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: