delivery globally for 10 x issues a year!)
MIDNIGHT CALL
‘12.01am: The midnight Windguru update is calling for a 2.5m at 16 seconds N/W swell and 20-30 knot N/E trades. It’s a great forecast for Ho’okipa, solid mast high swell and some pretty strong and gusty winds. For the likes of Fanatic/ North, NeilPryde and Simmer, it’s a no brainer, Ho’okipa is the ultimate location for shooting, despite the crowds; it has the best vantage points, waves and lighting, a photographers dream ! Chances are its going to be a very hectic day with plenty of sailors jostling for waves.
6am: The predawn glow in Hawaii before sunrise is an awesome time to be out on the water. While some of us are sound asleep, the hungriest surfers are already paddling out in order to score the early session before the wind and crowds lock in for the day. I am up early checking the weather and making sure the swell has arrived as predicted.
7am: As first light hits the West Maui Mountains and bathes the slopes of Haleakala, Maui’s dormant volcano, this beautiful island comes awake. Morning traffic passing Ho’okipa seems to be busier year by year as many people commute from their idyllic homes in rural Haiku into the bustling commercial centre of Kahului down the coast. Back on the water, the early birds have already scored their fix of waves as the first sign of the trades kick in and ruffle up the surf.
SURFERS
8am: There are perhaps fifty cars in the car park already, mostly surfers and tourists passing by to check the view on their way to Hana and its famed breathtaking scenery. The beach is split into two distinct groups and hang out spots. Pavilions at the near end as you drive into the beach, is the local surfing stronghold and in the olden days, obvious ‘Euro’ windsurfers were strongly advised to avoid eye contact with the hard core locals. Pavilions actually has a couple of shelters, showers and a barbeque area but none of the windsurfers ever use these facilities, as they stick to their own end of the beach up towards the life guard tower. Nowadays the scene is a little bit mellower than the nineties but still its best to drive slowly and keep a low profile when passing through ‘Pavils’. On an average day there can easily be two to three hundred surfers on the water at any one time spread across the breaks of Pavilions, Middles and H’poko down off the rocks. Today the wind is already filling in and the surfers are giving way to the inevitable takeover from the windsurfers. Somehow these two tribes coexist at this busy break but on more marginal days plenty of conflicts can take place.
9am: The lifeguards show up for work, ready for a busy day at the office. Not only are these guys on hand for any life-saving rescues but also a major part of their duty is to police the break. No windsurfers allowed if there are more than ten surfers, and no kites are allowed if there is more than ten windsurfers or five surfers. A couple of simple rules but kind of frustrating sometimes when its windy and eleven surfers are holding the break to ransom while the windsurfers are stuck on the beach or forced to head down to Lanes.
“ Ho’okipa is the ultimate location for shooting, despite the crowds; it has the best vantage points, waves and lighting, a photographers dream ! ”
RIGGED AND READY
10am: Located at Mile marker 9 on the Hana Highway, Ho’okipa by 10am is already a hive of activity. NeilPryde have already staked their claim close to the guard rail in the parking lot and the likes of Robby Swift, Jason Polakow, Jules Denel and Antoine Albeau are already rigging the 2015 sails ready for a busy day on the water. The North/ Fanatic Team are also on site early, rigged and ready to be out on the water as soon as the surfers are clear.
11am: Local photographerJimmie Hepp is already down on the rocks ready for a busy day of action at the office. In his late sixties, Hepp has been shooting Ho’okipa for many years and shows up day in day out to shoot, pros and amateurs alike.First on the water and most hungry for the action is Ricardo Campello, on his new Point 7/ Patrik combo, out to prove a point to the NeilPryde guys that they might have made a mistake leaving him off the 2014 Team.
I have to say that Ricardo was a standout during my time on Maui and also one of the guys that clocked the most hours on the water, the sponsorship change seemed like it was putting an extra spring in his step. Levi Siver is also on deck early today along with his film buddy Jace Panabianco hoping to score some footage for their latest movie projects. Every sailor that hits the water at Ho’okipa has to enter the water through one tiny strip of sand marking a small gap in the reef. For the first timer this makes the launch, all the more daunting. First up you have to head out through a shallow choppy zone and then head out alongside the rocks where the wind is extremely gusty and fickle. Many sailors have come to blows with the rocks before even making it out the back where even more intimidating challenges lie ahead. It may be the most famous windsurfing break on the planet but be warned, Ho’okipa certainly isn’t a kindergarten playground and once you are out into the gladiator pit, only the toughest and most skilled return as heroes to the beach.
