MRS · ISAF · Windsurfer · Learners guide

The Maui Race Series is composed of 5 separate one day slalom events. Race Director, Rick Vetromile, has been a part of every series since the first races in 1985. This will be the 28th consecutive year for the longest running slalom series in the U.S.

• North Sails Slalom ~ June 2
• DaKine Classic ~ June 16
• Hot Sails Maui Grand Prix ~ June 30
• Quicksilver Cup ~ July 14
• Neil Pryde Hawaii State Championship ~ July 28

Connect with the racing at Karen and Jeff Bennett's Maui Race Series Website .  If you want to race, you must fill out, in advance, the  Maui Race Series Entry Form. Mail to Hi-Tech along with your payment by check or money order (US funds) or just drop it by Hi-Tech. The rules governing the Maui Race Series are laid out in this four-page pamphlet: Maui Race Series Rules. Look to Harry Wiewel's Maui Race Series Facebook for more reporting and information.

For last year's race results go to the Hi-Tech Windsurf Events Page. Video from last year:

The monster controversy over the ISAF decision to send kiting to the 2016 Olympics at the expense of windsurfing continues to boil over. We continue to learn more about the unintentional mistakes and misunderstandings surrounding the 19 - 17 vote that sank windsurfing for the Rio Games. If Spain had voted correctly, as they claimed they didn't, the vote would have been tied in which case the RS:X Class would be racing in Brazil. Others are beginning to confess that their votes were also misunderstood. The impression surfacing is that some on the Council were surprised and unprepared for the big decision and made mistakes in casting their votes. Those mistakes had big consequences for windsurfing.

Will the revelations of mistaken votes have an impact? It might help in the lobbying campaign to convince the Council to consider a revote of the decision at the upcoming Annual Meeting. The inner workings of the ISAF are slowly coming to light. Personally, I was surprised to learn how big the U.S. influence was with 3 votes cast for kiting. And the popular press continues to uncover new details of the story. Reuters reported: "The delegates were probably confused or didn't understand the motion fully because of language difficulties, or some may have been napping at the presentations and then cast their votes without realising the implications," said Yehuda Maayan. Mr. Neil Pryde, in an article from the South China Morning Post, gave an in depth interview where he said: "The ISAF is represented by all member countries and most come from the yacht brigade. What they have done is to safeguard their narrow interests and sacrificed windsurfing. What they don't realise is the whole sport of sailing is in danger of being kicked out of the Olympics."

Scuttlebutt, who reprinted the Neil Pryde article, followed it up with their article about Johnny Heineken, 2011 Kite Course Racing World Champion. Heineken said: "The challenge now is for kiteboarding to maintain our equipment regulations about as they are now. If we end up with an RS:X situation (current Olympic windsurfer), it will be over. So, I think we have two main things to address right now: Keep the box rule and open (production) kite rule. We cannot go one design...We also have to address how to integrate the ISAF Sailing World Cup events and our current kite racing schedule..."

David Leggat has now written several articles for the New Zealand Herald about the ISAF kerfuffle. In Wednesday's article he adds: "Venezuela are unhappy that one of the ISAF vice-presidents, Theresa Lara, a Venezuelan, voted for kiteboarding. The Venezuelan federation has written of its 'total and absolute disagreement' with Lara's vote. It claims talks were held before the key meeting and voting for kiteboarding 'was never an option under any circumstances'." Friday's report by Leggat revealed that Fiona Kidd of Canada has apologized for her pro kite vote and is willing to change her vote in favor of the RS:X at the Annual Meeting in Ireland. Marina Alabau reported: "Singapore has had the same problem as Spain and Venezuela. The Singapore Federation wishes to vote for Windsurfing but their Vice- President of ISAF voted for Kite. Now there are 3 Countries with discrepancies, why is ISAF not saying anything?"

Nevin Sayre, in a scathing open letter to U.S. Sailing, questioned their 3 vote support of kiting, the wisdom of going all in on a as yet unproven racing class, the lack of any youth development plan and the very safety of the sport. In fact Sayre said, "There is no way I would allow my kids to kitesurf."

One week later, the windsurfing FUBAR story of the decade continues to unfold with new revelations about the vote and what, if anything, has been settled for the new ISAF Kite Racing Class. Who knows which country will recant their vote next week.

Meanwhile back at the Petition that's asking to return windsurfing to the Olympic...as of Noon EST May 20, there are 23,943 signatures.

Brian McDowell's 29th issue. Read the May 2012 Issue Now

The Learners guide to windsurfing has reconnected with the original first 8 Boards articles in the Jem Hall Wannabe a Wavesailor series. Thanks to Ezzy Sails for reposting these to their server. Link up with them and 30 other articles from the series on the page, Wannabe a Wavesailor. Find 2 more new wave sailing technique videos by Jem on the Waves Page. And, on the same page, link up with the "Wave Sailing 101" 3 part series from Windsurfer international by Kevin Pritchard.

My shameless plug: The Learners guide is the most comprehensive collection of instructional material anywhere. It will help all who want to learn more about windsurfing.

My shameless plea: Share the website by linking it on your windsurfing interest group.

Just in case: If you use Microsoft products and have trouble seeing all the content on the Learners guide, a Goggle Sites website, try using Goggle's Chrome Browser. To be able to edit the website, I had to download Chrome (and if you need to fix a similar issue, be careful not to accept anything from them you don't want). Seems the 2 internet titans have issues with compatibilty and we peeps are caught in the middle of this squabble.

Need to say something? Comment here  or if you Facebook,  Message here.

Here's an interesting  jibing tutorial (recognize the first voice?) and a unique method for learning the forward loop: