The Week in Review

This week wraps up our first of six straight weeks of guests and I’m sure our readers are wondering, if not hoping, that having some new blood in the house might shake things up a bit.  The big question is ‘who is going to win the battle?’  Is Mike going to get Eric and me out of our normal routine and into some new adventures or is the dark side simply too strong and we will mold a perfectly social and cool young dude like Mike into windsurfing, yoga and lights out by 9:30.  The force is strong in this one and he put up a hell of a fight but I would say the point goes to Eric and me as Mike’s first week on Maui included five straight days of windsurfing, four yoga classes and while he did hand us our glodius maximi in Scrabble its been all early nights since his arrival.  He was close to bringing some interest for our readers a couple times, chatting up a nurse at yoga who moved here full time and getting invited by our Texan neighbors to join them for ladies night at Casanovas in Makawao but so far nothing that would come close to satisfying Rusty or any of his followers.  To Mike’s credit though he did get us back out for another stunning hike in the bamboo forest and organized an unbelievable kayak and snorkeling tour down in south Maui so we did break out of our normal routine a little just no nightlife to report yet.    

Mike has dabbled on and off with windsurfing over the years and having seen my addiction to the sport grow decided to dive in to the sport a little deeper while here on Maui.  We’ve reported over the weeks on how humbling this difficult sport can be here but I forgot just how challenging each step of the way is until I watched Mike go through many of the pains that Eric and I went through years back.  He did make lots of progress though and is now getting his water starts pretty consistently, meaning he can use the wind to lift himself and the sail out of the water rather than stand on the board and pull the sail out with an uphaul rope.  This is a huge step as it allows you to sail in much windier and choppier conditions and also sail on smaller boards which are much faster and more maneuverable. Mike spent the week sailing down at Kandahar, which is his name for Kanaha beach probably because of all the battle wounds he has suffered down there.  Kanaha is a much better learning spot than Camp One as it’s more protected from the swells and huge winds, and more appealing to Mike I think is that Kanaha is the place where many young women get started on the sport as well.  I did catch Mike giving windsurfing pointers to a young French cutie so he’s learned the most important part about sailing ‘first learn the talk – then learn to fly.’  Eric and I have sailed down to help out a couple times and then sent in Craig (aka master Yoda), the instructor we have worked with, to undo all the bad habits we taught to Mike.  By Wednesday Mike was water starting consistently on the starboard side, which with the wind direction here is heading out away from the beach, but made the mistake many of us make which is to get your first water start, be so excited that you go ripping out only to realize that you haven’t yet mastered both sides and now need to make it back to the beach.  Several attempts at the port side water start and a few hundred yards of swimming with the rig and Mike made it back a little bloody and bruised but more importantly wearing that unbeatable windsurfing smile.  Just as Eric watched me get hooked eight years ago I now love getting new people into the sport I love so much and Mike is getting close to joining us at windsurfers anonymous and will soon be quitting his job to sail full time...

Wednesday was kind of an unusual day as we recently learned that the place we are renting is in a tsunami zone, which means they are not supposed to rent the first floor units.  It also turns out that the complex is only licensed for one kitchen and I’m sure a slew of other building code violations so when the owners found out they were subject to a building inspection they had to move us to a unit upstairs for a day, safely out of the tsunami zone, remove all the furniture and appliances from the bottom units and make it look like a storage facility.  They also had to get rid of the stoves, dishwashers, etc. from all but one of the units for the inspection.  Kind of a weird charade and I can only assume there is a large ring of payoffs going on as its pretty clear that the place has five units, two on the ground floor and each set-up for a full kitchen but the inspector came through, counted only one stove and saw the bottom floors empty, checked this stop off his list and the property managers spent the rest of the afternoon moving all the stuff back into our normal unit.  It seems politics work pretty much the same on Maui as everywhere else but at least we got a clean place and with the inspection passed it sounds like they won’t have to go through this charade again for a few more years…bizarre.  Fortunately while all that stupidity was going on it was blowing a solid 25+ mph on our beach and we sailed until dark on what was one of my best days sailing here on Maui.  The water inside the reef was incredibly flat making it easy to rip at high speeds and my jibes on both sides were starting to come around.  Eric and I did more sailing together, which was fun, although I can’t tell if it’s a sign that the gap between our skills is shrinking or just his patience is getting better, but it was great to sail in tandem and watch each other launch off waves and hear some whoops as I came through on many a jibe.

