The Week in Review

Several more laps around the fishbowl this week, only this week lots of new goldfish in the tank as more of our guests arrived.  Actually, its been a crazy week here at the Tradewinds Beach House as Mike had us into some new adventures during his second week here at the same time as our windsurfing crew rolled in for the beginning of our eighth annual windsurfing vacation. 

Mike took off on Saturday and it was sad to see him go but we were very psyched to have him here, not just for his wit that he demonstrated in last week’s J.E.W., the most popular piece we’ve published yet, but also for getting us out to explore more of the island.  Mike actually made several new acquaintances here on Maui, although any details will have to be extracted directly from Mike.  He also learned to waterstart, explored every corner of the island from west Maui to the south and all the way to the east end near Hana, and still had time for some laps around the fishbowl with Eric and I participating actively in our yoga practice and logging several hours on the water.  He didn’t join us on the bikes but happily participated in the gorge portion of the ride and gorge, which again did more damage than good last Sunday.

Our ride and gorge started out as normal as we headed out for our forty five mile loop, getting out at 6:30 to try and beat the heat and the wind.  About eight miles into the ride I got the first flat tire of the trip and so we were delayed a little while replacing the tube.  We then headed south to Kihei and east towards Wailea when we came upon a roadblock and detour.  It turns out that we had met up with the bike portion of the King’s Trail Olympic distance triathlon and the cops on patrol were kind enough to let us sneak in and ride the course.  It was quite a thrill having the streets lined with fans cheering us on as well as riding along side some elite athletes, albeit not for long as many blew past us despite having just completed the 1.5 K open ocean swim.  This had our adrenaline going as we tackled the rolling hills, that are about thirty miles into our ride, with ease which normally get the best of us.  We were pretty fired up heading towards home at a solid twenty mph pace when Murhpy’s Law kicked in.  Having had no flats over the first six weeks we were prepared for one flat but not two and thanks to Murphy and our carelessness, Eric blew out a tire about five miles from home.  I road back solo to get the car only to find Mike just pulling out of the driveway to begin the search process as we’d now been out for nearly four hours.  Mike had gotten up early as well to go for a run and tried to time his return with ours so we could all hit IHOP equally ready for the gorge and so I’m not sure if Mike was heading out to find us due to his concern for our safety or he just couldn’t wait any longer for the rooty tooty fresh and fruity breakfast platter that awaited him at IHOP.  We picked up Eric and made it safely to IHOP for a gorge of epic proportions and then hit the bike store for a half dozen new tubes and a new pump to keep Murphy from playing that trick again.   

On Monday night Mike did win a huge battle getting Eric and I down to Kihei to Hapa’s, an actual nightclub, to see a local musician, Willie K () that had gotten incredible reviews.  This ‘cat’ is an unbelievable guitarist and singer and was backed up by a superb band that played everything from Hawaiian music to classic rock to alternative, a little head banging metal in the final set and somehow worked ‘Somewhere over the Rainbow’ into a medley even making that sound cool.  Apparently this guy has been playing on Maui for years and is somewhat of a local folk hero.  He attracts locals, tourists and everyone in between – I think Eric and I consider ourselves somewhere in between but a great mix of people and the music was amazing.  We rolled home at 1:30 at which point we decided to postpone our sunrise hike of the Haleakela volcano that we had planned for early Tuesday morning. 

The windsurfing boyz, Doug, Pat and Kris, rolled in on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday respectively and they brought raging winds with them.  Doug came in first surprising the group having moved his flight from Saturday back to Tuesday after quitting his job at a high tech start-up in Boston -- sound familiar?  We had 25-30 mph winds on Wednesday and every day since and thought it would be fun to get some video of Doug sailing here in Maui while the rest of the crew thought he was still sitting in a cubicle staring at a computer screen – wow, its painful just to type those words right now.  Doug, pulled a stunt that I’ve never seen before which was to come ripping into the beach full boar and ride his board right onto the sand and do a forward roll dismount, sticking the landing with face in sand.  Eric and I paused for a moment as this move looked pretty painful but then burst into laughter after he got up and waived to the camera.  In fact, we burst into laughter every time we see this clip so definitely download this one and check it out.  As we picked up each new guest they were equally anxious to get out on the water and experience in person what they’ve each been reading about in the J.E.W. over the last six weeks.  So we sailed more this week than we have in a while and we finished the week pretty drained of energy after many hours on the water in the 25+ mph conditions.  Actually, we sailed so much that Eric’s new board did not make it through the week as he snapped it in half landing a jump out at the waves.  Fortunately the board was still under warrantee and he was back out on the water with a brand new replacement within an hour.  It was fantastic having all five of us back on the water together, egging each other on, whooping and screaming as we launched off waves and just having a ball sailing together. 

I had been trying to determine how much my sailing had improved since arriving on here on May 1st and while I new I’d improved there is not an easy metric in this sport to measure your skills.  As each guest arrived I received many compliments from the group about my new skills including jibes and jumping so it was good to hear from some experts that my hard work on the water is paying off.  I still have yet to get too many compliments on my progress at the yoga studio but while walking up from the beach last week with no shirt on a Japanese guy who is here with his family looked at me, patted his chest twice and said “nice body” so   I wasn’t sure what to make of this especially since this was the only interaction I’ve had with this guy – do they have sarcasm in Japan?

Eight years running now, Eric and I along with three of our closest friends, Doug, Kris and Pat, have gone on a windsurfing vacation together. Typically we take two weeks in late February or early March and head to the Caribbean or Central America to some windsurfing destination and escape the cold Boston winter and our mundane jobs for what is always a great adventure.  This year, with Eric and I in Maui “the trip” has taken a slight twist in that the boys are all heading out here to Maui to spend 3-4 weeks in our paradise.  This annual trip is really the heritage of my windsurfing addiction and a tradition that I hope we will keep in place for years to come.  It is always a fantastic trip and we look forward to introducing our readers to the boyz and our adventures over the coming weeks – and maybe even some more guest editorials to help the non-goldfish readers enjoy the J.E.W. even more.