Jaws
Before I came to Maui this year I saw that Jaws had been breaking loads. It has always been a dream of mine to sail there but I knew I would have to be very lucky as it was late in the season to catch it. We ended up scoring a big swell in the photo shoot. We went down to Ho’okipa after lunch one day and saw it was massive and just closing out, so Thomas and JC decided that it might be a good idea to go check Jaws, which turned out to be a fortunate call! I launched off the rocks at the bottom of the cliff with all the GA and Tabou guys and Timo Mullen. It sucked that Jamie Hancock had to film as it was for the photo shoot and Ross was off the water with a bad ankle. I was nervous about launching off the rocks as I didn’t want to destroy all my kit and not catch a wave. I watched Thomas launch first and after seeing him launch it gave me a lot of confidence as he made it look deceptively easy, so I went next and managed to make it out fine too. When I dropped into my first wave I pretty much straight lined it as I had never been on a wave like it before and it was a nerve-racking experience. Everyone seemed to be buzzing and dropping into some huge waves. We were all slowly becoming a bit more confident and I decided to drop in a bit deeper which was a huge mistake as I ended up with a wave on my head and breaking my sail. I finally made it back to my kit after the sets died off but was on the upwind side of the wave. I tried to de-rig so I could swim back in, but after taking my boom off another set came through and I ended up losing everything again. I eventually managed to make it in to the rocks with most of my kit. I was gutted I wasn’t still sailing as it looked like it was getting better. It was still exciting to watch Thomas Traversa nail some insane airs and Graham Ezzy carve some unbelievable turns. We drove back up to Ho’okipa while the others sailed back down and then had a few beers. It was definitely a day that I won’t forget and can’t wait to sail there again. Maui is a dream windsurfing location with some super inspiring people. It was incredible to see how hard and late the top guys were hitting sections on the wave. The standard of sailing was ridiculously high and motivated me to improve. I had some fun surfing out there too, which I find very helpful for my wave riding. I had some epic sessions at Ho’okipa, Sprecks and Kanaha but by the end of the trip I was getting a bit over the crowds which made me want to come back to Brandon Bay, Ireland.