Maui Monthly no. 25. May 2007

no. 25. May 2007

Maui, Hawaiian Islands

Korea. Korea. Korea!

Man what a month May was for me. I started it off with trip up to Korea to compete in the first PWA Racing event of the season. With nobody really knowing what to expect out of each other for speed, it was quite fun to go into the first race of the year to check out how much everyone put into their tuning over the winter break.

For me it went great. The first slalom race of the year and... bang, I was fresh out of the gates with a victory. You can’t ask for too much more than that. I was stoked. It’s been a while since I was on top of the podium in racing, and it felt good. I’ve been wanting to win a race for quite some time, and my equipment helped me to do that, and I was so happy.

Going down the first reach and being able to keep up with all the giants, and to be in the same speed range as them, made me super happy. It goes to show that if you have the good board, sail, and fin combo you can do it.

It was interesting to see how all the boys stacked up. Finian Maynard weighed in at 260 pounds (118 kg) while I weighed in at 180 pounds (81 kg). That is 80 pounds (36 kg) more!

Wow! That’s great for the first reach, but can you imagine having to get all that weight up and running around a mark? Micah and Antoine are next on the heavy scale, and those guys weigh in at around 210 pounds (95 kg) and boy are they fast.

I used my TR-3 8.4 with my Isonic 122 and my Deboichet SL2-42. The gear was rocking!

I was so stoked. You can see how happy I am to bring it to the top spot, not only for me, but for all the people who continue to support me and my windsurfing. Starboard and MauiSails put in a lot of work into being ready for this season and it really shows. My big slalom gear feels perfect, and it will be interesting how the smaller gear goes on the race course.

I’m off to Portugal for the next wave event on the PWA World Tour, where I am currently sitting in third. It should be a tough one, and all the boys will be hungry to take a stab at my World Title. After that it’s off to Costa Brava, Spain, for another racing event, and then to the Canary Islands for three events.

Should be fun and see you on the water.

Aloha, Kevin.

© PWA / Alex Williams

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Maui Monthly | Our Experience Your Reward no. 25. May 2007

Maui, Hawaiian Islands

Month of travelling for Phil.

Lots of traveling for me in May. First stop was Corpus Christi Texas for the US Open. Unfortunately this year the wind didn’t cooperate and we only had 3 course races the first day of the event in super light wind. I used my 11m TR3 and a borrowed F2 formula board from 2006, but my sail was too small and I had trouble planning around the course. I ended up 5th overall in the Formula and we didn’t do any slalom racing.

55 knots during the first day and they had to cancel racing that day. We got off 3 nice races in about 20 to 25 knots.

I used my 7.0 TR3 for two of the races and my 6.6 for the other one. I loved the way the sails felt and I had great board speed over the 40 kilometer course. I ended up getting an 8th, 6th and a 4th in the 3 heats, with Antione Albeau in first, Pieter Bijl in second, Dan Ellis in third, I ended up 4th and behind me in 5th was 2005 World Champion Micah Buzianis.

My next event was the Defi Wind in France. Quite an experience to compete with 700 sailors on the same starting line. I got to meet our importer for France Mickael and Fabrice who were very accommodating and showed their French hospitality for the week I was there.

After the Defi I worked my way around the World back to Maui and it was back to work on the 2008 wave sails again.

I think we are just about there with the final designs, so we should be ready for production on time here in the next month. Slalom season is ready to kick off here on Maui in June so I was also spending some time jibing the bouys at Kanaha with the boys and getting my head back into the racing.

The Defi ended up being a very successful event, both for Maui Sails and all competitors. The wind finally died down enough to compete on the second day of the event, but before it did we witnessed some super strong wind of about

Aloha, Phil.

© SARA A2 / DEFI WIND

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Maui Monthly | Our Experience Your Reward no. 25. May 2007

Sailing Month for Taty.

Lately the wind has been up and down and the temperature very hot here on Bonaire.

The first two weeks we had two local slalom races here on Bonaire and I won both of them using the TR-3 sails. The TR-3’s are fast and really easy to handle, I can’t imagine how good these sails are and how easy they are to rig.

The first two weeks of the month I did some slalom and freestyle sailing I had a good time. I like to be busy windsurfing ever since I cam back from Maui I spent most of my time on the water it feels so good.

