Only one thing can be found for cheap: windsurf equipment. The garage sales are a great place were to buy used gear. My favorite neighborhoods for that are Sprecks and Kuau. Lots of windsurfers (mostly wealthy) that always want to be on latest gear. And they sell they old stuff for dirt cheap.
This is the sweet Sean Ordonez custom 7.10 that I bought this morning for $200 (without fin and footstraps).
Jeez, I better take a photo in the daylight tomorrow... with that cross it looks like a coffin!
The owner said he thinks it's about 75l... and that's exactly what I need. It does look a little bigger (a bit fatter and a bit wider) than the 68l Quatro... we'll see.
The deal included a couple of old carbon booms for $50 and a couple of old Superfreaks for $60.
The negotiation was hysterical. At one point there was even a little audience... that laughed at every offer. I ended up getting a last $10 discount, as a disposal fee to take with me an old shitty board he wanted to get rid of...
This, instead, is the equipment that allowed me to have a killer slalom sailing sesh this afternoon at Hookipa. Perfect wind, fully powered on a 6.5.
Here's how much I paid for every single piece:
- board: free. My friend Alex works at a surf shop. Once in a while I go and see him at the shop for a chat... he's a super nice guy. A solid person, as Jesper defines him. One day he gave me this board... somebody had left it to him. Custom shaped by Peter Thommen for Bjorn Dunkerbeck... prolly something like 10 years ago. I'm sure there's better boards out there today, but trust me... that board is a bullet!
- mast (460 not skinny) and sail were part of a deal that included also a 6.0 and a 5.5 (that I never use) for $60.
- used slalom fin: 20 bucks
- footstraps (I had them already)
- mast extension: free... a friend left it to me
- mast foot: actually that's the only piece I bought new... around 40 bucks. The most expensive (!) piece of equipment in this setup. You can't be cheap on the mast foot. I mean... you can, but it's not wise.
- carbon boom (170- 220): 5 dollars!
The wind was around ESE and it was only on the outside. I wanted to sail upwind to Jaws (no ground swells at all... I just wanted to catch a little windswell bump and claim that I sailed Jaws...) but once I got to Maliko I was definitely overpowered and headed back.
After one hour of blasting around I went back in and hung out on the beach for a while. Then I went back out again. It was just too good. Nobody out other than flying fish and turtles. Sunny as it can be.
I couldn't stop thinking:"how come I'm the only one out here?". Not that I was missing anybody...
Maui sailors are super spoiled. Most of them only do wave sailing (a few of them only do slalom sailing, though) and they don't even have a slalom board or a sail bigger than 5.8.
They don't know what they're missing.
What else we got?
Oh, when I got back home, I found this peculiar crown on my bicycle.
Sharon is in England, otherwise I would have had no doubt about who left it there. Instead, it's a little mystery...
Stay tuned for some King of the boobs photos.
Last, BUT NOT LEAST, my latest GoPro video. If you can't see it here, try here.
Enjoy.
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PS. Thanks a lot to the people that sent donations. After the very first ones I had a weird feeling about this donation thing. It seemed somehow unfair... but after a while... I got over it! So, thanks and keep them coming! :-)
The first video that I will do with that SO board will be dedicated to the people that sent me money. It's like they own a piece of it... and it will be my pleasure to share the things that I will do with it.
And let's not forget the poor people! Today I gave 20 bucks to an old hawaiian guy that was looking for beer bottles in the trash can (to get the 5 cents refund at the recycling place). He gave me a smile and a hand shake that were worth way more than that...
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