This year the Aloha Classic was about as spectacular as ever and it was great to be a part of it again. It is such a good event for the sport and I am really happy that Novenove stepped up and made a 2 year deal to sponsor the event. It is so nice to finish the year in blue water and board shorts with decent waves in a completely different environment and completely different conditions from all the other events. Unfortunately, since 2 of the other events this year didn’t have wind, everything was pretty much decided in the title race already as Maui was the 4th event and could be discarded as such, but it was still great to be able to finish the year with a bang at Ho’okipa in big waves and down the line conditions.

For me personally, the event went much like most of the other events this year, I felt like I was sailing well and had some great heats but I lost in the single and in the double because I wasn’t able to get a good second wave. It seems like it was just one of those years for me this year, I put in as much effort as I could and felt like my level of sailing was better than ever but in the crucial moments, things just didn’t quite go my way. The conditions were really great. It was on the bottom limit of wind strength and the upper limit of wave size that Ho’okipa can handle, so it made it important not to make any mistakes. One crash and the swim could cost you half the heat and that happened to me in the single, so in the double, I just waited outside to try to pick off the biggest waves but every time a set came there was simply no wind where I was to be able to catch it. That’s just how it goes sometimes though, Kai and Bernd were able to pick off 2 beautiful waves each and rode them amazingly to advance to the next round.

My plans for the winter are to step up my video production even more. I want to invest in some new equipment to get some new “aerial” angles 🙂 yes, a drone could soon be on it’s way to my house 🙂 and go on a couple of trips, Chile will definitely be one of them in December, I think NeilPryde and JP want me to go to Australia in January and then I would love to go to Cabo Verde in February and Chile in March. Oh, and I definitely want to go to Backyards again too with Jason so it should be a fun, action packed winter!