Well things went pretty well on my first trip so I thought id post a couple random things. Thanks bean, winddoc, winger, dunkinguy, ssteve, fishy and many others for the info!

Following the advice of a few guys I flew out with my rig and only had to rent a board. That worked out great and with your own mast/boom/base its really easy to demo sails for a minimal charge or even for free. There was no baggage charge either way for my quiverbag, which I found a bit surprising however I never said it was windsurfing gear just “sails”. On the way home my new mast was even sticking out putting the bag over the 80” limit. I did keep it under 50lbs.

Renting a van from Al West was awesome and trouble free.

I booked a rental board from Hawaiian Island Sports, they let me exchange boards constantly, even for surfboards when there was no wind. Great guys, except for the one incident (see below)

I smashed the nose of a beautiful Naish Wave85 on a back loop into the reef and was hit with a 225$ bill. Board insurance (which I had elected to waive) was 4 bucks a day so would have run me 56 bucks but would only cover the first 125$ damage (and not theft). So this incident still would have cost me $156 had I bought the insurance. So basically insurance is most likely a good thing but you can get hosed either way if you sail like a dummy. The rest of the trip I used the JP boards with the nice big nose guards.

wind is supposed to be up and down in feb. but it blew 12 of 14 days we were there. Waves were well overhead for all but the last few days. I checked hookipa but no way I was going out there! we were a group of 4 with two beginners so we only sailed out of Kanaha. my impression is that aside from the warm water, it’s a crappy place to learn with the gusty winds near shore, very Nimpkish-like in that respect. Outside in the waves was awesome though. You had to watch out for the turtles everywhere, even in the surf zone (what do they do in there!?)

For all the sailing i dont think i progressed much. I really did want to work on hoss tacks and vulcans but given the option to go out and ride genuine sideshore waves my motivation to learn silly transition tricks went away. I can work on that stuff at nitinat!

We stayed in Kihei which I think was a good option as there was lots for the family to do. I even taught my son how to swim in our condo pool. Lots of driving around though which was a drag. We might have to try a beachfront house out near sprecks next time if there is ever one.


below is a cut/pase of my log;


Maui recap:
was in maui for 14 days (feb 23 to Mar , it blew all but two days. Due to family time, rest days and surf missions, i sailed 9 days.
2 days were 5.5 or 6.0
1 day i was on a 4.2
6 days i used a 4.7 or 5.0
Sails demoed: Naish Force, Ezzy SE waves, Hot Superfreaks, Simmer Xflex (roughly in order of awesomeness low to high).
Boards demoed: JPXspeed 100, Naish Vector 114, JP Real World Wave 91, Naish wave 85, JP FSW 91 and 84. The FSW84 and naish wave85 were my faves. I used bigger boards than im used to here because it was tricky getting out (a lot like nimpkish) and i was terrified of stalling out in the smash zone. Plus it was never super windy.
Skills enhanced: bottom/top turns
Tricks learned: nothing good, too much wave riding to do. also learned when you land sloppy fwds with just boardshorts on it feels just like getting kicked in the nuts. much safer with a surfsuit on imo.
Overall, family very happy, excellent sailing. plus no kicking the reef in 9 days of barefoot sailing. a success!

almost got the fin out! (thanks naomi)

I have heard about windsurfing in Hawaii and the details are important... when I get the money to go.

How much did it cost about?

Turtle

hi turtle, heres a rough breakdown, all in USD except the flight which was
500cdn. (what a burn, my 2 yr old was full fare!)
Van 450
condo 2500 (we split that one 5 ways)
board rental 250 (&^%$* board repair 225!)
groceries and gas 400. we never went out except for the odd post-sail burrito.
so basically it wasnt cheap but i figured this was my big chance to see maui. Gliding down a big warm sunny wave and cranking a bottom turn just like in the windsurfing videos ive watched almost half my life was certainly an experience i wont soon forget. my palms are all tingly just thinking about it. (that would be the "priceless" part of the mastercard commercial)
You could certainly find cheaper accomodations, and if you go while your kid is free that would be a perk too. You could also get by with a cheaper vehicle (we needed a big van for 4 sets of gear).

hey I havent seen any of your sailing logs lately, did you pack it up for winter!?

