Maui Monthly no. 36. April 2008

no. 36. April 2008

Maui, Hawaiian Islands

Getting read for the Event Season I got to start the month of April in Oslo, Norway having a good old time with a great group of people from all over the world who were gathered to promote the Fortim Mindelo project in Sao Vicente , A very high end residential development, hotel and Casino being built by one of my sponsors, Cape Verde Development. We had a private party hosted by partner Nikki Beach and featured other project

partners, PGA golf, Bang and Oluffsen and Angulo schools of excellence. We had local Capverdian musician Tito Paris and his group to set the stage followed by an unbelievable DJ/sax player combo who were flown up from St. Tropez‌.

Needless to say we had a good time in Norway and for me it’s always very interesting being exposed to other business circles. www.mauisails.com | 0

Maui Monthly | Our Experience Your Reward no. 36. April 2008

From Norway it was back to Cabo Verde for a week to get things in order so I can leave Sal for some time. With the upcoming competition season I won’t be spending so much time in Sal so my wife and I need to get affairs in order so things still stay afloat while we are gone.

The family and I have landed in Maui mid-april… This is a real exciting time for me. Being with an organization as Professional and focused as Maui Sails has got more fired up than ever to be a real “pro” windsurfer, encompassing both the slalom and wave discipline….. First things first. I needed to get in better physical shape. Micah Buzianis has given me my first taste of “bike riding”…. With the tight shorts , clip in shoes , helmets , “riding codes” etc… I guess a lot of the boys in Maui have been into it, but it was all new to me. I initially only saw it as hard work, but I’m now beginning to enjoy some of the subtleties and rewards of this new sport …. Thanks Micah.

Everyday after 11 am, when riding, gym and breakfast are done , I get to hook up with the “master” Phil McGain… who I’ve come to find out that he really does have a wealth of windsurf experience that when you can dial into that treasure chest you come out the other side feeling much more confident with your ability to compete at the top level. Phil and I have spent a lot of time testing different

Maui, Hawaiian Islands

slalom boards from a lot of the brands as well as working on key slalom racing exercises. Combining the riding, gym and intense slalom sailing has definitely been taxing at times but I know the rewards will be sweet.

Bogo has also been here cracking the whip on us all to get photo’s and do video’s. I must say it’s a pleasure to be riding on the 09 sails already and get a taste of what you all will experience later in the year. I’m loving what these guys are doing to the wave sails after we have a long chats after sailing at the beach and in the loft.

As May winds down, I’m getting ready for my first slalom event. It’s a bit nerve-racking and very exciting as I have high expectations of myself. I am also, making travel plans for the European leg which is quite intense through June and July, so a lot of organizing , preparation and planning going on to compete in my beloved sport of windsurfing.

On top of all the exciting stuff I’ve mentioned above, everyday I get to see my kids growing up and hang out with my wife… I truly am blessed. Thanks to everyone for their support!

Aloha, Josh.

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Maui Monthly | Our Experience Your Reward no. 36. April 2008

Maui, Hawaiian Islands

Traning on Maui with Phil, Josh and Dan What a fast month. Started with some jibe training at Kanaha, this is always a nice thing to do. I’m feeling more confident now after doing a lot of jibes with Phil, Josh, and Dan. April is always a busy month at Maui. All the photo shoots going on and a lot of fun. Full of pros and all brands coming with their new stuff. But when the helicopter came in Ho’okipa is so hard to sail. Lot of people trying to catch a wave and strong gusts of the helicopter is hard!! But in general is a nice show at the windsurf paradise.

My Mistral photo shoot cannot be different, a lot of fun on the water. I did my first Heli shoot in Kanaha with Nik Baker and Matt Pearch with the new slalom boards. It was so exiting for me because the helicopter was very close to us.

And after this I remember Josh waiting for me to go for a jibe session with the buoys.

I’m trying to remember everything I did this month, but is hard because I did so many things. But one thing I can’t forget, my dad finally arrived on Maui after a long trip from Brasil. And always his first day at Ho’okipa is very big, but he went out and catch some nice waves. Me and my brother were on the beach looking and having fun with our dad.

Now I’m here in the cold France for the DefiWind. But the forecast is not good.I sailed in the first day here and is a very nice place. 5 km, offshore wind around 25 knots. Lot of fun. Dan Ellis is also here to represent the MauiSails team.

After here I will came back to Maui and go to Korea for the first PWA event of the year.

See you on the water!!!

Aloha, Gabriel Browne

We had this month all MauiSails team together at Maui. We sailed together sometimes, very fun and exiting to see everybody together. When Bogo arrived on Maui we did some photo shoot at Kanaha. I really like to go sailing on the freeride sails, is very fun and the light feeling of the sails is good.

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Maui Monthly | Our Experience Your Reward no. 36. April 2008

Busy month in Windsurfing.

