Many of you may have seen or heard about the jump contest that went on in Maui recently. I had the privilege to take part in this event. I had some pretty tough competition, going up against some of the top pros in windsurfing. Conditions could not have been better for the contest. We had sustained 40 mph winds and mast high waves rolling in at Ho’okipa. Check out the video to see the insanity, that we called a jump contest. I finished with a respectable 30 foot back-loop, but that wasn’t even close to what Levi Siver did. He won the comp. with a landed 50+ foot back-loop. Boujmaa was going nuts too, with a huge stock air and his recently invented move, the Blackshot.
Here are a few pictures from the day of the jump contest. I went out for a run on my 4.2, and after two reaches decided to go with the 3.7 for the jump-off. My board was a little big at 75L, so I thought that with a smaller sail, I would have more control in the air. It definitely helped with the control, but I think I suffered some height going with the small sail. Check out these pics taken by Eric Sinclair during my 4.2 practice run.
Yo Russ…
What kind of board did you use for the contest? Did the competitors opt for single fins to drive up the wave faces?
aaron
Hey Aaron,
Haven’t looked at the blog for a bit. I used an OES Quad 75 which was good, but a smaller board would have been better. It was wicked windy. There was a good mix of Quad and Single Fin boards out there. I’m pretty sure Levi was on a Single and Camille was on a Quad. Obviously both guys went huge. Since the jump-off, I have two new boards. One is a 65 Single and the other is a 72 Quad. Both of them jump better than the 75 I had. I guess the single fin might have a slight edge for jumping, but not by a lot. With the right rocker and fin placement, the quad is a very good option for jumping.