Sport Today

Rode the JP FW 91 my last day. Winds were ragin'.  Was lit with the extra-ballzy 4.7 Search.
Sweet combo. The 91 was hands down my fav board. The Goya FW 84 came in a way-back second.
Found the Evos too slow for jumping but very fun on the wave. And didn't really like the
old-skool JP Waves. Kinda mushy compared to the modern shapes. Other Goya hybrid wave boards
and JP RWW wave boards where solid but not super creamy like the JP FW 91.

The FW 91 does everything great - jumps, slashes, jibes, spins, tacks. And fast! I was
keeping pace with a local slalom cat in a drag race. The 91 will take whatever you throw at
it and turn it into gold. Made this mediocre wave sailor look like I didn't actually suck.
And this board has incredible range from sub-planning to 40+. In the nuclear stuff I was
amazed at how it stuck to the water. Hope my new Exocet Universal Wave is as good.

Chatted with Keith Baxter for a bit  about the Aero 127. Sweeeeeeeet shape. He offered a
demo but way too much wind. Apparently everyone loves it. The one I ***d weighed about
16.5 pounds as it was one of the first ones out of the mold. The latest production models
are 'much lighter'. Too bad no twinsers, but I formally registered the request.

Gurlie really amped up her skillz. 7 days of sailing including several lessons had her
waterstarting with ease in mondo voodoo nastiness and moving her into the 115 liter range.
She did great planning in the straps, hooked in and in the end, staying up wind in the 3
knot current. She took a jibe lesson and is ready to start mastering this maneuver when the
wind shows up here. Props to Matt at HST.

Best bring-along: Warren's fins. They beat the heck out of anything the shops were providing
on their rental gear.

I saw prolly a thousand boards and sails over the 2 week period. Dozens of different brands
some of which I've never even heard of. The number of Exocet boards I saw on the water?
Zero! The number of Aerotech sails on the water? Zero! Bizarre. Steve is paying a mint for
ads in the 'zines but not providing a rental fleet for this great product in the center of
the windsurfing universe. Why?

Accommodations in Robby's ol' hood in Haiku were very comfy although it rained on the east
side of Haiku road most of the time. Food at Jacque's, Colleen's, Charley's and Anthony's is
as good as ever.

All and all a great trip. No lasting body damage just some bruises and sore neck sustained
during loop attempts. Did break a Chinook carbon boom Monday at Uppers. Snapped at the nylon
head piece and sheared off at the tail. Lucky the other side was still intact so no marathon
paddle home. Had the damage waiver but still had to pony $30 for the deductible for an
end-of-the-season=about-shot boom. Kinda lame on Hawaiian Island Surf and Sport's part. Joe
cashed out an aluminum Pryde boom at Hi-Tech and they didn't even blink.

Hugh

The local shop owner got to ride the 2006 model (the 93) and reckons it
was even better than the 05 - well he would say that wouldn't he :)

--
Cheers
Anton

I was in Maui 3 years ago in 2002. That was when I met Dave Ezzy with
his son Graham at Kanaha Beach. Back then Graham was 12 and was just
getting into waves. Now he is catching big air pulling off big moves
and giving the PWA pros a run for their $. Watchout for this up and
coming ripper. He was competiting in Gran Canaria & Dave was in Sri
Lanka making sure his factory is producing top of the line sails. So I
did not get to sail with Dave or Graham but instead I met the wonderful
Ezzy family and sailed with Graham's little brother. He is 12 and was
on a 2.9m when I was over in the gusts on a 3.7m (survival sailing
mode). I have come to the conclusion that any Maui locals rip, even
little kids.

I sailed 8 days. Sail size ranged from 3.7 to 4.7. Started off with a
86L board but once my confidence grew went down to a 80L. There were
days when I should have been on a 3.2m and 75L but what do you do when
you are rigged and too lazy to drive to the shop to swap for smaller
gear.

Took a jibe lesson with HST, they made the video Jibing with Alan
Cadiz. First part of the lesson started off on the land stimulator and
learnt so much that we should make one for Hong Kong. Just
understanding the finer points of how to combine foot work and sail
flip. Then the instructor went in the water with me and turns out I am
not sheeting in enough with my back hand during the jibe. Saw my first
Giant Green Sea Turtle with the instructor on my side. Then I saw them
4 more times whilst windsurfing.

Met so many friendly windsurfers. Right after landing in Maui around
noon, I picked up the rental car and went to Hi Tech to rent gear. It
worked out well that they had Ezzy, RRD, and Streamlined. Met a couple
from Washington, next to the Gorge. We greeted each other and they gave
me some wind info, what sail & board size. Then we met each other on
the beach again 10 minutes later. Warren became my sailing buddy. A
visiting Japanese shared his rice ball lunch with me, I offered some
cookies in return. Met an ex Olympic downhill skier who competed in
Nagano Olympics. Moved to Maui a few months ago and picked up
windsurfing. Doesn't miss the snow at all. The freedom of the ocean
and Maui is magic. Francisco Goya had a demo day for his boards and
sails. Such a friendly guy, totally down to earth. He gave me a tip on
how to set the harness lines. He says hi to the HK group that stayed
right next to his place in Sprecks, Minko and gang. Saw the legendary
Robbie Naish, he was out with his team Michi testing boards and sails.
When he was in the water, he pointed higher upwind and sailed like the
rest of the people on the water was standing still. The high light was
when he got major hang time off a wave. Met a father and son duo from
Taiwan. They windsurf with Tony Fish, my Ezzy & RRD counterpart in
Taiwan. They send their regards to Tat and Lur who visited them
recently. Last but not least is meeting David Blyth a ***
photographer who just got done shooting Dakine catalogue. I jumped at
the chance when he offer to take some photos for me for a small fee. It
the best $ that I ever spend in windsurfing. We sail without knowing
how we look like. If a photo is a thousand words, I got millions of
words with me as David sent me off with a disk with tons of photos. If

my jibe sequence so I could look at how perfect they are (just kidding)

One afternoon after windsurfing, I went to kite beach to see what's
going on. Wow it is amazing what they do with their 9 m kites. I
started talking to this group of kiters and casually asked who would be
a good kite instructor. There are 2 brothers that teach and are spoken
of very highly. I wasn't planning to take kiting lessons but
sometimes one should go with the flow in life. Turns out I had the
pleasure to learn from the best kiting instructor Period. In 2 days he
got me to body drag and even got a 1 second waterstart on the board.

I even managed to play in the waves in Uppers. I hope the big grey fish
I saw was a dolphin...

Maui is such a paradise for both windsurfing and kitesurfing. Now I got
to somehow work out a plan to return :)

Kodak Moment

www.windfanshk.com/gallery/other12

Great report Hugh! If you get a hankering for regular mini-reports on what's happening here, check out my blog: http://mauiwind.blogspot.com/.

Makani

  Well Maui '05 rocked. Wind 13 out of 13 days. Half of that 4.7 or smaller. And chest to head
  high wind swell at Uppers 9 of 13 days. Monday saw overhead peaks at the west end of Uppers
  with very clean lines given the summer. A perfect way to end 60 hours of sailing in
  paradise.

  Hugh