I can’t believe we’re packing up to leave. In
some ways it feels like we just got off the plane and in others it feels like
we’ve been here forever and Maui is our home. It will be sad to leave
but at the same time we are looking forward to getting home to Boston to
see all our friends and family. The culture shock may be tough leaving
an island where it is 84 degrees and sunny nearly every day, where we have
a playground in our backyard and most of all where we have little responsibility
giving us 24 hours a day to enjoy it all. Nevertheless we are loading
our gear into boxes and preparing for our next chapter. But before we
go, we thought we’d take some time to recap our summer and thank you, our
readers, for participating in this incredible adventure.
Our trip was 4 months in length, almost 18 weeks, each covered in our18 issues of the J.E.W. We never missed a deadline. We came here to windsurf and that we did with an estimated 250 hours each on the water over the 120 days we were here. This, we estimate, would include nearly 10,000 runs out to the reef, about 2500 jump attempts but zero forward loops. Sorry Doug but we are still pansies. Although I never looped or even tried, our sailing skills have improved tremendously. I’m just not sure how to quantify our improvement so I’ll leave it with we are both significantly better than when we arrived and thrilled with our progress. The 10,000 runs would also include about 5,000 jibe attempts, 1,000 tack attempts, 2,000 wipe-outs and only three broken boards. Yup, Eric broke another Starboard 77 this week and by some miracle the warranty still holds and he will leave here with his fourth brand new board of the season. We only sailed off 1 beach, Camp One, only rigged our sails once (on May 2nd) and so far have made each run out clothed in either shorts or a wetsuit but have discussed a run out and back with nothing but our harnesses on – let’s see if maturity prevails for once but run number 10,001 could end our four month streak with a streek.
On the bikes we covered over 1,000 miles in 40 rides, with 20 rides on the Hana Highway, another 15 down to Kihei/Wailea and others to Makowao, 1 on Lanai, 1 up in beautiful Kula and finally yesterday a huge pack ride out to West Maui. We went through 3 inner tubes, 1 spoke (Pat’s), 100 balance bars and 30 tubs of Gatorade powder but only made 5 runs to IHOP stopping that tradition back in June after a particularly excessive gorging with my brother Mike. We had planned to ride to Hana and back on Thursday but at the last minute we got an invite, FINALLY, to join a pack of riders, 9 of them, for a ride through the mountains of West Maui. We never did the haul all the way out to Hana as we were told by many we could not leave here without doing the West Maui ride and they were right. This was a tough ride but with the most spectacular views and little traffic. We rolled up and down some nasty hills along the coast line all the way to Kahakuloa, the point of West Maui that you can just make out from our beach. The pack was led by a pro-cyclist who pulled away in the hills, tackling them like they were not ever there and also included Pete Cabrinha, founder of Cabrinha Kites, and Micah Buzianis, currently the number 2 formula windsurfing racer in the world and rumored to hold the current speed record. The pack was strong and I pulled up at the back but that just gave me more time to enjoy the views. What an awesome ride.
WWe did 54 yoga classes, so about 1350 downward facing dogs each, 648 warrior poses and 0 double pigeons. While I feel like my shoulders, hips, hamstrings, quads and back are even tighter than when I arrived, we are grateful for yoga as we suffered 0 injuries (knock on wood) even with the 1000 plus miles and 2000 wipe-outs described above and we required 0 massages. During those 54 classes we were sent to the corner about 12 times to work on our hips while the rest of the class was doing something more difficult, got yelled at 22 times but only 4 of those were for Eric trying to sleep through class. Nadia later learned to let downward dogs lie and would ignore Eric on the days when he decided to sit on his mat and play with his feet or sleep through class in an extended shavasana. And the highlight…after our yoga classes we polished off a total of 75 muffins at the Cakewalk Bakery in Paia adding approximately 22,500 calories but each one well worth it.
Between Eric and I we visited 5 islands (Lanai, Ohau, Hawaii, Kauai and of course Maui) did 2 kayak trips went snorkeling 4 times, once with the dads, did 6 SCUBA dives, 5 hikes, although 4 were in the bamboo forest, and saw 2 volcanoes, 1 active and 1 very inactive at 4:30 AM while the sun came up. We ate Curry at Café Des Amis, our favorite spot on the island, 15 times but only ordered the chocolate banana desert crepe on 8 of those occasions. That was our first meal on Maui back on May 1 and so we plan to have round 16 there on Saturday night and you can count on at least 1 chocolate banana crepe then. We made many good friends, while only going out 3 times (all to see Willie K’s band) and drank 0 beers between us, really not a single beer. We also watched 0 hours of broadcast TV other than about 12 World Cup Soccer games but did rent nearly 50 movies although none better than the highly underrated Not Another Teen Movie…Bling Bling. We learned to kitesurf, spending a good 40 hours down at kite beach, dragging through the water, untangling lines, once from around a turtle’s neck, and the learning process included at least 50 kite crashes, 30 face plants, swallowing 20 gallons of salt water and 5 swims in from afar with the kite in a tangled web of lines. Eric rewarded his kiting efforts Thursday purchasing two new kites, a 12.2 Cabrinha Back Tip and a 9.4, which will be perfect for the wind conditions back home. He took the 9.4 out for a trial run on Friday and was all smiles when he came in so this will surely be part of his therapy for the return to Boston. The purchase of the kites completed our 60th visit to Neil Pryde Maui and I’d add up the dollars spent there too but I just don’t want to know.
All in all we are ecstatic with everything we did and everything we accomplished on this trip. It has been everything we had dreamed and in many cases way more. The windsurfing exceeded my expectations in every way, the cycling has gotten better and better as our fitness has improved and we’ve discovered new rides and kiting has been a great bonus to bring back to the Cape with us. It was not an easy decision to quit our jobs in a down economy, leave our friends and family behind and travel so far away but we have no regrets. This has been an incredible four months with memories that will last a lifetime many in our heads and many on our web site. The web site has been a fun way for us to document our journey and more importantly keep in touch with all of our friends and family back home and around the world. Our readership has grown to over 300 readers from 7 foreign countries (Canada, U.K., Mexico, Brazil, Spain, Germany and Japan) and over a dozen U.S. states making us a leading provider of e-business news and services for the global economy which according to a 1998 Gartner study is going to be huge (sorry – just practicing for my return to the work world). We’ve received about 746 responses enticing us to check e-mail 1920 times and all without fighting over the computer, or anything else for that matter, even once. Your responses were hilarious, many very supportive and of course there were countless spelling and grammar corrections including 1 from a non-native English speaker (gracias Francisco - I was a math major for a reason). We really have had so many great responses every week and we would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for your support of this adventure and for keeping in touch. It has made being far away from home that much easier. Thank you and we look forward to seeing you all in Boston soon.
Best Responses from last week:
Muriel, Boston, MA (Jon’s Mom)
“I was browsing through some archived editions of the J.E.W. and am really impressed with all you've done in 4 months--wind and kite surfing, power yoga, rigorous bike rides, not bad for a kid who comes from a long line of men who would probably define an extreme sport as speed reading. I know it's going to be hard to leave, but I, for one, will be thrilled to have you back in town.”
Nothing from Rusty this week but a special thank you Rusty for all of your hilarious responses, even those I could not publish, and for helping keep our readers interested among countless tales of windsurfing, yoga, kiting and biking. However, I have been training for 4 months and plan to kick your ass at thanksgiving.
Our trip was 4 months in length, almost 18 weeks, each covered in our18 issues of the J.E.W. We never missed a deadline. We came here to windsurf and that we did with an estimated 250 hours each on the water over the 120 days we were here. This, we estimate, would include nearly 10,000 runs out to the reef, about 2500 jump attempts but zero forward loops. Sorry Doug but we are still pansies. Although I never looped or even tried, our sailing skills have improved tremendously. I’m just not sure how to quantify our improvement so I’ll leave it with we are both significantly better than when we arrived and thrilled with our progress. The 10,000 runs would also include about 5,000 jibe attempts, 1,000 tack attempts, 2,000 wipe-outs and only three broken boards. Yup, Eric broke another Starboard 77 this week and by some miracle the warranty still holds and he will leave here with his fourth brand new board of the season. We only sailed off 1 beach, Camp One, only rigged our sails once (on May 2nd) and so far have made each run out clothed in either shorts or a wetsuit but have discussed a run out and back with nothing but our harnesses on – let’s see if maturity prevails for once but run number 10,001 could end our four month streak with a streek.
