Come on dudes, give us an update...

Nice one Paulio ...

Have you noticed how many 'hot' chick-kiters there are over there ? ... I'm sure you would of ...

Where did you actually kite that first day if it wasn't Kite-beach ?

Nice little town Paia, don't ya reckon...

G'day Buzz

Hows that FLX going? We managed to sell our Coogee store 5 hrs before we flew out of Sydney, so it was extra relaxing for my partner who worked hard in the Coogee store for several years.
Hawaii was excellent, could have kited every day, but since I had my partner in tow I had a few days off. Picked it perfectly on the day we rode down the volcano in Maui on bikes, was the lightest wind of the days I was there, but it was still kiteable later in the afternoon.
Winds were good while I was there only one day got above 25 knots though (Peaked around 30ish I reckon), the locals said the direction we had for the week we were there was unusual, coming in from the E and ENE at times, instead of the usual SE. We were very fortunate though because we were able to test a huge variety of kite sizes and models!!
The usual SE at Kite Beach is sketchy, tends to be gusty and offshore on the tiny beach there. Funny thing was I felt lime I was at home with the tiny beach and lots of rocks (Dolls!!), except the water was 25-27C like a bath!
Saw the biggest shark I have seen kiting, Ivan from SHQ saw it too. I spotted it when I was coming down from a jump off a small wave, I was coming down right on its tail, made sure I stuck that landing!!! Rode a few metres upwind and then turned to see if I could see it again, then kept going and gave Ivan the heads up, he saw its dorsal fin and we estimated it was approx 3M long, a Tiger shark. Also saw turtles every day, big ones on Maui, smaller ones over at Kailua on Oahu. These guys could definately ruin your day and cause an injury, they just pop up for air anywhere, sometimes right in front of you.
Oahu is nice, it was great to trek up to the North Shore and see Sunset and Pipeline, Waimea etc, could have kites up there that day, but would have been alone. I did see another guy way out, with a big Naish (Raven?) and it just looked too light and sketchy, so kept my kiting to Kailua which was excellent, especially just downwind of the island and around the reefs at the back.

Cabrinha kite stuff this year will be absolutely bombproof in all areas, huge improvements to the kites construction including new materials, double and triple layering in critical areas around all struts, leading edge, trailing edge. New construction techniques on the leading edge making it super light and strong, and we hammered these demo kites, there were about 20 of us and the kites were on the water a lot, and ridden hard. I smacked an 8M SB3 into the water so hard one day amazing it relaunched and kept flying.!!
There will be two surfboards on offer from Cab this year, based on Pete's own designs, he is an amazing rider and really nice person He has pushed through a wave kite too, can't say too much just yet the design was not fully finished, but it will have some great features that make it ideal for wave riding, will only come in 7/9/12 sizing, it will be called the Revolver. Many of us had direct input on the kite designs with the Cab designer Pat Goodwin who was on the beach every day testing new kites and bridles back to back with riders. The whole Cabrinha management and design team were on hand and we tested everything. New harnesses are a huge improvement over any previous Cab stuff.
Still the SB3 was my favourite, with the CB3 a close second and the Contra2 14M my pick for a light wind kite for my weight (72kg).

The board line up will be Prodigy, Imperial and Custom, as well as the 2 surfboards in 5'3" and 5'9" (quad fin). The custom was amazing good in the choppy ocean conditions and still ok for my lame waveriding, so smooth in chop. New footbeds and super comfy wide straps.

Did not see any new kites from the other companies, although the Naish dealer conference was starting on the day I left Maui.

Overall impression is go there once in your life for sure, but as a winter escape, there would be lots better places, including North QLD. Most of the locals were super cool, the only issues we had were with some dodgy looking young guys who tried too steal our backpacks at kitebeach (non kiters). Its the land of huge cars and amazing consumption for sure, the cars and bikes they are allowed to have on the road are incredible.

The day I got back Sydney was in the middle od some of the worst storms in decades, its frreeezing, and my body wants the bath water back!

Cya and Goodwinds

Steve