HO’OKIPA AND BEYOND
The 2017 spring season has been insane after an average winter. There was not much wind at all up until March. Unfortunately as soon as the wind hit Maui it was when photo shoot season started! So our whole season has been crowded. There were not many prime days in the winter that were uncrowded and windy, which are the ones I like the best. That is why I am riding fast boards now! I can’t ride slow boards anymore. I used to have more tolerance for that, but these days I just want to ride waves, not dogging trying to make my way upwind in the channel. I’d rather adapt myself to make up for the way a faster board rides than struggle to catch waves in the crowd.
The beach is still my office. There is a lot of hard work in maintaining my place in the sport and pushing the equipment I am riding. I have to constantly come up with cool concepts and push myself. I am adding diversity to what I am doing with the camps and connecting to the global windsurfing community. People are always looking at what the future in our sport is going to bring and I’d like to be part of that. It is amazing with the equipment that we have these days. I feel there is a regrowth happening and hear a lot of people that did not windsurf for years are riding again.
The new gear makes the sport a new sensation for them. There are a lot of riders gunning on the tour for that same pot of gold. The tour is very specialized for onshore port tack sailing and I feel like there are a small handful of guys that have it locked down. If the tour opened up with a little bit more variety then I might be interested, but if it is just Pozo then it does not suit my style at all. As it stands right now the tour is pretty well dominated by a select few. I don’t want to be completely known as a Maui sailor, I feel like I have proven myself in other venues as well. I have windsurfed around the world, gone to a lot of places and pushed myself. Maui is so good because it is consistent, there’s a lot of scope for high performance windsurfing here with Jaws and Ho’okipa. There are so many pro photographers and videographers in Maui, it is the place for a guy like me to be based as you can accomplish a lot of production. When I leave I am definitely looking for ways to mix that up. It gets tiring at Ho’okipa, day in day out doing the same thing, it can be a circus. It’s nice to have the spotlight on you when you are out there, but sometimes it’s nice to get out and sail somewhere on your own. I’d love to go visit Timo and Finn Mullen in Ireland, I’d love to get back there and experience those uncrowded waves again!
“ The camps are a great way to bring something cool to the table in windsurfing. ”