Tradewind was the title of a very early windsurfing film starring Mike Waltze and friends, pioneers of the waves on Maui.

In those days I was sailing longboards on cold gravel pits in the suburbs of London, Tradewinds was a rented VHS tape.  It was powerful stuff, the newly evolved short board scene on Maui, wave riding in technicolor.

In an opening sequence of the film Mike Waltze rigs his sail on a lawn under a coconut tree, the camera follows him through a garden gate, across a strip of white sand, he jumps on and sails off to the glorious Hawaiian waves outside his backyard.

That vision of a ‘windsurfer’s paradise’ stayed with me.  My first pilgrimage to Maui was in my twenties, camping in a ridge tent in an upcountry field and sailing a dinged up old custom board from the swap-meet.

Now I’m back, and this time we’re living in the North Shore house with the lawn on the beach.  If Mike Waltze didn’t rig in this garden, it must have been one of our neighbours along this strip.  A few beach houses looking out to the reefs of Upper Kanaha and Camp One.  Thirty odd years since that film flickered out of a tv set and blew my mind.  Now here we are, those trade winds are blowing side-shore every day, I smile every time I rig a sail on the lawn!

Ho’okipa Beach Park is kind of a big deal in windsurfing.  It has always been the elite wave-sailing spot.  Training ground for the pro sailors, legendary surf conditions, easily the most photographed wave in the windsurfing world.  For the visiting sailor it can be intimidating.  It’s a pretty technical place to sail, the launch can be tricky with strong currents and the surf is fast and powerful.  There are ‘the rocks’ which lurk just inside where the waves are ridden, a nasty rinse-cycle of white water and currents.  Every day sailors emerge from ‘the rocks’ with broken gear, bleeding knees and bruised egos.  Oh, and a surfer was bitten by a reef shark here last week.

Then there’s the crowd.  The standard of sailing here is ridiculously high.  The locals are so dialled in to the conditions and there are regularly 30 or more sailors, all hungry for waves and nothing goes unridden.  Would I even get a wave?

My first few sessions were all about the crowd.  I am used to sailing alone, or with a few of the Guernsey crew, so the hectic scramble for waves was hard to adjust to.  But after a few days at Ho’okipa, I just started to really enjoy it.  Yes it’s busy, but there are plenty of great waves and I am sailing with the best windsurfers in the world.  I might learn something!

All our friends from the windsurf contests in Baja were going to be in Hawaii for the final event of the American Windsurf Tour: The Aloha Classic.

I was persuaded to compete in the AWT amateurs and Masters divisions again, but I think what they really wanted was Dawn’s organisational skills to help run the event.