On the bikes we covered over 1,000 miles in 40 rides, with 20 rides on the Hana Highway, another 15 down to Kihei/Wailea and others to Makowao, 1 on Lanai, 1 up in beautiful Kula and finally yesterday a huge pack ride out to West Maui. We went through 3 inner tubes, 1 spoke (Pat’s), 100 balance bars and 30 tubs of Gatorade powder but only made 5 runs to IHOP stopping that tradition back in June after a particularly excessive gorging with my brother Mike. We had planned to ride to Hana and back on Thursday but at the last minute we got an invite, FINALLY, to join a pack of riders, 9 of them, for a ride through the mountains of West Maui. We never did the haul all the way out to Hana as we were told by many we could not leave here without doing the West Maui ride and they were right. This was a tough ride but with the most spectacular views and little traffic. We rolled up and down some nasty hills along the coast line all the way to Kahakuloa, the point of West Maui that you can just make out from our beach. The pack was led by a pro-cyclist who pulled away in the hills, tackling them like they were not ever there and also included Pete Cabrinha, founder of Cabrinha Kites, and Micah Buzianis, currently the number 2 formula windsurfing racer in the world and rumored to hold the current speed record. The pack was strong and I pulled up at the back but that just gave me more time to enjoy the views. What an awesome ride.
WWe did 54 yoga classes, so about 1350 downward facing dogs each, 648 warrior poses and 0 double pigeons. While I feel like my shoulders, hips, hamstrings, quads and back are even tighter than when I arrived, we are grateful for yoga as we suffered 0 injuries (knock on wood) even with the 1000 plus miles and 2000 wipe-outs described above and we required 0 massages. During those 54 classes we were sent to the corner about 12 times to work on our hips while the rest of the class was doing something more difficult, got yelled at 22 times but only 4 of those were for Eric trying to sleep through class. Nadia later learned to let downward dogs lie and would ignore Eric on the days when he decided to sit on his mat and play with his feet or sleep through class in an extended shavasana. And the highlight…after our yoga classes we polished off a total of 75 muffins at the Cakewalk Bakery in Paia adding approximately 22,500 calories but each one well worth it.
Between Eric and I we visited 5 islands (Lanai, Ohau, Hawaii, Kauai and of course Maui) did 2 kayak trips went snorkeling 4 times, once with the dads, did 6 SCUBA dives, 5 hikes, although 4 were in the bamboo forest, and saw 2 volcanoes, 1 active and 1 very inactive at 4:30 AM while the sun came up. We ate Curry at Café Des Amis, our favorite spot on the island, 15 times but only ordered the chocolate banana desert crepe on 8 of those occasions. That was our first meal on Maui back on May 1 and so we plan to have round 16 there on Saturday night and you can count on at least 1 chocolate banana crepe then. We made many good friends, while only going out 3 times (all to see Willie K’s band) and drank 0 beers between us, really not a single beer. We also watched 0 hours of broadcast TV other than about 12 World Cup Soccer games but did rent nearly 50 movies although none better than the highly underrated Not Another Teen Movie…Bling Bling. We learned to kitesurf, spending a good 40 hours down at kite beach, dragging through the water, untangling lines, once from around a turtle’s neck, and the learning process included at least 50 kite crashes, 30 face plants, swallowing 20 gallons of salt water and 5 swims in from afar with the kite in a tangled web of lines. Eric rewarded his kiting efforts Thursday purchasing two new kites, a 12.2 Cabrinha Back Tip and a 9.4, which will be perfect for the wind conditions back home. He took the 9.4 out for a trial run on Friday and was all smiles when he came in so this will surely be part of his therapy for the return to Boston. The purchase of the kites completed our 60th visit to Neil Pryde Maui and I’d add up the dollars spent there too but I just don’t want to know.
All in all we are ecstatic with everything we did and everything we accomplished on this trip. It has been everything we had dreamed and in many cases way more. The windsurfing exceeded my expectations in every way, the cycling has gotten better and better as our fitness has improved and we’ve discovered new rides and kiting has been a great bonus to bring back to the Cape with us. It was not an easy decision to quit our jobs in a down economy, leave our friends and family behind and travel so far away but we have no regrets. This has been an incredible four months with memories that will last a lifetime many in our heads and many on our web site. The web site has been a fun way for us to document our journey and more importantly keep in touch with all of our friends and family back home and around the world. Our readership has grown to over 300 readers from 7 foreign countries (Canada, U.K., Mexico, Brazil, Spain, Germany and Japan) and over a dozen U.S. states making us a leading provider of e-business news and services for the global economy which according to a 1998 Gartner study is going to be huge (sorry – just practicing for my return to the work world). We’ve received about 746 responses enticing us to check e-mail 1920 times and all without fighting over the computer, or anything else for that matter, even once. Your responses were hilarious, many very supportive and of course there were countless spelling and grammar corrections including 1 from a non-native English speaker (gracias Francisco - I was a math major for a reason). We really have had so many great responses every week and we would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for your support of this adventure and for keeping in touch. It has made being far away from home that much easier. Thank you and we look forward to seeing you all in Boston soon.
