Maui Race Series State Championships Event Preview - 60 Days of Summer Day 22

Saturday brings the Maui Race Series to a close with the final event of the race season here on the Valley Isle. The Neil Pryde sponsored State Championship will bring together racers from around the globe as far a field as South Africa, Australia, the UK and of course there are a lot of riders from the USA many of whom are Hawaiian grown. All racers will have one thing in common as the first hooter blows, a desire to become State Champion in their respected division and by this time tomorrow we will have our champions crowned.

All sticker'd up and ready to roll...

On a personal note this event will mark my return to racing after a 15 year gap and I am really looking forward to it. This afternoon it all camer back to where it begun some 20 years ago at Alton Water in the UK when I first applied my sail numbers to a green and black Dolphin Sails 6.0m, back then it was K197 but I later shortened that to K97. The sails and boards may have progressed some what but, the feeling of marking a sail and preparing your gear for race day is still the same and those feelings came flooding back today.

Planning is everything and I thought that I had all bases covered but, then it got stupidly windy for Maui with gusts of 41 mph today with the same forecast for tomorrow. Today I could not sail in a straight line with my 5.5m (my smallest!). The last 2 weeks of training has been with 8.0 thru 6.0m. Enough of today, tomorrow is race day, all bets are off, the sun will rise and I will be on a mission until the final chequered flag falls to signal the end of the final race.

Bring it on!  Tune in tomorrow for the full report with pictures and onboard video action, see what it is like to compete and hear how my return to racing goes!

More to follow...