I woke up super early (like 2:30 am) this morning and not wanting to wake Liz I started to unpack the gear in the dark which was hampered slightly by the morning showers, how fantastic it is to see rain and breathe the fresh Pacific air though. Had a good ride to Kanaha about 6am, bumped into Jeff Henderson (Hot Sails Owner) out for his morning run along the way. The weather continued to be rather patchy in the AM so we spent some time working on logistics and doing some fun errands in town!
Having realised that I had left all my fins at home I had to rush to the shop (Kanaha Kai) to borrow some form Bart before heading off to Sprecks to test a new 2011 yet to be named wave prototype which Tom had given me to evaluate. Was the first time I had used my new carbon boom and I was impressed with the stiffness and weight combo. Wind was gusting between 18 and 22 knots with some waves downwind towards Camp One and some smaller waves upwind on the reef, perfect 5.0 but the waves were not as promised a few days ago (I do hear of better waves tomorrow).
It felt so good to be back in the ocean and I was immediately impressed with the compact and smooth feel of the new sail and was especially happy with how it felt in the air. Once upwind but only a few jumps into my session I crashed out and trashed the proto. I was gutted 2 fold, firstly I was really enjoying the new feel and secondly I would have to face Tom and tell him that he’d have to get another prototype made. Luckily I had just picked up my new sails so I had a 5.0 Bolt to change on to which actually gave me a good opportunity to highlight the differences between the two sails. Sorry I can’t post any pictures of the new sail just yet but hopefully I’ll get my hands on another one soon enough and get some more info out there. Maybe Hot Sails should run a competition to name the new sail?
Looks like increased wave action for tomorrow so will be up early to get out for a run or ride and have fingers crossed for a Ho’okipa session, gutted I don’t have that sail to use in some waves! Will try to get my slalom gear up and running tomorrow but that may have to wait another day. In all the attempts to reduce weight and hence baggage cost I seemed to eliminate any clothes from my luggage so I will have to address that issue tomorrow or I will be rather chilly come Monday!
The evening finished with a cool party at Jeff’s house by the ocean, the perfect way to unwind and relax in paradise.
Sorry no pics today, the computer/memory stick don't seem to want to communicate! Fingers crossed I will get them attached asap.
11:30pm, day two complete, time for bed!
More to follow…
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Saturday, July 10, 2010
60 Days of Summer - Day 1: The Longest Day
With Maui and Bahrain located virtually opposite longitude and latitude on the globe you have the choice of going East or West. We always fly via London with American Airlines as it is consistently cheaper and we are rather addicted to collecting AAdvantage miles which certainly mount up quickly when it is a 22,000 mile door to door trip. There is a funny story about AA.com which maybe I will share another time.
Being as we live right by the beach in Bahrain I have never actually got round to buying a roof rack so going to the airport is rather funny with board bags hanging out the back of our small VW Golf while we drive down the highway trying to avoid being hit by crazy drivers. At least when your board bag hands 4 feet out the back of your car they can’t get as close to your rear end as normal. Possibly because I had dedicated my previous post to the lottery of travelling with gear we got rather lucky (well extremely lucky thanks to Liz’s magic at the check in counter), they didn’t even weigh the bags and you can be sure that they were all over weight. I wish that had taken more but you’ve got to be happy with only paying 46BD ($122) for two bags of gear that less than 6 cents a mile per bag.
The longest day begins…
12:00am Friday (11:00am HST Thursday) picked by taxi from Floating City, Amwaj Islands, Bahrain (we had checked in earlier).
1:30am Friday (12:30pm HST Thursday) depart Bahrain on a rather hot and sweaty British Airways flight to London. Not much sleep.
6:30am Friday (7:30pm HST Thursday) arrive in London. With 4 hours in London early on Friday morning we had planned to meet family at the airport for a rare get together over an English breakfast. Andy was also bringing me a slalom board and sails so more excess baggage negotiations, again they went better than expected; we seem to be on rather a roll here. Was great to see everyone and lovely to be able to get a proper bacon sandwich, something that is rather missing in both Bahrain and the USA!
