The race series kicked off with a bang this season, winds were great all day for the first race.  The turnout was a little less than last year but word is that there is a bunch of people coming from Asia and NZL for the next few.  This certainly didn't hamper anyones spirits or competitiveness. 

The morning races were age groups and the toughest groups had to be the 19-39 and 40-49.  In the youngsters group Dan Ellis dominated winning all four races while Mateus Isaac managed a great fourth place finish while trying out some of the TR9's from the Second Wind rental fleet.  Mateus is a young up and coming racer from Brazil and this was his first time racing in the Maui Race Series.  In the upper age groups fellow Maui Sails team Mates were dominating their age groups as well with Local Maui boy Mike Yasik won all four races in the 50-59 and Todd MacFarlane won all four of his races in the 60 and up.  In the 40-49 I managed to get four bullets on way to victory in front of Peter Slate and in third was Kevin Ozee who had a nice showing in his first race back after a couple of years break.  And with another dominating victory for team MauiSails Tamara Bockius won 3 of her four heats to take the Women's Open.

The wind in the morning was perfect for my TR9 7.0 and 59 JP Slalom, this was my first race on this size gear of the season and it was feeling very good.  It may not have been the PWA but Dan Ellis and Peter Slate could both come out for any PWA event and easily make a final or two so it was great racing and great practice for my new gear.  In the afternoon the competition heated up along with the wind, it was onto the ability groups with Pro, Semipro and Expert.  The wind had kicked up a few knotches as well and I went down to my 6.6 TR9 and stayed on my 59 JP.  The pro division was a packed heat with all the winners from the morning session as well as the rest of the fast Maui guys.  I again managed four bullets on my way to another win but I had some great battles on the start, first reach and first mark with Dan and Peter who were second and third respectively.  It was to bad that Phil wasn't on island to do a little more battling with but he will be back for the next race to fly the Maui Sails flag while I am off to Costa Brava and then I will be back to go head to head with him for the final three races of the summer.