Ho’okipa is one of the most famous wavesailing breaks in the world and home to some notorious kit crunching rocks. But not everyday is mast high plus and on flat days the famed spot can be ticked off the bucket list by a reasonably competent sailor. If you’ve ever fancied a go or want to know more about Ho’okipa’s nuances, then read on as Robby Swift gives a guide to the iconic wave and a breakdown on the ins and outs of sailing his adopted home break.
HO’OKIPA I think it’s such a legendary break because of the consistency and the level of the riders who sail there. It’s by no means the best wave in the world to windsurf. It’s actually quite difficult to sail, but the fact that you can probably sail there 250 times a year with decent conditions makes it pretty special. You can probably actually sail there more than that, but the waves can be pretty small in June/July, but you do still get some waves.
THE ROCKS If you’re new to Ho’okipa, the rocks are one of the first things you notice. They look very threatening and can be quite scary. There is a strong current that runs with the wind and therefore leaves you feeling very under-powered when you are close to the rocks and this is the main reason that people end up drifting onto those dreaded boulders, quite often on their first run out from the beach.
The trick to trying to stay off the rocks is to use the currents to your advantage. Accept that you will get whipped right across the front of the rocks and that it will be hard to get planing off the beach, even if it’s very windy, but this isn’t really a problem as you want to get downwind to the channel anyway. Give yourself enough space to get easily past the rocks and then let the current pull you downwind into the channel. You will have to go over a couple of pieces of whitewater but once you are past the first big rock, even if you end up falling in due to lack of wind, the current should whip you past the rest of the rocks and leave you in the channel, ready to sail out in the “relative” safety of that nice channel.
Obviously swell direction can change this setup a bit. When the swell is really westerly, the waves come in more from the left of the beach as you look out and can push you more directly onto the rocks, so you have to be more careful on west swell days. Also, when it is mast high and over, the channel tends to close out and is no longer such a ‘safe’ haven, so check the surf reports and be smart with the day you pick to tackle Ho’okipa! It’s not much fun when you go onto those rocks, they are very hard and there is a lot of water moving around!
If you do find yourself getting sucked on there, it’s probably best to try to save yourself from injury rather than saving your gear. When the sets come in, you can take shelter “behind” a big rock and then right after the wave has broken around you, you can swim/shuffle in on top of that extra little piece of water to a new rock and then decide if you are far enough out of harm’s way to make the dash up to safety or if you need to hide yourself behind another rock from the next set.
The worst thing that can happen is to be pulled around by the whitewater on the rocks as you have no control whatsoever and can be whacked very hard into the rocks. This is how people get injured. Take your time if you are in the shelter of a big rock and once you decide to make a break for it, do it with confidence and quickly before another big wave comes!
THE WAVE There are three sections to the windsurfing part of Ho’okipa, or four if you count Lanes. Out to the right of the channel as you look at the water, the three parts of the Ho’okipa wave are called Middles, then Green Trees and then The Point. Middlesisreallyaleftthatbreaks towardsthe right of “Pavils”,whichisthelocalsurfingspot thatyoudonotwanttogoanywherenear with your windsurfing gear! There are days when the right-hand wave of Ho’okipa connects all the way from the bowl at Middles, through Green Trees and the Point, but that is very rare. It has to be around mast high or a little bit more and the swell needs to be straight north. They are the most epic days ever at Ho’okipa, but only happen about two or three times a year.
On a more normal day, the next part down of the wave, called “Green Trees” has a nice bowl and you can generally get one or maybe two turns there before the wave closes out. Again, if the swell is more northerly and very clean, you can get waves that will connect from Green Trees to The Point. This happens more often, anywhere from N to NW swells can make this happen and that’s when you see people getting three turns and an aerial or even a goiter or 360 thrown in. Generally though, the swells end up being a little broken up or too westerly for this to happen, so it actually kind of breaks up the crowds a bit as someone can ride the wave at Green Trees and someone else can have fun on the same wave down at The Point without getting in each other’s way. If you pick a nice “peaky” wave at Green Trees, one without too much wall on it, then you have a good chance of being able to do a nice 360 or aerial as it offers very nice 360 bowls and little barrels for doing airs.
