HONOLUA TURNS ON
I rounded the corner towards Honolua Bay and what I saw was baffling. A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. North west wind and solid 10-ft. waves pounding through. It was pretty big and messy, but a few sets between the closeouts were super fun looking. I decided to try to rig up and launch down the coast from Slaughter House since the wind was pretty sheltered inside Honolua Bay itself. When I was ready to head out, sets started rolling in that were much bigger than earlier. I went for it and tried to time it right to get out in-between the light, sheltered wind on the inside and the big 5-8-ft. shore pound. It didn’t work and I ended up worked and rag dolled for 30 minutes before deciding it was too light to get enough speed to make it through the narrow little bay that was starting to close out.
Option number two wasn’t ideal either, it definitely was sketchy! I hiked down the steep and slippery trail from Honolua lookout called, ‘Hole in the Brain’ with all my gear and jumped off the gnarly rocks. From there I had to swim out to the wind line! The wind direction wasn’t perfect for down-the-line sailing, but it was an amazing opportunity to windsurf this legendary break that I have been surfing my whole life! My Dad and Wayne Cochran were the only other people to windsurf Honolua, I believe – that was way back in the 80s. On the way out it took me a ton of tacks to make it out through the narrow, almost-closing-out channel. The whole time I was thinking how cool it was to be out here windsurfing at one of my favourite places in the world. I shook my friends’ hands who were out there trying to surf in the wind and big waves then headed out to the peak.
First wave I caught from outside of the point, almost at the top of the Honolua Bay, I had such a light-wind take-off, that I dropped into the wave in a place that I very well could’ve been dropping in on my surf board. I rode it all the way through to Keiki bowls on the inside and got hung up at the top while trying to kick out! I was going down-the-line completely downwind and clew-first when trying to kick out the back. With the light wind I knew I wasn’t gonna make it over the thick lip, so tried to push my rig out over the back and, shortly after, took a nice tumble in the Honolua washer machine! My rig came so close to going in to the rocks, It would’ve been a little bit of a buzz kill to have a one-wave session, as it easily could’ve been. If you think Ho’okipa rocks are gnarly, they’re nothing compared to West Maui …
