Thinking about a trip to Maui in late October/November. Anyone know what the wind would be like around this time? Would it be worth going there to do some windsurfing at this time of year?? Is there plenty of flat water sailing locations?? Any advice appreciated

Thanks Divaldo, Any ideas what the temperature is like, does it ever get cold in Maui?? Is Kanaha good for flat water?

Hey there, don’t go in Feb whatever you do, we went for 2 weeks with very little wind. However Kanaha is a great spot as divaldo said. We thought Kihei was greatly underrated by the local's as we had a couple of good days there when there was nothing at Kanaha. There is a good spot just past Paia before Mama's Fish house Kuau. Kanaha is the pick of the bunch when the wind is up unless you are a wave guru.
Hire a van with gear racks (Al West), it saves so much mucking about and you can hire pretty much any/as much gear as you want. Hi Tech have bigger freeride boards but the Naish gear was pretty dam slick. What ever you do dont waste time taking your own gear.
Basically the place blows your mind with windsurfing and water sports, its mega chilled out, just stay away from the Lahaina and that side of the island (where the US tourists go).
Have a blast we will head back every 2 years or so from now on (not in Feb)

Yeah, we went in June and had all July and a bit of August...we were there for 42 days and sailed on 41 of them using 4.0 and 4.5. The wind was in just all day. Great time.

Thats usually a good time for waves. Chances are there will still be wind the majority of the time, but more like 4.7 to 5.5 wind. Boardies are enough most days. Some of the locals will think its getting chilly.

For flat water, kanaha is the best pick. Kihei is an option.

By the way, when people say kanaha is the flat water spot. What is meant is that there is a reef 400-500 meters out that blocks all the waves. The inside is very flat and is where they even hold slalom races. The reefs can get good waves but if you didn't want to, you don't have to go anywhere near them. Upper Kanaha has a larger inside section and if you want to blast around, you can work your way up wind and sail around to your hearts content without having to go in waves.

April/May is similiar to Sep/Oct. In that its not as windy as July, but you should still be out the majority if not all days, and there are chances that you can get swell. Less 4.0 days and more 5.0 or 5.3 days.

Unfortunatly public transport is virtually non existent and there isn't really anywhere you can stay where you don't have to travel. The only real options for this is staying at camp1 and sailing straight out the front, which is pretty expensive as you can imagine or staying at kuau and sailing there, where you could easily then sail up past lanes to hookipa. Thiss expensive too. It would actually be cheaper to stay somewhere else and get a car. You don't see many bike trailers around and it may not be that safe riding around with them anyway. The roads aren't exactly bike friendly.

They are actually clamping down on unofficial holiday rentals so all thats up in the air at the moment as there are hardly any official rentals on the north shore. And none are that cheap. There are a couple of camping spots. Its ok for a night if you have to, but the ones near the beach are not really for tourists as such and they are not designed for long term, and not really designed for some one with a stash of gear on display. You are suppose to contact the local council to get a permit for the night. Its more for locals wanting to camp out and fish. There is one other campsite at about 6000 feet or something up the volcano which is designed for 1 night stays and thats all I can think of. So nope, no camping.


If you want cheap, and staying there for a few weeks at least or month you may find someone people advertising for rooms to let. There are a few maui windsurf blogs that you can contact, these will be able to give you numbers and emails. This is becoming more difficult now they are clamping down.

Not really sure why, who knows. But there used to be tons of freely advertised rentals where people rent out a room or two. Last year, loads of these were forced to shut down and only rentals with the right permit allowed to operate. I am not sure if that has been relaxed recently again.

There has been some strange goings on, like the 10 man rule being enforced one day, and nearly approval of the 200 meters within a swimmer rule.

This guy seems to know what is going on mauisurfreport.blogspot.com/

It is only legal over there to rent out your house for Holiday rentals, if you have a permit to do so.

It has always been this way, but now they are clamping down on it.

I stay over there with locals, and what can happen is when a house is rented out the "Holiday Renters" make lots of noise, and things in the neighbour hood go missing, and the locals complain to the authorities.

I suppose its the same, as if lots of houses in your street became short term rentals, probably not so peaceful aymore.

Anyway I have stayed at the Kuau Plaza before, basically next to Hookipa. Its clean and next to the beach. I think rates are quite cheap. It has a kitchen ect, and to save $$$ you can have a room with a share kitchen/toilet. You can rig up out the front and swim your stuff out (easy when you have done it once or twice) and sail up to Hookipa, but not recommended if you only sail flat water, then you would drive down to Camp1 or Kanaha.

When you say these places are reasonably "cheap", what do you mean?

divaldo said...

$100 is cheap

$100 for what?

With or without boom boom?

$100US is piss cheap, even $150US is cheap now with the registration. www.vrbo.com is worth a look.

There are dorms.

There are a couple in wailuku. banana bungaloo is one of them. Thats about 10-15 minutes from kanaha in the working part of the island.

There is a hostel in paia called Rainbow's end. I think about 500 -600 per month. If you are travelling alone, and want to do it on a budget, then this is your best option.

ejmack said...

Would anyone be able to name a few places in Maui that have decent/current windsurfing gear for rental. Or preferably a few website links. Thanks.

Yeah...and how about rentals at the beach, as opposed to picking gear up and taking it somewhere yourself? How much would one expect to pay per day?
I really AM going to do this without driving, somehow!

One more thing! All the rental places have the latest kit or less than a season or 2 old. Did not try rentals at the beach park as we had a van (a mighty great van)!

The cheapest way would be to buy an old van, something like an American version of a Mitsubishi L300, and live in the back.

It looks like there is plenty of jungle at Maui so camping out in the bush could be the go. I guess you would have to keep on the move to beat the fuzz & getting kicked out of the country for vagrancy.

go to the RTA tomorrow!