surf-matic

I’m in California for the first stop of the AWT tour. Unfortunately, today was stormy and lacking in waves– and I happen to be under the weather as well with a really annoying head cold. The forecast on Friday calls for gale force winds and a new swell. It might be the only day of competition, so it’s going to be a long day… I’m expecting a variety of wind strengths and tidal conditions.

The internet connection is somewhat nonexistent, so updates will be scarce. However, a foto friday will go up tomorrow.

JP Bowles rips. Period. He is the star of the best Gorge windsurfing photos I have ever seen. As The Gorge is the mecca of North American windsurfing, this is quite an accomplishment. The Gorge is a river with wind and waves in the middle of the Pacific Northwest, and every summer windsurfers drive and fly from all over the continent to get an annual dose of those healing waters. But the vapors aren’t from springs; they rise off the water from the howling winds!

I had seen JP around (windsurfing circles are small) but never got a chance to really meet him. So, I did a small interview to shed some light on the man in the air.

Graham:
Give the world a little background about you. Where you’re from. What you do. Etc.

JP:
Hmmmm… About me…….

I grew up in Mt. Shasta Northern California. I literally grew up on the mountain as a youth. Skiing and snowboarding every day, racing and teaching skiing. I was pretty hooked.

I tried to master every snow sliding device I could get my hands on. Straight skis, Sidecut skis, telemark skis, Bigfoot skis, boot skiing, lunch trays from the cafeteria, snowboards of every shape and size. A couple of years were spent addicted to race snowboards and hard boots and laying down super silly G force turns. I was riding every day and getting instruction from some Olympic hopefuls at the time.

My winters were pretty cool. I was constantly learning about the smallest most trivial aspects of drawing lines in the snow. More importantly, I was learning about how the community around me lived. I soon figured out who my heroes were, the people I respected and looked up to. The healthiest, happiest people on the planet.

Shasta is a hippy mountain town. I saw all these people living, no ego, no grandiose plans of grandeur, just living……… Not looking for the almighty dollar but people just living simple happy lives. I always looked up to the seasonal crew chasing their dreams. Winters on the mountain summers on the rivers. Poor by any yuppies standards, but as rich as one could possibly be by any real life standards.

This model that I witnessed growing up set the tone for me later in life. Working 9-5 with two weeks off a year so that I could fill up a bank account and spend money on crap just didn’t seem to hold much for me.

My family and I learned to windsurf when I was 9 or 10. We got a book Zen and the Art of Windsurfing…. A really good beginner book by the way. And we spent many a summer day down by the lake trying to figure out what we were doing with the worst possibly winds ever. It was sooooo fun.

I spent 4 years up hauling and cruising the lake. Eventually, we all learned how to waterstart, like 5 years later. We all got smaller and smaller boards and started chasing wind. Well, I was full on hooked.

As soon as I graduated high school I moved straight to the gorge. Lived out of my car for my first summer and worked for Big winds. That fall I went to school for mechanical engineering. I really wanted to build skis at the time and figured an ME degree was my ticket.

Well, I graduated from the Oregon Institute of Technology with my ME degree but my dreams of building skis had vanished. I WANTED TO WINDSURF….. So after 4 or 5 summers in the gorge. I was Maui bound.

I lived on Maui for 3 seasons. I sailed Kuau mostly probably about 80 percent with about 10 percent at Hookipa and 10 percent at Kanaha. I worked for Ralph Sifford at Second Wind Maui for those 3 years. Surfed and Windsurfed my ass off over there. Ralph was my north shore mentor. He was always letting me know where I should go for what swell and what wind. He had the island dialed. Surprised I never drowned over there listening to his directions. But Ralph was the man. Towing jaws, paddling outer reefs, the ugliest most consistent back loop on the planet.

My Maui winters were pretty epic, followed by gorge summers. To this day Jake the Snake Miller claims the biggest day he has ever sailed Maui was with me at upper Kanaha. Double mast plus, Triple mast?

I probably would have been going back to Maui forever but…..I broke my foot in Maui in the spring. It was really really slow to heal. I had zero strength in my feet. I had to kite all summer in the gorge. Windsurfing hurt. When fall rolled around I realized Maui was out and I should do something a little less extreme and get my body in tune.

