For all you Wind Junkies that want a great trip to Maui, email Keala at windsurfari.com. She did a great job for us on our recent trip to sail Kanaha.
Upon arrival at the airport, Al West's Maui Vans escorted us to the shop to pick up our rentals. The Vans are complete with racks to hold four boards, ice chest and beach chairs. They are a little rusted and scratched up but made life so simple at the beach and back at the condo, that we will use them every time we go to sail and surf Maui.
Then we were off to Hi-Tech to check on our equipment rentals. The guys at Hi-Tech made it easy for us to check out two Hi-Tech boards, 4 Gaastra sails, three skinny masts, and two booms. We rented equipment for eight days, sailed 7 and one day we got rained out. When we mentioned that at checkout they credited us with the one day. We also picked up two surfboards in that there was unusual high surf for August.Then we checked in to the Maui Sunset Condos in Kihei. We had the perfect rooms on the ground floor with easy access to the pool, Jacuzzi and the beach. If we had not exhausted our bodies sailing in Kanaha everyday we could have come back to sail in front of the Maui Sunset for the afternoon session. One morning we made the long paddle out to surf the waves in front of the condo. On another day we found a little cove on the way to Wailea to surf ankle to waist high waves. That same day we blazed out to Kanaha to sail 4.0 sails and 76-liter boards. Lori was on a 3.7! The biggest sail I used for the week was a 5.0 on an 81-liter board, while Lori sailed a 4.5.
Maui was a humbling sailing experience. We are so use to sailing flat lake waters, so it took a couple of days to get use to the swells and small equipment. In between Uppers and Lowers there is a constant wave breaking at an odd angle to the beach. The Locals have named it "Weird Wave". We were told by many sailors to just stay away.This trip was so easy and fun; we can't wait to go back again.
--Mark
