Very late start today, we headed over to west Maui to meet Robert Stroj, the Neil Pryde sail designer at his house and sail loft. This was quite a trip - the road (340) peters out with an "end of state highway" sign and continues for a couple of miles or more, often single track which appears to be a bit challenging for the average Maui tourist or even local.
Rob's house is pretty cool, but not exactly the spot you'd pick if you liked strolling down the pub of an evening. It's basically on the side of the mountain, overlooking the bays, and is one of those modernistic funny sharp angles and concrete efforts, with lots of sunbleached teak and suchlike. The loft is basically a large garage with a giant table and a helpful Louisa who operates the sewing machine and computerised cutter. She was busy knocking out some custom racing sails for Antoine Albeau - he wanted a 12.5m since he wasn't getting enough power with a 12m!! Also requires a longer custom mast. Blimey. Robert patiently answered lots of questions, it was quite interesting hearing about his thinking and so on, and the things he gets to do. I had a discussion with Guy later about it, which was also interesting - the Mauians clearly live in a bit of a bubble, which is nice for them but not necessarily driving the business in the right direction, but I guess they know what they're doing...
So it was quite a bit later that we went down to Sprecks, feeling pretty chilled. The wind was up and down and it was raining on and off, quite weird in a shortie wetsuit! We were instructed to attempt forward loops, but I have to say I didn't try one even. The waves were happening out on the reef, upwind, and I just worked my way in and out, upwind, in the rain, in the sun...
And Guy videoed us a bit, which proved interesting later - I keep running ahead of the wave, which is bad timing on my part. More effort required! However, a good sesh...
Rob's house is pretty cool, but not exactly the spot you'd pick if you liked strolling down the pub of an evening. It's basically on the side of the mountain, overlooking the bays, and is one of those modernistic funny sharp angles and concrete efforts, with lots of sunbleached teak and suchlike. The loft is basically a large garage with a giant table and a helpful Louisa who operates the sewing machine and computerised cutter. She was busy knocking out some custom racing sails for Antoine Albeau - he wanted a 12.5m since he wasn't getting enough power with a 12m!! Also requires a longer custom mast. Blimey. Robert patiently answered lots of questions, it was quite interesting hearing about his thinking and so on, and the things he gets to do. I had a discussion with Guy later about it, which was also interesting - the Mauians clearly live in a bit of a bubble, which is nice for them but not necessarily driving the business in the right direction, but I guess they know what they're doing...
So it was quite a bit later that we went down to Sprecks, feeling pretty chilled. The wind was up and down and it was raining on and off, quite weird in a shortie wetsuit! We were instructed to attempt forward loops, but I have to say I didn't try one even. The waves were happening out on the reef, upwind, and I just worked my way in and out, upwind, in the rain, in the sun...
And Guy videoed us a bit, which proved interesting later - I keep running ahead of the wave, which is bad timing on my part. More effort required! However, a good sesh...
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