HELICOPTER SESSION|
11.30am: Just as Kevin Pritchard and Graham Ezzy head out on the water savouring a relatively uncrowded early session, a helicopter appears from down the coast signalling for twelve NeilPryde riders to head into the water for the next frenzied hour. Photographer Jerome Houyvet and Elliot Laboe on video duties are strapped in with the doors off ready to shoot their prey. Within minutes the team are all going nuts on the water beneath the whirring blades of the chopper. It’s a great spectacle for the crowds watching from the hill while everyone raises their game and goes hell bent to score the big shots. New signing Leon Jamaer cranks a huge aerial but can’t hold on and his gear is swept onto the rocks. Jamaer is the first of many who will come to blows with the infamous boulders off the point at Ho’okipa. Right in front is a very heavy rip sweeping down towards Lanes and if you ever lose your gear at Ho’okipa and end up anywhere near the rocks the best advice is to swim like hell with the current and chances are you’ll be swept clear and save a nasty experience and possible broken equipment.
FULL HOUSE
12am: By midday pretty much all of the 170 parking spots at Ho’okipa are filled with even more late comers trying to squeeze in. Ho’okipa is packed both on and off the water. The waves are solid mast high which does keep the numbers down slightly but there are still fifty or so sailors battling for waves, with the Pryde guys still shooting in the thick of it all.
1pm: Just to add to the drama, Ricardo Campello decided to fly his drone over the water at Ho’okipa. The four blade quad copters are becoming a common sight at windsurfing and surfing beaches round the world and offer a relatively cheap, heli perspective of the action. Ricardo almost seems as fearless with his drone as he is out on the water windsurfing.
2pm: It is my turn for a ride in the helicopter for the Fanatic/ North Shoot and it looks as if I have lucked into some of the biggest sets of the day. The thrill of being up above the waves just a few feet away from sailors smacking huge aerials is pretty awesome. We are up above Ho’okipa right over the rocks and it’s pumping and regardless of any fear the riders will be forced to hit any section that confronts them when the helicopter is overhead.
Victor Fernandez, Klaas Voget. Adam Lewis and Allesio Stillrich are all going off for the camera with Fernandez leading the charge with some huge aerials over frothing avalanches of white water. When I change memory card I have to grip like a vice in fear of dropping a full one in the water below! Now that would be painful. Lots of decisions have to be made when you are flying around, like which rider to choose when the best sets roll in and guiding the pilot to line up for the perfect shot.
2.30pm: With business taken care off, the likes of Keith Taboul, Robby Naish and Francisco Goya all roll up for the afternoon session. Naish trundles into the car park in his ridiculous Ford F650 which easily takes up a couple of regular cars parking spots. Luckily the thing is jacked up so high Robby Is able to park over the top of some boulders on the slope where no other car is able to manoeuvre. At 51 Robby is still ripping just as hard as ever and only a fool would even consider dropping in on the King, so he still gets his fair share of waves! Taboul and Goya are both hard core sailors who still have to work nine ‘til five but on the special days there is always a space blanked out in the diary for them to score a few hours on the water.
2.45pm: Midway through the heli’ shoot and the sets are pumping in and the wind is solid although it is kind of choppy and not that perfect glassy Ho’okipa. As well as the North and Fanatic guys on the water, the likes of Philip Koester, Keith Taboul, Ben Proffitt and Boujmaa Guilloul are all ripping. It is one of those days where there are cameras clicking from every possible angle, land, helicopter, water and even Ricardo’s drone!
3.15pm: Down below I clock Boujmaa fly into a huge stalled forward loop, and even from the air, which tends to make jumps look lower, he seemed to go up and up like a bird. The guys from xsensr actually had a sensor on his board at the time and the height above sea level was clocked at 43 feet! That’s not bad but a few years ago Levi nailed a 52 feet back loop at the shadow box jump off while Boujmaa stuck an enormous sixty two feet straight air.
“ Ho’okipa may be overcrowded and a tough break to conquer but nobody will ever argue that it does not deliver the goods ”
WATER TIME
4pm: Finally with my head still whizzing, I am back on dry land headed through the traffic from the heli port back to Ho’okipa. The congestion late afternoon is always a pain in the ass (and gets worse every year) and it takes time to creep all the way from Spreckelsville, through Paia and up the last stretch of the Hana Highway to the Ho’okipa entrance. Once past Mama’s Fish House you can see the surf and all the sails flicking in and out at Ho’okipa. Over my years of watching I can usually tell who is out even from half a mile down the highway. That distinctive pink sail of Naish or the Blue and Black Point 7 from Ricardo or Koester on his bright red Severne sporting that huge Red Bull logo at the top are all out there tearing up the waves.
