Maui April 2011

Considering I currently suffering from fulltime employment, the dream run of epic travels continued this April, Maui’s north shore was next on the hit list.

Tuesday 19^th April my alarm went off at 5.30am, I had no problem jumping out of bed, time for Hawaii. First though, I jumped on the bike for a couple hours, the best thing before a long haul flight. In no time at all we met the crew at Melbourne Airport – Joel Ryan, Brendan Boxall, Mark Taylor, Spotty, Ted, Joel’s dad Bernie and My dad Tom. Piled up our bags and jumped on the plane. Chasing the moon the day was over before we knew it and new thing we knew we were in Maui! Flying in we noticed that there was a little bit of swell around, but not too much wind. Tired and hungry we picked up our rental vans with only minimal dramas. I felt that it was my responsibility to show the USA virgins some typical American diner style food – First stop IHOP (International House of Pancakes).

Most had never been to such a place - where in Melbourne can you get: an omelet that feeds 3 people + 3 Pancakes + bottomless cup of coffee, all for under $10? No where.

Paia Town HI

By the time we finished lunch it was about 12.30pm, and in typical Maui style the trade winds had kicked in. All of a sudden these tired and weriery travelers where full of energy and itching to get in the water.

Hookipa beach

We found our accommodation - Sprecks beach resort. The location could not have been better, views of Sprecks beach, and perfect rigging lawns right in front our accommodations, almost good enough for practicing some putting.

Considering there was a bit of swell and the wind seemed to be up I was very excited to get to Hookipa beach – World famous wave sailing location, (The Mecca of wave sailing)

Hookipa

We were greeted with conditions better than expected, steady cross shore wind and head high waves. We also met up with fellow Aussies, Al McCleod from Melbourne and Ben Newson from Perth.

They had been in town for almost 2 weeks already, experiencing Maui at is best and its worst. Today was the first day in almost a week they had been on the water let alone even seen any waves.

Later that night the final member of our crew, Phil Chalko flew in from Germany.

After getting that all important first sail under our belts it was time for some ‘Good’ local food, so we celebrated our arrival the Paia’s Fish Market restaurant.

The next few days we experienced similar conditions – Small shoulder high waves, and light winds around 15 – 20 knots. Just enough for us to settle back into Starboard tack wavesailing, it had been almost a year since we had had conditions anything like this.

By about day 4 the trade winds really started kicking in, with a couple days getting up to about 30knots. The swell however was almost non existent, but conditions where forecasted to improve.. A little...

There was no shortage of a party either, we met up with local mates from past trips, to Maui and from other windsurfing locations around the world. One particular wild night we found our self’s at Paia’s local bakery / café / night club. Talk about a mix of people – Anyone from Jason Polakow to Owen Wilson was there all having pretty wild time. The night ending with activates ranging from skinny dipping at Paia beach to drunken grand theft auto, just to name a couple.

Beach Party

The following morning it wasn’t windy, and that wasn’t a bad thing, as everyone was feeling a bit delicate and sore from the nights adventures. None more hung over and confused than Ben. (That’s a whole other story though.)

The days ahead were a bit of a surprise, the trusty website windguru was not looking too good. A small swell was suppose to make its way over to Maui from the north and the wind look very light for the next few days. In reality almost the opposite happened. A couple days later the trade winds really started to fire, ripping up a good wind swell combined with a bit of ground swell, making for some epic conditions at Hookipa.

You know it’s a good day when your sharing waves with pros such as Kevin Prichard, Jason Polako, Levi Siver, Keith Taboul, just to name a few, Basically 90% of the worlds top windsurfers were all in the water at one time.

Apart from the conditions being epic the show that the pros were putting on was pretty amazing!

We though we would make the most of the conditions and organized a local mate of ours Frankie from Maui Water shoot to get in the water and take some actions shots of the crew in action – Thanks Frankie I think these shots turned out really well! - http://www.mauiwatershoot.com/

After 4 days of big winds, solid waves and countless hours of time on the water we were all stuffed. I could feel every muscle in my body was swollen and acking. It was a good feeling because I knew I had made the most out of the conditions.

Gradually the trade winds lessened and the swell started to drop, we continued to sail Hookipa milking the last hours out of our trip, know that in a few days I would be back in my office sitting behind a computer.