The most famous part of the wave is “The Point”. This is the very end of the wave at Ho’okipa, right before the channel. It offers the most ‘bowly’ section of the break and generally gives you the chance to do an aerial/goiter/360 or something like that just about every time, no matter what the swell direction. You can be sailing back out from the channel and see a wave coming out of the west that you almost can’t see in front of you, gybe on it and have the ride of your life at the Point. Once you get used to it, it’s probably one of the most consistent places in the world to practice those kinds of tricks.
THE HILL The Ho’okipa Hill or ‘Guard Rails’ as the locals often call it (the guard rail behind the life-guard tower) is where everyone likes to hang out before and after sessions. It’s the perfect “peanut gallery”. It’s a beautiful spot to hang out in the evening and watch wave after epic wave. The funny thing about Ho’okipa is that pretty much at any time of the day on any day of the year, there will be some pro windsurfer out there doing something amazing. And on the really good days, there are dozens of them out there and the hill is the perfect amphitheatre to watch it all go down. You can hear cheers from the hill while you are sailing sometimes. It makes it pretty fun and also pretty embarrassing on those days when everything seems to go wrong. Nothing gets missed, good or bad!
THE SAILING Ideally, it’s good to hit the first peak of whichever section of the wave you are riding. Whether it be a big aerial, solid turn or a 360, that first move starts off the wave. Then timing is everything. Depending whether the swell is N or NW or W, you either have to slow yourself down and try to keep hitting the lip or race down the line and boost aerials to make it past sections. You have to pick the better waves of the sets, not always the biggest ones. Sometimes the medium ones are the cleanest, so you have to be on your game with wave selection.
You have to be courteous and respect the rules. Despite the fact that it’s one of the busiest breaks in the world, people do stick to the rules and that makes it fun to sail, in spite of the crowds. There are days when the photoshoots are on that are just not worth sailing unless you are part of the shoot, but for the most part, if you sail all the way out to sea and pick off a good wave, nobody will gybe on your wave and steal it. There are many other places in the world where you can be coming in on a wave and a local sailor will just gybe or tack on your wave because they are from there and that is rarer on Maui. The local people will be pretty quick to tell you off if you do that to one of them, or if you are coming in on a wave and drop out the back of it and try to take the next wave which already has someone on it, so just be aware of the rules and use them to your advantage.
SEASONS Seasons are pretty much from August till May really (for waves). But there is wind all summer too. You could say that November-March are worse months for wind and if you just have a 2 week window to pick, I would probably not come in November-March, but they are also the months when you get the best quality sessions with the biggest, cleanest waves and less people out. My best sessions always seem to be in December/January/February, probably because there are less people and the waves are bigger. There is always a swell at the end of August/start of September and those first swells are really fun. Summer trade winds are still in full force and there are less pros there at that time of year, so you can catch more waves!
GEAR I almost always use my 88 or 83 Radical Thruster Quad and 4.5-5.0. There are 4.2 days and some lighter days, but Maui is a pretty windy place. As soon as Windguru says 10 knots from the east, you can pretty much guarantee sailing on a 5.0 or 4.7, so it is the perfect place to score a lot of sailing. Ho’okipa is also the windiest part of the island on normal trade wind days. You can sometimes be sailing Ho’okipa on a 5.0 when it’s glassy and calm at Kanaha, just due to the direction of the wind.
I would say that it’s best to use a bigger board than you would think and a smaller sail. I tend to go for more volume there than normal because of the current etc. As soon as you get on the wave, the side-offshore wind and the speed of the waves makes you feel overpowered quickly, so the big board/small sail combo is generally the preferred setup.
INFO If you fancy some tuition from the man himself then check out Robby Swift’s windsurf camp in Maui from August 20-30 this year. For more info. contact Robby via his website robbyswift.com or message Facebook.com/robbyswift89 | instagram@robbyswift .
