2010 Maui Race Series

...is a slalom race series comprising 5 seperate events, held every summer on Maui for the last 26 consecutive years. Race director, RickVetromile has been a part of every series since the beginning. According to Maui News: "As of last year the Series had run nearly 140 events and 7,000 heats. The 65 year-old Vetromile is an Aspen, Colo., ski instructor in the winter months. He's been the race director since the third event of that initial summer season in 1985."

One thing that is quite unique about the "Series" is how it gets reported. Unlike everywhere else, the local windsurfing race on Maui gets covered in the newspaper. On Sunday morning, when you want the line scores and who won what from the Saturday races at Kanaha, pick up a copy of the Maui News or if you're on the mainland like me, find it on their website.  The June 5, Starboard  Slalom  headline: Buzianis claims 2 titles at MRS season.

Jeff Benett of Maui Windsurfing shot this video of the June 19, DaKine Classic. Results here.



Here's a video by Harry Wiewal from the same DaKine Classic



The Maui News reported Yasak stays unbeaten in 50-59 heats for the July 3, Maui Fin Company Open: Results. Maui Windsurfing added this report and photos.

Let's step back for a moment...I read from more than one source, complaints about the Maui Race Series: mostly, no source of information or news. There's no official website. That's all changed...sort of. Harry Wiewal has created Maui Race Series Facebook. For those of you who have sworn an oath,"I will never ever join the zombied army of Faciebook," you're out of luck. But if you are a FB legionnaire, woo-hoo, there is a treasure trove of photos, links and videos waiting for you at Maui Race Series. You can also catch a bunch of great photos from the 'Series' on Harry's blog: TM Maui.   Some Maui bumper sticker attitude :

The July 17, Quicksilver Cup was, as expected, reported by the Maui News with race results. British based Boards ran this story. Weiwel shot 4 videos, posted to the Facebook site.

The final race of the series, July 31 Neil Pryde Hawaii State Championship, was dutifully reported by Maui News: Double honors for McGain, Roediger. Maui Windsurfing filed a photo report and the video below.




So far, all the photos in this post belong to Harry Wiewel. I'd like to introduce Jimmie Hepp: "I do not windsurf but I like shooting exciting water sports. I have been a ''photographer'' earning money for about 8 years but I've had a camera over 40 years. Digital made it affordable. I started shooting windsurf on a regular basis in April of this year, using my FB page as a website. Since I started, I have collected about 900 windsurf related friends from all over the world who seem to really like my photos!!" Hepp shot every MRS event and is offering for sale a CD of highlights. If you Facebook, all of Hepp's photos are availble to see. I'll finish this report with a few from the Hawaii State Championship:

Postscript   The 60 Days of Summer Project writes: "26 years ago (in 1984) the first Maui Race Series champions were being crowned. If you are old enough and were windsurfing at that time cast your mind back to what it was like in those defining years. I still have windsurfing magazines from 1984 (I was 7 years old); the iconic images of Robby Naish, Mike Waltz, Pete Cabrina and many more of that era inspired me and began to mould my future path. I was 18 when I put my academic career on hold, sold all my race gear and bought a ticket to Hawaii. I owe a debt of gratitude to those early pioneers just as the sport of windsurfing owes a debt of gratitude to the organisers of events and competitions around the world..." For a maha race report http://chrisk97.blogspot.com/2010/08/maui-race-series-state-championships.html