The Third week I flew to Curacao for 5 days, while I was there I did some freestyle sailing with the Curacao guys and I even organized together with Ingmar a freestyle competition for the Kids in Curacao. I was impressed how good three of the kids are sailing. I have been told that couple of these kids have been sailing only for 6 months and during the heats they where pulling of spocks, grubby, vulcan this is really amazing because if you can do those move in such an early start then imagine what these kids can do in three years from now, they are only 9-13 years old. I had a good time in Curacao was giving autographs and all the kids had a good time training with me.

Last week of the month the wind had been really light 5-10 knots for one whole week so I spent most of my days on the computer or riding on my ATV and getting my ticket book so I can leave to the Canaries in mid June.

Well I am doing great just waiting for the PWA freestyle season to start.

Maui, Hawaiian Islands

May was not for play for Barry.

What a fantastic month this was. It feels so much like spring in every way. The sun is now in the sky above my home so it is possible to grow greens, tomatoes, chilis and herbs and they are popping up and looking good. Sort of like our race and speed results. Looking good.

We spent May finishing off the summer design catalog and getting ready for the next round of samples and testing.

The weather has been really good with plenty of wind and even some small surf thrown in just for good meaure. Kev missed a good swell while he was in Korea, but I’m sure he is glad he went there and had a chance to find out how good his stuff is working. with the designs fixed for a year, he might just have a little grin thinking about how it was over there.

I am really excited about the later season speed things that will happen naturally as GPS speed sailing grows in popularity and simplicity. We wil announce a little contest next month that i think will liven up the drive to go faster on TR-3s. Keep an eye out for this in our news section and the forum.

Paulina Pease left for Europe and several months of a variety of competitions in Sardinia, Greece, Turkey, and Canary Islands. I expect we will hear some good things from her results because she is a determined and skilled young sailor who may surprise a lot of folks. She only weighs about 48kg, and loves to go fast. She has 4.3, 4.7 and 5.5 and all her wave sails, so she is ready to race. Good luck, Paulina.

Aloha Barry

Almost forgot the 24 of May was my birthday I am now 23 years old and I had a small party just some drinks and snacks but it was fun.

This is it for the me.

Take care, Taty frans NB-9

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Maui Monthly | Our Experience Your Reward no. 25. May 2007

Maui, Hawaiian Islands

Month of Speed Surfer Martin.

Lately I’ve found new pleasure in light wind sailing. I am a speed surfer and with a reason. It’s just more fun to sail when it’s windy, I don’t like big sails and the draggy feeling attached to it. The slow speeds aren’t a big help either. In the past you needed arms and legs of a bodybuilder to cope with the forces of bigger sizes. No matter how hard you pulled all power seemed to be transferred to sideways pressure on the fin. To me it was a struggle to go fast. The slippery feeling of smaller sizes kept me on the shore when others seemed to have fun in the light stuff. Every time I decided to rig bigger than my 6,5 I just felt bored and uninspired.

Obviously it was partially me who neglected the fact that bigger sizes got better, but the feeling of having to pull hard and not be able to focus on the gusts and sail light on my feet prevented me from having fun. Yep, I had to train for light wind races but I sure didn’t like it. Initially I doubted whether I should get my hands on the bigger sizes of this years’ TR3 sail, thinking why bother if you never sail them anyway. Time has proven me wrong. The summer season is nearing, winds are getting gustier and I felt obliged to at least give them a fair test.

The TR3 has got a lot of built in control. Initially I had some troubles finding the right trim. It seemed all power was translated into forward oriented drive which is obviously great but I had some difficulties to keep the nose up. After moving the mast foot back around 5 centimeters this was solved. I soon fond out I don’t have to be afraid to sail bigger than I was used too. After some high wind speed session I found myself starting to wonder how the big sizes would respond. Perhaps finally sailing bigger sizes could be fun again.

The 7,6 came in and I had a blast. Never I had the usual feeling a big size gives. The acceleration seems endless and it feels as if the long boom isn’t even there. Again this impressive feel of sheer forward oriented pull. Yesterday I took out my 7,0 in conditions I would normally use my 6,3.

The pull to cope with the lulls was there but the size itself didn’t influence end speed. It seems the TR3 sails can be rigged big without any problem. My confidence in light wind has grown a lot. Finally I feel also smaller windsurfers can go fast with bigger sails.

See you on the water.

Martin van Meurs

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