Graham scores an A+

Our wizz kid from Princeton just handed in this paper. A+ Graham!

School eats my life! Papers to write, books to read, and parties to attend. Yet, despite this time-devouring commitment, I try to make it back to Maui as much as possible to go windsurfing. Of course, this presents the problem of being ‘out of practice’. The best remedy for this is straight up immersion. It’s like how I learned how to waterstart: my dad took my uphaul off and said ‘now you have to waterstart’.

Some tricks just seem to get better after an absence from the water. My takas seem to get better and more consistent the more time I take off. I don’t even know what would happen if I took a whole year off… double air takas maybe.

Though, the craziest trip back to Maui was in the fall. The day after I landed on Maui from Princeton in October, I woke up to a call at 9am from Kevin Pritchard. ‘We are at Maliko Gulch with the jet ski, come down here as soon as possible if you want to sail Jaws.’ Now, I’ve been waiting for a good Jaws day for years, so I was not going to let the opportunity slip by. My only board though was a Quatro quad with tiny fins. The thing is sick, but it slides out even in head high waves. But I did not have a choice. Sometimes ya just gotta go for it.

So I packed my 5.0, board, and other equipment onto KP’s jetski and we started the bumpy ride up to the largest breaking wave in the world. We stopped in the channel and rigged in the water. Rigging in the water is annoying and hard (downhauling with your face under the ocean sucks!), but I was so distracted by the massive waves breaking not too far away. The water shook as they broke. Finally rigged, I headed out and caught a wave. I was the first person to ever ride a quad fin board there, and it did not spin out as I dropped the face (which seemed to take forever). Jaws is amazing, but in order to have a good ride, you have to force yourself so deep because the peak shifts to the left. It is a real mindfuck! But I was really happy with my session; I had a few airs and nice cutback. I’ll definitely be back, and hopefully next time I’ll have some training days before!

The waves I ride now are made of cement. Skateboarding is fun but the falls hurt a lot more than windsurfing! I can’t wait to get back on the water in Morocco with Brendan and the Wave Classic crew.