Go Fast!

By Tom


This is the craziest speed event I have ever seen! How fast can you make a Go board go?



Pretty immpressive huh? This is Bertrand Fougere winning the French Starboard Go Challenge with an incredible 35.5 knots with a GPS 2009 6.6 that I just sent to France for testing. For those of you who speak French:

http://icks.icks.free.fr/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2106

Windfishing

By Tom

I was on the mainland for my birthday so I really milked it and mangaged to pull off an extra birthday beach BBQ at Sprecks last Sunday. It was supposed to be a Speed day, but the wind was onshore at 5-8 knots so the speed got postponed. There were at least half a dozen SUP boards at the beach enjoying the conditions.

I decided to try my windfishing rig. It is very simple with a fish bag on the nose and a hand line attached to the mastfoot. I trolled a local style whipping rig. It has a small float 4 feet ahead of a small jelly lure. The idea is that the float makes lots of spray and bubbles which attracts the fish. The fish then sees the small bite size lure and chomp - fish on! This is of course the theory although I had never caught anything with this rig. I did a coulple of runs over the reef, but decided the lure was too close. I stopped and let out another 30 feet of line and gave it another shot.

The float disappeared under the water and I thought I had a small fish. When I dropped the rig and started pulling the line in nothing pulled back. I assumed I had broken the float off and just sailed to the beach. I put my board up on the beach and then pulled the line in, and to my surprise there was a good sized Omilu on the end of it!





Needless to say the fish went straight on the BBQ along with a nice Palani that Diony speared free-diving. It was a great BBQ and a lot of fun was had by all!

Tom's Travels

OK so I have not posted in a while, and I am sorry 'cause I meant to. The trouble is I have not been in the same country for more than in a week for the last 6 weeks!
I have gone from Hawaii to China for a week, then back to Hawaii, off to Morocco the next week then back to Hawaii, then Canada, mainland, Canada and finally back to Maui. Home at last! I will be in the same time zone at least until September now , when Anne and I have a wedding in Annapolis, Maryland to attend.


Schenzen, China.


Thai food with (L to R) Urs, Chrissie, Betty and myself. Qingyuan, China.


New Yellow Fire 2009.

So in summary I went to China to get 2009 sails ready for production, then Morocco to present the 2009 collection to the distributors. The sails are looking very good and I first saw the new X-ply colours in China. I am very stoked as the blue and yellow came out perfect and the sails look even better than the colour mock up drawings. I had one week back on Maui to tie up the loose ends for 2009 before I went to Morocco to present them.


The Beach at Sidi Kaouki.


Jeff and Tom shopping in a Moroccan marketplace.


Forward Loop on a Liquid by Tom.


I managed to drop the Jetski on my foot, luckily on the last day, but the injury prevented me from windsurfing the next week on Maui.


Tom, Ala, and Jeff - Team Hot!


Last night in Morocco waiting for the 2am taxi to the airport with German and Dutch guys.

After Morocco 2009 was done and I had one week back on Maui to prepare for a two week holiday. The main purpose of the mainland trip was to go to my Dad's wedding in Ajax near Toronto. Anne's parents live in northern PA so we went down there to visit for a week first. I managed to get a few days trout fishing in and hooked up to fish every time! I was very dissapointed when I caught a really nice sized Trout and just as I was leaning down to grab it off the edge of the bank the hook came out and I lost it. DOH! That was the only day I did not land a fish.


The Bride and Groom with yours truly The Best Man!

Anyways We went back up to Torronto for the Wedding and I donned a suit. Unfortunately my dress shoes I only wear once a year and they cut through my heels - ouch. They will be donated to charity. The wedding was followed by a couple of days up on Georgian bay at Blue Mountain (looks like a small hill to me) with my Dad Robbie, and his new bride Bev. Canada is a great place and we thoughly enjoyed it. I did manage to sink a rental kayak (twice) due to the fact it had a crack in the bow and no bungs in the drains. Luckily the nearshore of the lake is very shallow.


Tom and Anne relaxing Canadian style in Georgian Bay, Ontario.

It was a great holiday and very nice to be able to spend some time with family, but we were both very happy to be back home on Maui.

Leon goes nuts

Germany wiz kid Leon Jamaer takes windsurfing and his Fire sail to new places. Downtown Kiel, in Germany he entered an extreme sports event sailing his skateboard. The image pretty well sums things up.

GPS in France

Here is Tom's handy work doing some go fast in the English Channel. Check out some cool details on the GPS at this forum:
http://www.u-ride.net/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=57292#57292

Hot Sail in winning photo!

German team rider Leon Jamaer was featured in this year's winning photo of the Stehsegelrevue Photo contest. Got to admit, that is a pretty cool shot! Congrats to photographer Blaz Hocevar who took the awesome shot.
Results of the photo contest can be seen at: http://www.stehsegelrevue.com/fotowettbewerb/winner2008

2008 Distributor's meeting

Tom, Ala and I have just wrapped up the first ever Hot Sails Maui distributor's meeting and we had a great time. Lots of new faces and now new friends were made during this nearly week long event in Morocco.
The setting was exotic to say the least. Set on the Atlantic coast near the old port city of Essaouira, the windsurf center of Sidi Kaouki presented a near perfect situation for distributors from around the world to join us for some education and fun.

This event was to educate our distributors about next seasons products and designs so they can prepare for 2009. Seminars were done in a real Berber tent right on the windy beach. The mid day times were for doing some testing of the coming gear.