10:55 Friday (11:55pm HST) depart London for LA. 10 ½ hours seems like a long time and yes in Economy it is; no more to say! Some sleep but not enough.
2:10pm Friday (11:10 HST) arrived LAX. Exhausted! We have already been in airports or planes for almost 24 hours and still have to negotiate the immigration line which seemed to take forever but always good to hear a load speaker announcement “For those travelling with surfboards they will be brought to the baggage claim area” but the repeating video on big screens telling everyone about how to enter the US were rather tiresome by the 3rd run through. The magical words “WELCOME HOME” seemed to give us both a new lease of life; it was great to be finally back on US soil after 10 months on self imposed exile. After dropping off bags we were in search of decent food but just before our order came we realised that our flight was boarding then to our shock horror we were informed that our upgrade had not been processed for the first time in something like 8 years I’d have to suffer economy on the LAX-OGG of my route, I was really looking forward to my ice cream, nuts and strawberry sauce desert! Seems our luck had run out. We have recently lost platinum status from not flying enough last year and that meant that we didn't get first choice on the seats!
4:55pm Friday (1:55pm HST) finally the last leg to OGG - probably the best airport in the world ok probably I am a little biased but it holds so many special memories from my first arrival to Maui some 15 years ago to getting engaged to Liz in baggage claim next to carrousel #3. OK it wasn’t that bad, if you forget my broken seat, the line of people for the toilet in front of our space and no AA I don’t want to pay $8 for a blanket because it is too cold. We have been rather spoiled I guess and the ice cream in 1st really IS that good. However bad this leg of the journey could be I would rather have been right there sat in seat #9C than anywhere else in the world.
Door to door – 33 hours 46 minutes (including about 4 hours sleep)
11:59pm Friday HST - BED and not a minute too soon. Day #1 complete, I can’t wait to see the sunrise and the start of Day #2. I wish all days were 37 (24 hours + 13 time zone changes) hours long that way we could cram in so much more to our lives.
More to follow…
The more miles the better! We recently dropped from Platinum to Gold status from not flying enough and that cost us dear!
Being as we live right by the beach in Bahrain I have never actually got round to buying a roof rack so going to the airport is rather funny with board bags hanging out the back of our small VW Golf while we drive down the highway trying to avoid being hit by crazy drivers. At least when your board bag hands 4 feet out the back of your car they can’t get as close to your rear end as normal. Possibly because I had dedicated my previous post to the lottery of travelling with gear we got rather lucky (well extremely lucky thanks to Liz’s magic at the check in counter), they didn’t even weigh the bags and you can be sure that they were all over weight. I wish that had taken more but you’ve got to be happy with only paying 46BD ($122) for two bags of gear that less than 6 cents a mile per bag.
The longest day begins…
12:00am Friday (11:00am HST Thursday) picked by taxi from Floating City, Amwaj Islands, Bahrain (we had checked in earlier).
1:30am Friday (12:30pm HST Thursday) depart Bahrain on a rather hot and sweaty British Airways flight to London. Not much sleep.
6:30am Friday (7:30pm HST Thursday) arrive in London. With 4 hours in London early on Friday morning we had planned to meet family at the airport for a rare get together over an English breakfast. Andy was also bringing me a slalom board and sails so more excess baggage negotiations, again they went better than expected; we seem to be on rather a roll here. Was great to see everyone and lovely to be able to get a proper bacon sandwich, something that is rather missing in both Bahrain and the USA!
10:55 Friday (11:55pm HST) depart London for LA. 10 ½ hours seems like a long time and yes in Economy it is; no more to say! Some sleep but not enough.
I always try to travel on AA, it makes a differnce when you collect miles and usually they are quite good even if today they were not great. I do own AA stock so maybe I am biased?
