You just can’t beat a trip to the islands – it is mecca. This year, however, we weren’t blessed with the same wind and waves as previous years but it still delivered in a big way.

Our good friend Frank McKirgan, who decided to celebrate his 50th birthday in style in Maui was surrounded by a list of 80s windsurfing throwbacks including myself, Nick, DOC, Mikey, Julian, Grant, Andy, Patrick and all the families.

It was good to see old-school action: even Eric Beale (40 knot world speed sailing record holder) turned up to pay homage.

All the ladies got on the water too – Sandra, Therese, Rhonda, Jane (it must be warm!), Rachel and all the kids were ripping (Oscar, Holly, James, Dan, Ellie, Samuel, Isobel, Georgia, Daisy, Jess and Jake). This year, Alex was tanking out in the waves – he made some big progress in Hawaiian waters.

2012 seems to be a year for fine-tuning windsurfing gear rather than lots of new ideas. Four batten wave sails are the latest craze. The idea of reducing weight is good and wave-riding performance in constant winds works well in Maui. In the past in the UK, they haven’t really been accepted due to our frontal winds with big fluctuations in wind speed. Previous four batten sails tend to go very back-handed in overpowered conditions. Time will only tell how well these new sails will work.

Maybe four battens and four fins is a matching thing…. Not sure if I sign up to that myself! On the quad fin front, Simmer with Kai

I watched Levi Silver testing a 5 fin board in single fin mode and he was ripping the guts out of every wave he rode. Is this the signal that we are heading back into single fin territory again? Matt Pritchard was on a Tabou 2012 prototype that had 5 fin boxes which he rode mainly as a single fin.

John Skye had just left with the new RRD contests. Mark Angulo seemed to be riding tri-fin boards as were plenty of Naish riders. I spoke to Francisco Goya at his HQ and he was telling me that his line of quads had been very popular. I tried the 79 Goya Quad while I was there and it worked really well in all conditions for me.

I met up with Dave Ezzy while I was in Maui at his loft in Haiku and on the beach at Camp one. He has been working on the 2012 Ezzy Panther Ltd, which I had heard about and was eager to test while I was there.

Having had such poor winds in the UK over the winter I had hardly used my Ezzy Panther 3s so it seemed a bit weird to test both sails in the same trip. The Ezzy wave panther 3 is very light – a tip Dave gave was not to over-downhaul the rig. I now ignore the high wind setting mark on the sail – I have to say it feels real good when you under-downhaul the sail.

Dave dropped down to the beach with a 4.5m and 5m Ezzy Panther Ltd Prototype – I came off the water with Ezzy Panther 3s and tried them back-to-back. I had one of the sails in the new bling colours – the new colours are awesome – each sail will be different with a type of tie-dye on the mid sail panel. 

As you would expect from Ezzy, nothing has been compromised for the colour in strength performance or durability. The real performance improvement is weight. They are lighter than the Ezzy Panther 3, not by much, but they weigh the same as most brands’ 4 batten wave sails. Dave has reduced the material on each batten pocket and he has added some extra shape on batten 2.

It doesn’t seem much but boy does that sail tank up wind and still feel super-light in your hands. Uber controllable in the gusts and has that great Ezzy feel. It is not a massive update from the Panther 3 feel but if you know, you know why you will order the new 2012 Ezzy Panther Ltd.

Kevin Pritchard came with Dave on one trip to the beach. He is Ezzy’s new team rider – a top guy and a man of few words (with a lot to say on the water!) He was off to compete on the American Windsurf Tour and PWA events using the new Ezzy sails – should see some good stuff from this guy!

Dan Macaulay called me to do a downwind run from Ho’okipa to (in my case) camp one and them to Spreks .We had decent, windy day and it sseemed that a 5.2 was the right choice. 

When I actually got to the water, I ended up over-powered on a 4.7. My self, Dan, Timo and 6 others all charged downwind on what seemed a full on windsurf from Lanes past Mamas, Pi’ia bay and down to Sprecks. It was a tiny day for Ho’okipa but as I launched to head downwind, I managed to get a beating in the shorebreak!

