Simon Bassett's Maui Trip 2010

Going to Maui is always a good plan it’s windsurfing mecca. In late march we all went for our pilgrimage to the No1 windsurfing spot in the world.
Having had little windsurfing in the UK before we left, we arrived to find the hammer was fully down on the wind front for the full 4 week trip.

We stayed on the beach at Camp One between Sprecks and Kanaha with friends Frank, Sandra, Alex and Georgia. A place as perfect as it gets to windsurf, lay about on the beach and to go swimming or snorkelling.

Alex(12 years old) was ripping out on the water

We had planned to stay for three weeks and had wind and waves nearly every day – the day we were leaving the volcano erupted in Iceland and our flights were cancelled and guess what? We had an extra week accompanied by even more wind and swell… How inconvenient!

United Airlines were epic in sorting out our flight problems – my buddy Ray Mcgee United UK and Jeff Tarpey in Maui really helped us out.

Maui is full of the best surfers, windsurfers, kiters and paddlesurfers on the planet. In the “Antonys” coffee shop in Paia the stars of our sport queue up for their caffeine fix like the rest of us -it may be Laird, Pete Volwater, Antoine Albeau or Pete Cabrinha sat on the next table.

On the water it was quiet compared with our last visit 2 years ago – so each day we would see the pros in action on the 2011 gear shooting for next years brochures . Skye boy, Timo and Finn Mullen, Jamie Hancock, Phil Horricks, Swifty and Richie Page were all out there ripping alongside the usual Maui
locals.

Dave White, the new editor for Boards was out there at the same time, working hard. Here you can see him enjoying an “apres work massage” after going for double forwards at Hookipa! He was joined by Nicky Boy and Pamela, who were on their honeymoon, sharing a pad with Dave White and Paul Griffiths from Boards Mag!

Whitey, as always is full of enthusiasm for windsurfing and was constantly emailing or dropping in to drag everyone out on the water. He tried to drag me out at Ho’okipa but I bottled it although he did manage to drag me up to the Quattro shop to order a custom quad!

When we were at the factory, I had a really good chat to Francisco and Lalo Goya, as well as Keith Taboul. On the last day at Sprecks, I had the chance to sail with Francisco – there were only 3 of us out at the time and it seemed like sailing with a few buddies at Wittering, with the exception of the odd Goya 40ft backloop thrown in for good measure.

We were given some tickets to the Oxbow VIP Clothing Launch at Maui Neil Pryde store from Shawna (Cropas) and Gus and we were lucky enough to meet up with Laird Hamilton, Jason Polakow and Levi Siver. Great evening, good food and had a chat to Laird about my forthcoming Channel Crossing – he said “You need to watch out for the ferries and tankers!” He also told me it took him 7 hours to complete the crossing!!!

Nik Baker was also in Maui and very kindly let me try out some of the new exciting 2011 kit that he had in the back of his van – the new Fanatic Quad and the North Shox XTR mast extension system – I only had about 30 minutes on the Quad, but really liked it and look forward to getting on the 79 when it comes out in the UK. The new Shox system was amazing at taking the impact of chop out of the rig but I think it definitely suits a slalom/freeride board more than a wave board.

Dave Ezzy left an Ezzy 2011 prototype with me to test – one of the sails he is working on for next season. You can see some sneak preview pics here, you will see the new version on the shelves Jan 2011.

We were not the only Brits “on the rock” – Francis Goodwin, Justin, Jane and all the Goodwin tribe were out to celebrate Francis’ win of the “Golden Ticket” they were accompanied by Grahame and Michelle Pettit, Jack and Jenna who all made the most of the conditions and windsurfed every moment of the
day.

Paul, Nikki and Amy Simmons were on their first trip to Maui and I caught up with Paul at Sprecks a number of times through the trip – he was sailing really well.