Maui and Naish

Its been nearly a week since I arrived on to the island of Maui. After a long flight to Los Angeles I then slept the 5.5 hour flight all the way to Maui. I was tickled to see restaurants in the airport before I had even made it to baggage reclaim and since that point I have only seen things in super size - the boxes of cereal, the bottles of Corona, the 4x4's, the woman reaching up to be able to refuel her 4x4! The waves!! The waves - Im scared to pass comment on the waves here. What is big to me is almost definitely small to the people who live here.



My first day on the water we were focusing on freestyle, but every now and then i would pop out back to check out the waves or catch my own and with the wind blowing from the right Maui is the perfect place to improve my riding. Anyhow some of the waves further out felt well over head high and I wanted to come back and be like wow, some of those waves were huge, but instead I would have to fish for size and be like - 'so those waves - how did you find them???'

I feel pretty out of my depth as I see Robby Naish on the water or Dave Kalama pushing 15's on the beach or even Lou Waimann pumping a kite. It is a awesome feeling to know this is the place where many people became Greats and when on the water looking back to the sands, the tress, the rocky out crops or the mountains that we have seen in many so many photos I feel really privileged to be here.



The weather has been a real mix as it is breaking into winter here. The days are mixed up by cloud and rain or sun and wind. It has made it pretty difficult to maximise the time for kiting, so instead we have been doing beach workouts, stand up paddle boarding, surfing and kitesurfing to keep us active.



There are 14 of us here from Charlestown to Capetown, wave kiters to slider kiters, freestylers to speed record holders. In total we are 3 girls and 11 boys and with us all sharing a house it can only be described as carnage. The lawn is strewn with equipment mostly the Sigma kites - especially the Helix, but surfboards, SUP's, twin tips and more!

There are several photographers and Elliot Leboe from ACL Productions and each day we split into random groups to kite a multitude of places. The conditions are usually super strong wind, but not necessarily waves or flat water. I rode an 8m for 20 minutes over powered and the the rest of the time I have been mixing it up on 7m or 7.5m Cults and Helixs'. We have been sent out in one of the dodgiest launches I have come across where literally we launch our kite standing on a small patch of sand but with kite balancing above some rocks in the water. We have to wait for some wind to make it in to the cove sheltered by a point and body drag out as fast as you can. It took some of us 3 attempts to make it out and when you finally feel safe enough to put the board on your feet you find yourself tiptoeing over the remaining stones. Something this knarly certainly shouldnt be named Sugar Cover but once you make it up wind you find yourself in the most stunning scenery that you will ever kite amongst. You also hope to hell that the wind doesn't drop or you have a malfunction with your kite.



The trip really is awesome and I have pushed my limits in terms of choices of places to kite and I have met, kited with, supped with, partied with some great people. The next few days the forecast is much better and I hope that we get plenty of time to shoot.