There is a first time for everything. First time you kiss a girl. Getting married. Seeing the birth of your child. Sitting for the CPA exam. Or the first time you get in the straps, hook in, and blast out on a full powered up plane. Then there is the first time you sail Ho'okipa. And yes, I rank Ho'okipa right up there with all the other "first times" I've experienced.
Well, from the vault of never to be forgotten favorite sessions, I have video of the first time I sailed Ho'okipa. Without doubt, this was a significant session for me. After all, we've all read about this venue. To say I was nervous is an understatement. If you've ever sailed Ho'okipa, the spot is quite tricky. The actual beach to launch from is quite small, I'd say less than 40 feet wide. You have a large papa reef/shelf upwind, and a rock garden just downwind of the main launch. Both conspire to collect dues from the careless sailor.
This shot is of Josh Stone-same session. Good one because it gives an accurate representation of how small the actuall beach is:
The date was 7/14/06. 5.0 conditions and small waves this day. The footage is derived from Sony 8mm tape that was converted to digital, so the quality is not the best, especially the parts that where zoomed in.
At the time (2 years ago) I had no misconceptions that I knew the first thing about wave sailing. So what your looking at in the video is a first timer trying to make it happen. I can honestly say that now I'm well on my way, but back in July 2006, I was clueless.
I still get a kick out of watching it. Especially the launch. Get up an go already!
My wife shot the video, and coincidentally, this was 2 days after we got married. She lampooned the beginning of the video, doing a spoof skit acting as an ESPN reporter-ette and I went with it. Also present where Dave Coyle and Ken Kellar. Good memories.
The video is legnthy, so I'm gonna do this in two posts. Check back later for part two. Heres the first part:
Part 2:
Here is part 3:
Looks like we will get some sailable NE conditions Sunday into Monday. Assateague Ken?
3 comments:
Hey George! Man I'd love to get to Maui someday to sail Ho'! For now, hatteras will do!
I tried to write you back a week ago, but the message got returned undeliverable... so here it is, in it's entirety!
Hey George! Yeah that shot came out pretty well! That was a ridiculous jump, I remember thinking "wow this one's big." I got hit by a updraft halfway through, after I thought I had apexed, that boosted me up another 5 or 10 feet.... The whole sequence is on Billy's site duckobx.blogspot.com on a slideshow. It's towards the end of the 150 some odd pictures, but the whole show is pretty cool!
ummmmmm.... I "landed," but I definitely did not land the backloop!
See ya!
-Andy
Thanks Andy. I'm looking forward to the OBX loop event in June.
hey grant-what are you doing looking at this post? or perhaps its your partner in crime Darrow? a bunch of fancy boys
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