Back in Maui after a long trip to Costa Brava, where the winds were light and gusty sure make slalom sailing a lot more enjoyable. This was the third Maui Race Series of the summer and I was glad to be back racing in some real slalom type conditions.  Even though we had lighter than normal Maui Summer winds I was powered up all day on my 7.6 TR9 and my 66cm wide JP slalom board.  In the morning it was looking like it was going to be a normal Maui windy day where 7.0 or 6.6 would be a good size but then some clouds and rain squalls moved in and the wind backed down a bit.  Most people were on sails in the 7.0 range but there were a few of us who had the right setup to go for that slightly bigger gear which seemed to pay off.

The morning heats were the age groups and I normally have to battle with Phil, Kevin Ozee and Peter Slate, but this weekend there was some of the best racers from Japan in town and they showed they came to race.  In the first race Peter nailed his start and was down the road along with Phil at the first mark.  I battled back and just managed to overtake Phil but couldn't quite make up the needed ground to get Peter.  I didn't have a great start in the first race so I changed up my tactics a bit in the next race and it helped as I managed to get a first place after a tough battle on the first reach.  In the next two races I managed again to come out on top but it was a tough battle with the Japanese sailors who were nailing there starts but just didn't quite have the straight line speed.  After three bullets and a second I took the 40-49 age group followed by Peter Slate, Akahiko Yamada and Phil. 

After a lunch break it was back to the water for the Pro division and it was sure to be a battle with a couple of European pros who race PWA full time were in town for some testing and tuning and joined in the fun.  Marco Lang from Asutria and Gunner Asmussen from Germany were looking forward to some good racing and training.  Also coming out of the 19-39 age group was always fast Dan Ellis so along with Phil, Peter and the Japanese crew it was sure to be some tight racing.  I stuck with the same gear as I had in the morning as the squalls were still around and the wind wasn't really picking up.  After my poor starting in the morning I finally got on track and started to hit the line on time.  I even put my go pro on the nose for the first two races to give everyone out there a front seat.  I felt much better in the afternoon, with better starts and good speed I managed four straight bullets to take the pro division.  Dan put up a great fight and came in a close second followed by Gunnar and then Marco.  In the Semi Pro it was my fellow Maui Sails team mate Sam Bockius who was cleaning up winning with three bullets.

After a full day of racing Kevin Ozee from Second Wind put on the awards party with free food and drink, I unfortunately had to miss it with family plans already in the works but I am sure it was a good time with plenty for everyone.  Now I have two weeks of testing and training to do before the next race series which I think is the County Championships.  But I have already been talking with Art and Phil and the TR10 testing is getting under way and we should have some new ideas for the water very soon.  In the meantime I am working hard on getting in tip top racing shape and getting my gear finely tuned for the next PWA event in Turkey!!!

Aloha
Micah Buzianis

Photos by Jimmie Hepp and Harry Wiewel