April is a busy month in windsurfing. It marks the end of the off-season and the start of the race season on Maui,where it continued to be windy. Gabriel and I carried on with the race training at Kanaha while Phil was off in Australia. I feel really pleased with how the winter’s training has gone, and am totally at home on the TR-4’s in all conditions. That fills me with confidence for the rapidly approaching PWA race tour.

The middle of April was full on, with the whole Fanatic team in Maui to complete the Photoshoot of the 2009 boards.

The Photoshoot went form the 15th to 23rd and it is pretty hectic with all the different stuff to shoot. But it’s great fun sailing around being chased by a helicopter. We also had 2009 Slalom prototypes to test so I was spending 6 or 7 hours at the beach and sleeping really well at night!!

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it. I’m typing this in Perpignan airport after doing a Mini Defi this morning with about 25 guys who stayed on to wait for the wind. I was on my 7.0 and 89ltr falcon sailing in perfect flat water. We did a couple of 20km races which were filmed for French TV as they didn’t get any footage over the event and it reminded me of what a fun place to sail it is. I also did a little video diary for Boardseeker.com which you should check out it’s pretty funny and I’m sure you’ve never seen so many speed crazy windsurfers together before…..

That’s all I managed to squeeze in for April and in fact I’m righting this as we overlap into May so I better stop!! Good sailing and I’ll be back to you next month…….

Aloha, Dan.

Then on the 23rd I headed back to England, and for the first time it felt like I was going on a trip there rather than going home. I had to leave Jessie on Maui, which sucks, but at least with the invention of Skype we can keep in touch from afar without it coasting a small fortune in phone bills! It was nice to go back to London for a couple of days, nd find my parents moved to a small flat in Soho which is right in the centre of town.

It couldn’t be more different to life on a small island in the Pacific. I arrived on the hottest day of the year so far, which is pretty lucky as it was apparently snowing the week before! I caught up with a few mates who I don’t see very often, which is always a laugh. I also hung out with my little brother a bit and we went to a one day music festival in a park called “Love music, Hate racism”. There were 100,000 people and a great atmosphere. I’m a London boy at heart and I love the big city. It’s just a shame it doesn’t have a beach!

London was only really a stopover on my way o Gruissan in the South of France for the Defi Wind, the biggest windsurfing race of the year with 800 entrants. If you speak French you should check out Defiwind.com. The organisers have teamed up with Microsoft and have some really cool web features. They have also been working with a company called dotvision to develop an online tracking system for the race so that next year you will be able to follow the race live and see who’s winning online!!

I was really motivated for the event having finished 3rd last year and confident that I had improved my speed and fitness over the winter.

Unfortunately the Defi Wind turned into a no wind sandwich with perfect conditions the day before and day after the event but none during www.mauisails.com | 0

Maui Monthly | Our Experience Your Reward no. 36. April 2008

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Martin is back on the water.

This month we held the first Dutch championship with the help of live GPS devices. We signed the contract for live GPS coverage of the speed worldcup in Fuerte as well, so it was a great test for us to use the live devices in a real race environment. Thirty-five competitors were provided with live GPS devices and apart from a few hick-ups it all went very smoothly. It’s great to see how our initial plan to expand the use of GPS in windsurfing is moving on. A cooperation with the ISWC secured a coming together of both video and GPS timing and together (ISWC and www. gps-speedsurfing.com) we will move forward as one. I feel this is great for windsurfing since the potential threat of getting two parties fighting one anther is gone and replaced by a solid basis to help grow the flat water market of windsurfing.

Since my leg was broken I could fully focus on organising things in the background but each day I was getting more anxious to get out on the water again.

Organising is fun but it obviously doesn’t compare to blasting around. After two practice days before the start of the Dutch championship in which I could only stay in the straps on super flat water I had to face the chop in order to get a result in. I surprised myself by immediately be competitive in the first heat in which I finished fifth, but after twenty minutes the pain got unbearable and in the second

heat I had to be rescued.

Still I was happy since it got clear to me I only need some time to fully heal and the broken leg clearly didn’t affect my sailing style.

The big MauiSails winner however was Dennis Littel who sailed an incredible first run on his new lightweight TR-4xt 7.6. He immediately sailed a bullet with his light weight sail.

Conditions were super gusty and in the second heat some decided to go as small as 6.0 sail sizes. Dennis stayed on his 7.6 while others were fighting with a 6.7 and told me they’d rather switched to a 6.2.

In this second run Dennis finished fourth, perhaps even more impressive since wind gusts over 30 knots were hammering down the course.

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Maui Monthly | Our Experience Your Reward no. 36. April 2008

Maui, Hawaiian Islands

The last heat he stuck again to the 7.6 and finished in second place and a second place overall in the event. Sander van Huizen, a new Dutch MS team rider and a great talent, especially in light wind conditions got up to 5th place overall It was a shame Dirk couldn’t be present but his choice was totally understandable. Dirk had been training for the Defi wind in France and was hoping to show himself to the international windsurfing community. After his magnificent winter season in which he set a new open water speed world record he wanted to have a fight with the big names in windsurfing. Over 700 people waited in vein for the wind and no race could be held.

