Maui Monthly no. 23. March 2007

no. 23. March 2007

Maui, Hawaiian Islands

It was a quick one as well.

The month of March was a quick one. It’s amazing how every month slips away, and summer is nearly here. The most exciting part of March was the arrival of the TR-3! It was so exciting to have the sails arrive in countries around the world and hear all the positive feedback from everyone, so much so after putting so much effort into getting them right. Thanks to Barry and Art for listening to our feedback, taking in what we feel in our hands, and designing some of the best sails in the world. I really think that the new TR-3 is a classic design like many of those I have been enjoying all my career. Out of all my days teaming up with Barry, my favorites were the Z1, then the next Dream sail was the Nitro 2. Those brought me my first ever World Title back in 2000. I can still remember the feeling of powering over the top of Bjorn in the final race at the Aloha Classic, or the enormous leads that I would pull out with those puppies in the course racing in Gran Canaria.

I think the new race sails have some of the same feelings in the hands. The TR-3’s have the same ease of use, and the freedom to go as fast as you can without getting lifted around. They’re pretty special. My advice to anyone looking at purchasing a race sail is to get one of our the TR-3s.

They are going to be one for the history books.

I’m now on a plane headed to a Release Party in Holland where people can come and try out all of the new TR-3s.

I’m also going to the Laureus Sports Awards in Barcelona, where I’m nominated for Best World Sportsman of the year. Check out www.laureus.com for all the updates and I’ll let you know how it went next month!

See you on the water!

Aloha, Kevin.

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Maui Monthly | Our Experience Your Reward no. 23. March 2007

Maui, Hawaiian Islands

Photo by abalentien@yahoo.com

Taty won all of the Local Events.

I had seventeen days of great windsurfing, wind blowing mostly for 5.2 to 4.5 conditions the two weeks of March then after that the wind started to get lighter and lighter in the morning with mostly no wind, then in the afternoon around 4pm it kicks in but not that strong. 5.2 is just right.

I could be on a 5.6 but the 5.2 was okay. So three days was the best wind we got after the two weeks then the wind died completely.. it’s sad how the wind just vanished like that leaving Bonaire sunny and sometimes a little rain.

So it’s the end of another month and now I didn’t windsurf for about thirteen days and the wind doesn’t seems to begin blowing anytime soon. I just checked the forecast and it seems like one more week with no wind.

Well I am leaving to Maui on the 3rd of April for our annual Starboard photo shoot so I am hoping the wind will be good in Maui so that I can windsurf again.. I kinda miss Maui and I am sure really excited to go back there to meet with my MauiSails team mates. There’s some work to be done on the Loco sails and I am ready to work and test them.

I won all of the local events that have been done here on Bonaire. Slalom, Freestyle & Wave. In Freestyle, I had some hard heats against Tonky and he’s really pushing the limits, but I made some double moves. And being second in Fuerteventura for small mistakes really got me thinking and that made me smarter.

In Wave, while most of the guys where freestyling I took some time training in the waves and I got ready for the wave event we had on Bonaire. In all the heats I was the only one taking half of the heat time wave riding and the other half looking for the best ramp to do high backloops and airchaco’s and pushloop. Most of the guys where saying about wind being light but you have got to make the best of it. I am happy to win this event and sometimes training can prove good results.

I was using my freestyle equipment so that I can get early planning. I was on the 5.2 Loco and my starboard Flare 88 with a 22cm wave fin.

Slalom, I won all of the races. Even when I had two bad starts I still had enough board speed to jibe the mark in first.

I guess that last year sailing all the slalom event on a S-Type board really got me going faster on a Isonic 87.Tonky placed 2nd he’s also pretty fast.

Well I need to get some rest now dudes. Till my next report, when I am in Maui.

Taty Frans NB-9

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Maui Monthly | Our Experience Your Reward no. 23. March 2007

Maui, Hawaiian Islands

In like the lion...

March has been the greatest month in a long while.

We had killer winds and great surf to check out 2008 prototypes and begin the evaluation of the TR3race sails for competition. As the shipments began to make their way in to the various counties and the reports of satisfactory performance and handling began to filter back in, and March filled with good vibes.

The development of the new wave and freestyle sails is now the challenge, and some of the things we learned doing the TR-3s have become useful in the evolution of those.

It’s always so interesting to me how common themes of shaping and tension development make their way through the ranges. There is no constant as far as shaping dimensions go, but the overall concepts and methods can make big improvements to designs that we already thought were working quite well.

There is always more to learn if you don’t get stuck with rigid thinking.

The last few days of the month I spent in San Francisco, but there was still some lion in the weather and it was mighty cold and wet. I saw a few guys attempting to sail Crissy Field, but they were on marginal wave style gear and mostly slogging in the light winds. I expect the day I left it would have turned just right for them, and I even heard that summer arrived as soon as I got on the plane.

It was out like the lamb that spring is supposed to see. I hope everyone in the Northern Hemisphere is getting excited to thaw out and get wet again.

Aloha Barry.

Another month blows by.

Wow, another month blows by. Lets see, I think I was alive for March and can remember wave sailing a lot and working on the new wave sails. We had a big delivery for production wave sails here on Maui and they are just about sold out already. People are generally loving our sails and we get positive reports from all over the World now.

The TR-3’s got delivered in most markets and sailors are feeling good about the performance and control of the sails. It’s always interesting for us to see the reaction of

the market on the new sails. There is so much we can do to the designs in the given time frame we have to work on, after that it’s just “up to fate”. People have all sorts of pre existing ideas about what a sail should feel like and how it should perform. There are a lot of variables in the design, people’s techniques, boards they use, sailing conditions and what their friends say to them. So when we hear in France all the TR-3’s sold out in the first week, we know we have a good set of race sails in the market for the year and we did a good job. That feels good!

We have Bogo over here at the moment so it a chance to do a lot of face to face work and for him to see Maui and what goes on everyday with the MauiSails crew. Things happen slowly but always fall into place. I’m sure he often wonders how these guys can keep it all together. One of the most important things I realized over the years being in the business and I think Barry shares the same philosophy, is that the sails need to work well and the only way to ensure that is get them on the water and sail/test them a lot.

At the end of the day people wants sails that are easy to rig and easy to use. Most sailors don’t have time to mess around with settings and tune the sail perfectly like we do, so when they come to the beach after work or on weekends they want to rig and get on the water quickly and come back with a big smile on their faces.

I know we are making a difference now for our customers, so it means we are going to be around along time.

Aloha Phil.

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Maui Monthly | Our Experience Your Reward no. 23. March 2007

MauiSails welcomes Martin to our team.

First of all I would really like to thank Maui Sails to take me up in the TEAM. It’s great to be supported by some of the biggest names in the windsurf industry. GPS is booming and a very good promotional tool for flat water windsurfing.

By granting me this public space hopefully the word about these little devices will be spread a little further. I would also like to use this forum to help people tune their gear. I will share all info on my personal settings, no secrets. If anyone needs advice, please feel free to ask me about details. It would be great if we succeed in setting up an interactive forum to try and get our TR3 sails into the highest gear possible.

GPS. On www.gps-speedsurfing.com most windsurfers are using the Garmin Gecko or the Garmin Foretrex. These devices are functioning quite nicely indeed and have proven to be very accurate, apart form the GPS max speed, which should only be seen as a “fun” ranking. New devices are hitting the market. One of the very best and probably becoming the new standard for near future is the Navi/Amaryllo. This device has been thoroughly tested by our Australian friends. This device is using NMEA data and Doppler speeds. Without getting too technical (others know tons more on this subject than I do), it seems clear that the standard being set by this device is just as high or arguably even higher than video timing!

THE FUTURE OF GPS. Many windsurfers like the fact that they can see the sailed high speed, but do not know how to download and analyze the data. This is the main thing holding GPS speed surfing back. Not too long from now though, new and even better devices will enter the market with a higher precision rate and a plug and play functionality, making it possible for anyone to enjoy the benefits of GPS surfing. You will be able to follow your buddies online and see which speeds they are sailing in real time. Imagine the possibilities, not only for outright speed, but also for people sailing on lakes with les wind but starting from a given start line (for instance a buoy) and go for a “round the isle” trip.

Local races will emerge and people can go whenever it’s windy or when they find the time to have a GPS session.

The accuracy of GPS is becoming so high it will probably make video timing obsolete in time. For official recognition of world records we need the official sanctioning body (if only to check if there’s any current), but anyone in the world will have the opportunity to go for it with exactly the same GPS that someone is using while going for the world record. In time many will go just as fast or even faster than the outright world record holder since windsurfers are very much dependant on the wind and water situation. GPS gives us the opportunity to sail anytime and anywhere we like. It also makes the connection between the professional and the amateurs not having the time or means to go to World Cup races. The search for the perfect venues is already on with people posting blistering speeds at many locations world wide.

Maui, Hawaiian Islands

GPS RECORD RACES. My true dream would be to organize GPS races at the very best venues. These races should be organized on a stand-by base at the worlds fastest speed spots. It won’t be long before windsurfers world wide can follow the racers really going for it, see their heart rate when they are entering the speed strip or when they crash and the current standings real time. The fight between men and nature, that’s what we could offer international sponsors. The media isn’t interested in windsurfing, but is interested in this fight. We are warriors fighting a battle with nature which can’t be won. The force that scares the shit out of all “normal” human beings and fully exposes our temporarily insanity is our main attraction.

So, once again a big thanks to the MS crew and I truly hope many will start using GPS and become a better windsurfer with the help of this little device.

Martin van Meurs

Some new stuff on the Website.

To encourage the speed sailing community MauiSails has launched a dedicated forum, “Speed... it’s about Time...” moderated by Martin van Meurs. So it’s about time to log on www.mauisails.com/forum and get your fifty knots.

Another interesting thing connected with TR-3 is a four minute promo clip showing Phil McGain and Kevin Pritchard in action on our new racing machines. Go to gallery and click the videos on the right or just use this link.

Last element we would like to introduce you is MauiSails Poster in our store. Poster with Kevin Pritchard one footed one handed jump during Cabo Verde PWA World Cup. Every poster comes with a signature of the champion.

Don’t miss it! The number of posters is limited. Poster is A3 size - 42x30cm.

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