THE GOLDEN HOUR
By this time I think the likes of Timo and Aleix were happy to survive the mission so they headed back down to Ho’okipa leaving just Graham, Cederic and Thomas alone for the last forty minutes until sunset. Right on cue with their departure, the next big set hammered through, this time with Graham Ezzy dropping into a huge clean wave with the west bowl throwing over into a cavernous gaping barrel behind him. Meanwhile Traversa on the wave behind changed his angle of attack and drove his brand new Tabou right under the throat of the main section, hitting it square on. Up on the cliffs, the show was simply awesome to watch. For the last thirty minutes Traversa seemed to go on a mission and was charging at the lip on every wave. Meanwhile the light was crystal clear as the warm evening sun dipped towards the crest of the West Maui Mountains. I really wish I could have been down in the water experiencing some of these waves from the channel but this whole session had been so spontaneous and last minute I was thankful enough to score a front row seat at the top of the cliffs. The last three sailors sailed until almost dark at Jaws before heading off towards Ho’okipa in the fading light.
THIRSTY WORK
I packed up my cameras and headed straight out through the sugar cane fields, onto the Hana Highway and then straight to the nearest liquor store and loaded up with two cases of beer. I was pretty certain the boys would have worked up a thirst and would be stoked after scoring this rare last season session at Jaws with just six guys out. By the time I drove into the parking lot at Ho’okipa it was pitch black, I was thankful to see all the crew were back from Jaws all safe and smiling, especially when I produced two cases of coronas.
Graham was slightly annoyed because it was the first time he had sailed Pe’ahi without hitting the lip but at the same time he reckoned it was easily the cleanest he has ever sailed there and he still scored a few memorable bombs. Timo was ecstatic, I knew sailing Jaws was one of his windsurfing ambitions but to score that one particular wave that caverned over in his wake was even more of a special bonus. Thomas was happy to be reunited with his wife and daughter at Ho’okipa and was definitely buzzing after charging a couple of those massive lips. I’ve seen a few top quality sailors riding Jaws in my time but Traversa somehow is in a league of his own and almost treats it like sailing a logo high beach break rather than a triple mast high ‘life or death’ threatening monster. I felt a bit sorry for Ross who was unable to sail because of an injured ankle but it was still cool to see he was genuinely stoked for his teammates after they had scored Jaws, especially during the GA/Tabou photo shoot. Needless to say, we happily sat around at Ho’okipa until most of the beers were polished off, but after scoring waves like that who could really blame us!