We did it again, it feels like I squeezed a months worth of sailing and activities into two weeks. Another awesome Maui experience! I cant wait to be back on the island…

Triman Torquay April 2011

About 8 months ago I decided that if I was going to be living in Melbourne full time, I would need another hobby / sport to keep me motivated and active. So I bought road bike. In the few months that followed this somehow turned into triathlons. Next thing I knew I entered my self into the Gatorade Series in Melbourne and my carrier as a triathlete had started.

A steep leaning curve followed as I noticed my transition technique improve as well as my fitness. During this past summer I competed in 6 triathlons. As I progressed and my fitness improved the idea of a half ironman was brought to the table by good friend and training partner Jaselyn O’Sullavin. At first I though it was a joke, but I slowly got my head around the idea and singed up.

April 3^rd 2011 – Tri Man Torquay 1.9km Swim, 90km Cycle and 21.5km Run.

No mean feat, this was going to be on the most grueling experiences of my life. I do like a challenge!

The alarm went off at 4.30am, I lay in bed trying to force in the food. One of the biggest learning expenses of this race was understanding nutrition, and how to fuel your body while racing. This actual started 2 days before the race with come serious carb loading. By the time I got to race morning I was so sick of eating. I jumped on the scales the days before race days and weighed in at 86.5kgs, the heaviest I had ever been.

By the time Jase and I got to the transition area we could just start to see some light in the east. Start time was 7.30am.

A bit dazed and confused, this race was a bit defferent to the other Tri’s I had entered. Way more organization was needed, by the athletes and by the organizers them selfs.

In my transision area I had a changes of clothes, Bike about 3 liters of water and electrolight drink, 3 peanut butter and honey sandwiches, 7 endura energy gels a powerbar. All these thing need to be either worn or eaten during the course of the race.

Finally the race started, I felt good in the swim. I paced my self as best as I could. I wasn’t in the leading pack, I think I was somewhere leading the packin the middle of the first wave of athletes.

After about 25 mins I was out of the water, feeling pretty fresh. Over to transission it was all happening. Riding nicks on, food packed water ready, on the bike!

Condtions for the race were actually pretty good. Much better than forecasted anyway. Light winds and cool tempretures. As the ride grew on the winds picked up.

My aim was to average 30kms p/h over the 90km course. I achieved this with an overall average of around 31km p/h average.

I tried to keep my mind busy by concentrating on my nutrsision plan so that I proformace didn’t suffer. For the ride I ate ¼ of a peanut butter and honey sandwitch every 20mins, finishing with a powerbar towards the end of the bike leg to give me a boost for the run.

I finally got off the bike in just under 3 hours. Into transission, ready for the run. I was a little nervous about this part for the race, as I had never run this distance before. In a normal situation I sure I would have no problem, but after 3.5hours of swimming and rideing it could be a different story.

My goal was to keen an average of 5mins per km. I soon relised that this was not going to happen. So I tried to find a comfortable pace and stick to it. I found that I was comfortable running about 5.15min kms. I also continued my nutrision plan by eating every 20mins, except I was now eating the energy gels.

By the end of the race these were getting harder and harder to get down.

At one point in the race atvabout the 9km mark my mind started to drift and I found that I was really hurting, I couldn’t focus on my pace and things were getting very hard. I started to have doubts on weather I would finish. Then all of a sudden it his me, I haddent eaten anything in like 27mins. I quickly gobbled down a gel, and with in less then a min I could feel its effects. In a couple mins I felt on top of the world, powering ahead.

Finaly the finish line was in sight, it was an amazing feeling crossing that line. 5 hours about 13mins. It was a big race. Pretty happy that I was able to finish, let alone in a time that I was also happy with.

It was a great experance, during the race I though many times, Why am I doing this? I would never do this again. Now looking back I could see my self doing another, maybe not right now, but it could be done.

Jackson Hole February 2011

What can I say about this trip – Minimal time maximum snow!

We could not have timed this any better. Full time employment this year has resulted in less skiing and windsurfing more working and having to spend way more money on getting those few days, just to keep my sanity.