2:10pm Friday (11:10 HST) arrived LAX. Exhausted! We have already been in airports or planes for almost 24 hours and still have to negotiate the immigration line which seemed to take forever but always good to hear a load speaker announcement “For those travelling with surfboards they will be brought to the baggage claim area” but the repeating video on big screens telling everyone about how to enter the US were rather tiresome by the 3rd run through. The magical words “WELCOME HOME” seemed to give us both a new lease of life; it was great to be finally back on US soil after 10 months on self imposed exile. After dropping off bags we were in search of decent food but just before our order came we realised that our flight was boarding then to our shock horror we were informed that our upgrade had not been processed for the first time in something like 8 years I’d have to suffer economy on the LAX-OGG of my route, I was really looking forward to my ice cream, nuts and strawberry sauce desert! Seems our luck had run out. We have recently lost platinum status from not flying enough last year and that meant that we didn't get first choice on the seats!
4:55pm Friday (1:55pm HST) finally the last leg to OGG - probably the best airport in the world ok probably I am a little biased but it holds so many special memories from my first arrival to Maui some 15 years ago to getting engaged to Liz in baggage claim next to carrousel #3. OK it wasn’t that bad, if you forget my broken seat, the line of people for the toilet in front of our space and no AA I don’t want to pay $8 for a blanket because it is too cold. We have been rather spoiled I guess and the ice cream in 1st really IS that good. However bad this leg of the journey could be I would rather have been right there sat in seat #9C than anywhere else in the world.
7:36pm Friday HST Friday finally arrive OGG. Collect bags, meet up with the US portion of our family and make our way 5 miles up the road to our North Shore retreat (8:46pm HST), a small house on a 2 acre plot a couple of hundred yards from the beach (and no we don’t own it, yet!).
OGG - home sweet home!
Still plenty of time to get to Flatbread in Paia for some food, couple of beers and a good catch up with Anne (Liz’s sister), Tom (Hot Sails Designer + Anne’s husband) and Liz’s Mum, didn’t see Colin (Paia/Ho'okipa Legend) but I am sure we’ll catch up tomorrow. Was great to chat with Tom over a few Kona Firerocks and discuss new 2011 Hot Sails and a new range of fins (more about these in another post), looks like the waves are not going to be as good as expected but we are going to hook up and sail before going to a great party at a friend’s oceanfront house in the late afternoon, will be good to meet up with friends old and new and get the chance to sail off the beach in my friend’s back yard, don’t worry there will be pics and hopefully video (I get my GoPro tomorrow) in tomorrow’s post.
Since it's intoduction a few years back Flatbread in the heart of Paia has been a reall hit, a great place to meet up and catch up over a freshly cooked pizza and a few beers.
Kona Firerock, good fun beer!
More to follow…
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
60 Days of Summer - The Baggage Lottery
I don’t want to count the total cost of my excess baggage in the last 15 years but to be honest I am happy to pay for excess stuff. What really puzzles me is that why can't the airlines come to any consensus. OK so some airlines seem to have it all mapped out online so you can check what you need and even pre-pay but do they not realize that we don't all have industrial scales at home so that we can arrive prepared?
So we have three airport scenarios;
A - Why Did You Bother? You leave all the unimportant things behind like boxers, socks, razors anything that you can toss out just to save a few ounces. In extreme cases you even put on multiple layers to avoid putting them in your bag - this is especially common for snowboard trips! You then carefully pack all your stuff, taking care not to put too much padding round the nose of your surfboard, I mean you don't want to be a couple of pounds over and get charged. You do that silly stand on the scales balancing act and get your friend or in my case wonderful wife to hand you the bag and then try to do some simple math to work out the bag weight. OK you have done it you have got two bags with all your gear in, you look like a Michelin man but it is alright because your checkin bags only weigh 50 lbs (23kg) and you are set. Then after all that hassle you arrive at the desk only to find that they don't even check the bags, you get that sinking feeling and wonder if there is any way that you can get your bags back and add more stuff. The good news is that you haven't been charged a penny, the bad news is that you have to spend a ton of cash replacing the things that you should have packed after all you didn't really want to go without socks and pants for 2 months.
