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LA PEROUSE: CODE RED 2

Surf forecasting websites dubbed it “Code Red 2”, to mark it as one of the biggest south swells in the Pacific in recent years, generating waves from New Zealand to Alaska! And Maui got its slice of the action too, with the south shore break of La Perouse lighting up for one of the best windsurfing days of the decade on its rocky shores. Robby Naish and Michi Schweiger tell us more about the all-time session.  

WORDS: Robby Naish, Michi Schweiger.  // Photos:  Fish Bowl Diaries 

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Michi Schweiger – “Maui and south swells are always a fickle affair. You never know what you will get due to potential blockage from the other islands. We had already seen what this swell was doing in Tahiti where they called it Code Red 2. The days before its arrival we were contemplating to head over to Oahu to sail Diamond Head and the other spots there that light up during south swells. Eventually we just stayed on Maui and decided to give our most remote spot on the island a go. Maui is currently in full tourist season frenzy and the easing of travel restrictions has made the island quite busy again, which certainly reflects on the traffic as well. Maui’s more remote lava fields have turned into somewhat of a popular tourist destination and the road there gets quite narrow and runs close to the water, which can spray over the road when the combination of high surf and high tide come together. 

Pristine 

We arrived just in time for the wind to kick in. The lineup there is always beautiful to watch, but this day it was bigger then anything I had ever seen there over the years. Waves were starting to break almost all the way out at the point and the side-offshore winds were ripping the crests of the waves, creating a huge water curtain behind every set.  

While the launch is a maze of sharp lava, it was luckily pretty easy to get out, which made for a fairly relaxed sail up to the point. The closer we got, the more apparent the actual size of the swell became. From a distance it is always hard to tell if you do not have a reference point like another windsurfer or surfers. But this day it was simply pristine emptiness as the surfers had cleared out due to the increasing winds.  

Windy  

We were all on pretty small sails, with Levi being on the biggest one of all of us (4.5). Robby and Jason were on 4.2’s and I was on a 4.0. I believe Sarah Hauser was on a 3.4; so quite windy for side-offshore conditions, which are mostly pretty gusty and tricky to handle. We then had a great session for a few hours in challenging but really fun conditions. The scenery there is so amazing that there is not much else needed beyond catching some waves to be stoked and happy at this spot.  

Crew 

It was a tight crew that day as many of our friends that usually take advantage of these conditions were still in the Canaries for the PWA event. Sarah Hauser is pretty much what you can call a wave queen here. Usually you see her in starboard tack conditions, but turns out she is as solid and exciting to watch in port tack, no matter how big or windy. Jason is always amazing to watch, as you simply know that at one point he pushes it so far to the limit that there will be some carnage. He did not disappoint in this session as well and there are plenty of images to prove it! 

Robby, in my experience, is always so absolutely in tune with the conditions that everything looks easy. Always in the right spot at the right time and so much in control, that errors are seldom. Brothers Levi and Luke Siver showed up together, which is a great sight. Levi’s style is legendary and it is always refreshing to see him out on the water, which is literally as soon as there are any waves to ride. No opportunities missed there. Luke is simply one of the most radical sailors that I know. There is always something exciting and unexpected happening when he hits the water. Zane Schweitzer also showed up after his surf session at ‘Freight Trains’ at Ma’alaea Bay (which by the way was on absolute all-time legendary status); his windsurf session was cut short as the wind at one point eased up and got too light. Zane is one of the most skilled multi-watersports athletes at this point and provided, next to riding some impressive sets, also the most radical wipeout, crash, gear on the rocks and swim through the underwater lava field performance! 

Swimming 

I also had one of the more exciting swims in this session. At one point I lost my gear and got a couple of sets on the head. I was certain that my gear was done and on the rocks and therefore started to swim back towards a little cove to try to get back to shore as unscathed as possible. On the way I kept looking to see where my gear had landed and could not see it at any point. So I kept swimming and finally got closer to the cove just to find my gear floating 10 metres from the rocks! Later on my friends told me that the gear was already within a couple metres of the lava rocks. Then the sets stopped and all the water started running along the reef, taking my gear along with it and parking it at the cove entrance where it got stuck in the current and didn’t move anymore. I can’t believe how lucky I got on this one! 

We tried the next day again and only Robby was able to get a quick session in. He had driven out there earlier then all of us and managed to make it through before the road got closed due to the county having to clear debris from the road that had washed onto it during the high tide. When we all finally got through, Robby was already on his way back in as the swell direction had changed and the wind had turned even more offshore, making it hard to impossible to get into the waves.” 

Robby Naish – “Living on the North Shore of Maui, I seldom have the opportunity to sail “Diamond Head tack.” Being a goofy foot surfer (standing right foot forward), I always gravitated to “left” breaks growing up. I would surf spots like Pipeline, Rocky Lefts, and Jockos when I lived on Oahu, and on Maui “Lanes” has been my preferred surf spot…. all so that I can ride frontside. Windsurfing through the 80s and early 90s my go-to spots were Diamond Head on the South Shore and Backyards on the North Shore. I spent a crazy amount of time sailing Diamond Head through most of my career. On Maui the opportunities to windsurf on that tack are either Lanes during the maybe once or twice per year that we get Kona winds (wind from the west / southwest)… or La Perouse on the far southeast side of the island. And if Kona Wind Lanes is a rarity… getting sailable conditions at La Perouse is an “almost never” scenario. 