Good mate and top ski buddy Nick Hooper and I spent 2 weeks in Jackson this past February. We had over 50inchs of new snow over the two weeks. Perfect conditions, sunny days snowy nights and a stable snowpack. The world famous back country was in as good a condition as I had ever seen it!

A 2 week ski trip should not be as good as this – We got lucky

A Tiny Day in the Jackson Hole Backcountry from Tristan Greszko on Vimeo.

NZ August 2010

After a quick over nights stay in Auckland, I got up early to make my 7am flight to Queenstown. At check-in I was confronted with the usual, “Sorry sir your bags are too heavy, you will have to re-pack…” Which I replied with my usual reply, something along the lines of, “Vie already paid for excess baggage, I’m not paying for it again.”

To my surprise when I arrived in Queenstown my bags where sitting there waiting for me. Too easy! Next on the morning agenda was to pick up my rental car, which was referred to in the brochure as a Juice Box. Quite an apt description of what the car looked like and how it preformed Not a bad deal, $25 a day to rent a car plus a free ski pass to Treble Cone. Thankyou Jucy Rentals.

The sun was shining I was in Queenstown and it wasn’t even 10am, what to do… Maybe ski? Up to the Remarkables I went, hurtling up the dirt road in the Juice box. Nearing the top of the hill things got a little slippery, and the Juice box struggled a bit with traction. Once at the top I geared up, boots on, time to hit the slopes. It was a pretty nice day, slushy snow, no crowds and clear skies. It was definitely not an epic pow day, but it was certainly better than a day at work.

After ripping up The Remark for a few hours I headed down the hill and over the Crown range to Wanaka, where I was going to be staying for the majority for my trip. I met up with good friend and fellow Jackson Hole skier Nick Hooper. He has been living in Wanaka all winter working for Southern Lakes Heli Ski. His house mates were nice enough for offer me there spare room for a week or so.

The week continued on, I skied up at Treble Cone with alright conditions. Meeting up with a couple mates along the way. Little be of fresh with good visibility. Nothing spectacular though, so I though I would make the most of my Jucy rental and head back over the Crown Range and check the conditions back at the Remarkables.
I caught up with some old mates from Melbourne on the way, Luke Carter key and Quieten Adams. To be honest these guys weren’t the best ski partners, the whole snowboarding thing really lows them down… However they do make good drinking buddies!

So after a cruisie day at the Remarks we headed out into Queenstown to see what kind of trouble we could find.

We ran into fellow Melbournians, James Willis, Will McClure and Matt Demarco. Next thing we knew we found our self’s in a bar complete with skate board ramp, which was great entertainment!
This night took a dramatic turn when I received a phone call at about 9pm. My mate Nick Hooper who I was staying with in Wanaka was at work, on the front desk for Southern Lakes Heli ski. He rang to tell me they had a last minuet cancelation and if we wanted we could fill the chopper for next to nothing…
So I proposed the question the boys.., They were in. Tomorrow, things could get a little interesting. I could see the excitement and anticipation surging out of the group immediately. None of them had ever been heli skiing, let alone a heli before.

The next morning we met up at the Heli skiing office, geared up and headed out to the heli port. Unfortunately no new snow had fallen in a couple days, the skies were a little cloudy.

Never the less, we were going Heli skiing! How could you go wrong?

We had 4 runs, each one progressively worse then the other. Not really the result I was looking for. But the other boys were totally stoked. Which along with the awesome heli ride made it worth while.

A couple days later it was pack up time for Wanaka. Time to head north to the Canterbury ranges near Christchurch. The reason for the trip was the Big Mountain skiing competition know as the Chill series. This year the Chill Series were held over one week, at two locations, Craigieburn, and Mt Olympus.

I wasn’t travelling alone we had a 4 car convoy consisting of skiers from all over the world, NZ, Aus, USA, Norway and Sweden. We had an epic trip up through an amazingly scenic part of New Zealand. One of the high lights was stopping at Lake Tekapo for a bbq dinner. We had a spectacular view of the sun setting over Mt Cook while we feasted on fresh local salmon.

The journey continued on, and we made it to Craigieburn that night.

Mt Cook - Highest peak in NZ

We woke up the next morning to fine weather and good snow, I sight not always seen in NZ. Which meant that there was no stuffing around, today would be comp day.

This gave me very minimal time to ski or even see the terrain that was on offer. However the first challenge was getting up the mountain and learning to use a nut cracker. Which is basically a over sized metal clam the you through over the rope tow. I worked it out fairly quickly, which was lucky as it gave me time for 2 practice runs before the competition began.

To be honest I felt pretty overwhelmed with the new area, the lack of preparations and lack of ski fitness, I wasn’t on top of my game.. My skiing reflected this, I put down a very average run, getting lost about half way down and missing most of my features. It was still a great experience and an awesome opportunity to ski and new area. On the up side It gave me more time to free ski, explore and practice for the next round at Mt Olympus in a couple days.

In typical NZ fashion the following morning the weather closed in and the final was cancelled, time to more on to Mt Olympus. The convoy headed out through some amazing country. The roads became tougher and my little Jucy rental was only just keeping up. Steep hill climbs, dirt and gravel roads and even creek crossings on supposed ‘Short cuts’ really pushed the limits of this little beast. By the time we made it to the base of Mt Olympus I figured this vehicle was un stoppable. By this stage it was late, and we were on need of some rest, so we made our was to the basic but comfortable cabin at the base of the mountain.

The next morning the weather looked marginal to say the least but it was the final day of our window for competition so the Chill guys were going to do their best to run an event. We loaded up the Juice box and crawled up the gravel road.

At point it would have been nice if someone mentioned that the road up Mt Olympus was pretty rough, but no one really did, as I figured that this car had been through quite a bit over the last couple days, one more hill climb shouldn’t pose a problem. Or would it?

The road went from bad to worse. Steep gravel switchbacks as far as I could see. At one point I had to get everyone out and push while I floored it in first gear just to get up the road. Bumping and jumping around the rocky road. We finally made it to the top, wondering if we would be able to make it down in one piece.

As soon as we opened the door, we knew there was a serious problem. There was a very strong smell of petrol in the air. I looked under the car to see a hole about the size of a 10c coin with petrol pouring out… Not good!

The rest of my morning was spent ringing rental companies and tow companies working out how to get the car back down and to the repair shop. After 20 or so pone calls things eventually worked them self s out. So I decided to get out and make the most of the day.

The competition was called off due to weather, so I was glad in a way I didn’t miss out on that.

The afternoon rolled around and I managed to bum a lift off some mates back to Christchurch as I was now car less. My flight was at 4pm the next day.

Not the nest way to end a trip, but it was an adventure. Meeting new people skiing new areas and having a good time.
Never a dull moment skiing and travelling in New Zealand!

Western Aus road trip December 2010 - January 2011

It had been a miserable summer so far in Melbourne. Cold, lots of rain and worst of all no wind. Our Western Oz trip couldn’t have come soon enough. The plan was 3 weeks away. I had decided to team up with good mate Craig (Spotty) and take to the open road and drive west, rather than fly. Driving over had its benefits . The best part of driving was not having to worry about excess baggage. Which is normally a big problem with flying. I almost took this as a challenge and packed as much equipment as possible. On the other hand the drive normally takes 3 days from Melbourne to Perth.

Windsurfing gear: Board, 5 sails, 3 masts, 2 booms. Kiting gear, and my SUP, (9’6” MacTavish.) Add that to, camping gear, cooking, camera equipment, and all of Spotty’s gear, and we where fully loaded!

We finally hit the road at about 2.30pm Wednesday the 22^nd of December. Escaping the Melbourne traffic and cursing along the high way. We put in a good effort that night, driving for almost 12 hours, making it about 1 hour out of Port Augusta SA. The next morning we got going early and continued West towards the Nullarbor. We were chasing the sun, so it was hard to keep track of time. It was a long day, Im not even sure how many hours we drove for in total. That night we made it well in to WA about 2 hours of out Norsman, before finding a truck stop and pulling in passing out in the back of the van.

With the change in time zones, we were up early again and made it to our first stop, Esperance, on the South coast of WA. We pulled into town a bit dazed and confused. It was only 9am, but it felt more like mid afternoon. In an effort to try and adjust our body clock we decided to get stuck in to a big breakfast and some coffee’s at the tea rooms, right on the water front over looking the Port and the Yacht club.

