Sport Today

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
June 16, 2005

NEW MAUI SPEED CHALLENGE SERIES TO BE SPONSORED BY NAVMAN GPS
SPORT.TOOL

Maui, Hawaii - The Maui Windsurfing Association announced today the
inception of its annual Maui Speed Challenge Series and its new sponsor
Navman, a leading designer and manufacturer of worldclass global
positioning systems (GPS). Set to commence on July 17th, the first
round of this year's event coincides perfectly with the U.S. release
of the Navman Sport.Tool, the ultimate in digital personal trainers,
which will be used to ensure accuracy at the event.

Generating a great deal of interest among amateurs and professional
sailors alike, the 6-part Maui Speed Challenge Series will take place
July 17 & 24, August 7 & 21, and September 11 & 25, on Maui's Kite
Beach, located near Kanaha Beach Park. At each event, competitors will
be provided with a Navman Sport.Tool to use while racing the downwind
course. After each run, judges will record the top speed from each
unit. At the end of each day, an overall winner will be selected for
each of the following categories: Open Class (in which those with
specialized speed sailing equipment will compete), Men, Women, Masters,
Fun, Junior and Youth.

Developed for sports enthusiasts, the Navman Sport.Tool provides
accurate, detailed performance statistics. Available in five models,
the water-resistant Sport.Tool M300 is specifically designed for a
variety of water sports including windsurfing, sailing, leisure
boating, jet skiing and water skiing. The versatile device measures
current, maximum and average speed (in nautical miles and knots) and
automatically records time and distance for each lap completed.

"We are proud to introduce our new Sport.Tool M300 in conjunction with
the Maui Speed Challenge event," said Chris Jensen, VP, Navman USA.
"Navman is a world leader in GPS technology and Maui is the home of
the world's best windsurfing - it's a perfect match." Hot Sails
Maui is also lending their support to the series. The company's new
retail and rental store, Kanaha Kai, is located on road to Kanaha, 100
yards from the competition site. The store will serve as base camp for
the Maui Speed Challenge, as well as the venue for the Series'
opening party. Interested parties can stop by to register, see the
revolutionary new speed sail from Hot Sails Maui and check out the
Navman Sport.Tool.

"The Sport.Tool M300 is the type of technology the windsurfing
industry has been waiting for," said Marc Lefebvre, event director,
Maui Windsurfing Association. "The device will not only play an
instrumental role in the Maui Speed Challenge Series, but also offer a
means for recreational sailors to discover just how fast they can go,
as well as allow serious and professional racers a way to dial in their
equipment throughout the summer."

The Maui Speed Challenge Series is attracting major names in
windsurfing. Anders Bringdal, Thierry Bielak, Freddy Haywood, Martin
van Meurs and Erik Beale have already expressed interest in the event.
Race organizers hope the event will also attract current world record
holder Finian Maynard, as well as other top PWA pros who compete in the
Maui Slalom Series.

For more details, and to follow the progress of the series, log on to

information on Navman and the Navman Sport.Tool M300, visit
www.navmanusa.com and www.sport-tool.com.

ORIGINAL RELEASE:
http://www.mauispeed.com/releases/PressRelease20050616.pdf

IMAGES FOR RELEASE: http://www.mauispeed.com/images/IMG_2564.jpg,
http://www.mauispeed.com/images/IMG_2608.jpg

EVENT SPONSORS: Navman, Hot Sails Maui, Haywood Real Estate, Kanaha
Kai, Freestyle, Ray Masters, Waki Jaki and THE POINT, West Group
Marketing and Communications, WindsurfingClassifieds.Com, Nova Media,
Maui Custom Cats, Ocean 7, Maui Sports Net.

Unfortunately it doesn't have track logging capability. Tell them to
implement logging and bluetooth-based data transfer and a lot of windsurfers
will want one of these.

Without the logging capability, you only get about one third of the
usefulness. Besides, a full-blown GPS also works as a navigation tool,
which is nice if you ever need one. The Navman only measures speed &
distance (like the Timex Speed & Distance watches).

So, I would only recommend someone to get one of these if they knew
for certain that they didn't want to transfer the data to a computer
(for better analysis & transfer to sites like GPS-speedsurfing) and
if they knew that they would never want to use the GPS for navigation
either.

The Finnish FRWD is a similar but also different case: it's quite
high priced (which the NavMan isn't) and lacks a display, so you have
to have a computer to check the results. I would almost prefer the
Navman...but a real GPS is better than either one.

Anyway, good luck with the Maui Speed Challenge. It's great to see
so much interest in GPS speed sailing these days. Almost makes up
for all those stupid remarks people made in 1999 when I started using
my GPS (not all the time, just occasionally).

--
Juri Munkki - http://www.iki.fi/jmunkki - Windsurfing: Faster than the wind.

Juri,

Taking your comments to heart, as part of our partnership with Navman
we are going to be doing R+D for the unit in the series.  We are
working with their engineers to make improvements on the product for
the next generation unit.  Top of the list is blue tooth (rather than
USB) for download to the computer, as well as few other things.  We are
definately going to be interested in any feedback on the units as it
makes the partnership with NAVMAN all that more better for all of us so
that we can get the products we so desire. It is going to be a GPS unit
made by windsurfers for windsurfers (and kiters).  Hoping to see some
of you speed demons on Maui this summer.

--
Marc A. Lefebvre (US-775)
Sponsors: Starboard/Gaastra/Fiberspar/SAIC

WWW: http://www.iwavesolutions.com/lefebvre/
Motto: "Windsurfing is life, the rest is just details!"