Best Responses from last week:
Muriel, Boston, MA (Jon’s Mom)
“I was browsing through some archived editions of the J.E.W. and am really impressed with all you've done in 4 months--wind and kite surfing, power yoga, rigorous bike rides, not bad for a kid who comes from a long line of men who would probably define an extreme sport as speed reading. I know it's going to be hard to leave, but I, for one, will be thrilled to have you back in town.”
Nothing from Rusty this week but a special thank you Rusty for all of your hilarious responses, even those I could not publish, and for helping keep our readers interested among countless tales of windsurfing, yoga, kiting and biking. However, I have been training for 4 months and plan to kick your ass at thanksgiving.
Thanks to all the people we have met who have
made our trip great. Here are just a few in order of appearance.
See caption for where we think they will be in five years.
See caption for where we think they will be in five years.
Mike and Val are happily married. Val is now
fire chief of Kahalui and is on stand by each time Mike lands the United 777
that he now captains. They spend hours on the water practicing their
inverted clew first triple helmetasinas.
On September 15, 2002, Trent lost his marbles working on a technology project in Mexico city. After being fired for screaming at his boss in broken Spanish, he returned to Maui and has worked his way up from making Clown cones to Manager of the Pukalani Mac Darnell's. He holds the world record for largest clown cone ever made. Trent now weighs 340 pounds and is ripping on his 9.0 in 30 knot winds.
Josh Stone retired from professional windsurfing
in 2004 after winning his first wave sailing title. He is still active
in the windsurfing community and spends countless hours watching Jon and Eric
as they invent and perform new moves such as "the "hairy backloop", "the
turtle killer" and with special help from Doug Defonzo, "the beached roll"
with extra bacon.
The crew from NPM retired in the fall of 2002 after a record sales during that summer.
After finally finishing the kite video in 2004, Craig is now well known as one of the premier kite instructors in the world (second only to Rhino).
Patrick was elected Mayor of Salt Lake City and appointed Jen Chief of Police. She later was forced to arrest him for snowboarding off the roof of the Mormon Tabernacle. They have since set the record for number of conjugal visits in a month.
Nicola has become famous and her voice can be heard in such THO productions as "Learn to Jibe with Jonny" and "Pre-natal windsurfing." She got her start doing the voice of Ginger in "Chicken Run 3"
Peter was fired from his job as an anesthesiologist after skipping out of surgery to go windsurfing. He now travels the world in search of new windsurfing spots.
Sarah just published the 2nd edition of "101 bad dates on Maui".
She now owns Charlies Saloon and the Maui Yoga Shala. In 2006 she won the women's freestyle competition with the first Parivrtta Trikonasana ever seen in competition.
Heidi took the Cakewalk Bakery public on the Nasdaq after a successful mailorder business shipping hundreds of pumpkin chocolate chip muffins back to Boston.
The crew from NPM retired in the fall of 2002 after a record sales during that summer.
After finally finishing the kite video in 2004, Craig is now well known as one of the premier kite instructors in the world (second only to Rhino).
Patrick was elected Mayor of Salt Lake City and appointed Jen Chief of Police. She later was forced to arrest him for snowboarding off the roof of the Mormon Tabernacle. They have since set the record for number of conjugal visits in a month.
Nicola has become famous and her voice can be heard in such THO productions as "Learn to Jibe with Jonny" and "Pre-natal windsurfing." She got her start doing the voice of Ginger in "Chicken Run 3"
Peter was fired from his job as an anesthesiologist after skipping out of surgery to go windsurfing. He now travels the world in search of new windsurfing spots.
Sarah just published the 2nd edition of "101 bad dates on Maui".
She now owns Charlies Saloon and the Maui Yoga Shala. In 2006 she won the women's freestyle competition with the first Parivrtta Trikonasana ever seen in competition.
Heidi took the Cakewalk Bakery public on the Nasdaq after a successful mailorder business shipping hundreds of pumpkin chocolate chip muffins back to Boston.