Windsurfing Magazine

luke
2010-07-16 15:43:52 | 1060 views | 2 Comments

Think 60 knots is too much to sail? Not for 140-pound Hawaiian waterman Kai Lenny. Despite the fact that he’s still in the welterweight class, he charged a nuking south shore Maui day and not only survived but thrived.

“I remember checking Ho’okipa that morning — the wave was small and the wind had a northerly cant to it, at about 25 knots,” says Kai. “A lot of north in the wind means it can really howl on the south shore, so when I got a call from photographer Darrell Wong, I headed down there. We went to the spot known as Thousand Peaks. When I pulled into the parking lot at Ukumehame, the truck was shaking from the gusts coming down off the west Maui mountains. I’d never seen that much wind there in my entire life. Small rocks were rolling down the beach.”

So what did Kai rig?

“I put my Boxer 3.6 onto my Naish Wave 64. As soon as I hit the water I was overpowered. Every time a gust came off the mountain it would just explode on the water like a little bomb. When I got hit with one of those, I would pick up board speed without even trying. It was not only windy, it was straight offshore, and way in the back of my brain, I was nervous about falling and seeing my gear go flipping through the channel between Kaho’olawe and Lanai. But I got used to it pretty quick, and had a really fun three-hour session.”

Of course, Kai made some adjustments to sail comfortably. First, he moved his mast base up an inch to settle down the nose of his board. For technique, he had to remember to sheet in.

“Sheeting in on the gust meant more speed and more control. Sheeting out on the gust flicked you into an unintentional push loop!”

And at those wind speeds, even something as simple as jibing becomes a matter of timing as well as skill, says Kai.

“You would wait till right after a massive gust, and try to jibe in the lull. Even then you had to really commit — like a bottom turn at Jaws on a big day.”