That winter I took the winter off and went to Panama and Costa rica for an extended surf vacation. I felt a little guilty at the time for taking a winter off but… I haven’t worked a winter since.

The next winter I spent in Baja. And the next winter in Baja and Mainland mex. I think I’m up to 6 or 7 Baja winters chasing wind and waves. I’ve got the Baja pretty dialed. There is some really good winter wavesailing down there and I average well over 50 barrels a winter.

Every summer I’m back in the gorge though. Gorge summers are pretty classic. I wait tables at an underground Italian restaurant North Oak Brasserie. I also wait tables at a steakhouse in the woods Stonehedge gardens. And if you got a boom that needs to be re-gripped, I’m the boom Dr. These all allow me plenty of time on the water.

Graham:
Windsurfing is a huge part of your life then. I dare to say it is somewhere near the center. What then do you think about when you go out for a windsurfing session?

JP:
It kinda depends on conditions and who is out. If I’m sailing solo or with a bunch of old guys I try to just have fun and enjoy. If there is some talent on the water I try to push it a little, go a little bigger sail a little faster.

If I show up and it’s full on. I’m usually frothing and not thinking at all. Rig as fast as possible and get on it. Not to much thinking involved.

Graham:
I know the feeling! You spend so much time in The Gorge, what do you like most about riding the river?

JP:
The river is a bit of a love hate. I’m an ocean guy. I love the ocean, I love the power of the waves. The river can be a little flat and disappointing at times. That being said the gorge has it’s days.

When you get some smooth rollers out east, I love swell ridding. I really like trying to draw surfy lines on mellow open rollers. Trying to find the power and flow out of a mellow gorge swell is way different than the ocean but there are still lips to hit and smooth turns and slides and style to be had. Swell riding is definitely what I enjoy most about riding the river.

The jumping is pretty good, and always a crowd favorite, but for me it’s drawing lines in the water and not in the air. Also the gorge is really consistent in the summer. That’s huge.

Graham:
You have a true surf mentality. But your jumps also really stand out and are incredibly photogenic. What goes through your head when you launch into an air?

JP:
It depends on the ramp, wind, crowd etc etc…. There is usually a lot going on in my head pre jump. But I think the loudest voices going into a ramp are usually don’t break your board.

I had a few years where I couldn’t stop breaking boards. Windsurf boards are not cheap. I came to a point where it was either quite windsurfing and just kite or alter my sailing a lot. It was touch and go for a while there, I was sooo pissed at my windsurfing boards that I almost just went to the dark side. I ended up altering my sailing, basically no forward loops or flat landings period. I still sneak a forward in here and there but I make sure I land it on the tail. Big planning forewards are the bomb, but I’m grounded from those.

And if it’s really big and windy my thoughts turn to don’t break yourself.

Graham:
I know the feeling! It still looks like you charge pretty hard. And finally, I’ve gotta ask: Why do you windsurf? What keeps you coming back to the board and sail?

JP:
FOR FREEDOM…….. If conditions are epic nothing else matters. Windsurfing has the power to literally clear the mind.

Thank you JP! I hope to see you on the water at some point soon. If you want to see some sequences of JP’s Baja waveriding action, click on the photos here to see the sequences.

 

I am a child of windsurfing. The sport is practically imprinted in my DNA– I grew up with Aloha Classics and windsurfing magazines all around me. My father, David Ezzy, was of the first generation of Hookipa windsurfers, and he is the only one still there, giving him the record of windsurfing Hookipa for longer than anyone else. Funnily though, I didn’t actually step onto a windsurfer until I was about 9 years old. I spent the winter when I was 9 learning to water start at Kanaha and by the time the summer replaced the wavy winter season, I began to windsurf Hookipa.

Hookipa in the summer is easy– the wind is steady and the swells are playfully small. It was the perfect time for me to acquaint myself with the currents and the rocks. Oh, and to learn how to jibe– a skill that at that time still eluded me.