4.30pm: The NeilPryde Team are at it again with a second helicopter session. This time down at Lanes to escape the Hookipa crowds. Back at Ho’okipa, Robby Naish, Campello, Boujmaa and the North Fanatic Team are back out ripping it up for their final session of the day. Looking down at the sets rolling through, I am sure Pryde are scoring some epic shots and no doubt many of these will be seen in their 2015 catalogue.
With a ‘heli’ shoot and land shots in the bag its now time, for me to take a swim into the water to join the likes of Simon Crowther and Julien Schlosser from France who are already out there shooting. For the photographer, it’s the same route out round the rocks and then go with the current and head back up into the line-up. Quite often there are several other shooters in the break and on the busiest days there can be five or six which can be dangerous because there are no safe routes for the sailors to bang the lip and land. Either way it can be great fun swimming in the waves, although the dangers are obviously there with certain sailors taking unnecessary risks and landing right on top of you. Once in the line up its all about positioning and being in the right place at the right time, while also making sure you don’t get mown down by an out of control sailor looking for heroics.
Last year I was whacked in the neck after a full power spinout from Japanese sailor Nishida Waka (ironically) and thought at the time it was game over for me but luckily I did not drown! At least she bought me a twelve pack of beer to say sorry! A few years back I remember Robby Naish having a similar encounter with local photographer Rick Leeks which ended up with Rick having half of his face slashed off and a very expensive bill for plastic surgery. I guess I was lucky and the beer didn’t taste too bad either up on the rail after the session!
THE LATE SESSION
5pm: The late session is often the best and today is no exception. With the winds swinging slightly more offshore and cleaning up the waves in the process, there are some really sick waves to be ridden late in the day as the sun starts to fade behind the West Maui Mountains down the coast. While many guys are fatigued from a whole day on the water, the smart and the patient ones can now score their fix without quite so many sails on the water.
5.30pm: Back on the beach most sailors take their time de rigging while they talk story about the day gone by. Wooden slats are set over the steel guard rails at the top of the car park and this is where most people sit and catch up with friends post session. The craic all goes on here, normally led by Ricardo or Kai Katchadorian on who was going the hardest or had the biggest wipe out (also normally Ricardo!). Chances are the conditions will fire again tomorrow and we will all go through the same routine over again in the morning. Ho’okipa may be overcrowded and a tough break to conquer but nobody will ever argue that it does not deliver the goods, time after time and that is why many have made this place home and photo shoots keep coming back year after year.
6.45pm: The sun finally goes down and the last surfers catch that one last ride!
7pm: The gates at the top of Ho’okipa Car Park are locked and it is a wrap for another day at the world’s most renowned windsurfing break. That same routine has been taking place at this beach for the past twenty years. A tribal gathering of windsurfers and surfers, sharing these incredible waves deep in the heart of the Pacific Ocean.
IF ONLY!
7.30pm: If I was a millionaire, on my way home, no doubt I’d be calling in at Mama’s Fish House for cocktails at sunset followed by a slap up meal. Unfortunately Mamas is one of the most expensive restaurants on Maui, so it’s a quick stop at Minute Stop in Paia for a six pack of Longboard Draft beer and then grab a fish burger at The Fishmarket for tea; yum!
9pm: Well as if the day was not busy enough, it’s now time to download cards, recharge batteries and edit photos. The forecast for the 5th is almost the same, most decent swells usually last a couple of days and after a taster today, no doubt all the sailors will be frothing for more..
11pm: Local photographer, Jimmie Hepp and Fishbowl diaries shooter, Sofie Louca have already posted their daily albums from Ho’okipa and the whole world can see shots from the day within hours of the action taking place. Gone are the days where we would be waiting three months for the next issues of the magazine to hit the shelves so we can all see the exclusive shots. Times are changing that’s for sure. Regardless of its social media exposure, Ho’okipa is still one of the best places in the world to watch and witness the elite athletes in our sport push their wave sailing boundaries to new limits. I can’t think of many sports or spots in the world where anyone can roll up, take a seat in the sun and watch the very best train and perform to the top of their game and all for free. I will be back next spring to watch the show and hope to see you there too, as a windsurfing fan, it’s one of the ultimate experiences and one you’ll never forget !
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