B - Everyone’s a Winner: You pack whatever you need, try to keep the weight down but accept that you'll pay something and the girl at checkin is actually nice and lets you off a few lbs, you hand over your credit card and pay a couple of hundred bucks for your 3 or 4 bags, everyone is happy, job done!
C - Insanity Rules: You pack sensibly, even trying to keep the weight down, lets face it the less weight we fly with the less fuel used the better it is for the environment etc. Once at the airport you carefully scope out the checkin staff, who looks like they need a break, who has a smile, better avoid that ugly angry looking one! You are expecting scenario B to unfold and when the checkin girl says "there will be a charge for that windsurf board" you quickly correct her "surfboard it is a surfboard" girl "just one?" you reply "yes just one, its not heavy!" Now you think that you are set and start to finger your credit card in anticipation when girl pipes up "Sir, that will be £756 (the most any single checkin staff has tried to charge me - BA London Gatwick to Lisbon), how would you like to pay for that?". After 20 minutes of calling for supervisors, stressing, balancing against your food budget, putting even more stuff in your carry on, wearing 3 layers of clothes, throwing away that bag of chocolates you just bought, ditching a couple of presents, I mean stripping your stuff virtually bare you settle for a ridiculous £334.56. You feel robbed but as if to stick the boot in a little more she pipes up once more "I am just doing my job, have a nice day”. Once you get through Airport Security you finally manage to calm yourself down and do some rather dodgy accounting over a cold beer then when you finally make it to your seat # 11A the guy next to you is massive, I mean huge like 350 lbs, that’s like 7 bags and he hasn't been charged any more for his seat than for your skinny ass, now you are really pissed!
So I guess the message of this post is one aimed directly at the airline industry, we are happy to pay but please lets just be sensible about this, we fly allot, we publicize these sunny beautiful holiday spots that people come to visit which means more flights and more profits for the airlines, we buy up those cheap one way tickets to the Canaries that nobody else wants, as surfers and windsurfers we do our fair share for the airlines so it is about time they looked after us a little better.
Fingers crossed for senario B tomorrow!
More to follow...
This is funny, not sure I have ever checked a bag that actually stuck to these dimensions!
So we have three airport scenarios;
A - Why Did You Bother? You leave all the unimportant things behind like boxers, socks, razors anything that you can toss out just to save a few ounces. In extreme cases you even put on multiple layers to avoid putting them in your bag - this is especially common for snowboard trips! You then carefully pack all your stuff, taking care not to put too much padding round the nose of your surfboard, I mean you don't want to be a couple of pounds over and get charged. You do that silly stand on the scales balancing act and get your friend or in my case wonderful wife to hand you the bag and then try to do some simple math to work out the bag weight. OK you have done it you have got two bags with all your gear in, you look like a Michelin man but it is alright because your checkin bags only weigh 50 lbs (23kg) and you are set. Then after all that hassle you arrive at the desk only to find that they don't even check the bags, you get that sinking feeling and wonder if there is any way that you can get your bags back and add more stuff. The good news is that you haven't been charged a penny, the bad news is that you have to spend a ton of cash replacing the things that you should have packed after all you didn't really want to go without socks and pants for 2 months.
B - Everyone’s a Winner: You pack whatever you need, try to keep the weight down but accept that you'll pay something and the girl at checkin is actually nice and lets you off a few lbs, you hand over your credit card and pay a couple of hundred bucks for your 3 or 4 bags, everyone is happy, job done!