Friday after Yoga we took Mike up to the hike in the bamboo forest that we’d done last week.  We’ve got some other hikes on the list but this one is so spectacular and a short drive that we had no problem doing it again and it’s a great way to get introduced to the beauty of this island beyond windsurfing and the yoga studio.  This time we knew our way a little better so we made good time up to the falls and took more photos and video of the journey.  We even got some shots of Mike scaling the waterfall and jumping off into the pool below. Just like last time, we ran into several other hikers on the path but most turned back before having to scale the second fall with the rope and to swim up the river to the final fall so we had the last waterfalls to ourselves again.  We spent an hour or so up there climbing on the rocks, jumping into the pools and catching rays before heading back to get an afternoon of windsurfing in.  

On Saturday we awoke at 5:30 to head down to South Maui for the kayak and snorkeling adventure that Mike had found. We went out with a group of ten on a mix of single and double kayaks, Mike wisely taking out a solo cruiser leaving Eric and me as a team trying to keep our paddles in unison.  The trip started in a van down to La Peruse bay where we launched the kayaks and then headed about four miles up the coast stopping twice at reefs to do some snorkeling in the clearest and most colorful coral and sea life I’ve seen since the Great Barrier Reef.  It was incredible to see all the different schools of fish swimming around and not surprising why the two spots we stopped to snorkel are fittingly named ‘the aquarium’ and ‘the fish tank.’  Traveling by sea kayak was also quite a thrill as the coastline viewed from the water is spectacular and our guides brought us through some rocky areas and breaking waves where we had to put our teamwork into effect to keep from swamping the kayaks.  Of course only two kayaks in the group flipped during the trip, Mike’s and ours, but neither in the breaking waves.  We both got swamped by the tour guides on the way back after wisely egging on the two kayak experts who were leading us around.  They say there is always at least one troublemaker in the group but somehow it always seems to be us.  It was a blast, though, and we were grateful to Mike for getting us to this new activity which we will surely do again as more guests roll in. 

Oh wait, we did include one new addition to our nightlife this week.  With the Celtics not making it to the finals we still had not watched a minute of TV, but voted in an amendment to this rule allowing for viewing of world cup soccer.  By some strange mathematical formula that involves the International Date Line, the games, which are being played in Japan and Korea, are on live in the evenings here in Maui.  We’ve seen a handful of games including a gem between Sweden and Nigeria and Sunday have a crew coming over to watch the U.S. take on South Korea – see, actual social life.  Whenever I watch soccer at this level I really can’t understand why this sport is not more popular in the U.S. and how its possible that the NBA and Stanley Cup finals, which could not be more dreadful match-ups, are actually getting higher viewer numbers. Something is clearly wrong with that picture, but hopefully the U.S. will advance to the medal round and generate some interest, as this stuff is fantastic to watch. 

So Mike’s got one more week here to try and shake things up and already is talking a big game and is planning some more adventures including more hikes, a SCUBA dive and even a trip over to the resorts of West Maui, so there is still hope for our readers.  This week we also welcome other friends to Maui as the windsurfing boys roll in for what will be our eighth annual windsurfing trip.  We are looking forward to hosting our friends and bringing you new adventures so stay tuned.  

Best response:

No surprise here – Rusty, Miami

“PHASE TWO the ARRIVAL of MIKE FINEGOLD.  No need to drop $70 bucks on
the  Tyson fight this week-end, Mike Finegold is coming to Hawaii!  Mothers lock up
your daughters and fathers break out the shot guns.

For those of you readers who do not know Mike Finegold, his idea of fun is...well going to Hawaii to do Yoga with Jono and Eric.  And what's this nightlife business.  Mike Finegold's ides of night life in Hawaii is going out when it is dark to study and explore the indigousness insects to the island.

Who are the friends that are going to be visiting to take part of PHASE TWO?  I mean how do you follow up Mike Finegold?  What next the Zipper Heads you hung out with in high school?  Or better yet some of your MIT buddies?

You are right, there is no reason to recap your week.  No more bare-chested photos of Eric.  Dude no one who is reading this wants to see that.  It is not right.  Stop it.”