Maui Monthly Our Experience Your Reward
Maui, Hawaiian Islands Photo: PWA/Carter
no. 17. August 2006
MauiSails team great results! Sylt World Cup concluded the racing and freestyle disciplines for this years PWA World Tour. Kevin Pritchard finished third in racing to Antoine Albeau in first and Micah Buzianis in second. Kevin was Mister Consistent, taking on the racing giants and coming out on the podium once again. Finian Maynard and Bjorn Dunkerbeck rounded out the top 5 racers for 2006.
And we are especially happy to recognizet Sarah-Quita Offringa, who became the youngest winner of a PWA Grand Slam event at the age of Fifteen in Fuerteventura this year. Sarah finished second overall in the freestyle discipline to Daida Moreno. We look forward to seeing Sarah rise to the top of the windsurfing world in the next few years.
Taty Frans had an outstanding season, finishing second in freestyle to Jose Estredo. Taty has been hard at it for a number of years now, and slowly moved up the rankings to finish his best position ever in second place. Taty has also worked on his disciplines finishing sixth in Super-X and twenty second in racing.
The next event on the PWA World tour is the final wave event of the year on Maui. This premier location will decide the Wave discipline winner which Kevin Pritchard is leading at the moment. Congratulations The Team.
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Maui Monthly | Our Experience Your Reward no. 18. September 2006
Maui, Hawaiian Islands
...went by so fast. Kevin. September went by so fast that as I am typing this I can’t even remember what I did. It was time training on Maui that took up the first half of the month, and the second half was taken up by going to Sylt Germany for the final racing event of the year. Sylt had some of the warmest, nicest, weather of all the twelve years that I’ve been there. The only problem with warm weather is that means that there is not too much wind. We were in Sylt for so long it was crazy. The wind every day was 7 to 12 knots and it made for some very tough racing. The wind was light and it definitely didn’t suit my style too much. I thought I had the light wind stuff down after a third place in Turkey, but I just couldn’t get it together in the finals. I would win a couple of heats and then in the final I would get a bad start and with an 8.5 or 9.5, it is really hard for me to get around people. I finally settled into using the 8.5 TR-2 for most of the races because I only registered the 122 and the 9.5 seemed to be just a little big for that board. I managed to get second in one round but my starting technique was so bad that I got really frustrated with myself. When you win the heat before with the same guys in it and then come 8th in the one that counts, it just shows you that it’s really not your equipment so much as your technique. What makes me even more disappointed in myself is that I put more slalom preparation into this event than pretty much anyone else out there, and I was practicing my starts as much as I could. I guess I need to keep working on them.. after eighteen years of doing them you would have thought that I get them right every time. Now I am back on Maui and waiting for the final wave event of the year the Aloha Classic. It is going to be next month so stay tuned for the outcome.
Photo: PWA/Carter
See you on the water. Kevin.
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Maui Monthly | Our Experience Your Reward no. 18. September 2006
Maui, Hawaiian Islands
Taty on Sylt. This month was a great one for work. With the Hula Girl out of the water getting a major repair list makeover, and products shipping all over the U.S. from our warehouse here, there has been no shortage of thigs to do. With race sail development midstream and the final design changes to the remaining freeride projects now behind us, we can concentrate on pushing the performance envelope with some radical changes in the slalom sails, especially. The Formula sizes are also going to benefit from these changes and we expect to see more and more competitors will be trying to find out what the sails that Kevin Pritchard used to finish second for the year in racing can do. light slalom conditions in Sylt. Traveling to Sylt was nice, Tonky, Kiri and I sat in Businnes class from Bonaire to Amsterdam then we took a flight from Amsterdam to Hamburg which was about 45 minutes. The good thing was that all of our gear arrived and the guy who was picking the gear up at Hamburg was already there waiting for us. I love it when things go as planned when I travel. Then we took a taxi to the train station and from there we took a train straight to Westerland/Sylt. On our way to Westerland there was a accident and the train passed over a person and he died. This was very tragic and something you don’t want to experience everyday. It just made us realize how great our lives are at the moment. Well the first day in Sylt we had Slalom and I had some great runs. I was in the first heat and I came in 3rd then in the 5th heat I came in 7th. I then raced in the losers final and unfortunately had a mast base break and couldn’t finish. The wind in Sylt never really came up much so we only had 4 rounds of slalom there. I placed 22nd for the year in Slalom 42, so I’m fairly happy with that.
With the days still long and the weather drifting into the anti-trades time of year, it has allowed enough hours to rebuild the Hula Girl’s cockpit floor, make new rudders, reattach broken bulkheads, repair a thousand dings, make a new rub-rail, and replace the back decking. When the old girl (she is twenty five now) goes back in the water, she will be looking good and going faster. But respirators and goggles and paper suits don’t go well with tropical heat and humidity and this has been grueling work. But that’s what it takes to get Hula Girl love. Last weekend was the final day of the speed challenge racing on Maui. One of our promising young sailors, Baker Grant, was first in the Super Youth Division for the speed season and was always fast using TR-2 4.3, 4.7, and 5.1. Baker also won the Maui County Slalom Series overall title and was doing well in the U.S. Nationals until he was forced to withdraw with a broken wrist from a nasty fall during the high wind course racing days. Baker is also wild about waves and can’t wait to get to Hookipa after school is out. I expect that next year he will just get better and better, and his attitude has got him on track to be a consistent competitor. I know that many of you have been waiting for boom heads and I’m happy to say that they are finally here and will be shipping now. No one likes excuses, so all i can do is apologize and expect that you will be so satisfied with the product that the wait will make it worth it. Aloha, Barry.
Photo: Charles Oreve
I spent two weeks in Bonaire sailing on my Starboard 160 and TR-2 10.0m. The wind was light event too light to do freestyle so my friends and I went out every afternoon sailing on Formula equipment. It was a good thing to do because I could get ready for the
Taty
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Maui Monthly | Our Experience Your Reward no. 18. September 2006
Maui, Hawaiian Islands
September for Phil. Another goes by and I can hardly remember all the things I did. Lets see, lots of sail testing and training with KP before he went to Sylt. This is always a good time to sail because the intensity is high and we always push to get more tested and learn more things about the sails. We have started TR-3 proto’s so that is going to keep us busy for the next few months. We are just about finished the recreational sails as well, just a few more to go and we are done with them for 2006. We got our shipment of 2007 wave sails over here now, so it’s nice to get out on these and enjoy the first swells of the season. We just had a logo high swell last week and Hookipa was pretty empty because all the pros were over in Sylt sitting around on their butts. And finally our carbon booms arrived and we have just about sold out already, so if your thinking about getting one of the new booms, you better in quick. See you on the water. Aloha, Phil.
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