Maui Surfer Girls

Billabong Pro 2007 - Day 2

Honolua Bay + Glassy 4-5 foot barrelling waves = Pure surf perfection!

I found my favorite little perch on the side of Honolua Bay's gorgeous cliffs and shot round 3 of the Billabong Pro Maui. I captured only an -inth of all that beauty oozing out this oceanic paradise. The ladies were scoring so many clean barrels -- it was making me sit so far on the edge of my seat - that I literally almost fell off the cliff. My photographer friend Nicole Sanchez, who had me sit next to her on a safer part of the cliff, captured these amazing photos of the afternoon. Sponsors, spectators, competitors -- please contact Nicole Sanchez if you'd like to purchase any of these stunning images: Behind The Lens Maui Photography

The big news concluding yesterday's event was that Stephanie Gilmore has indeed made womens surf history -- our 2007 World Champ as rookie! If that wasn't enough for the young gun, today she also won the Billabong Pro Maui contest! Big congrats to "Happy Stephanie Gilmore"! She just opened the door to all the other young guns like Carissa Moore, Lani Doherty, Katrina Petroni, etc that will surely follow in Stephanie's footsteps. You just wait...a new generation of young rippers are hitting the ASP scene!

Enjoy the images and footage from yesterday's competition compliments of Maui Surfer Girls & Behind the Lens Maui!

Thank you Nicole Sanchez of Behind the Lens Maui for these amazing images!!

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Billabong Pro 2007 - Trials

In the green spiralina shake waters of Honolua Bay, the Billabong Pro 2007 kicked off in 4-6 foot waves. Maui got pounded with storms last week, and the ocean has turned all shades of brown. It felt good to dry out on the sunny cliffs of Honolua Bay to watch another year of world class women's competion. Honolua Bay wanted to shut down during a few heats...long waits, mushy waves. But the contest prevailed, as did the konas.

The exciting news of this years contest is the three contenders for the 2007 WCT Championship title. The young dynamo from Brazil, Sylvana Lima, is currently 3rd on the tour. And another South American ripper - Peru's pride and joy, Sophia Mulanovich, is the former world champ and has a good shot at a second title. Last but not least, Stephanie Gilmore from Australia might make ASP history at this event. If she clinches the world title Stephanie will become the first to win the title on her rookie year. You go girl! All three have advanced through the first two rounds. They are fierce competitors, so it'll be awesome to see how the next day of competition will play out.

I love this contest because it's in my backyard. But even better is that it determines three winners of the tour: the Billabong Pro, Triple Crown, and the World Tour. The buzz is pretty thick on the heat scorched, red dirt of Honolua Bay.

Here's some of my favorite clips - I shot from the cliff today. Enjoy!

Laird Hamilton rescue's Brett Lickle in 80 foot Waves

The latest buzz in Hawaii surf news this week is on our local superhero big wave chargers, Laird Hamiliton and Brett Lickle. In a couragous rescue mission, Laird Hamilton swam 1/2 a mile in historic sized 80 foot swells to their abandoned ski, after getting obliviated by a monster wall of whitewater. These are the stories Hollywood couldn't dream up, and Laird & Brett lived to tell the tale. Talk about superhero stunts: Laird swam for the ski, stripped off his board shorts, tourniqueted Bretts bleeding leg, and got to the beach with Brett savely, half naked...Apparently Brett was ripped off his ski by a huge wave and landed on the alumninum fins from the spare tow board straped to his rescue sled. Are you kidding me? Only in Hawaii does tow surfing get this extreme! These amazing watermen proved themselves in some of the sickest outer reef surf on record! Superhero bravery & humility in the face of 80 foot waves....

Read about it in today's Honolulu Advertiser December 5, 2007

Meanwhile, South Maui has been out of power since 9:30 this morning & torrential downpours along with 50 mph gusts are bumming out the tourists -- and cancelling all our scheduled surf lessons this week!

Hookipa Barrels - Brought to You By Poor Boyz Productions

Thank you Jace from Poor Boyz Productions for this amazing clip of a rare day at Hookipa Beach Park! This weekend was off the hook at Hookipa -- 6-10 foot face hollow waves.

For those of you who are not familiar with Hookipa, Maui's northshore surf break, it's notably one of the best windsurfing spots in the world. Maui, a.k.a "the valley isle", acts like a funnel to all our tradewinds from the east, making Hookipa the perfect wavesailing spot. So when we hear about "kona winds", that is winds that come from Kona or from the south, all the surfers bolt to Hookipa to take advantage of the offshore winds on Maui's big northshore waves. As you can see from this clip the kona winds are holding up the wave, creating clean barrelling waves.

We are in the middle of high surf warnings all week long. All of us with jet ski's are firing them up and headin' to the outer reefs to tow surf those sky scrapin' mack daddy's!! Keep checkin' back with us for clips of outer reef action this week!

Thanks again Jace & Poor Boyz Productions for the rad clip!

Waves at Maalaea - "Freight Trains" in November?

Huh? I was trippin' out as I surfed overhead barrels with my instructor Mel two weeks ago! What a random treat to surf "Freight Trains" in November! Mel and I scored beautiful offshore waves with a handful of guys. Literally we were the only girls out there -- ya MSG representing!!

The funniest part of the morning was me looking through my garage with literally 28 longboards, and I had not one shortboard to ride Maalaea at the time. I wasn't about to surf out there on a NSP or 8'6 Kazuma. So I find an old Melissa Proud, 1985 Takayama in a cardboard box stashed away for a past camper, Carly Russell. I said what the hell, I'll ride it...thick rails, glassed fins, delamed and all. It was actually a speedy fun board for that fast pitching wave. Here's a photo of me tuckin' in. Can you see the pink day glow logos? Thanks Mel for sharing such a memorable session with me! You rock!

Sunset Soul Session at "Dumps"

Have you ever had a moment where you don't have a camera so you are soaking up every little detail of an image in a fleeting effort to emblaze that image in your memory for life? I'm so lucky to have had many Maui images and memories that are stamped like a fingerprint to my soul. But the sunset at Dumps on Sunday November 4th, 2007...I will never forget.

Those on Maui remember the torrential downpour we got that weekend - thank god - we needed the rain!
Between the rains, Sunday football games, and surf around the whole island, I SCORED "DUMPS" (a beautiful left in the lava fields of Makena) with only 6 guys out! Easy 8 foot faced waves, light off shores, and thick spitting barrels. I chose to longboard it - my shortboard was in the shop. So here I am pullin' into barrels backside grabbing rail, and holding on for my life. Long story short, I gave myself whip lash...

So I don't have a photo of that AMAZING sunset - and words don't do it's justice. But I'll try -- 360 degrees, a kaleidoscope of texture and colors...storm clouds hovering over Kahoolawe and West Maui's, green rolling mountainside of Haleakala, blue, violet, orange, yellow, red skies, pearly white toothed grins on bronzed faces in the line-up...and the blinding golden glow dancing on that corduroy horizon -- SPEECHLESS BEAUTY -- I'm in continual awe of Maui. I feel so fortunate to witness an -inth of this beauty just once in this lifetime. MAUI NO KA OI!