Maui Diary

Nayra Alonso waxes lyrical about her latest adventure to windsurfing’s Pacific stronghold.

“November has been just perfect! I always go to Maui when the PWA season comes to an end. It’s a great place to chill, and provides really good conditions for training, normally a lot of people go over there as well, so it’s really cool.

This time round, a year had passed since I’d been there. I couldn't go in spring because of my foot, so when I finally landed, I was so happy! I was naturally high! And best of all, this year we scored!

We arrived, the next day we had an easy light wind session at Hookipa with mellow head high waves, perfect to kill the jet lag and get into the Maui groove. After that, we had a couple of days off to recharge the batteries and sort our lives a bit, and from then on, the conditions were so good, just so many windy days, with really nice waves all the time.

On average the waves were head high and logo high, not many scary big days, so it was so much fun! We had a couple of weeks that the wind was pretty easterly and strong, what meant that Hookipa was super offshore, strong and gusty, but the waves were super nice and clean.

By the end I was praying for the wind to shut down for a while! For my body’s sake, luckily in the end, it did. The last week I just sailed a couple of freestyle days at Kihei, and surfed on the north shore. It was so good, really glassy and super warm in the water. One day, for the whole session surfing we had this massive turtle right next to us. Honestly, really next to us.

So in the end, the trip could have been a 100% success if it weren't for the gear check in when we had to leave. The guys at the check in were just mean. They didn't even let us speak! They counted every single board and sail we had crazy. In the end, we paid A LOT, and left Maui with a bit of a bitter taste, but now I look back at how much we enjoyed and all the good sessions we had, and I think it was worth it."

Nayra Alonso is sponsored by Severne sails and Fanatic boards.

PWA / Andrew Buchanan