Our first attempt came a week after I arrived home. Everything was in place with perfect east winds and a decent sized swell being sent down from one of the many low pressures tracking across the UK. On arrival at the beach Pons was already rigged and told me to launch in the upwind bay. I was a little dubious as 200 metres upwind and perched 100 metres up, is the town of El Roque, sending an enormous wind shadow across the whole of the bay. However as Pons was the master and confidently set off on his own, I sceptically followed after taking my favourite RRD Hardcore Wave 88, which is my light wind Ho’okipa board that floats in nothing.
It quickly turned into another one of my classic north shore sessions…..swimming with my windsurf gear. The wind was VERY light, and worse, still coming through the bay in random puffs. Not only random in strength, but also in direction. Add to that head high white water steaming in and it was almost impossible to make any headway in the 0-5 knots of wind. I quickly assessed the currents and worked out how to avoid getting destroyed on the rocks, but after 30 minutes of constant swimming I gave up and used my best front crawl to get back to shore. To be honest I was ready to chuck the gear in the van and drive home, but I watched Pons continue in his fruitless mission and decided to give it one more go. This time however I gave myself more of a chance and grabbed my big board’s big brother…. the 98 litre Hardcore Wave. It floated like a boat. It was still hard, but at least when the wind dropped to literally zero knots I could stay standing and wait for the next puff. Thankfully that next puff coincided with a gap in the sets and next thing I knew I was out back. Seeing me (and not knowing I had taken a big board to help) must have spurred Pons on, because within 5 minutes he had joined me too. Once out back the wind was still light, but at least now it was a consistent 10 knots and enough to get in position and catch waves. The first waves took tentative to new levels, but little by little I started to get the feel for the place and for the conditions. The peak is a very heavy, sucky, dredging bowl, and I will be the first to admit I didn’t want anything to do with it on this day. Add to that a few random rocks poking up unexpectedly and sets well over mast high, this was definitely on a par with the worst of Maui’s danger zones and not the walk in the park I had planned.