BACKGROUND
The winter of 2015/16 in Hawaii was hailed as one of the best ever seasons for waves as a ‘super El Nino’ event took hold of the Pacific ocean producing back to back xxl swells. The winter of 2016/17 so far in Hawaii has been characterized by ‘La Nina’, which frequently but not always, occurs after an El Nino event. The two events represent opposite oceanic patterns: El Nino by a warming sea surface temperature and La Nina by a cooling one. The strongest El Nino event in the past two decades occurred last winter and contributed to the busiest Central Pacific hurricane season on record and huge swells, as well as an abnormally dry winter in Hawaii. The 2016/17 ‘La Nina’ event has seen less frequent big swells in Maui for their winter so far, but at the start of November Antoine Martin and Marcilio Browne were two of a group of sailors who lucked into an early start to the big wave Maui sailing season at Pe’ahi / Jaws and here tell their tales of risk and reward, pleasure and pain!