Having a bad day? We have all experienced this once or twice or 100 times? I know the feeling. Makes you want to pack up, go home and quit windsurfing- we’ll not really. It does make you think though. What is going on?
The first thing I do is blame my equipment. That always makes me feel better. It can’t be me can it? More often than not, there is something going on with my settings. Not enough downhaul, too much outhaul, when does it end. Now I am to the point where I know how to rig my sails so I usually can’t use that excuse.
When I forget to put my fin in and wonder why I am spinning out, then I can hit myself with the rubber mallet and be ok with it. My favorite one is the fin in with fincover on! Stupidity is ok in the sport of windsurfing- sometimes. It’s ok to go out sailing without your harness only to come back in and put it on- that is called strength training.
But what if it is me? Then what? Well, chalk it up to a bad day. You can always go and check your settings on your rig to make sure you had them set the same on your last “good day” and see what is wrong. Many people make the mistake of not learning from their bad days. That is the key to a bad day. Learn from it and figure out how not to let it happen again. Write things down. Compare the good with the bad and eliminate the bad. Or try to. That is what I do.
I just past the 4 month mark on my little oopsy daisy on the dirt bike- I'm walking around and there is light at the end of the tunnel shining bright!
Off to the races tomorrow at Kanaha….. I’ll be watching and available for any of you to ask questions- even stupid ones!
The next Champ Camp is going to be in Alacati Turkey which is in Izmir. If anyone wants to go check it out and do this it is going to be a great event. I am going to keep pumping it up day by day, week by week. So when you get sick of hearing about it, you will probably hear about it some more. Seriously, if you want to do some good learning, Turkey is the place. Bring your wife, your kids, or leave them at home.. This is the best place on earth to learn windsurfing from start to finish. I would actually recommend bringing the wife because she would LOVE to windsurf here. First of all it is 4 feet deep for a half a mile out. So if you are learning you fall in or get frustraited, you just put your feet down, take a break and then try again. There is no need to worry because if all goes wrong you can always walk back in. The water's warm, the air temp is great.. what more can I say. Jimmy Diaz will be there tuning you up as well so it is going to be an all out fun week. There might even be a showing from MS. Turkey who is also an amazing windsurfer as well. So tell your friends, tell your wife, girlfriend, boyfriend, whatever, the time is now to go check out Alacati! Fun for all.
We had a nice little earthquake over here on Maui last night. It rock and rolled my house that is for sure. It was pretty small, only 3.4 but it must have been right under my house!! It felt pretty big to me. Anyhow here is what the Honolulu adviser had to say
A 3.4 magnitude earthquake shook Maui last night at 8:39 p.m., according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The quake centered 15 miles west-south-west of Hana, Pukalani and Makawao areas. Residents reported moderate shaking from the earthquake. Police say no damages were reported the temblor.
"We have no reports of injuries or damages," said Mahina Martin, Maui county spokeswoman. "But we did receive calls from Molokai, Kula and Lahaina, even though the earthquake was on the southern slopes of Haleakala."
More than 300 people reported to the USGS Did you feel it website that they felt the shaker.
Well i havent had any complaints about the new site so it must be pretty good.
Been training pretty hard over here on Maui. Starts, Gybes, and wave sailing. We have been getting some great conditions. You can check it out at www.mauiwindcam.com and see some training runs there!
Well here we go onto a new site era... or error.. who knows. You know how I get sick of things so time to update. I am sure there are some mistakes on there but you know how I like to get things in action. The one major improvement is the shop. Plain and simple and easy to use. All we need is more customers. So go ahead, tell your friends to step it up and get something from the pro shop. And I guess let me know what i did wrong! He he... Ok well hope you enjoy the new features and happy browsing.
Well it is summer time and the time is now to buy some new boards!!! We got pleanty of great deals on all sorts of boards. I got 76 86 and 94 Isonic's in Stock.. We have Tabou Da Curve's, Gaastra Sails.. The time is now to get on it!! They are flying out the window.. Get yours today before it is too late. I dont want to have to put my boards into the junk pile.. So get buying!!
Man, Maui is just such a paradise.. So nice to be back and playing in the water. Today was on 4.5 and there was some pretty fun waves coming through. Super windy and powered up fun!! Nice to be on a wave board again. Havent really done any wavesailng since Cabo Verde. Need to get on it for GC. Seems my only hope is in waves this year seeing as I am sitting in third in the waves and I dont even know what I am ranked in the racing.. Who would have ever thought that. Need to start doing some jumps.. ohh man.. scary.
Well I think my luck is turning around... Had a fun day out on the water today and actually did some racing instead of sitting like we have been doing much of this year's PWA World Tour. When I arrived it looked like it was going to be super windy and I only had one of Matt's booms so I just rigged up the 6.0 and thought it would be enough.. It was a bit on the light side and even though I managed a 1st a 2nd, and two thirds, I finished 2nd in the Pro Division behind Peter Bijl, and just in front of Micah Buzainis. After that we went out for four more races where the wind really picked up and I fell in the first race on the first gybe and then won three in a row just in front of Peter and Micah!! I was pretty stoked. Finnally a bit better racing for me. I had some nice full speed starts and that was pretty fun. Micah was going fast and Peter is always fast so to beat those guys was good. Hopefully this winning stuff will continue into the PWA races! I used 6.0 and the 86 for all the races. I didn't have any of my stuff as I left it all in Europe so I had to borrow stuff from Matt and used one of Starboard's old prototype boards to go out there and have a good time!