This my first time in Esperance so Spotty did his bit to try show me around town before the wind picked up. From this point we could see people our surfing, on some nice waves. Instantly I perked up and forgot about the drive we had just done, I couldn’t wait to get in the water. Jumped in water and paddled out, only about 4 other surfers in the water. There was a nice steep head high left hander. Awesome fun! Just what I needed after a big drive.

Christmas day, we woke up and cooked a big breakfast on the Barbie and ate until we couldn’t eat any more. Sat around relaxing for an hour or so before we noticed the wind picking up, time to get wet!

It looked like the place to be was Fourths beach. I rigged a 5.0m, Spotty a 5.8m

Pretty fun head high some were bigger with the wind a little cross-on shore. Good opportunity to re-learn how to jump on the port tack.

By the end of the day it was firing, I was fully powered and the jumps were awesome! Great way to spend Christmas day.

Boxing day. A little more swell, similar wind. We headed down to 9 mile or Observation point for some good cross-off shore conditions.

The wave was super clean punchy beach break. Awesome fun getting some good rides and some aerials. We sailed all day until we had no more energy.

Back on the road again, headed North west for Perth to meet up with the rest of the Melbourne crew who flew over.

We made it into Perth by mid arvo met up with everyone and had a few beers at the Little Creatures Brewery in Freemantle.

Next stop Lancelin, about 1.5 hours north of Perth. We were now traveling in a convoy. Spotty’s Mercedes van (The Silver Bullet) 5 campervans and another normal van. We arrived in Lano, to find that it was windy, perfect!

15 – 20 knots so time for some kiting.

Finished the day with a pub meal and a few beverages. Nice!

Next we pushed further north to Geraldton. Probably the most fun place to windsurf I have ever been. I hadn’t been there in a couple years so I was pretty excited about it! Quick stop in town to set up camp then made a B line to Coronation Beach, which is another 20mins up the road North.

Once again it was windy! 25 knots swell was head to about ¾ mast high. Again, perfect! Had an awesome sail, massive jumps, big back loops and some fun wave rides. The beer in the Coro’s car park tasted particular good that night!

We headed back to the caravan park in town and cooked a bbq, and re-cap on the days events.

The next 2 days we did exactly what we did the day before. Couldn’t ask for much more really! Finishing up with New Years Eve. Which was kicked off with a 20L container of fresh Majito’s.

New Year Day brought with it a hang over, new swell and 25 – 30knots. Sunset beach was breaking with waves up to ¾ mast high. So we rigged up in front of our tents and campers and walked the 80m to the water.

Great day, the wind swung a little off shore towards the end of the day which cleaned the waves up. Welcome 2011!

Unfortunately there was a tropical cyclone up North off the coast, and as usual this heated up the temps on the WA coast and killed the wind. We decided it was best to make our escape and head South. Back to Lancelin for the night, again no wind there either, hot and humid. The forecast for the week was not looking good…

The next 4 days were basically a right off. We hung out in Perth in the cheapest hotel room we could find that had air conditioning. Finally on Thursday the wind looked like it was going to make its return, so we headed back to Lancelin.

Friday the 17^th of Jan, was the start of the Ledge to Lancelin event (http://www.lancelinoceanclassic.com.au/)

Friday was the qualifying event for the Wave competition, Saturday was the Marathon race (Main event) and the Wave finals. In less than average conditions I floated out to the South Passage of Lancelin for my heat in the Open Wave qualifying. 5 – 10 knots cross-on with wave sets up to and sometimes over mast high. Not ideal.

In the 20min heat I managed to get 3 waves that’s all I had time for as the wind was so light I couldn’t move around the beak any quicker. The first 2 waves were about ¾ mast high, the 3^rdwas just over mast high, pretty scary with no wind!

Somehow I managed to score highly enough and progressed through to the next round. Saturday brought more wind than the day before. By the time the Marathon race started it was about 20 – 25 knots. 300 sailors lined up at ledge point for the start if the world longest ocean race. Quite a spectacular view, helicopters in the sky, TV cameras everywhere and hundreds of people on the beach watching. Spotty had a great start off the beach but unfortunately his new boom exploded before the first mark. Race over.

