Light Wind Kanaha Sesh

Friday, July 3, 2009 at 12:30 pm HST

Caught a short surprise session yesterday - 5.7 at Kanaha. Session report logged at SessionLogs.com.

Thought wind would be a bit stronger today, but so far it's taking it's time with onshore wind in the mid-teens. Kanaha will be a crowded zoo this weekend with the holiday and the race tomorrow. Will have to find some less crowded beach access somewhere.

Three board brands have responded so far to my challenge to get me boards to review - Tabou, Starboard and CarbonArt. Not sure when I'll get on any of these, but when I do I'll post reviews here. Might work on a more comprehensive review of the Tabou Pocket Wave this weekend.

Starboard's New Quad Fin

Wednesday, July 1, 2009 at 9:10 am HST

Since the windsurfing news here on Maui is a litttle slow this week, let's look at some new gear. Starboard just announced the release of their new quad fin.

Unless you've been living in a cave for the past few years, you've no doubt heard about the twin fin revolution that has taken over windsurfing wave boards. The buzz here on Maui about multiple fin boards has been pretty substantial. Virtually every board maker that develops and tests boards here has been playing around with twins, triples, and quads in all kinds of configurations.

Word was that world champ Kauli Seadi was playing with a quad fin, and I've spoken with some other board shapers who've been playing around with quads. Well, looks like Starboard is the first to hit the market with a production quad fin.

Check out some shots of the new quad in action on the Starboard website. And they've got a site with video dedicated to the new board. Looks interesting and it would be intriguing to try one, but I still haven't even tried out a twin fin yet (personally, I'm holding out for the Octa-fin).

Hmm, gives me an idea. Just thinking out loud here, but I'll put out an open invitation to any board brands out there that are interested in getting your boards reviewed here on this website. I'm happy to post releases like this one on new gear being released. If you've got some new gear coming out, just send me some info about it and I'll post it here.

But, I can't really review something unless I've ridden it. So, if you represent a board brand and you feel confident enough in your board to have me test it and write a review about it here for thousands of windsurfers to see, drop me a line. Note, I'm not a pro level sailor - not even close - just an average wave sailor with over 150 days per year in the waves and bump-n-jump conditions at Uppers, Camp One, Sprecks and occasionally Hookipa. Ok, the challenge is out there, we'll see if anyone is willing to take me up on that offer.

Maui Wind Takes a Break

Tuesday, June 30, 2009 at 2:00 pm HST

It was a nice run of wind, four straight weeks of sailable days by my reckoning, but Maui wind has decided it needs to take a short break.

Sunday's session turned out to be best session I'd had in over a week. After rigging too small the previous several days, I arrived at Kanaha in the early afternoon and it looked like a solid 4.5. I'd sworn to myself that I would rig a half meter bigger than what I thought it looked like since I'd consistently been underrigging the last few days.

Well, the 5.0 was way powered up, which is what I like. 4.7 would have been a perfect call but I stuck with the 5.0 and powered up wind to some fun wind swell at Camp One. Some fun rides on my new Tabou Pocket 84. Stoked about that board. Super, super turny, making the backside wind swell at Camp One a fun little water park.

After a bit, a few fun there more kiters and windsurfers started showing up so I decided to head up wind and didn't stop till I hit Sprecks. About the time I got to Sprecks the wind started to feel like it was dropping off a bit so I decided to head back down wind. Some great open ocean rolling swells to ride on the way back down wind, stopping again at the wind swell at Camp One for a few turns.

A good long session to get nice and tired so the next few days of light wind won't feel so bad. Wind yesterday barely made it to double digits and we've got similar light onshore conditions today. Looks like another couple of days of light wind on tap before trade winds return from their break on Friday just in time for the holiday weekend.

In other news, got a note from the folks at Deep Fried Productions that version 2 of Session Logs is up and running. Basically it looks like a social session logging service to log your sessions. Looks like it's worth checking out so I signed up (user MauiWindsurf), and just uploaded a session log for Sunday's session. Looks like a great way to crowdsource information about windsurfing launches all over the world. Check it out.

Still Windy Here on Maui

Saturday, June 27, 2009 at 7:45 am HST

Still blowing here in Maui, though the quality of the wind has been a bit goofy at times the last few days, due to some occasional squalls hitting the north shore.

Timing and luck have been the key factors in maximizing the fun it seems and my timing has not been good. Each day the last several days I've rigged for the current conditions, gone out and been nicely powered for about 15 minutes and then the wind backs way off. The 4.5 was perfect yesterday for about 15 minutes and from then it was 5.0 to 5.3ish. Yea, I could have re-rigged, but I'm not a fan of playing that game unless there's some epic waves to be had.

Nevertheless, it is still windy, sunny and warm so no complaints. The weather guys are saying we'll see continued moderate trade winds through the weekend then winds will back off in strength a bit next week. They're saying it could get pretty light, but personally, I think it will still be windy enough to sail on Maui, so if you're here on vacation or coming here and reading this, don't despair yet - just plan to use bigger gear next week.

Summer Conditions Prevailing

Friday, June 19, 2009 at 10:40 am HST

Trade winds have been blowing all of June, albeit a tad lighter than our normal summer wind strength, until the last few days that is.

Quintessential Maui trade winds have returned the last few days, meaning guys are on 4.2s and 4.5s and the ladies on 4.0s and smaller. The increased wind strength has also bumped up the wind swell to some fun summer time conditions, making the Camp One water terrain park the popular venue.

Ballistic wind conditions ought to hold through the weekend, making for some wild slalom racing in tomorrow's Maui Race Series races. If you want to check out the races online tomorrow, cruise over to Mauiwincam.com where they'll have their new Kanaha streaming web cam aimed at the course.

Looking into the longer range forecast, all I can see is more wind. Great time to be on Maui for your windsurfing vacation.

Comments

It sure is a great time to be in Maui on vacation! If you see us, come and say G'day, we ar ein a green Al west van, have a 7 year old daughter and my wife, also have two english sailors travelling with us! At Kanaha kekei beach every day! Dave