Windsurfing legend and Hot Sails Maui Australian team rider Jessica Crisp went in search and found a gem right on her doorstep!

“You would think at my age and all the years I have been windsurfing I would have wavesailed everywhere, at least in Sydney! Well a week ago some friends called me up and told me the Southerly (storm wind in Sydney) is coming so Makaha should work. Makaha where is Makaha! There are two famous spots for wavesailing in Sydney. The first Wanda in Cronulla (South) and the second Long Reef (North). As it turns out Makaha is around the corner from Long Reef. It is a spot you have to carry your equipment down a mountain (think Dimond Head) and then launch off rocks. Well they are rocks but it is like a giant smooth road into the water.So I thought yes sounds like an adventure I am game lets go! I have decided to write this as I have wavesailed at a lot of places in the world and this wave is fantastic! I have now called it Hookipa in Sydney! It was logo to mast high but the beauty about this spot is that there is no reef to cut your feet on or rocks to break your gear. You get hammered and you go into this lagoon. In reality it is a point break with two waves forming but it is one of those magical places that you live for and I can’t believe it is close to me in Sydney! Sadly I don’t really have any photo’s from this day but I have a photo of another day when a Southerly came in and I rushed there to give it another whirl. The swell wasn’t that big but the wind was over 35knots and the 5.0 Firelight was a touch too big (the guys were on 4.5m overpowered). Note to self – over 25 knots the wave blows out!

It is a joy to be back wavesailing in Sydney. I suppose I really didn’t do that much before I went to Hawaii to give the PWA world tour a whirl back in the 90′s. I learnt to jump on the ferry waves on Sydney harbour and then used to go out at Bondi Beach when it was windy and rainy as no one was around to crash into. But for the last 6 months I have been traveling up and down the coast doing the state wavesailing competitions and I am taken back by how many great wavesailing spots we have here. OK the wind is not as consistent as Maui (yes I have to get back there one day soon) but with all this great new light easy and fast gear we all seem to get out all the time. And what is better than hanging out with a great group of people doing what you love!!!

So thank you to all the crew at Hot Sails Maui for continuing to make the best sails (Spiderlocks 90′s to Firelights this season) so I can once again get out amoungst it.
G’Day from Sydney”Jessica Crisp KA -15

More to follow…