Maui Report, Day 1

We are on Maui for the next 6 1/2 weeks, thanks to a house swap. We'll have to work after a week or two, but for now, it's just vacation time. Today's objective was getting gear, and taking it out for a first run.

We started with stops at three windsurfing shops to ask about used gear, since rental prices for such a long time would total several thousand dollars for the two of us. We got excellent help at the Naish store and at Second Wind. Neil Pryde Maui was rather different. Their web site lists used booms in 3 different sizes for sale, but they did not have any at all. Apparently, the web site never gets updated just because they sell stuff. They also seem to be proud of the exorbitant prices for their new stuff: hybrid aluminum-carbon booms cost $600, carbon booms $1200. Similar stuff in the Naish store costs about half as much. Go figure why you see less and less NP gear on the water!

After that, the day got a lot better. First, we drove to Mark Angulo's house to pick up two boards to try - a 93 l FW that had been sent to Maui for the board test, and a 71 l custom for Nina. Mark is just as nice as his brother Josh, who had arranged this for us. Mark was very interested in getting Nina's opinion on the board.

We took the board to Kanaha, were the sensors showed typical June winds in the mid-20s. I was fully powered on a 4.5 m wave sail, Nina was on a 3.7. My primary goal was to check the condition without breaking or hurting anything. I was pleasantly surprised to have nice runs after a few dial-in runs, and 50% dry jibes (with a couple more "should haves"). I also got a nice top speed of 47 km (25.7 knots) - not bad for a board and sail I never used, and the considerable chop. Nina liked her board, too, but was underpowered close to shore, and did not go out far. On the short runs were she got planing, she loved the way the board made the chop disappear, and how it jibed. She even had a "reverse" planing jibe - entering the jibe non-planing, and accelerating onto a full plane during the entry. Tomorrow should be very interesting!