Maui Day 4: Windy!

Nina and Mark Angulo with the prototype

We started the day with a trip to Mark Angulo's place in Haiku, where Mark and Nina discussed the custom board she has ordered. The board will have the same shape as on the board in the picture that Mark had built for himself, but with two changes: the footstraps will be closer together, and it will be a twin fin board, not a quad. That was based on (a) Nina testing it with 2 fins, and liking it a lot, and (b) Mark's opinion that twin fins are usually better than quads. The colors will probably also be different - Nina left the design up to Mark, with the only restriction not to make it pink or purple. I can't wait to see it!
This was a real fun visit. My daughter remarked that it was hard to say who was more excited, Nina or Mark. We also met Mark's lovely wife, and chatted a bit about the windsurf lakes in her native Italy.

On the way back, we stopped in Haiku for a second breakfast, and then at Ho'okipa to watch the surfers for a while. Here are some pictures (the last three are a tribute to GP, who's blog I love, especially when not on Maui):

And finally, a few pictures of us:

Almost forgot - I actually sailed a bit, too, overpowered on 4.5. After a hooked-in nose landing and catapult, the line at the end of the boom came loose - seems I had not checked the knots on the new boom. That was an interesting 5 minutes in deep blue water, retying knots and thinking about how rare shark attacks are in Kanaha. Back in the shore, we met "The Bob", who is in town for the long weekend with his family - nice!

I thought my sailing was not good. Most of the time, my sail was pretty open, and the board rather bouncy. With wind readings in the upper 20s and gusts in the mid-30s, at least a smaller fin would have been in order, but I had lost the little nut in the fin I had brought. When I looked at the boom cam video later, though, it did not look nearly as bad as I thought, and definitely much better than last year. Funny how perceptions work.

There'll be no sailing today - ziplines and crater tour are on the menu.

Maui Day 3: Sprecks

We went to Sprecks today for a short session. Here are some pictures:

Nina sailed first, and loved the board - we might just have to take it back, too. Then, I went out on the same gear, and was nicely powered on a 4.5. I think the wind picked up a bit just as I went out, but still, it's amazing that we both were planing comfortably on the same gear. I'm about 50% heavier than Nina, and usually, that's reflected in the sail size (e.g. 5.0 and 7.0); in addition, Nina also usually sails a smaller board. Despite this being a short session, we both had a lot of fun. I was lazy as usual, but Nina worked a bit on jumps and shove-its:

Judging by how much easier the sailing was today compared to last year, I think we learned a few things in the past year (although the Angulo boards certainly help!). I can't wait so see what we'll learn in our time here!

Maui, Day 2: Going Custom

On our second day of sailing in Maui, we had a bit less wind then yesterday - 5.0 for me, 4.2 for Nina. I used my new Naish "Wave Pro" hybrid boom, and was very happy with it. Nina sailed the Angulo custom 71 l board again, a board that Mark Angulo had made for himself. She loved it, but wanted the footstraps a bit closer together - so she went ahead and ordered one, which made Mark very happy. The board will certainly be a head turner; today, she could not spend 10 minutes on the beach without someone checking out the board.

We sailed for about 2 1/2 hours today, until I noticed that yes, indeed, using a seat harness requires fitter legs than a waist harness. Getting used to the gear, we ventured out more into the deep blue water a mile from  shore. The ocean swell there gets nice and large - Nina complained about the lack of wind between the waves. It was an absolute blast, though. My GPS showed that I sailed faster and more distance than ever before on Maui (all 8 days of sailing there), and that I also did my best jibes here so far. They still were not great, though, just borderline plane-through in the best two. The jibes will have to improve a lot before I really consider starting in the Maui race series! Still, there's some significant progress relative to last year. The Angulo Chango FW 93 certainly helps: while a tad big for the chop here, it carves very nicely, making the chop disappear during the jibe.

For tomorrow, a short session in Sprecks is on the menu, with an afternoon visit to the aquarium. I'll try to also post some pictures then.

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!