C - Insanity Rules: You pack sensibly, even trying to keep the weight down, lets face it the less weight we fly with the less fuel used the better it is for the environment etc. Once at the airport you carefully scope out the checkin staff, who looks like they need a break, who has a smile, better avoid that ugly angry looking one! You are expecting scenario B to unfold and when the checkin girl says "there will be a charge for that windsurf board" you quickly correct her "surfboard it is a surfboard" girl "just one?" you reply "yes just one, its not heavy!" Now you think that you are set and start to finger your credit card in anticipation when girl pipes up "Sir, that will be £756 (the most any single checkin staff has tried to charge me - BA London Gatwick to Lisbon), how would you like to pay for that?". After 20 minutes of calling for supervisors, stressing, balancing against your food budget, putting even more stuff in your carry on, wearing 3 layers of clothes, throwing away that bag of chocolates you just bought, ditching a couple of presents, I mean stripping your stuff virtually bare you settle for a ridiculous £334.56. You feel robbed but as if to stick the boot in a little more she pipes up once more "I am just doing my job, have a nice day”. Once you get through Airport Security you finally manage to calm yourself down and do some rather dodgy accounting over a cold beer then when you finally make it to your seat # 11A the guy next to you is massive, I mean huge like 350 lbs, that’s like 7 bags and he hasn't been charged any more for his seat than for your skinny ass, now you are really pissed!
So I guess the message of this post is one aimed directly at the airline industry, we are happy to pay but please lets just be sensible about this, we fly allot, we publicize these sunny beautiful holiday spots that people come to visit which means more flights and more profits for the airlines, we buy up those cheap one way tickets to the Canaries that nobody else wants, as surfers and windsurfers we do our fair share for the airlines so it is about time they looked after us a little better.
Fingers crossed for senario B tomorrow!
More to follow...
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
60 Days of Summer - Weather Talk
Looks like the North Pacific is brewing up some waves just in time for our arrival. Should have some waves on Saturday and Sunday at Ho'okipa which will be a great way to start and looks like the trades will be good too.
Maui County Windward Waters Forecast
SATURDAY: East winds 20 kt. Wind waves 6 to 7 ft. Mixed swell southeast 3 ft and northwest 3 to 4 ft. Scattered showers.
Looking ahead it may lighten up on Monday so I am confident that my surfboards will come out of their hibernation.
Just 2 more days at work and we'll be on our way and the expectation of waves will make the 33 hours of travel time fly by! Can you tell how excited we are?
More to follow...
Maui County Windward Waters Forecast
SATURDAY: East winds 20 kt. Wind waves 6 to 7 ft. Mixed swell southeast 3 ft and northwest 3 to 4 ft. Scattered showers.
NW swell epected Saturday and Sunday - Perfect! Thanks to GP for the forecast
Saturday morning looks like being rather busy getting stuff sorted in time to get on the water in the afternoon but I am sure that the motivation of possible waves will make those chors go quickly! Our friends that are visiting from Bahrain may arrive on Saturday night so that will be fun - it will be their first trip to Hawaii. Looking ahead it may lighten up on Monday so I am confident that my surfboards will come out of their hibernation.
Just 2 more days at work and we'll be on our way and the expectation of waves will make the 33 hours of travel time fly by! Can you tell how excited we are?
More to follow...
60 Days of Summer - Introduction
In the past I used to winter in Hawaii and summer in Europe, but as time has passed I have spent more summers in Hawaii and less time in Europe. Maui in summer time is very different from the winter and spring that many know and love but that doesn't mean that it is different in a bad way! While there are for sure less waves it is all about attitude.
The aim of the 60 Days of Summer project is a simple one; to show that there is far more to Hawaii than winter surf and that with the right attitude, the right equipment and enough time you can find waves, wind, surf, freestyle, slalom, SUP, skate, kite, hike, bike, you get the idea, tons of action and have a whole lot of fun too – after all isn’t that what it’s all about?
I am just about to set off on a 60 day long summer trip back home to Hawaii and will be blogging each day along the way (I am currently working for 9 months of the year in Bahrain in the Middle East).
I am setting myself many challenges, one of my first will be to get up to speed and ready for the Quicksilver Cup on the 17th July which is part of the popular Maui Race Series, having only sailed on a slalom board once in the last 15 years (last year at one of the Maui VMAX Speed Series events that should be fun especially with the likes of Dan Ellis in the fleet. I do not even have a board yet, hoping to meet my brother at Heathrow with one and a couple of HSM GPS slalom sails (fingers crossed no delays!)