Later on the wind turned a little more off shore things started looking good! The final for the Open wave comp was set to start at 6.30pm. I went out for a quick burn around to test the wind strength at about 6, I felt pretty comfortable on a 5.3m most people felt the same. 6.30 the final started a 20min round. Once we were out the back of the wave break we all discovered that it was much winder than we expected! I should have been on a 4.7m I was well over powered!

This made landing tricks hard, so I didn’t go for many I was having way too much fun catching waves! I got about 6 waves, I had some great turns and even got some aerials. Way too much fun! Unfortunately being too over powered and not jumping cost me, and I didn’t place in the final.

Later on that night we found our self’s at the Endeavor Tavern, official watering hole of the event. Many drinks were drunk by many people. It was a great night! Followed by the after party, which didn’t finish up until the sun came up about 5.30am.

Sunday - Hung-over we packed up and headed out of Lano south to Perth. The trip was almost over. Early Monday we woke up at a mates place in Cottesloe and headed off back to Esperance, as the forecast was looking good for the afternoon. 8 hours later when we arrived at 9mile beach we found a good breeze but not a lot of swell, only about chest to head high in the sets. We still went out and for our final WA sail.

After sailing we packed it in, got the van sorted and hit the road headed for Melbourne. That night we made it about 2 hours out of Norsman still in WA. Up as early as we could the next day and drove all day, we made it to Port Wakefield SA, about 2 hours out of Adelaide. Drive home day 3 we pushed on into Vico only get stopped by some flooded roads just out of Horsham.

The final day was a killer, so close, yet so far from home, we finally made it into the Melbourne by about 6.30pm. Massive journey, back to the real world!

The final days living on Maui time

As our time here on Maui draws to a close, I feel like I have almost fully adjusted to the Maui time. There’s been no shortage of wind. We have been on the water everyday for over 2 weeks now. (Well that’s kind of a lie, I did take a day off after I injured my knee.) Unfortunately the swell didn’t really pull through for us. Which we now know is totally normal for this time of year. We really only had the wind swell to play with. This can still be good fun. But nothing like the Circus we saw at Ho’okipa when we first arrived. 4m wave faces, strong cross shore winds, most of the worlds pro waves sailors on the water at once getting it done! While helicopters hover above filming and shooting photos. A sight to see!

Levi - Trademark top turn explosion

One particular day at Sprecks this week things just seemed to click. I’ve been working on a move while I've been here called a Push Loop. (Basically an over-rotated back-loop landing tail first.) I had landed one or two since arriving, but that day at Sprecks, I couldn’t crash one. Sticking 5 in a row.

The next day we sailed at Kanaha. We saw windy conditions. There were waves, but because Kanaha is an outer reef the waves don’t always break properly. In order to find nice ramps for jumping, or waves for riding a good amount of luck was needed.

Feeling pretty confident with my push loops now, I went for a couple over the first hour. Landing one, and horribly over rotating the other. Things went so bad I some how managed to land off my board with my fore arms on my fins and my face hitting the other side of my arms… Lucky.

I little while later I spied a nice clean ramp in the distance. I bared off down wind in order to hit the steepest section of the ramp. Things were lining up perfectly. I launched into the air at top speed and started rotating back, into the loop. As I passed through the eye of the wind I pushed the sail forward, back-winding my self so that I could make the rotation. Things still going well. At this point I think I must have held the ‘Push’ a ¼ of a second too long. As I spot my landing I can see I’m going to under rotate. To counter act this I tuck my knees up to mu chest to give me a little more room to finish the rotation. I hit the water spot on, perfect technique. But as I was so tucked up I didn’t have any absorption left in my legs to absorb the impact. I hit the water, and I can feel the ligaments in my right knee taking all the impact. I felt popping and I'm knee totally seized up as I fell off my board into the water. Having never done any major ligament damage (Touch wood) I was sure that’s what I had done. Scared, and in quite a bit of pain, I wasn’t quite sure what to do, or how I was going to get back to the beach. I lay in the water for a few minuets. By this time Joel had come over to see if I was alright. Slowly I started getting some movement back in my knee. I still hurt, and felt very unstable. Eventually after having about 15 waves break on my head, I drifted into the channel. By this stage I could straighten my leg. I got back on the board and headed for the beach. In the end, it was just a scare. I don’t think I did too much damage, I iced it that night and rested the next day. It still feels a little suss, but happy I didn’t do anything major.