Well I have been trying to link all my blog's, photo site's, facebook, twitter all together.. kind of a fun task.. Also working on a new shop for you guys to make this shop sing a little better. All in all I am glad I am not a web guy sitting behind a computer all the time.. Lucky me..
Congratulations to Joe Marenda who wins the BRAND NEW 2009 Gaastra POISON- Joe get in touch with us to select the size that works best for you.
The Gaastra Poison is the ultimate all-round wave sailing/bump and jump machine. Plenty of power is harnessed in this sail and when you ask for speed, it delivers. Easy to maneuver and fun to hang on to the Poison is ready for anything you throw at it- get yours today! Check them out here: http://gaastra.com/sails/2009/wave-cross/poison
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Well we finally got some nice onshore wind and everything was going well. As the day went on, the wind got lighter and lighter and as fate has it I was in the last heat of the day.... I can tell you that the way they are calling the races these days are totally different from the last 5 years. It seems strange to me that the one year they make it so you cant change any of your gear for the entire season, they change the way they see suitable conditions. For instance last year if we would have had two races in a row where we could see that they were allowing races to go when we are not plaining for 5 seconds at each gybe, for this race we could have at least registered a 10m sail. Now for the first time I have been using the 9.3 in any of the races and still not plaining around the gybes, I cant even change the sail. Last year I think I used the 9.0 in two or three races the entire year becasue they were calling off the races when there was not enough wind. This year, they simply are not calling them off.
It is definately a struggle for me but I need to adapt somehow. I see that the good guys are still doing good. You look out and Antoine is still winning the races when there is light wind. I guess all that time in Maui, with beautiful consistant winds, is not good for the pumping, struggling, gasping of air just to try and make it on a plane in the real world of what is now PWA racing. I guess I need to train different, develope a little different and focus a little different.
I have been using the Isonic 133 with the 9.3 Vapor technora. For the fins I have been using the SL 2 and the SL1 for the most part, 50, 48, and 46. I was talking with Bjorn the other day and was suprised to hear that he was only using a 49cm R 16, I thought that seemed a bit small for him. Guys like Steve Allen, are using 52's, I have tried using the 52 and it just feels too draggy for me.. Maybe I need to try again???
We have two more days left with a ok forcast so the time now is to put my head down and try and salvage as much of the event as I can.
Well I am pretty dissapointed to say the least. I am in the heat in the qualifying position and my boom rope breaks. Catastrophy! So pissed. Really hurts when you put all the time and effort into it and then something like that happens. What do you do?? Curse and swear?? Not sure if that helps?? Dont know really.. But I am alive and healthy and I guess i got to go with that.. I am trying my hardest that is for sure. So that is all I can do.. Forecast looks terrible as well so that is not that great either.. Lets hope for some wind!!!
Well there is wind in the air!! But we are still waiting for wind... Got everything ready to go, sailed three heats yesterday but they all got cancelled. Still ready to go. Forcast looks good for some wind but we will see!
Just a little hype going here....... we are about ready to make the drawing for the Free Gaastra POISON- there were 78 people that were entered- so someone is going to be doing backflips on their new sail!!!! Keep watching, the winner will be announced on the BLOG!
All the PWA boys left town the day before the first Maui Race Series event of the season….. I went down to support the freaks and watch the action.The wind was perfect, the sun was shining and everybody was pumped up for the racing action.
The morning session saw the age division categories go first- There is a class for everyone out there and it is good to see some beginners learning how to race. The Juniors are getting to be a big class. Connor Baxter, Kai Lenny, Zane Schwietzer, Bent Rodreiger as well as the little man Dennis battled the incredibly huge Jake Gomes who was fast, very fast.
Carla Aguera was showing the girls how to get it done- she is smooth and calm out there and makes it look easy.
Peter Beil showed the men’s 19 class that he was a force. All that testing for Neil Pryde is paying off for him.He dominated the class.
Phil McGain showed up 10 minutes before the start and looked to be out of form. I thought someone borrowed his gear or something- he was falling on his jybes and sailing around in mid pack most of the time…..he said he was saving it from the pro class in the afternoon.
Captain Greg Thomas, the Kanaha local had a crash after the finish line that left his knee in limbo- he was rushed off to the hospital in pain. Hopefully he is going to be ok-
The wind kept picking up and by the afternoon it was gusting to 30 knots. The boys were flying….. I took some video but have yet to learn to edit- that is Kev’s department.I saw a lot of people making a lot of mistakes out there- I don’t like to give unsolicited advice but sometimes can’t help myself.When Kev gets back from Costa Brava, we are going to re-do CHAMP CAMP on June 27 and 28th.So if any of you guys want to stop making mistakes, get signed up!
My leg was getting pretty tired from standing and sitting around all day- I sure was missing the racing action to say the least. I watched most of the pro races and saw McGain back to his old self where he dominated the class. It was a new perspective for me sitting on the beach- I learned a lot.
Keep an eye out on the blog- Let’s get KP fired up to get on top of that podium in Costa Brava- he has had some bad luck in the first two races! Time to turn it up- I also just noticed he is twittering or jittering whatever that is….. you can follow him around the world on the right side of the screen- Technology these days!
Till next time, enjoy the wind, sun and have lots of fun!
Last day to buy something from the Pritchard Pro Shop to get your entry into the Free Gaastara Poison. This is a big giveaway so make sure you get those last little video orders, how about the 2009 93 Futura?? We also got the Kode 94 on special right now so get buying and you might just get lucky!!
Well I dont know if you guys ever go to www.pritchardimaging.com so i figured I will post the photos on here as well. Can you tell there is no wind here??
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