I hope that this project will not only motivate and challenge me but inspire others to get out, get fit and challenge themselves to do new things and appreciate what we have. Please pass this blog on to others, join me on Facebook and check back daily. I leave for Maui at 1:30am on Friday morning and should be catching up with family and friends in Flatbread by 20:30 HST Friday night.
More to follow...
The aim of the 60 Days of Summer project is a simple one; to show that there is far more to Hawaii than winter surf and that with the right attitude, the right equipment and enough time you can find waves, wind, surf, freestyle, slalom, SUP, skate, kite, hike, bike, you get the idea, tons of action and have a whole lot of fun too – after all isn’t that what it’s all about?
I have 60 days off from work and aim to show readers what Maui has to offer for the summer resident or visitor.
I am just about to set off on a 60 day long summer trip back home to Hawaii and will be blogging each day along the way (I am currently working for 9 months of the year in Bahrain in the Middle East).
I am setting myself many challenges, one of my first will be to get up to speed and ready for the Quicksilver Cup on the 17th July which is part of the popular Maui Race Series, having only sailed on a slalom board once in the last 15 years (last year at one of the Maui VMAX Speed Series events that should be fun especially with the likes of Dan Ellis in the fleet. I do not even have a board yet, hoping to meet my brother at Heathrow with one and a couple of HSM GPS slalom sails (fingers crossed no delays!)
I hope that this project will not only motivate and challenge me but inspire others to get out, get fit and challenge themselves to do new things and appreciate what we have. Please pass this blog on to others, join me on Facebook and check back daily. I leave for Maui at 1:30am on Friday morning and should be catching up with family and friends in Flatbread by 20:30 HST Friday night.
More to follow...
Friday, July 2, 2010
Thursday, July 1, 2010
60 Days of Summer - Time to pack
This time next week we will be somewhere between Bahrain and London on route to LA then OGG. In many ways the time seems to have gone so slowly and yet it only feels like yesterday we were packing to leave Maui.
BAHRAIN: I was really pleased to get a good string of days on the water but this last week has only really be windy between 11am and 2pm so I haven't be able to get out. Instead it has been back to the gym and pool. There is a possibility of wind today but then the models show nothing for the rest of the week.
FLAKA - some progress has been made, I was feeling good about things then saw some great videos of Air Flakas which raised the bar somewhat. At the moment I guess I am just not giving it enough, I must commit to the move more, with plenty of wind around the corner I am pleased that I have at least made a start, hopefully within a couple of weeks I will be able to report on rather more success.
Southside Maui Beach - looking forwward to some southside surf and SUP action.
FLAKA - some progress has been made, I was feeling good about things then saw some great videos of Air Flakas which raised the bar somewhat. At the moment I guess I am just not giving it enough, I must commit to the move more, with plenty of wind around the corner I am pleased that I have at least made a start, hopefully within a couple of weeks I will be able to report on rather more success.
Air Flaka by the master!
KIT? Seems like Maui has been super windy this year so far, which makes me wonder if I need a 4.1m HSM Bolt too? Taking my 73 Tabou but would love to get a 79 and a 100 freestyler.
SLALOM UPDATE: Fimgers crossed Andy (who starts to persuit of UK slalom glory this weekend) will be meeting me at Heathrow with a slalom board and sails packed and then I will be almost ready for the Maui Race Series, my first event is likely to be in 2 weeks time.
TRANSPORT: Busy searching for new Maui wheels... needs to be able to get around the island while being weighted down with tons of gear and still be able to find room for a trip to Costco. Lets hope the summer 2010 version is better than some of the wrecks I have driven in the past!
TRANSPORT: Busy searching for new Maui wheels... needs to be able to get around the island while being weighted down with tons of gear and still be able to find room for a trip to Costco. Lets hope the summer 2010 version is better than some of the wrecks I have driven in the past!
I had better start packing.
More to follow...
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