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Originally posted by mkseven


I guess WA will be becoming alot more popular now.

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Yeah, thanks

its total crap. now british airways has is refusing to take windsurfing equipment as well.

'Team America' all over again

One thing that continually makes me feel good about our sport is the fact that WHENEVER you see or meet another windsurfer on the water, beach, carpark looking for wind, whatever, thay are ALWAYS friendly and welcoming. I have lost count of how many posts I have read on here where people have offered places to stay to complete strangers as they may be venturing interstate and want to sail somewhere they have never been or at the very worst an offer to show them around their local break or speed run or lake. What continues to DISGUST me is the pathetic tribal culture that goes from one surf break to another perpetuated by the surfers who surf within. Whilst I know quite probably the vast majority of surfers are great people and couldn't give two hoots as to who surfs there, there is always a rogue element that just taints it for everyone else associated within. A classic case is Josh Stone in that video making reference to the guys out surfing most likely on welfare and yet here he is, works hard for a living and pays a shed load of taxes (like I presume most of the windsurfers on the planet otherwise how else can we afford to buy our gear), and yet his rights to windsurf are being undermined by someone who doesn't even contribute to society. I know that is a massive generalisation and a comment not based on fact at all but you would all have to agree there is some truth to it in some way.
It saddens me to think that the authorities in Maui/Hookipa have let it progress to this. It is a sad endightment on society that this has happened. I just hope sanity prevails and that something gets sorted out soon. I have very fond memories of seeing the Aloha Classic at Hookipa back in 1991 and I'm glad I'm not hanging my hat on ever seeing it again. Judging by what's happening I wouldn't have anywhere to stay while I was there anyway and even I did the contest might get shut down by the fun police
By the way, I surf too so I'm not anti surfers.

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british airways has is refusing to take windsurfing equipment as well.

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BA has always been bad with excess luggage. I once got stranded with 70 kg of luggage on the way back from Australia to Germany because BA wouldn't take my gear despite the fact that they were all to happy to take it the other way.

Another friend of mine once flew out from a World Cup in Japan with a lot of gear in tow. After long arguments with BA they finally agreed to take the gear at US$70 per kilo. He ended up dumbing everything which was to heavy into a bin and told his sponsor back home the gear had been stolen from his rental car.

Hence always check with the airline before you book the flight!

RE Maui... well that was just a matter of time. Sad but true... the crazy thing is when you go to other places like the NSW South Coast or Baja California you pretty much sail alone most of the time. Both areas can be consistent if you go at the right time...

Personally I'll take WA over Maui anytime... they do better beer there too.

hey guys,
I was at hookipa that day and saw it all go down. First of all the 10 surfers in the water rule over there has been around for years, it just seems to have worked beter in the past. Usually it all works pretty smoothe, at 11am the trades start to fillin and the surfers either get out or start paddling up towards middles, as it gets stronger the move up to pavillions. On that particular day I counted around 40 surfers at the point and this was at 1pm and it was windy as hell. Another point about that day was it had been flat ( I mean flaaaaaaaat) for the previous couple of weeks and very little south swells over summer so they were all pretty deperate for a wave. I also noticed that alot of the surfers werent locals, which is what josh's beef was about.
Apparently the lifeguard tower has contributed to the tensions due to the fact that the lifeguard that "runs" the beach is a surfer so his opinion is a bit bias when it comes to conflict resolution.
Oh and if you think it was entertaining on you tube, you should have seen what happened in the carpark afterwards,, keep yours eyes out on you tube Im sure it will pop up.

Spot on Sick_em_rex.

In my youth I was a full on surfer couldn't get enough of it! before work/school, after, and instead off. But the agro in the water ended up geting the better of me and I finally gave it away.
Luckily I discovered windsurfing and to my memory have never meet an agro sailor, infact quite the opposite - even the locals come up to you and strike up a conversation and welcome you to their haven.
In surfing this is not the case, hostile, teritorial, and alouf. Sad but true!

DavMen

It is a sad state of affairs that the tension at Hookipa is the way it is. There has always been a lot of tension at the Pavillions end of the carpark, just driving through there used to be a hassle.

I can't imagine however that it was local surfers staying out in the water at that time. The Hawaiins way may be aggressive at times but they are a respectful bunch and once you have their respect they are generally really cool people, and in general they always had respect for good sailors who also had a bit of etiquette.

As for the point people have made about how bad this is for their economy, I don't think their authorities give a crap. I mean compare the amount of tourists that go to Maui for other reasons other than windsurfing at Hookipa. The whole west side of the island is full of resorts and condo's. The percentage of people who stay in private rentals on the north shore is just a pee in the ocean compared to the numbers of tourist that fill those places year round.

The percentage of windsurfing tourist that go to Maui to sail Hookipa is extremely low when compared to the greater mass of windsurfing tourists that go to bump and jump sail at the lower reefs, & the percentage of windsurfers to over all tourism is also small. So unfortunately it will boil down to the loacl authorities showing some thoughfulness and maybe legislating the 11am rule and or getting a new life guard.

Thats my 2 bobs worth.

Ps - The lifeguard that used to work at Kanaha years ago was excellent. When the swell was too big for Hookipa and lower Kanaha was around mast high he would spend the whole day on his jet ski towing broken down windurfers back into the beach.

The funny thing I found this year was that up a pavillions it seemed to be waaaay different, you still had the HGA crew up there but there were also tourists having picinics and so forth. So dofferent from the old days. I remember having rocks and spear guns being shot ay your cars, now theres picinics going on.
But at least you knew that once you ran the gauntlet thru pavillions back then at least you could sail at the point.

hey ed,
how was the rest of the trip??

Funny you should say that, I got off the plane grabbed a coffee put all the gear back together and went down to wanda, had just as good a sail as on maui. I guess the only thing maui has on us is quantity.
Gerroa on sunday looks good if your keen