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KONA POWER: WILD AND WINDY MAUI PHOTOS!

A wild, Kona day at Lanes pushed many of the Maui crew to their limits and forced Sarah Jackson to push past her own. On Maui’s notoriously tricky port-tack waves, Sarah faced one of her biggest fears, dropping into her first Kona swells and ticking off a long-awaited milestone. With a couple of waves under her belt and the wind still building, she wisely swapped her windsurf gear for her camera and settled in to watch chaos unfold.

What followed was an unforgettable afternoon of full-power sailing, heavy beatings, and mind blowing performances from some of the world’s best. From Morgan Noireaux launching into the stratosphere to Marcilio Browne carving with precision, plus standout classic sailing from Robby Naish and Levi Siver, Lanes delivered a full power Kona spectacle! 

Words and Photos: Sarah Jackson

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SARAH JACKSON: “So today, we rocked up at the beach and the forecast looked like it was going to get windier and windier as the day went on. So, I met Coko pretty early on, like 12-ish, and it was already nuking. I arrived there just as Coko was going out, and she was on 3.7m. I watched her sail, and I think she rode like 5 waves and she just got, absolutely nailed.

NUKING

The waves weren’t crazy, it was like head to logo, but it was just crazy windy.

Coco came in just as I was heading out and I shouted, was it worth it? And she was like, ‘nope, absolutely not!’

FACING YOUR FEAR

I still went out because I haven’t had a good wave session yet at Lanes. Kona conditions are still a scary thing for me. So, I thought, you know, go out and face your fears and see how it goes.

Anyway, I rode one wave, and it kind of disappeared underneath me. I picked a small one, and kicked out from that, and then I said to myself, you need to pick something a bit bigger next time.

So, I took the last wave of a set, and nailed three turns, but I’m pretty sure, if I watched a video of it, I’m pretty certain I went straight and maybe did a little wiggle. When I made it to the channel, I breathed a sigh of relief and thought yeah, that’ll do me for today and I sailed straight in. It was just so windy, like you couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t sheet in. I was fully maxed on 3.7m and it was pretty crazy.

CAMERA DUTY

Then Coco and I went home and picked up the cameras and Morgan went home to go and pick up his 3.7m. You know it’s windy when Morgan’s going on the same size as you were on. For the rest of the afternoon, we watched the boys and they really put on a show.

MORGAN ON FIRE

The absolute standout rider of the day was Morgan. He did two back loop off the lip attempts.

Then he landed like a perfect forward off the lip and he was going for goiters, 360s and massive aerials. 

I think one of them was the biggest aerial I’ve ever seen. I watched him do as I pulled into the car park, which was pretty insane. He just kept on going up and up and up. It was like watching the guys jumping in Pozo, but he hit a lip instead of like off a ramp, which was insane.

Marcilio was kind of riding with huge rails turns, whereas Morgan was putting on way more of an aerial show.

It was really cool to watch Robby Naish. He got pounded on the rocks the last time and didn’t even make it out. So it was really cool to see him ripping.

Levi did some nice aerials and took a big swim as well. He said earlier when he was out, he had like one of the longest swims of his life because he ejected and then his gear flew off the back of the wave and it was so windy at that point that like he had to swim for like 100m to go and get his gear!

He was just desperately hoping that it didn’t hit the channel because it was like flooding out and so strong that he wasn’t sure that if it was in the channel, he was even going to make it.

All in all it was a pretty spectacular day…One to remember!”