My First Month on Maui

[brettbuchanan]

Maui holds a reputation as being the proving ground for a handful of today's extreme water and wind sports. Aside from being a knock down, kick your teeth in, brutal example of all the forces mother nature can throw at the shores of any place on this planet, Maui is home to some of the most courageous watermen alive. Laird Hamilton, Robby Naish, Pete Cabrinha, Dave Kalama, Mike Waltze, Brett Lickle, and so many other names I feel I owe an apology for not listing them. This group of pioneers have physically explored the outer reaches of what most of our feeble minds are afraid to even imagine, let alone tackle. They've ascended to the highest pinnacles of human accomplishment in harmony with the playground God gave them. And no doubt when these brave souls pass from this terrestrial place God himself will make a special trip down to the Pearly Gates brushing Saint Peter aside to greet in person his brethren of the wind and swell proclaiming to them, "Right on brah, you welcome in 'dis place."

I was twenty-two years old when I first visited this island. Over the course of the next twenty-five years I visited Maui every year, sometimes two and three times per year. From the moment I set foot on this island I felt at home. It is a place my soul belongs. I finally moved to Maui less than a month ago. It took me forty-seven years to get here. I cannot put into words the beauty God bestowed on this island. And I cannot express enough my gratitude for the time I will spend in this spiritual place.

So back to extreme nature of this island and the water that surrounds it. I've been here for less than a month and to date have spent my time getting acclimated to the balls-in-your-throat velocity of wind that blows in from the east. Frankly, I'm actually quite familiar with the wind and terrain on Maui and love a good blow - no pun - but facts are facts, this place will kick your ass day-in and day-out regardless of how familiar you think you are with nuclear wind and the beatings that come with it. In the span of three weeks I have been more sore, experienced more pain, had the living shit scared out of me, and hit the water so frickin' hard I'd swear it was concrete masquerading as ocean. On one particular licking I hit the water at terminal speed from maybe twenty feet or so. The only sound I heard as I closed my eyes and waited for impact was the sound of vertebrae crunching in my neck and upper spine. You know the feeling. Thoughts racing through your mind like - I wish I had my impact vest on - I should have worn a helmet - I swear I'll never kite again - how did my kite come across the top of the window so fast - I'm taking up lawn bowling.

How guys like Laird and Kalama and Lickle are still alive God only knows, literally. I'm sitting here complaining about smacking the water hard a couple of times and walking away with a little boo-boo to my ego while these guys are waiting for gargantuan waves to hit from the north before they'll even get out of bed. Kind of puts the word courage into perspective. But kite on I will. I'll prepare myself as best I can to endure these conditions. I'll train, cross-train, windsurf, kitesurf, foilboard, stand up, surf, tow-in, I'll pretty much do anything I can to honor the conditions God serves up in this place. I'll do these things knowing my limitations, respecting that line set by that knowledge, but blurred by the desire to know what's on the other side of my own fear.

Off to get in shape for this winter. Stay tuned for video. Getting a helmet cam. Aloha.

Visit my yet to be named Maui Blog - http://0182eb9.netsolhost.com/blog4/ - I'll be adding kiting, windsurfing, sup, surf, video of all kinds regularly. Exploring a live helmet feed also... Keep you posted.

P.S. To all my windsurf compatriots - although I primarily kitesurf now I never sold any of my windsurf gear. It's all coming on the slow boat to China right now and within a few weeks I'll be blazing past kiters cursing their lofty attitudes just like you. KITESURFING HAS BEEN CANCELLED! LONG LIVE WINDSURFING!

[beallmd]

Fred Haywood told us mortals that when he was working on the speed record (France? I can't remember) he said he hit the water so hard that he hurt his back and took months to recover. He said it was an unbelievable hard fall. Hard to imagine what that felt like. Only a few guys probably understand.

[brettbuchanan]

Fred Haywood is a wise man. Spent some time with him years ago as he showed me property in Haiku and Kula. We visited his dad's house that day.

He likes to go fast.

[human_catapult]

Great post... congrats on your move!

[brettbuchanan]

Awesome screen name. The Human Catapult - I hope you didn't provide that nickname on your medical insurance application...

[JamesHardy]

Kook, you get "Slaps" eh? You kind of sound stalker.

[brettbuchanan]

JamesHardy -

So let me get this straight. I write a completely harmless blog post that flatters some guys that have been on the cutting edge of some of the sports millions of people enjoy today. My intent was only to share some insight and announce that I'd be putting some video up on a personal blog of mine - most of which is intended for friends and family but I thought what the hell, maybe some windsurf and kitesurf guys might enjoy seeing it too. Then you proceed to call me a "Kook" and a "Stalker".

You and I come from different molds. Personally, I like to make other people feel good about themselves. I'll chalk this one up to you having a bad day or maybe misinterpreting my intent. In either case, all the best, I hope you enjoy some of the video and pics I put on the blog.

[spyder]

brett,

wouldn't sweat it..hoping you're enjoying the 24 mph in Kanaha, while we have 13 in Kailua.

b happy.

[gregorvass]

I started to kitesurfing 1999.
It has always been a substitude to windsurfing.
No Way No How can anyone on a kite experience the same as grinding and slapping the piss out of a wave while doing a 180 degree cutback. Kiting bores the piss put of me....have not kited for 18 months, I tried again last week I rather be slogging waist deep under water!

WINDSURFING RULES.....KITING IS JUST PLAIN GAY.

[brettbuchanan]

GregOrvass -

Nice reply. KITING SUCKS ASS! I started kiting to keep me on the water a bit more in SoCal. Although I did go over to the darkside - I NEVER SOLD MY WINDSURF GEAR! And I shipped all of it over here. So when winter hits I'll have the best of both worlds. There's nothing like down the line wave sailing - I swore I'd never give it up and I always told myself that if I moved to Maui I'd wavesail again. Don't get me wrong - you can rip waves on a kite too (and jump like a son-of-a-bitch) but there's nothing like wave-sailing - or the few Pacificos after.

Brett