The wind at La Perouse is very up and down and is often nearly straight offshore. The coastline is made up of jagged lava, with only a small shallow reef access point about five hundred meters downwind of the break to launch from. To windsurf the spot, it must be a big enough swell for the waves to break on the outer reef where there is wind enough to actually catch it. It is also a popular surf spot and is always crowded up until the point where it is either too big or too windy to be surfable. It is not a place where you want to mess with the surfers. I had driven out there earlier this summer, but there were too many surfers out in the morning. By the time the wind came up and the surfers got blown out, the tide had come up and killed the surf on the outer reef. I waited for the tide to go down, but by the time it did the surfers were back on it…. so it was a four hour watch, wait, and get skunked. 

Different 

The “Code Red swell”, as they are now calling it, was different. I had flown over to Oahu for the previous week’s south swell and had a great two days sailing Diamond Head. But the forecast for this swell was so big that I figured Diamond Head would likely be closing out and as a result not much fun. La Perouse can handle the size, so I opted to stay on Maui and cross my fingers that things lined up. It was a Saturday, so it was likely to be crowded. I made the hour drive from Haiku early, to hopefully get a parking spot and to be ready if and when the wind came up. When I arrived around 10 a.m. the wind was just picking up and it was clear that this was a really good-sized swell. The point outside La Perouse bay was breaking bigger than I had ever seen it, and the sets in the bay itself looked solid… though it is hard to tell just how big from that distance with nothing on the waves to show scale. There were only a couple of surfers out, but they were way inside trying to catch the inside bowl.  

Patri McLoughlin rigged up his kite and strapless kiteboard and headed out first. I rigged up a 4.2m, the smallest sail I own, and a size that I ordered just for this place, together with my 88-litre quad. I was hoping the 88 would give me an easier time with the gusty winds than I had with my 82 on previous La Perouse outings (the on – off – on – off winds and a sinky board can make it a lot of work). Just as I was heading out, Michi Schweiger, Jason Polakow and Levi and Luke Siver showed up. No crowd for sure, but it added comfort knowing someone else was going to be out there as well. It also helps to find and keep a mark on the lineup when there is more than one person out… lowering the chances of being caught out of position and getting cleaned up. Sarah Hauser and Zane Schweitzer also joined the party after a while. 

Cranking 

The wind was cranking, and even with a 4.2, I was really powered up in the gusts. In the holes the wind goes to near nothing… so even with a bigger sail you would not be moving. So I was stoked to have not gone any bigger. I sailed upwind and eased into the peak. I am normally a bit cautious on my first couple of waves to find the flow of the sets and learn the lineup. La Perouse is not a place you want to catch a wave too deep and get “shut down”. Lose your gear anywhere in the first three quarters of the wave and it is going on the rocks. And these are not “swim in and grab your equipment” Ho’okipa style rocks. These rocks will cut things into little pieces. I got a couple of good bombs on the outside and several medium sized waves that were actually lining up better on the inside section than the bigger waves were. For its size, the waves were pretty wide open and predictable. We all got a bunch of good rides and once my hands started to blister and arms began getting sore from being out of the harness pretty much all the time, I called it a day. 

Alone 

Sunday morning my girlfriend, daughter and I loaded up the car early and headed back over. The swell and high tide overnight had washed rocks and sand all over the road that leads to La Perouse. We made it out there, but barely. And the parking lot was now about half the size that it used to be, much of it having been washed over with rocks and sand. The wind was up early but was much more offshore than the day before. I watched for a bit and waited too for JP, Michi etc to show up. But nobody came. I rigged up and went out alone. At first the waves seemed even a little bigger than the day before, and slightly more from the west rather than straight south. The wind was also a bit more northerly, making it almost straight offshore. This combination of wind direction and swell direction made getting into the waves extremely difficult. It also made the inside section of the wave super sketchy. Rather than being open like the day before, the inside bowl was wrapping in and closing out into the bay. The offshore winds also made the inside section super sketchy and really light inside. I caught several waves but did not have a very easy time. By a half hour or so into my session the wind had clocked so offshore that I simply could not catch the waves anymore and was always getting blown out the back. I was pretty sure that if I continued, I was going to get cleaned up on the inside. Rather than having that happen and having to deal with the swim and broken gear, I called it a day and sailed back to the parking area. When I got there, Jason, Michi and the crew had just arrived. Apparently the road had been closed for debris removal right after I drove though…. and they were all stuck on the other side for a couple of hours waiting for the road to reopen. We all waited and watched to see if the wind would clock back to the east, but it never did… so my few waves that day were all that got windsurfed.  

All-time 

All in all, these two days were pretty all-time. Most surfers on the island were riding Maalaea Harbor, which also had the best waves seen in several decades. That meant they did not go to La Perouse. Many of the top windsurfers that would normally have been out there with us were off in Pozo for the World Cup. I felt sorry for them missing out, but it did mean that there were fewer people to have to share the waves with. Wave sailing in good conditions is better than anything, but exponentially better if it is not crowded. For me these couple of days rank right up there with some of my most memorable windsurfing sessions ever; Pipeline in ’87, a couple of times out at Cloudbreak in Fiji, Backyards or D-Head in the 90s, and one or two epic Jaws sessions from years past before the crowds. New memories made in epic conditions, pretty cool after forty-eight years windsurfing. Hopefully they keep on coming! 

Aloha, 

Robby.”