Big Mama boom

Secret shot of the big boom 180-240cm suitable for GPS and larger slalom and freeride sails. Very few modern booms fit large sails well. The trend toward super straight tubes in the back 70% of the boom has made for sails "wrapping" and messing with the overall sail shape. This boom is designed to eliminate the wrap, while still reducing the width where it is not needed up forward. We will be testing it out in a few weeks.

New Hot caps!

Glenn models the newest from the design department.

Uk wakes up to freaks.

Boards uk puts super freaks on list of "what every wind surfer wants for christmas "

Fire 2009 work.

Tom tries the impossible? To improve the Fire.

Tom: "After a good test session last week I did a shaping re-cut to the #5 batten. I am currently working on the 2009 Fire shape version D. Just trying to squeeze a little more power out of it without loosing that magic feeling."

The Seal 88 gets a wave

Got my new Seal on the water. The 88 is so short, it seems to slide and slash like a wild animal. Here 3 turns that look less quick than they felt. This time I had the camera attached to the sail so quality went way up. (The smooth water in front of the wave did not hurt either). I slowed the action about 10% to be able to see it better. Check out the SuperModel boom too. FYI, Glenn has some of these boards for sale. He did the very cool graphics BTW.

Introducing Anne.

Tom with his girlfriend Anne at the Hot Christmas dinner party. Tom makes a mean curry.

Tracks from Friday's speed session

These are the tracks from my speed session at Ma'alaea on Friday. I discovered on run where I hit a 2 second speed of of 37.5 knots! I caught a huge gust but it was quickly followed by a huge hole so it only lasted about 5 seconds. That run did not even qualify as one of my fastest 10 second runs even though half of it was over 35 knots. The wind was that crazy out there. If only that gust had lasted a few seconds longer!

Speed Sailing at Ma'alaea

Photos by Nathalie Vaglio

This is me (Tom Hammerton) after a speed sailing session at Ma'alaea. It was an official V-max speed day (http://www.mauispeed.com/) and the Northshore was rained out. With poor wind conditions at Sprecks we decided to hold it at Ma'alaea as the wind was smoking in the bay. Organiser Erik Beale went over first to check the conditions and discovered what seemed to be ideal conditions. I quickly headed over from work to meet Eric at about 2pm. The wind was very strong so I rigged my 5.5 GPS prototype which should be good for 35 knots of wind.
I was the first on the water and soon discovered it was challenging conditions. The wind was almost dead offshore and a kink in the coastline allowed for broad reaching on both tacks. The starboard tack run seemed faster, but was still very tight. The problem with the offshore wind was that it was very gusty. It was in fact the hardest session I have ever sailed. The wind was coming in 35 knot gusts with giant 10 knot holes in between. The wind was more consistent a hundred yards off-shore, but out there it was choppy. After I downloaded my tracks I found that my fastest run was the furthest off-shore where the wind was stronger. I hit a 10 second run of 34.8 knots which is my personal best with a peak speed of 35.4 knots. That speed put me in the lead until Alex Aguera found a puff and posted a 35.9 knot 10 second run. According to the GPS results software I actually hit a peak speed of 37.5 knots on one short lived run - if only that puff had kept going.
I finished the day with my personal best and the second fastest speed so I was stoked! It was a brutal session however and there was general agreement about that! There was not a second of relaxing on the water. Everything was a struggle from waterstarting to getting back to the beach. I have definitely paid for it as I am super sore and I need a couple of days off sailing to recover.

Space craft Columbia about to launch.

Sale

Loft party and sale! Kanaha Kai which shares space with the Hot Sails MAui loft, had their Christmas sale Staurday. Rainy conditions keept things lite, but all the Hot Sails regulars showed up and had a beer or two and hung around for THE WINDSURFING MOVIE produced by Jace Panebianco.

New shop displays go up.

Tom Testing Wave Seat Harness

I got out for a quick test of the new seat harness at Sprecks yeasterday. It was showery with on and off wind. I went for a few speed runs while Glenn wnet to the upper reef to claim his millionth back loop!
The Harness was rock steady - unlike the wind! The new waist belt system keeps it snugly in place and the new metal buckles are easy to adjust to get the bar tight and centered.
The wind died and I came in way downwind at Camp One and had to do the walk of shame! This is my fault for laughing at Erik Beale who ended up doing the exact same thing Wednesday. Karma.
It is an official speed day today so I will get some more"testing" in this afternoon!

Driving to work on Maui

Kind of takes the edge off the daily commute.

Jeff playing around with video

Not all our work is behind the desk. In fact the definition between work and play can get confusing here. I have always mucked about with cameras and this is my first jump into video for many years. Just a start, but pretty fun! This is the Sanyo Xacti waterproof video camera thrown up on the top of my mast of a Smack 4.8m with a really crappy unstable mount. Live and learn.

Tom finalizes new Wave Seat harness.

After introducing this harness in 2006, we stopped making them due to production issues. Now we are building them again, and Tom has tuned up the harness with better stainless steel buckles, and simpler waist belt. Look for these to be in stock in February or March.

Taka and Glenn design a new freak.

Taka is off to Japan and then on the Phillipines to do a windsurf photo story. We are building him some colorful Freaks for the trip.

Looks like Glenn had lunch at Subway today, YUM.

Here we go with our new Hot Sails Maui blog. Glenn, Tom and I will post to this to share what we are up to here on Maui.

One the first Day....

This has to start somewhere, so why not here on this rainy evening on Maui. 

There is a high work advisory posted for the North shore; no wind and rain with mega swell. Good day to start.