Dirk Doppenberg training.

Dirk reported to me interest in GPS speed surfing is clearly growing and he had some nice conversations with Andres Bringdal and Antoine Albeau about GPS. Anders told him he wants to promote GPS speed surfing in France as he will be moving over to that country. Dirk taught Anders how to download results from the GPS and how to post on GPSspeed surfing. Anders promised to actively take part in our competition so that was really good news for us. Dirk is now preparing for the Canary island tour and I am sure we will hear a lot more from him this coming season.

Martin van Meurs

Martin first time out on the water since the accident. Photo by Gerben de Boer.

Sander van Huizen, an upcoming speedtalent sailing for the first year with Maui Sails.

Art is working on 2009 Sails.

It has been a busy month fine-tuning the 09 wave and freestyle sails. We also had some good sailing conditions for testing and photos. My daughter turned 3 years old this month and this also means that it is my third anniversary of working for MauiSails. I must have had a really good month 3 years ago.

Most of the team was on island this month so it was an excellent opportunity to get every ones feedback on the new sails. Fortunately, the reports have been overwhelmingly positive with adjectives like “sweet” and “sick” dominating. So, it seems that we are still on the right path. We’ve managed to get a consistently lighter, softer and better handling feel throughout the wave and freestyle ranges, while still maintaining the excellent power that MauiSails are known for. The sails also have a wide tuning range with great performance at both ends of the spectrum. Good power and response to get going in light wind combined with stability and efficient profile to handle the big gusts.

We have spent some time refining the details of the sails such as the new, EVA, sleeve bottom moulding. We have come up with our own, unique, light weight design rather than following the cumbersome, overweight mast pads that are featured on most sail brands.

Our design provides significant weight savings and good protection through strategic positioning and efficient design. Original styling also gives the sails a nice, “finished” look.

Well, the trees seem to be swaying particularly violently today. Looks like it’s time to get out on the water.

Aloha, Artur Szpunar www.mauisails.com | 0

Maui Monthly | Our Experience Your Reward no. 36. April 2008

Training and photoshoot time.

Training and photoshoot time. A busy month with lots done.

We had Bogo out here for April working on marketing and we got a tones of stuff done. Photoshoots with all our team riders and we had excellent conditions for taking photo’s and went to some different locations to get a variety of shots. Bogo is super creative and motivated to get the best pictures possible as well as keep us at the beach as long as he can to also get video action.

Hookipa had a few nice swells and Josh was out there ripping it up on all the wave sails. We spent time on the freeride sails working the best angle to show off the sails. This is the most organized we have been since starting Maui Sails for the photo’s, in fact we are ahead of the game right now.

We did a lot of technical training with the team members, Dan, Gabriel and Josh. Josh and I spent time testing all the different slalom board to get him the best possible combination for the Korean World Cup coming up in May, actually next week.

2009 wave sails are just about done and Art has been working hard with Barry on finalizing the designs. These are going to be the best ever. That’s it for me, back to work.

Aloha, Phil.

Barry’s April.

April is really about busting out. Flowers, my vegetable garden, and everything else is just bursting with new sunshine and light. The days in the loft are made longer with afternoons on the beach watching the guys training and checking tuning and such. Then comes China.

This month my report will be a bit focused there because so much went on that was so good. We have all these new

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materials coming on line and lots of exciting things in the mix. New anti-chafe materials were rounded up and built in for samples, a big round of protos were ready for inspection and rigging, and a trip to the boom factory proved to be a great investment in time.

I had a meeting with the guys there about some small probelms that we want to solve as easily as possible and solutions were not too hard to come up with. But for me the most interesting (since I had never visited the new facility they have) was to see the actual layups in progress and discover how the testing and QC operated. After that I knew that if a boom breaks, it is probably because someone did something mighty hairball.

Boom samples have all been tested to full breaking point and that is expected to be above 250KG for the bodies at the harness line attachment area. Both sides are broken in this test. For production booms, every single one is tested in a similar way and must withstand 150KG on both sides, before and after finishing. In addition, the raw boom bodies are clamped by the cross piece where the boom front normally goes, and the arms are flexed in oppostion to each other 50 times, to make sure the monocoque structure doesn’t fail.

What makes this especially significant is that the person loading the mold with the prepreg is in care of the materials, the layup, and the mold filling until the pressure is applied.

The reason for this? They don’t get paid for that boom unless it passes all the tests. Just seeing that gave me lots of assurance that we can depend on this again and again.

No hurrying, no shorting, just the right stuff or no pay. It’s tough but effective and I’m sure a good reason why we have had so few warranty issues for actual breakage. Sure there are other small problems, but I’m not concerned with structure as much anymore.

Then I came home and got sick as a dog. That’s why we’re a little late with the report this month. Sorry about that.

Aloha, Barry www.mauisails.com | 0