Mast cam footage of me hold my knee in pain

One morning last week some new friends of our offered to take us to some rock pools about 10 minuets east of Paia near the infamous Jaws surf break. This place is something that a tourist just would find. Luckily for us, we met some nice locals. We drove down a dirt road just off the main highway. We parked our cars high on the cliff top looking over the Pacific ocean, amazing view. The rock pools we were told were much further down the cliffs. So we had to walk. There were paths down the cliffs, but they were so steep that there were ropes stakedinto the ground to help you down. About half way down Joel had a thong malfunction and almost fell, to what might have been the end for him. But luckily he had a hind on the rope, and after sliding for about 5 or 6 metres he managed to stop him self.

We reached the pool without any more incidents. The temperature was very nice, so it was straight in for a swim. After the pools we drove back into town for lunch. Our local friends suggested we go to a place called the Fish Market. Not exactly an under ground ‘Locals only’ place, but the food is awesome! Probably the best burger I've ever eaten. Fresh Mahi-Mahi burger with wasabi mayonnaise. Very good.

Day off the water for me today. Resting my knee. I was posted to filming duties.

Back on the water the next day, and back to Kanaha. I just took it easy, testing the strength of my knee. It wasn’t great, pretty unstable I crashed a lot. I decided to put on the helmet cam and do some ‘Follow cam’ filming.

I pulled up really well after my sail and decided to sail again the next day. My knew felt pretty strong now. I hit the water and sailed out to sea. Sailing out probably 2 or 3 km's off the beach pushing up wind so that I could make the ‘Uppers break’ at Kanaha in one run. I sailed a couple runs at Uppers, the conditions were ok.

At one point I was way out he back, gibing on a wave. I flicked the sail around and caught the boom. As I grabbed the boom the whole rig decided to lift 100% off my board. I dropped into the water with one foot in a strap and my hands still on the boom. Knowing if I dropped my rig I would never see it again. Some how the bolt the holds the Euro Pin into the universal joint sheared. Something that shouldn’t happen. But its really no surprise to me as I have proven to my self that I can break the unbreakable. At this point I’m a long way off shore. In deep blue water. Almost in the same spot where we had our shark experience earlier in the trip. So I definitely had a few things on my mind.

Luckily I managed to get Phil’s attention, as he sailed past in the distance. He came over and helped me de-rig my gear. Not an easy task in the water. I piled the gear on my board, and used my down haul to tie is all to the foot straps. I Also slid my harness around back to front so I could lye on my stomach and paddle in. This worked for a bit, but I was so far away from the beach it would taken hours to get back. So I grabbed Phil’s back foot strap and he towed me in. Easy as that sounds, its really really hard. Both for me holding on the strap and for Phil, trying to sail with a massive sea anchor dragging behind him. It was tough, but we did it. We swapped positions a couple times. The whole process took about an hour. We were both pretty rooted by the time we got to the beach. My day was over.

Its Wednesday the 19^th at this point, the final day in the water for Phil, Joel and Al. We sailed Sprecks. It was super windy to start with. I rigged a 3.7m sail. The smallest sail I’ve ever used, which was cool experience in it self. It was a fun day with all the boys ripping around enjoying the last of our Maui adventure. After sailing it was beers in the backyard, while the boys washed sails, de-strapped boards and packed everything ready to go back to sunny Melbourne.

The next morning we started early. Up at 4am, I drove the boys to the airport for the 6am flight. Then back home and back to bed for a couple hours. It was my final day on Maui and really the final day of my USA trip. I’ve been travelling around since the start of January, and as I sat at Anthony’s café in Paia sipping my espresso with a mixture of emotions. Sad for it all to be almost over, but stoked that everything worked out so well. I got to do so many awesome things that people really only get to read about in magazines. I’ve been living the dream for a little over 4 months now. Good feeling!

My flight out of Maui wasn’t until 8.30pm so I had time for one final sail. Not much swell I around, only wind swell. So back to Kanaha. Really windy again, I was on my 4.2m. I ripped around for a couple hours soaking up the last of the sun and warm water I’m going to see for a while. Then back home to pack my gear and get out to the airport.

See ya Maui, It was Awesome!! Ill be back very soon!!