The final days living on Maui time

As our time here on Maui draws to a close, I feel like I have almost fully adjusted to the Maui time. There’s been no shortage of wind. We have been on the water everyday for over 2 weeks now. (Well that’s kind of a lie, I did take a day off after I injured my knee.) Unfortunately the swell didn’t really pull through for us. Which we now know is totally normal for this time of year. We really only had the wind swell to play with. This can still be good fun. But nothing like the Circus we saw at Ho’okipa when we first arrived. 4m wave faces, strong cross shore winds, most of the worlds pro waves sailors on the water at once getting it done! While helicopters hover above filming and shooting photos. A sight to see!

Levi - Trademark top turn explosion

One particular day at Sprecks this week things just seemed to click. I’ve been working on a move while I've been here called a Push Loop. (Basically an over-rotated back-loop landing tail first.) I had landed one or two since arriving, but that day at Sprecks, I couldn’t crash one. Sticking 5 in a row.

The next day we sailed at Kanaha. We saw windy conditions. There were waves, but because Kanaha is an outer reef the waves don’t always break properly. In order to find nice ramps for jumping, or waves for riding a good amount of luck was needed.

Feeling pretty confident with my push loops now, I went for a couple over the first hour. Landing one, and horribly over rotating the other. Things went so bad I some how managed to land off my board with my fore arms on my fins and my face hitting the other side of my arms… Lucky.

I little while later I spied a nice clean ramp in the distance. I bared off down wind in order to hit the steepest section of the ramp. Things were lining up perfectly. I launched into the air at top speed and started rotating back, into the loop. As I passed through the eye of the wind I pushed the sail forward, back-winding my self so that I could make the rotation. Things still going well. At this point I think I must have held the ‘Push’ a ¼ of a second too long. As I spot my landing I can see I’m going to under rotate. To counter act this I tuck my knees up to mu chest to give me a little more room to finish the rotation. I hit the water spot on, perfect technique. But as I was so tucked up I didn’t have any absorption left in my legs to absorb the impact. I hit the water, and I can feel the ligaments in my right knee taking all the impact. I felt popping and I'm knee totally seized up as I fell off my board into the water. Having never done any major ligament damage (Touch wood) I was sure that’s what I had done. Scared, and in quite a bit of pain, I wasn’t quite sure what to do, or how I was going to get back to the beach. I lay in the water for a few minuets. By this time Joel had come over to see if I was alright. Slowly I started getting some movement back in my knee. I still hurt, and felt very unstable. Eventually after having about 15 waves break on my head, I drifted into the channel. By this stage I could straighten my leg. I got back on the board and headed for the beach. In the end, it was just a scare. I don’t think I did too much damage, I iced it that night and rested the next day. It still feels a little suss, but happy I didn’t do anything major.

Mast cam footage of me hold my knee in pain

One morning last week some new friends of our offered to take us to some rock pools about 10 minuets east of Paia near the infamous Jaws surf break. This place is something that a tourist just would find. Luckily for us, we met some nice locals. We drove down a dirt road just off the main highway. We parked our cars high on the cliff top looking over the Pacific ocean, amazing view. The rock pools we were told were much further down the cliffs. So we had to walk. There were paths down the cliffs, but they were so steep that there were ropes stakedinto the ground to help you down. About half way down Joel had a thong malfunction and almost fell, to what might have been the end for him. But luckily he had a hind on the rope, and after sliding for about 5 or 6 metres he managed to stop him self.

We reached the pool without any more incidents. The temperature was very nice, so it was straight in for a swim. After the pools we drove back into town for lunch. Our local friends suggested we go to a place called the Fish Market. Not exactly an under ground ‘Locals only’ place, but the food is awesome! Probably the best burger I've ever eaten. Fresh Mahi-Mahi burger with wasabi mayonnaise. Very good.

Day off the water for me today. Resting my knee. I was posted to filming duties.

Back on the water the next day, and back to Kanaha. I just took it easy, testing the strength of my knee. It wasn’t great, pretty unstable I crashed a lot. I decided to put on the helmet cam and do some ‘Follow cam’ filming.

I pulled up really well after my sail and decided to sail again the next day. My knew felt pretty strong now. I hit the water and sailed out to sea. Sailing out probably 2 or 3 km's off the beach pushing up wind so that I could make the ‘Uppers break’ at Kanaha in one run. I sailed a couple runs at Uppers, the conditions were ok.

At one point I was way out he back, gibing on a wave. I flicked the sail around and caught the boom. As I grabbed the boom the whole rig decided to lift 100% off my board. I dropped into the water with one foot in a strap and my hands still on the boom. Knowing if I dropped my rig I would never see it again. Some how the bolt the holds the Euro Pin into the universal joint sheared. Something that shouldn’t happen. But its really no surprise to me as I have proven to my self that I can break the unbreakable. At this point I’m a long way off shore. In deep blue water. Almost in the same spot where we had our shark experience earlier in the trip. So I definitely had a few things on my mind.

Luckily I managed to get Phil’s attention, as he sailed past in the distance. He came over and helped me de-rig my gear. Not an easy task in the water. I piled the gear on my board, and used my down haul to tie is all to the foot straps. I Also slid my harness around back to front so I could lye on my stomach and paddle in. This worked for a bit, but I was so far away from the beach it would taken hours to get back. So I grabbed Phil’s back foot strap and he towed me in. Easy as that sounds, its really really hard. Both for me holding on the strap and for Phil, trying to sail with a massive sea anchor dragging behind him. It was tough, but we did it. We swapped positions a couple times. The whole process took about an hour. We were both pretty rooted by the time we got to the beach. My day was over.

Its Wednesday the 19^th at this point, the final day in the water for Phil, Joel and Al. We sailed Sprecks. It was super windy to start with. I rigged a 3.7m sail. The smallest sail I’ve ever used, which was cool experience in it self. It was a fun day with all the boys ripping around enjoying the last of our Maui adventure. After sailing it was beers in the backyard, while the boys washed sails, de-strapped boards and packed everything ready to go back to sunny Melbourne.

The next morning we started early. Up at 4am, I drove the boys to the airport for the 6am flight. Then back home and back to bed for a couple hours. It was my final day on Maui and really the final day of my USA trip. I’ve been travelling around since the start of January, and as I sat at Anthony’s café in Paia sipping my espresso with a mixture of emotions. Sad for it all to be almost over, but stoked that everything worked out so well. I got to do so many awesome things that people really only get to read about in magazines. I’ve been living the dream for a little over 4 months now. Good feeling!

My flight out of Maui wasn’t until 8.30pm so I had time for one final sail. Not much swell I around, only wind swell. So back to Kanaha. Really windy again, I was on my 4.2m. I ripped around for a couple hours soaking up the last of the sun and warm water I’m going to see for a while. Then back home to pack my gear and get out to the airport.

See ya Maui, It was Awesome!! Ill be back very soon!!