I haven't surfed since October 9th (sure thankful for that sailing log). Bought a new house, went on strike, built 2 suites to augment income, wife is due with a baby any day which amounts to no time on the water.

Nasty! ... but I am coming back into windsurfing, perhaps tomorrow at Columbia. I would like to hear from G-man or others about the Sealion and herring issues though...

This summer (2006) my wife and I are traveling to Japan (she is Japanese) with our soon to be born child(like now until April 6th). I might just surf in Japan due to luggage issues and sizes of vehicles.

Hey -- airlines are charging 10% of fair for children under 2 even when they are not using a seat! It is still cheaper than paying for a 2 year old though...

I am thinking of Hawaii in a couple of years after some money is saved.

Turtle.

"I was hoping to get the goods on your experience with the different sail brands you demoed in Maui. In particular the Superfreak interests me. Thanks brotha!"

well i got no new pm but heres my thoughts. I think sailing with rdm masts the first time sort of skewed my views a bit as i thought all the sails i used felt awesome. I rated the naishes last just because they didnt really stand out all that well. also they didnt seem to take being overpowered as well as the ezzy, hot and simmers i used.

The superfreak i used was a 4.7 demo from kanaha kai (the one in the photo above). I was super powered the day i used it and rigged down to a 4.2 towards the end of the day. rigging was sort of strange as it would downhaul to a point then just stop, the leech would not really sag off. I just rigged to the luff number on the sail then outhauled it a bit. after my first run i came in and outhauled a lot more! I had to move my lines back a little bit to be comfortable but after that it was smooth sailing. and i mean smooth because the sail is not only quiet, the power sort of comes on with a bit of a cushion to it. that might be a liability in light winds, but i never got to check that factor. the other thing i recall is i never once felt like i had an opaque sail as visibility thru the window was great. you do stand out a bit, naomi said she could easily see where i was the whole time out of 50-60 sails on the water.

I really liked the sail, i was going to bring home a used freak 4.7 untill my little incident with the naish board left me seeking cheaper options. Overall, riding the freek was just really really fun. It was also a bit like driving a VW bus in that the other guys on the freaks would throw out shakas. (or maybe i just looked like i needed help? )

I'm seriously planning a trip with my family to Maui. Any suggestions? Looking @ Horse back riding & country living. http://www.dawnchristie.com/dawn.html http://www.peaceofmaui.com/

horsebacking and psychic healing!? my suggestion is starting a thread called "YOUR maui trip"

this is the most useful thread i found
http://www.bigwavedave.ca/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=809

I was kidding about the 'healing'...No hope for me. As usual I couldn't resist.

As one of DWD's travel compadres... I thought I'd add my 2 cents:

Travel with Air Canada was cheap - although the stop in LA seemed to add way too much time...and the flight times are somewhat less than convenient. I've heard that Harmony and WestJet offer better flight times - and direct flights.

Baggage - we came back with a board bag and a sail bag - we got dinged $160 US... ($80 per oversize bag or $160 for a set that include up to 5 pieces). Seems that it was dependant on whick line up you went through to check in. Dave was lucky.

As Dave said - the gusts at Kanaha made it somewhat difficult for us rookies...although 2 weeks of straight sailing resulting in a huge progression for my sailing and confidence.

Kihei was great - lots of nearby amenities - food, drink, beach, souvenirs galore.... :O) But, I would also be interested in finding something a bit closer to the action.

And as for other stuff to do: We tried to snorkel at the famed Molokini - conditions did not permit, but the catamaran sailing trip we did in an attempt to get there was awesome. BUT... $100 each. And Haleakala for sunrise was a bust - clouded in and rainy. Lahaina - cute little town - great food. favorite restaurant was Sensei sushi in Kihei was incredible - Sun and Mon have an early bird 50% special.

$$ My trip worked out to $3k. $1100 was spending money. 2 weeks.

Thanks Naomi. Sounds like fun.