my maui trip
Posted: Mon Mar 13, 2006 1:12 pm
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)
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)
)