Rebecca and I are lucky enough to be able to travel to Maui and call it a "business trip". This year's trip was designed for some typical fun in the sun, including trying out a bunch of new stuff from all of our wonderful "dealers". We are addicted to the wind for all the right reasons!
We arrived into Kahului airport in Maui on February 5th. From SFO, it's a non-stop flight where you arrive around lunch time...just enough time to make it to the best windsurfing and kiting spot, a short 10 minute drive from the airport. We looked a little funny at the beach in our long blue jean pants, pale skin, and admiring glances. After casing out the wind at the beach (it looked nice), we decided to tour the local shops and visit with our dealers and friends.
There are 2 great places, both very close to the beach, where you can rent all the windsurfing gear you need. The first is the Naish Maui Pro Center where "Coach" and his crew will take great care of you. They have all the latest and greatest Naish windsurf, kiteboard, and SUP gear for rent and for sale.
The other great place is Kanaha Kai Maui where you can rent all the best Hot Sail Maui sails, as well as Starboard, Tabou, and Realwind boards. If you are going to kite, bring your gear with you, and/or take lessons with Action Sports Maui in order to use their kite gear.
We were in Maui for 10 days total, and there are 1000 reasons why this is on of our top favorite vacation spots. First off (I won't list all 1000 reasons here, I promise!), Maui is easy to get to from SF (one non-stop flight on United). Secondly, it's AMERICA (sung to the tune of Team America World Police please), so we pick up our rental car with ease, have all of the modern conveniences at our finger tips, and find everyone super welcoming and friendly every where we go.
The food is fantastic (sushi and fresh fish to die for, as well as some killer pulled pork), and there are 1 billion things to do on this gorgeous tropical paradise island. If we don't get wind, no problem. There is great surfing, stand up paddling, snorkeling, boogie boarding, hiking, road biking, mountain biking, sunset watching, mai tai drinking, and did I mention the best ever windsurfing and kiteboarding? Of course you can also sit on a beach and read a book if that floats your boat (never works for me some how).
We taught our friend's daughter Sasha and her friend Alicia how to windsurf while we were in Maui. Another day at the office while on vacation!
They both picked it up with ease! When the wind died we taught them how to Stand Up Paddle!
The first few days of our trip proved to be ideal for Stand Up Paddling in the waves. The wind was light and the waves were perfect for us (1-3 feet). We had done plenty of SUPing back home, but had yet to hit the waves, so this was our chance to try it in beautiful warm water with sea turtles poking their heads up to monitor our progress. There are many spots to SUP in Maui, but we chose Kihei, as it's a great beginner surf spot. SUPing is everywhere in Maui, and all the surf spots we went to seemed to be about 50% regular surfers and 50% stand up surfers. The groups co-exist quite nicely, often separating in to two adjacent areas. We felt welcome as new comers and didn't feel worried that we would take someone out with our boards. If you do head out into waves for the first time, don't forget to brush up on surf etiquette so you don't make any new furious friends. The crew at the Naish Maui Pro Center in Kahului set us up to try the full line of Naish Stand Up Paddle boards. We got to try the 11'6, the 11'4, the 10'6, and the new smaller 9'6. The 11'6 is a great big boat that will catch any wave with ease, but does not maneuver that well unless you are a big guy. It is a great board for first time SUPers in the waves, or bigger guys over 200 lbs who want to catch any and every small wave to be found. This board does have the best glide in flat water, as we have found in all of our paddling in the calm waters in Alameda and San Mateo back home.
The 11'4 (my favorite board at home) was much more maneuverable on the waves. It still had tons of stability, but was much easier to turn. The 10'6 (Rebecca's favorite at home) was a dream in the waves and ideal for smaller riders or bigger riders on bigger waves up to 6'. Rebecca's favorite test board while we were in Maui was the Naish 9'6. This board is 30 inches wide so it still had stability (for experienced SUPers anyway) but handles really well on waves and is a ton of fun. I preferred th 10'6 and 11'4 as I am bigger than Rebecca, and found the 9'6 to be a little too challenging for where I am at on the waves. We had a blast riding the waves, and especially loved viewing the sea turtles and fishies from the vantage point of the SUPs.
As the week progressed, the wind forecast got better and better. After improving on the waves with the SUP boards, we were ready to get back into harnesses and head out into the wind. When the wind came back, it came back strong. It blew from the east (side shore and gusty), so we made due with the conditions and were happy to have any wind at all for this time of year. The more consistent wind season in Maui is similar to ours, going from March to October.
With our duty and responsibility to our business holding strong and true, we hooked up with our dealers to try out a bunch of new 2009 windsurf boards and sails. By some small miracle, our Hertz rental car pulled off the task with ease. We were able to fit 4 boards, 4 masts, 3 booms, and 4 sails all inside of the car! If you are looking for a great windsurf gear car that can make it into the snow, we highly recommend the Nissan Murano! We met up first with Rebecca, who hooked us up with Tabou boards in Matt Pritchard's absence. He was off teaching a clinic down in Baja, and was so kind to set us with her for our visit to Maui. She met up with us at Kanaha and set us up to test 3 09 Tabou boards: the Pocket 69 and 80 (wave style boards), and the new 76 3S (wave, bump and jump, and freestyle blend).