SUP is a big thing on Maui. Downwinders from Maliko Gulch (the take-off point for jet-skis to Jaws) are really popular. I went with Frank Frobes from SUPsonic who took me downwind on a custom 7Kg F16 SIC bullet (on loan from Mark Rapahorst and costing $4000!)

The idea of the downwinder is to use the wind and swell to drive you downwind. Once you learn the paddle technique, you can ride swells and get super long rides (500m+). Mind you, I am not sure that I would attempt this run on a big day – we hit some pretty decent size waves in Pai’ia bay.

I had some great early morning sessions at Kanaha, on the South of the Island and on the reef at Camp One. I used the new Al Merrick 9’1 and had an epic session on it at Kanaha. I also tried the new Laird 10’6 Pearson Arrow.

Frank invited me to a SUP session (which I couldn’t make) at la Perouse Bay. Check out the photos on SUPGlobal.

OTHER MAUI PHOTOS

Stu Holland has just returned fromt the Island of Sal in Cape Verde where he scored some epic conditions at Ponta Preta.

Check out some of the big chunks he was riding on his RRD Obsession and RRD Quad. The waves there break very close to the rocks. If the rocks don’t get you, check out the photos of the sharks!

Stuart was British Windsurfing wave champion in the 90s and has travelled all over the world windsurfing and surfing. Over the last 5 years, he has spent most of his time kitesurfing and in particular wave kiting. You can see by the pics that he rips into solid Atlantic chunks just as hard as South Coast waves…

Pics by Billy Wheaton / Stu Holland

Simon Bassett was sent out to test some of the new 2011 Fanatic and North products at the Indian resort in La Mourne, Mauritius -a tough job but someone has to do it.

Simon:
Nik Baker told me before we left that we have all the Fanatic SUPs, North kite gear and Fanatic windsurfing toys available to us to use every day. When we got there it seemed to get better than paradise island -the itinerary seemed pretty good – yoga with Kirsty Jones(until she damaged her leg kiting)- paddle surfing then windsurfing or kiting all day. Then drink as much beer and rum as you could, all on Baker’s tab.

The place is an awesome 15 square miles of warm flat water with side shore, port tack winds. The outer reef, Manawa which is pretty amazing is around 100 meters offshore – a smaller inner reef called “little reef “ which bends round and turns into a fast charging hollow barrel called One Eye.

If you’ve not been before then put Mauritius on the list – great place for kids other halfs and awesome on and off the water.

Going to Maui is always a good plan it’s windsurfing mecca. In late march we all went for our pilgrimage to the No1 windsurfing spot in the world.
Having had little windsurfing in the UK before we left, we arrived to find the hammer was fully down on the wind front for the full 4 week trip.

We stayed on the beach at Camp One between Sprecks and Kanaha with friends Frank, Sandra, Alex and Georgia. A place as perfect as it gets to windsurf, lay about on the beach and to go swimming or snorkelling.

Alex(12 years old) was ripping out on the water

We had planned to stay for three weeks and had wind and waves nearly every day – the day we were leaving the volcano erupted in Iceland and our flights were cancelled and guess what? We had an extra week accompanied by even more wind and swell… How inconvenient!

United Airlines were epic in sorting out our flight problems – my buddy Ray Mcgee United UK and Jeff Tarpey in Maui really helped us out.

Maui is full of the best surfers, windsurfers, kiters and paddlesurfers on the planet. In the “Antonys” coffee shop in Paia the stars of our sport queue up for their caffeine fix like the rest of us -it may be Laird, Pete Volwater, Antoine Albeau or Pete Cabrinha sat on the next table.

On the water it was quiet compared with our last visit 2 years ago – so each day we would see the pros in action on the 2011 gear shooting for next years brochures . Skye boy, Timo and Finn Mullen, Jamie Hancock, Phil Horricks, Swifty and Richie Page were all out there ripping alongside the usual Maui
locals.

Dave White, the new editor for Boards was out there at the same time, working hard. Here you can see him enjoying an “apres work massage” after going for double forwards at Hookipa! He was joined by Nicky Boy and Pamela, who were on their honeymoon, sharing a pad with Dave White and Paul Griffiths from Boards Mag!

Whitey, as always is full of enthusiasm for windsurfing and was constantly emailing or dropping in to drag everyone out on the water. He tried to drag me out at Ho’okipa but I bottled it although he did manage to drag me up to the Quattro shop to order a custom quad!

