Photo: Olaf Mitchell

MY SECOND POINT TOWARD THE 2010/2011 KUAU CUP

By Olaf Mitchell

On Tuesday February, 22, 2011 I arrived at the launch at Kuau at 5:30 pm.

 I really didn’t have plans to sail due to the late hour.

I noticed there were some clean sizable sets rolling in and the wind seemed to be holding well . I      received positive reports from my friends that had already had their wave sailing sessions and were sitting on the log talking story or de-rigging their sails.

Art, Mike Siopes, Giampaolo, and Kiwi Tim were still out sailing and they were killing it!

I rigged as swiftly as possible and made the long swim out the channel and started trying to water start.

The current on the inside seemed unusually strong and it was inhibiting me from clearing my sail.

I finally got under way after trying for longer that I want to admit.

On my first attempt to penetrate the impact zone I was refused access and I had to take several substantial waves on the head.  I kept trying and I finally got water started and eventually slipped outside between the sets.   

I sailed pretty far out to sea before I jibed and headed back toward shore.

 On my way in I found a really good wave and rode it further than I should have. 

At the end of my ride I jibed on the inside and headed back out only to be looking a large breaking wave right in my face. I didn’t have time to turn and run so I just got creamed! There were a few more waves in that set and I had to absorb them as well. All the while the swirling current just wouldn’t let me go. My sail was in completely the wrong position and it took forever to get my rig adjusted. Once again I was having trouble clearing my sail. Every time I was just about to clear it the current would grab my clue and flip my sail back to the exact wrong position. 

Through determination I broke free of the hold that the current had on me and I got under way once again only to be refused access again. This time it was a clean mast high wall that I had no choice but to ditch my rig and dive for the bottom.   And I took several more of the substantial bad ass muthfuggers on the head!  Each one of them pushed my kit further away from me and deeper in to the windless bay. I swam as fast as I could to retrieve my gear. Quite a few sailors have lost their entire rig in just this same situation. Luckily I reached my gear and fought the current once again to get my sail cleared.  It was difficult but not as hard as the last two times.

I water started and made it back out this time. I was surprised how easy it was to get back up wind due to the extreme easterly wind direction.

Once again I was looking for a wave.

I found one that I liked and tried to catch up to it but to no avail so I looked behind me and there it was! It  was just forming and seemed to be a bit smaller than some of the larger set waves.

I pointed to weather until the wave walled up a bit and then I turned down the line and had a great ride. I kept telling myself to kick out but the wave was holding up so well that I just had to ride it all the way to the channel.

I am thinking by this time that I have finally found my groove but for some unknown reason I blew my jibe again.

Now, I‘m once again, going through the same grueling aforementioned process of righting my sail and board position.

In the meantime another sizable set was bearing down on me!

I got worked again, and the sail was ripped away from me again, and I had to swim a long way again.

This time it had pushed my kit deeper than ever into the windless bay.

Did I mention that I launched well after 5:30pm?

Well, by this time it was starting to get dark and there was no hope of getting a water start much less making it through the impact zone and beating to weather for that far and then putting myself in a position to make it through the narrow channel.

So I turned around and cleared my sail and I body drug my way toward the beach at T-Bay.

I made surprisingly good progress and the closer I got to the beach the stronger the wind got until I was able to water start and actually sail in.

 The tide was high enough that I sailed right on to the beach and stepped off my board. I really didn’t even get any sand on my rig to speak of.

When I got to the parking lot at T-Bay a very nice bradda helped me by carrying my board over to the grassy patch by the road.

Now this isn’t the first time I have made this walk of shame and I usually bundle up my kit and put the rig under one arm and the board under the other and hoof it back to my truck. But this time I only made it a few meters and realize that I was too tired and chilled to carry the stuff all that way. So I stashed it and started hoofing it back to the launch.

I didn’t get very far until Mike Siopes stopped and gave me a ride in his truck (with the heater on) to my gear and then back to my truck.

When I was loading the gear my truck Kiwi Tim and Dean of Maui came by and checked on me.

LESSON LEARNED:  NONEWHATSOEVER!!

      

DIAMOND FREE

Text and photos:Olaf Mitchell

Late in the summer of 1980 my friend Edward Gerety and I made a free ascent of The Diamond Face of Longs Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park.

We bivouacked in The Boulder Field below Chasm View and woke to drizzling rain and strong wind.

We were wet, cold and our stoke was completely gone. We just crawled back into our sleeping bags and snoozed a while longer.

The rain dissipated by late morning and we both started feeling guilty about hiking all the way up to Chasm View and not even trying the route.

 I forget which one of us first suggested it, but it was unanimous that, we had to go for it.

Our bevy spot was in the Boulder Field and we hadn’t even put the rack together.

We hastily assembled a bunch of hexcentric and stopper chalk nuts and carabiners.  Friends had not even been invented at this time.

We put together a small ruck- sack with our rain gear and not much else. We sprinted up the steep loose skree, to the rappel anchors at Chasm View.

 Edward swiftly set up the rappel ropes and bailed.

As soon as he was free of his double carabiner brake system and shouted, “Off Rappel” I was ready and descending.

When we were repairing the next rappel. Edward asked me for a runner to clip in with and I told him, “You have the slings.”  He responded with, “No you have the slings.”  WELL???

We forgot the runners and needed to make a decision as to what to do about that.  We noticed that there were a lot of resident runners at the rappel station so we just started untying them and by the time we reached Broadway Ledge we had quite a few used runners. Some of them were in pretty good shape and others, well, they weren’t so good.

We quickly traversed Broadway Ledge and found where we thought our climb started.

I set up a belay and Edward put the rack together.  As usual Edward moved swiftly and steadily never backing down and in very short order he shouted,”Off Belay! On Belay!”

I was moving as soon as I heard his signal. I sprinted the entire distance of that pitch.

I quickly re -racked and was out of there. I remember the pitch being thin and sparsely protected with the antiquated gear that we had in those days but I moved as fast and steady as possible.

When I reached the belay ledge and tied in I assembled an adequate belay  then I looked at my watch and said ,” Ed, that pitch took me twenty minutes to lead and you have ten to second it!”

Well no one has ever extended “Edward the Bold” (that’s another story) a challenge that he didn’t accept or at least give his best effort.

Edward met the challenge by a large margin. He was at the belay and already climbing before his time was up.

Edward led the next pitch swiftly.  He reported his time and extended a similar challenge to me.

This friendly competitive spirit extended throughout the duration of our climb.

It is really difficult to recall every detail of that day but we made exceptional time and were very stoked that we rallied and rose above our initial insecurity and doubts.

Realistically the climb went brilliantly but the decent and hike out was EPIC!

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LANES/HOOKIPA 2/17/11

Text and photos by Olaf Mitchell

http://mauiwindsurfing.blogspot.com/

KAI LENNY AT HOOKIPA 2/17/11

Photos and text : Olaf Mitchell


Kai had a great but short wind surfing session at Lanes.
Kai and Kevin Pritchard got hopelessly caught inside and denied access time after time.

He made four valiant tries to punch through the giant interminable white water.

Realizing the futility of a fifth attempt to penetrate the mega closeouts, he turned around and made his way to shore. Kai came in over the sketchy rock shelf at Lanes.

He then went back to Hookipa and grabbed his SUP and paddle.

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He then went about expressing himself.
On wave after wave he performed like the world SUP champion that he is .


For quite a while it was just Kai and two very well known windsurfers demonstrating their craft.

MA'AN WE GOTTA CLIMB THAT!

Article by Olaf Mitchell


About a year ago I was approached by Jason Haas of Fixed Pin Publishing.

Jason’s was working on a rock climbing guide book to the South Platte region of Colorado.

Jason asked if I would be willing to help with some of the history of the Cathedral Spires area of the South Platte region. He was also interested to know if I had any photos from the old days.

I was very happy to help in any way I could. So I sent him a selection of images out of my archives.

Jason and I continued to communicate via e-mail and our dialog went something like this:

Hi Olaf, Thanks for the photos, they're great! Have you given more thought to maybe writing an essay for the book? Noel has told me some great stories about you and I think it would be a fantastic addition to the guide if you were willing to do it. Cheers, Jason

Hi Jason, I am honored that you want me to write an essay for your upcoming
book. I would like to know more about what you are looking for. There
are many stories of my Platte days that come to mind but just how to
go about writing them is holding me back at the moment.
What is your time line? I have been working a lot these days and
surfing and wave sailing every day as well so I am going to need to
make some time for the writing project. Aloha, Olaf

HI Olaf, In terms of an essay, the deadline would be June 1. Would that be feasible for you in that time frame? In terms of a topic, well it's really open ended and up to you. I'd say something about some memorable first ascents or what it was like to be (according to Noel) the strongest climber down there and therefore being able to pick any plumb line at will. If that sounds too egotistical, what about why the Platte means so much to you or why it did at the time. What made you really love the South Platte and why should the new generation love it and take care of it as you did. Maybe you can talk about how your routes are ground up and bolted from stances instead of rappel. That can go in two ways, why some of the ground up routes are scary by today's terms but why that ethic was important or you can talk about why rap bolting was bad during the time and how the two viewpoints collided. Again, these are just some ideas and you could write about none of them if you'd like. Ideally, the essay should be around a solid page, no more than two but again, don't limit yourself if you feel like you're on a roll. I'm trying to get Noel to write an essay as well and he's had the same difficulty in narrowing his focus to a certain topic. Thanks again for the photos and for being willing to write an essay. I'm jealous of you surfing all the time, especially as we battle out another Colorado winter. Cheers, Jason

During this period I had a few ideas for the piece and started in several directions but I always stalled out.

Even though I lived the story so much happened over such a long period of time it was hard to focus on any one single period, project, or partner. Everything was so woven together in my mind that in order for me to tell one story I had to start several others.

I have had this issue in the past while trying to write a story and in that particular instance I had to mix all the separate experiences together in order to make one story.

That story turned out really good and was well received but I wasn't interested in taking that approach for this piece.

I needed to recall the experience through all my senses.

Once I found a path the deeper I got into the piece the easier and more enjoyable it became.

I felt as though I could go farther than I did but had the one page criteria so the piece needed to be short and to the point and I think that I achieved that goal.

I figured that the piece would be cut and edited to fit the available space and agenda of the book. It was quite a surprise when I found that it will be printed as I presented it to the publisher nearly word for word.

If you would like to check it out here's a link to the text in the essay that I wrote for the new guide book for the South Platte: Click Here

Michi @ Lanes/ Hookipa 2/8/11

Text and photos by Olaf Mitchell
While many of Maui's best resident and visiting sailors sailed at spots east and west Michi Schweiger and one unidentified kiter had Lanes and Hookipa to them selves. Michi made these giant and very demanding waves mixed with extremely light wind look like just another day of wave sailing on the north shore!