When the big waves from Japan rolled in during the autumn following that summer, I was ready for the real beast of Hookipa– winter. The wind gets light and the waves get powerful (on the plus side, the shore break is less menacing and the thorns in the grass go away). My first winter at Hookipa, I couldn’t jibe (nope, still didn’t learn even after that entire summer!). This meant that I got worked a lot.

If I was going out and a big set wave was about to break right in front of me, I could not mimic everyone else and “chicken” jibe back to the safety of the inside. Rather, I would tighten my grip and get ready to hold on like hell. Sometimes I would even hook in (despite the warnings of my father) so that I would stand a better chance of staying with my gear. After all, the main secret to not going on the rocks at Hookipa is: Don’t let go…ever.

Getting pounded isn’t so bad. Especially if you know how to get worked. And believe me, after that first winter, I know. So even today, so many years later, I enjoy taking a good beating on a good day. There is almost something calming about going over the falls on a mast+ size wave and getting thrown around in the clutches of the sea.

I’m not going to say it is romantic or motherly and make a reference to either sex or a return to the womb– although there are parallels there (how Freudian!). But I will say that it is akin to a kind of meditation. The breath is stopped and time seems to stop too. When getting tossed in the white water, there is no up, there is no down, and you have no control of anything. Panic is your only enemy. The only way to get worked is to just calm the mind and take what comes, moving with the forces of water as they push and pull your body this way and that.

I like it. I guess I could say that I windsurf because I like to surrender myself to the waves, to meditate in the chaos of the sea, and to leave all sense of grounded control.

And that long winded thought brings me to the topic of this post. Why do you windsurf?

I love windsurfing and I’m fascinated by people who windsurf and why they love it. Windsurfing is more than a sport, it is a lifestyle. Windsurfing is so hard to learn, and yet we have all gone through it– we windsurfers are part of this exclusive club where everyone has the tenacity, courage, and mental strength to push through the sport. We have all conquered physical pain and mental fear. Pretty cool.

Anyway, I want to know more about why people windsurf and I want people to share their reasons with everyone else. Of course, no one has just one reason, there are many reasons. But anyway, here are some of the comments I’ve received through Facebook (note: these are the comments I could see, there might be– and probably are– other comments that I can’t see because they are shared on someone else’s page/wall).

I want to compile these comments into something, but I’m not sure what. For now I’ll post them here, and please! reply to this post with your own “i windsurf because” statement.

The responses (all from Facebook or twitter):

Peter H T Dobinson
I windsurf because the sea sets me free

Arrigo Bellone
I windsurf because I’d feel totally empty if I wouldn’t

Reef Navigator
I windsurf because I didn’t know I could, and then I learnt how.

Michel Claasens
I windsurf because it gives me a limitless amount of different experiences that make me happy.

Glenn Woodell
I windsurf because I can. There’s a story behind my reasoning.

Andrew Dack
I wish I could…

Jerry Evans
I windsurf because it is like re-booting my brain!!!

Lucas Kunneman
I windsurf because wild water and strong winds calm the turmoil inside, ripples fade and I feel quiet, just content. Absence of distracting associations and stories, as all attention must go to (keep) sailing. I become a happy antenna of physical sensations.

Simone Fa
I windsurf because it’s my soul and Mother Nature fusion to explode adrenaline!

Adrien Grelon
I windsurf because…hmm, never really thought about it. However, I can’t imagine my life without windsurfing so I know the reason must be good! I’ve yet to figure it out, but I’ll let you know when I do ;)

Panagiotis Arnokouros
I windsurf because I want to put in a test and to check in every new session my body and my mind’s strength against the nature’s elements: sea, waves, and wind!!!

Uros Wsurf
I windsurf because I am different

Spiros Douros
I windsurf because I can express my feelings

Benny Vervoort
I windsurf because I love the sea and the wind. I feel free when windsurfing

Human Torch
I windsurf because… I like to feel Free

Alvaro J Betancourt
Nobody bothers me while I am breathing!!

Anthony Burros
Skipping along, fingers in the water

Ken Gothman
I windsurf because….it’s absolutely exhilarating to fly across the water powered only by the wind as your body and mind come alive conducting a powerful, yet delicate, dance between you, the board, the sail, and the sea!

Mike Magee
I windsurf because of the thrill I get from controlling and converting aerodynamic and hydrodynamic life forces into acceleration and velocity.

Di Pagoni Originale
I windsurf because I like to fly across the sea and become one with two of the elements of nature! It’s freedom!!!

Rob van Dijk
I windsurf because….I still can.

Panagiotis Arnokouros
I windsurf because I always feel free and younger!!!

Chris Muzza Murray
I’m with this guy… “I windsurf because of the thrill I get from controlling and converting aerodynamic and hydrodynamic lift forces into acceleration and velocity” epic

Geoff Hautman
… keeps me sane

Max Power
Because I know it’s the most amazing sport i can imagine. Life is too short to take a pass on…

Roy Thompson
Freedom, the wind, the sea

Julio Pereira F
‘cos it make me free!!!!

Jimo Simo
cos 67% of surfers are idiots .. :)

Ezio Papalia
I Love Windsurfing Because:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JD4wNsEd6rU

Aaron Anderson
Because its pure play where much of life is great mundanity, the adrenaline produces a smile that lasts a lifetime.

Caro Weber
because, there is peace and silence..no trouble…and a nice session frees your mind perfectly…

Kostas Argyrakis
‎…cause what you see is what you get !!!!

Kostas Argyrakis
‎…eternal love !!!!!

Fernando Portella
I windsurf because my body needs, my mind deserves. And my soul is grateful.

Kai Lenny
it is Super Duper Fun

Peter Brooks
I love the freedom, the challenge, the feeling, the people in this sport and its just awesome fun!!

Carl Wilson
Because no other sport gives anywhere near the same buzz, with awesome feeling of freedom as you cruise out to sea catching air

Brian M. Watson
I windsurf because their truly isn’t anything better to do.

Ken Kuramoto
I windsurf because I feel sync with mother nature.

Aaron Anderson
I windsurf because it is pure play, pure joy whereas the rest of life is heaping helpings of mundanity. Because, the adrenaline + fun + joy combo produces great wide smiles all over the beach

I think takas are my favorite move-- there are so many different styles to do!

Another week goes by on the “Valley Isle” and the wind still blows. The very mountains that give the island its nickname accelerate the trade winds making the North Shore of Maui one of the best windsurfing training grounds in the world.

And that is why the water is soooo crowded at the moment. The Hookipa Zoo makes it all seem so hectic and wild. And with the obligatory cuts and bruises (yes, everyone must sacrifice part of their feet and shins to the reef and rock gods), the place seems quite intense. Cuts here have the magical property of getting bigger before they get smaller. A small scrape will turn into a crater before it takes its stubborn time healing into a pink scar. No amount of cleaning or antibiotic ointment will help! The culprit is daily bathing in seawater– a medicine for the mind but a poison for the wounds.

Photographers are on top of photographers.

And the rocks! They sit there waiting to claim the next board, sail, or ankle. Us locals tend to know the maps of the currents and therefore avoid the rocks most of the time. But I would be lying if I said that I don’t think about them at all.

That said, however, Hookipa and Maui’s north shore are actually incredibly safe and beautiful. Yes the waves are powerful. But the currents guarantee that no one will be sucked out to the abyss of the Pacific Ocean. If one were to lose his rig at Hookipa it would wash up safely either at the Harbor or at Waiehu. What a bathtub!

On Sunday, I saw a hammerhead shark at Hookipa just past the waves. I sailed up to it for closer inspection. The little guy was around 6 feet (pretty small for a shark) and very beautiful. It was my first time seeing one of these in the wild and it made me pretty happy. I mean, I wasn’t about to jump in the water and start swimming with it, but it was really cool to see. And it was a nice reminder that there are tons of sharks in the ocean and very very very few that are vicious towards humans. This guy was quite calm.

Windsurfing Hookipa then is like eating a nice cucumber sandwich. After all, Hawaii was once “named” the Sandwich Islands by Captain Cook in honor of Lord Sandwhich, who is also the inventor of the sandwich.

Anyway all this talk of sandwiches makes me crave windsurfing. I’m off to Hookipa.

Getting air!