10 16 07 the saddest day at hookipa (Page 2 of 2)

I just received this email from Marc, the Aloha Classic organizer.

-----------start of email---------------

I was catching up on the incident at Ho'okipa and saw your comment on the
forum that:

"Dolf, that was an explanation the event organizer sent me. I actually don't
believe it. Sure it didn't help, but I think the event was canceled because
the main sponsor pulled back."

This really caught me off guard.  The cancelling of the event had a lot to
do with the vacation rental crack down. Do you know that we lost over 30
registrations from people who couldn't find a place to stay?  That's 1/3 of
the sailors not able to register.  This event lives and dies by the money
generated by the registrations.  The sponsor money barely covers the cost.
In most years when everything goes well, I am usually out of pocket a
thousand dollars or more.   Going into this situation, when you compound
loosing the main sponsor and then not be able to have the usual turn out for
registrations, it was sinking ship that I couldn't afford to fund
personally.   Loosing the main sponsor only affected the PWA and the PRO
contest and had nothing to do with the AM contest.   If it was any other
year and the same thing happened we would be ALL SYSTEMS GO. 

I do think its unfair for you to post a comment like that when I spoke to
you personally in email about this situation.  We spent a year of our life
trying to pull the event together and as of four weeks ago everything was
looking up.  We had no idea the impact of the MVR situation was going to
have until the emails starting to arrive.  We tried in vain to find places
for them.  We successfully placed about 4 people and then we came up dry.
More emails came telling us about the troubles they were having finding
places to stay.  8 people actually had their places cancelled them on them
about 2 weeks before they were to arrive on Maui for the event.

With all the happening, we had no choice but to cancel the event.  Once we
did that, we started getting the emails from everyone who thought a) we were
lying, b) they could do it better and we should give it up.   I never
expected a comment like that from you as you have seen what goes into
organizing this contest.  If anyone wants to take over organizing the event
they are welcome to it.  I can take only so much when we all volunteer our
time and money to put together a contest for the community and the moment
trouble strikes we are the boobs.  It kind deflates my interest in doing
this.  Just doesn't feel worth it at the moment.  I am sure I will feel
differently in a few months when we start getting things together for 2008.
Not much Aloha for the organizers either I guess, but is expected from us.
Owell.  That's the way it is.

Really disappointed...

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Dear Marc, I publicly apologize for having doubted your words.
The reason for that was that most of the vacation rentals I know are still operating as such... they just took their homes off the websites.
But I believe what you say... we probably just know different vacation rentals... maybe next time forward me the accomodation requests, I might be able to help!

I really appreciate your effort to set up the event. Please don't give up for next year! See ya at the beach.

Last edited by cammar (2007-10-22 18:50:30)

It seems its not just the new lifegaurd tower and police at hookipa thats makin the surfing situation worse on mauii. Perhaps the housing situation makes it even worse.

I think it might be a good idea to start writting a larger worldwide petition against this development right away before the rules get accepted and its to late to do anything about it.

Just to clarify.
The rule is there already and is applied every single day. It's a state of Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources rule and it's official.
The practical effect is that compared to the past, in days in which the transition from the light wind in the early morning to the strong wind in the afternoon is not particularly clear, the windsurfers have to wait a little longer than usual to go out, before the number of surfers goes below ten. Some sailors prefere to go sail at Lanes before that happens and when they see that there's sailors out at Hookipa they sail back upwind.
Another practical effect is that in days in which the wind stays kind of light also in the afternoon, but still sailable with floaty boards, Hookipa likely remains off limits to windsurfers. Nobody seem to complain too much, since you can always sail at Lanes or other downwind breaks.
When it's 4.7/5.0 kind of wind, maybe a little late, maybe a little reluctant, but the surfers are these days leaving way to the windsurfers. Nobody seem to want to start a petition to change the rule. Let's see how this whole winter goes.
Again, no need to act promptly. The rule is already official and accepted.

Interesting take... but I do believe that the rule at Hookipa is safety based more than political.

Hi Guys,

I'm new here (forum) and I've been visiting Maui for more than 20 years now, usually once a year, sometimes twice. 

I stumbled on to this forum through Giampaolo's blog, (kudos on both) and this topic really grabbed my interest as I was just on Maui for 10 days (Feb 18 to 27).  I had some really good days at Kanaha, yet while driving past Ho'okipa every morning on my way to Kanaha and every afternoon on my way home,  I couldn't help but notice that Ho'okipa appeared to be empty most of the time.  I've never experienced this in the past.  On one particular day, I counted over 60 sails at Kanaha, but when I stopped at Ho'okipa on my way home, there were 4 sails out.  I'm kind of curious to know why.  Even though I was passing the break around 4:30, I don't think that everyone was out of the water for the end of the day as there didn't seem to be the cars in the lot to support that theory.

On the plus side, I did stay in a TVR that I managed to get that had been pulled off the net, but we had stayed there in the past.  I cancelled my trip last year partially because of the TVR mess.  Since the B&B ordinance has gone through, I think things will start to improve.

The other thing that happened that I've not experienced in the past, was that there were surfers out at Kanaha, in the afternoon, on a 5.0 day. 

Just wondering if any of you north shore regulars would care to comment.

Cheers,

Chris

Chris,
I don't remember exactly, but I guess that it was due more to the conditions than to the rule.
I've personally got used to the rule and find it ok. When the wind is light, Lanes or Kuau are still good options.

TVR: if anybody needs help with accomodation, email me.

Chris, I went back to my blog and retrieved these two posts:
http://mauisurfreport.blogspot.com/2009 … ction.html for that light wind Monday (hopefully the video will remind you of some of the waves you had...) and
http://mauisurfreport.blogspot.com/2009 … -post.html in which the first photo was taken on that Tuesday that you wonder about. I didn't take the photo and didn't see Hookipa at all that day, but if there were only four people out, my explanation is that it was not 5.0 over there (very often there can be one or two sail sizes difference between Hoo and Kanaha) and it was big enough to be challenging for the most. The guy in the photo is not exactly a beginner and the wave is not exactly small...

Anyway, to sail Lanes, the closest and "easiest" is to launch from Hookipa. If it's big, you still have to make it through the channel (between Hookipa and Lanes) and that may require some local knowledge of the current and good timing. A bit of luck doesn't hurt.
You get back through Hookipa (easier, just catch a wave a ride it in... even if there's surfers it's ok to launch, go to Lanes and return to Hoo).
There's a launching spot downwind of Lanes, but it's quite tricky.

Here's my personal + and - list of Lanes vs Hoo.
+ less people
+ you don't go on the rocks
- most of the times, the wave is not as good as Hoo. Sometimes it's nice, sometimes it's really not so good. It can get choppy on the inside.
- if it's big, there's no downwind channel. I remember times that I have been rejected something like six times before making it out again...

When the wind is very light instead, I absolute love the left of Lanes. It's hollow, steep and punishing. I had the clue in the barrell a few times... so cool.

Hang in there till April.