When we were at the factory, I had a really good chat to Francisco and Lalo Goya, as well as Keith Taboul. On the last day at Sprecks, I had the chance to sail with Francisco – there were only 3 of us out at the time and it seemed like sailing with a few buddies at Wittering, with the exception of the odd Goya 40ft backloop thrown in for good measure.

We were given some tickets to the Oxbow VIP Clothing Launch at Maui Neil Pryde store from Shawna (Cropas) and Gus and we were lucky enough to meet up with Laird Hamilton, Jason Polakow and Levi Siver. Great evening, good food and had a chat to Laird about my forthcoming Channel Crossing – he said “You need to watch out for the ferries and tankers!” He also told me it took him 7 hours to complete the crossing!!!

Nik Baker was also in Maui and very kindly let me try out some of the new exciting 2011 kit that he had in the back of his van – the new Fanatic Quad and the North Shox XTR mast extension system – I only had about 30 minutes on the Quad, but really liked it and look forward to getting on the 79 when it comes out in the UK. The new Shox system was amazing at taking the impact of chop out of the rig but I think it definitely suits a slalom/freeride board more than a wave board.

Dave Ezzy left an Ezzy 2011 prototype with me to test – one of the sails he is working on for next season. You can see some sneak preview pics here, you will see the new version on the shelves Jan 2011.

We were not the only Brits “on the rock” – Francis Goodwin, Justin, Jane and all the Goodwin tribe were out to celebrate Francis’ win of the “Golden Ticket” they were accompanied by Grahame and Michelle Pettit, Jack and Jenna who all made the most of the conditions and windsurfed every moment of the
day.

Paul, Nikki and Amy Simmons were on their first trip to Maui and I caught up with Paul at Sprecks a number of times through the trip – he was sailing really well.

Got to get some work done now to save up for the next trip…..

While I was in Maui, I had a chance to check out the Ho’okipa Jump Off.

Riders were sailing with a special new GPS unit called a Shadowbox. This meant that their height could accurately be measured.

I didn’t stay too long but was around for long enough to catch this sequence of Boujma!:

Simon has just returned from a windy and wavey holiday in Maui where he got some photos of some of the latest 2011 toys from all the manufacturers!

JP and Neil Pryde
You might think that Pro Windsurfers have the best job in the world. These guys were ready to go at 8am and finished at 6pm every day. Sometimes sailing 3 or 4 beaches to get the best shots. I have to say that they did work extremely hard and it was good to see some British talent (Robby Swift, Phil Horrocks and Andy Chambers) in the waves.

Freestyle: Andy Chambers (K540), Olya Raskina (RUS-14) and Yegor Propretinskiy (RUS 11) sailing the new 2011 JP Freestyle Boards and Neil Pryde Firefly sails at Spreckelsville, Maui:

Wavesailing: Ricardo Campell V111, Kauli Seadi BRA253, Jason Polakow KA1111, Robby Swift K89, Morgan Noireaux HI 101 and Phil Horrocks K303 on the latest 2011 JP Twinsers and quads and Neil Pryde Fly 2011 sails at Camp One and Ho’okipa Beach Park in Maui::

The boys were also checking out the brand new 2011 Neil Pryde Atlas:

Ezzy 2011 Prototyping
Simon met up with Dave Ezzy and tried out the latest Ezzy Wave Panther 2011 prototype:

Naish 2011
Kai Lenny (US 1112) was truly amazing to watch, out-shredding people double his age!

Simon also checked out the new range of SUP boards at the Naish Pro shop in Kahalui:

Fanatic and North 2011
Fanatic have completely changed their look for 2011 and the new North colour schemes look interesting too.
Here is Nayra Alonso, Craig Gurtenbach, Peter Volwater and Nik Baker on the new 2011 Fanatic New Wave Twin and Quad:

Starboard and Severne 2011
Boujma Guilloul M1 and Timo Mullen K69 were out at Ho’okipa riding 2011 Starboard quads and 2011 Severne

Others

Gaastra Manic 2011 with Matt Prichard:

Hot Sails Maui 2011 with Jeff Henderson: