New Years in Maui

After Christmas, it was back to the beach for more kiteboarding!



Launching in the midst of a Cabrinha shred session.



A Maui New Year's Eve!:









A rainy New Years Day hiking the Iao Needle!



Rain means waterfalls everywhere!




Dude there's class 5 in Maui!



Taking Kite Lessons, Maui style:



Why to take kite lessons:



When the wind died down, we toured around the island....



and found some great hikes down by the beach, and...



on top of the island at 10,000 feet up at Haleakala!



We also found some mellow relaxing sedate disc golf at Kaanapali:



Later we felt like getting a little dirty, so we embarked on an epic expedition to find Jaws....











Just before leaving for the mainland, we had to get one more paddleboard session in! This shot is taken one hour before takeoff! Yah!



We were really sad to leave, but HEY, WE'LL BE BACK!
"Shaka to ya frada cuz yur mutha nuddin budda bradda!"

Christmas on Maui's North Shore

We went to Maui and discovered a whole new passion: kiteboarding!


Several of the days were somewhat stormy, but there were many perfect days at Kite Beach.


This Maui trip was one of those benchmark experiences that will never be forgotten. There's just something about spending Christmas in a tropical place while learning the raddest sport ever with your family. Waaaaaay cool!



This is the "Pro Beach" scene where the super shredders from Cabrinha Kites hang out. (All the rippers like Cabrinha because they have the most progressive and innovative engineers.)


Brothers in the ultimate playground.


We stayed just a couple miles up from Kite Beach in a shacky house right on the water. This was the view from our deck at Spreckels.



When we weren't in Haiku with the rest of the fam, the typical evenings looked like this.


We also enjoyed some great hikes near Haiku.



This hike led through the lush jungle to some nice waterfalls and swimming holes.


Dave's Tarzan imitation.


Check out someone's fence in Haiku. He must be a gnarly Waterman!


Paddleboarding is the other fun sport we learned! (Super thanks to Bri for providing the boards!)


Basically a combination of surfing and kayaking, its surprisingly challenging in the waves - but still a lot of fun on the flat water. One advantage it has over kayaking, is the ability to look straight down into the clear water to see the reef. I'm hooked!


The calm water on the Kihei/Lahaina side. Char was thoughtful enough to tell us we were snorkeling in the tiger shark breeding grounds AFTER we swam in!


Every day that there was good wind, we found ourselves back in the water kiteboarding!


Bri rippin' up the waves.


Dave practicing his air turns.


One day, we all did a nice lava hike out to an excellent snorkeling area.


It was hard to believe, but this was just a couple days before Christmas!


Hookipa on Christmas morning!

More pics from the rest of our trip coming soon..........