We had a blast on all 3 Tabou test boards. The Pocket is super turny and really fun to ride in wave conditions. Both the 69 and 80 boards planed up quickly, and were fun to jibe as they turned on a dime. I would recommend the Pockets for anyone hitting the coast back home. Their rocker line and rails are a dream for jibing and wave riding. The 76 3s (new smaller size for 09 in orange in photo above, and in addition to the 86, 97, and 107) was truly amazing. This board planed up with ease, cut through chop like a knife, and was very lively, fast, and fun to ride. The board felt super stable as it has decent width (hence will work great for freestyle too), but the stability did not compromise the ride through bumpy chop as the rails cut right through it. Overall this was my favorite ride of the 3, and definitely an awesome board for the conditions in the SF Bay Area where we get lots of chop.
Next on the test list was one of our best selling board lines for 08, the Quatro boards. We took the time to go visit the board production room up in Haiku. Jake Miller at Quatro gave us a full tour, and we met on of the board makers and learned first hand what goes into making a board from start to finish. Quatro makes a ton of custom boards (on Maui) as well as production boards off island.
For the price, the Quatro production boards are truly amazing and feel as close as you can get to a custom board. If you spend the extra money for a custom board, you can adjust the rocker line, rails, or footstrap placement to perfectly match your riding style, size, and local riding conditions.
We couldn't keep the boards in stock last year, as people would buy them the minute they tried them! We got to ride 2 Quatro boards while in Maui, the Freestyle Wave 75 and the Wave 72. The FSW 75 was very lively to ride, cut through chop with ease, and popped up off the swell like popcorn! This is a fantastic bump and jump board, well suited for both chop and swell (great for Crissy Field or the coast). It planed up super fast, jibed easily, and felt super light under my feet. The 09 board is slightly more compact, which may add stability in freestyle moves on the waves. It is also faster than the 08, making it fun to blast around and pop off jumps. The Wave 72 is an ideal pure wave board, but also kept up wind with ease. It would be great for the coast or for rippin' days at Crissy on an ebb tide. The 72 was more turny than the FSW, but also super fast! We can see why Quatro boards have been so popular in our shop, and the 09s will be even more popular!
This board is best described as a Porsche and Cadillac rolled into one. It was smooth like a Cadillac, but fast and sporty like a Porsche. The board planed up like a rocket, but cut through chop and was extremely smooth to ride. The rails felt tight and stable, so the board goes up wind with ease but takes a little more skill to jibe. Overall the Global Wave 70 is an ideal board for the bay area as it will go fast, get you up wind, and cut through the chop.
For sails we tested the new 09 Hot Sails and Naish Sails. Our favorite sails were the Hot Sails Superfreak, the new Hot Sails DD (replaces the Hot Diva), the Naish Session, and the Naish All Terrain. They are all great for different riding conditions. The Hot Superfreak is ideal for strong, gusty conditions as the smooth quiet feel absorbs the wind.
The Hot Diva is great for lighter riders looking for the lightest sail on the market wtih both low end and top end range. The Naish Sessions were full of power and very maneuverable, great bump and jump sails with early planing power.
The Naish All Terrain is a great all around sail that can be used for bump and jump, freestyle, or wave riding. It offers plenty of power and ease of handling.
Testing all of this gear was a total blast. We came home and ordered all of the above mentioned gear for our shop. We will have all of these boards and sails in our demo fleet so come try them for yourselves!
Our last night on Maui was Valentine's Day, so we rewarded ourselves with a Mai Tai at Mama's Fish House on the north shore.
We bumped into Whit Poor who is working at Mama's! Windsurfers are everywhere on Maui...we also bumped into our instructor Jack in Paia. He never left Maui after going there for a month long vacation a few years ago.
After taking in the sunset at Mama's, we headed back to Kahului to try out a highly recommended local's favorite restaurant, "Da Kitchen" (the best pork on Maui according to the lady at the Xcel Wetsuit shop in Lahaina). We sat down for dinner and realized they didn't serve booze (how could we not drink on Valentine's Day?). I ran out to get a bottle of wine while Rebecca chatted with our table neighbors. I was back in a flash with a nice California Cabernet, just in time for our pulled pork dinner to arrive. We ordered th Kalua Pork dinner which is slow cooked pork "shredded from da bone". It was so much yummy pork that we had to take some home and eat it the next day. Our Da Kitchen dinner was a great way to end our trip, and allowed us to revel in the sunshine and wind fests that we were able to gobble up during our 10 day visit. Aloha Maui, we'll be back next year!
They both picked it up with ease! When the wind died we taught them how to Stand Up Paddle!
