I'm writing from my favorite spot enjoying the warmth of french roast because the kihei house is humming with sounds; vacuum, garbage disposal and washing machine all before 09h and these sounds of normal living disturb my lounge lizard. ken hooked up the cable downstairs so I didn't skip a minute of the bachelorette last nite. I'm 4 seasons for 4 and hoping for 5 - who's it going to be? now that she's down to 3 shouldn't be too hard to choose so I'll make my prediction public - it'll be between ed and reed. and the winner is...ED! next week's episode is on maui too bad us10 didn't get the chance to give them a windsurf lesson. the last few seasons have shown the bachelor(ette) standing at the end of a long walkway forcing the 'would be engagee' to walk oh so far for the drama of it and there's been white caps in the background. wonder if it would be hard for me to concentrate on my engagement as the wind whipped my hair around whispering sail size in my ear! I might forego a session for a yellow diamond but then again...

does windsurfing really take the front seat? well, there is only one seat available in the safari so when the blondes and I get together we take the non-windsurfer's car. it's passenger limiting to have 4 boards; 3.3, 3.7 (x2), 4.0, 4.2, 4.5, 4.7, 5.0, 5.3, 6.9; 3 booms; 370 (x2), 400 (x2), 430, 460; 4 harnesses; 4 wetsuits; 4 ext; 2 bases; 5 pairs of shoes; zillions of hair ties; 9 bikinis; smattering of mags, and a case of cashew lara bars. how lucky am I? the only thing I'm missing is a piece of eye candy in the seat next to me...hint, hint! do I use all of my gear? of course besides you can always ask me to try something, I'll be happy to rig it up and send you out but I warn you, you might have such a great time you'll find yourself upgrading.

now that f192's hottie blonde is in town she has lit a fire under my lounge lizard which is a welcome change. she leaves the sailing to her man and understands when I fit a session in between coffee talk, tiffany's, pedicures and milagro margaritas. the wind has graced maui all week but the waves are said to be in pennsylvania as 5.0 romeo took time out of his schedule to paddle out to catch a few. this week's been about 'quad' talk with starboard's video finding it's way to my inbox, us0 testing tris and quads as well as one designer telling me it makes more sense to have 4 than 2. heck, I can barely handle 1 much less consider 4! would the pretty pink 4.2 poison feel at home atop a quad? I've unrolled her twice this week and you know how much joy she brings me and yesterday was pink day hope you enjoy the photos.

us10 has given me the opportunity to exchange a few '09 sails for 0'10s and you know how new gear makes me giddy even more than the planing gybe I pulled off when no one was looking or the handful of tacks I surprised my 69 pocket with yesterday! I unrolled the 4.7 black/pink (even sexier than all pink?) hd manic on thursday and it made quite a stir with the ozzie asking a zillion questions, another commenting on the graphics, thor making excuses to get a closer look, and simmer riders offering a mild heckling. hd is not my preference and the debate continues as to if all xply is stronger than monofilm, does it hold up better with the uv, is it tougher while getting washed, etc. etc. all to which I say "personally all xply is a no go for me as I like the clearest view possible." but for testing I rig what ever ends up finding it's way into the van.

after figuring out the specs and rigging it to my liking I stuck it on the 69 to give me an idea of it's range rather than putting it on my custom 78 pocket (one of the best boards you'll ever ride and is still for sale). I rigged it on a test mast so I'm not 100% sure if it was the mast, the sail or the combination but it was smoooooth, light, powerful, stable and went into the bottom turn without effort making me feel like I knew what I was doing! it's rotation was without pull but held power and almost makes me want to take back my statement 'there isn't a sail that can make you gybe'. I would have been out until dark but I a beauty appt., thai food, and the new johnny depp movie with the blondes had me wearing my watch.

friday was windy but instead of a quick session before work I found myself looking at f192's spouse knowingly the way only women do as we admired each other's stilettos! I've always been more of a gear girl (extra carbon please) than a girly girl so I enjoy finding balance between the two. adding an extra 4" is actually a sport which I practiced later that night as I skillfully crossed the street but stumbled with k42 being a proper british gent steadying me as the blondes rolled their eyes at my lack of stiletto skill! I think it might be as hard as gybing so when your woman pulls a pair out of the closet instead of wondering why all the fuss maybe you'll have more appreciation for her athletic abilities!

not much pro gossip as the pwa boys are on tour so the sightings are minimal. ka1111 headed to tahiti to chase waves, f192 is still fast and loving his jp boards, sui11 is letting everyone know why he holds more titles than anyone, den13 is still on injured reserve, arg3 was driving us3's rig around for the long weekend training as much as he could before heading out, ned0 and us10 are expecting their first born babies early august, us34 left maui feeling strong and not favoring his foot and us3 took a mini-break in the mts to rejuvenate. the 1st wives of windsurfing are used to this time of year when they don't see their men for a couple of months and have plenty of girl's nites planned.

I eventually made it to the beach today for a late session to discover everyone whining! most had unsolicited advice, trying to talk me out of rigging or telling me what to rig, many lasting 2 or 3 reaches before dragging back to the beach and most wondering why they even tried to windsurf. after shrugging off the nay sayers I rigged 3.7 with just enough pocket to handle the lulls but not too much to whip me around in the gusts. it was gorgeous out with the wind swell offering fun albeit bumpy action so I don't know what all the whining was about. yeah the wind lit me up on occasion but all that was needed was more weight in the harness, more bend into the gybe (tks kc9) and more focus in the wee waves while working on keeping speed into the bottom turn so I can get back up to the lip. it was a couple of hours before I missed a gybe so figured it was time to cut my losses and save some for tomorrow!

for those of you having it so rough today maybe you can blame it on the full moon. do you stop and gaze at it? do you feel the pull it has on you like the tides? do you watch the clouds pass over it encouraging your imagination? or do you let it go by like any other day? I enjoy the moon in all it's phases though when it's full it reminds me of what has been and what will be...