Maui photo shoot glamour!

That time of the year again! Photo shoot time for my sponsors.
I haven’t been able to be part of the photo shoots for about 4 years, so I was really excited to be headed back this year. Doing both the shoot for Neilpryde and Starboard meant I had a tight schedule. That may be the only time I feel like I’m working when it comes to windsurifng but it’s a fun job!
I also planned to stay a bit longer so I could get some wavesailing in.

I love going to Maui. Maybe because it’s an island too ? Or just the hippie/laidback vibe in Paia? You walk out of the airport and the lovely scent of plumeria floats past you. This is one of the places where I instantly feel relaxed and at home the moment I get off the plane. Welcome back to maui

For the next 4 weeks My roommates would be my Neilpryde teammates Sebastian Kornum and Matteus Isaac. Two super talented racers. Who should consider a comedian act together.

Being part of the photo shoot is special because that’s the only time of the year that really all the pro windsurfers come together. Freestylers, wavesailors and slalom sailors. It’s great! It was nice to get re-acquainted with the Neilpryde team. The new freestyle sails look and feel amazing. Steven van Broeckhoven really knows what he’s doing .

For the NP shoot we didn’t get too much wind and Maui was unusually rainy.
We did some helicopter shoots. Thanks to all the filminig I’ve been doing I think I’ve become a bit more comfortable in front of the camera, usually I get nervous and crash out on a lot of moves. However sailing under a helicopter is still hard!
During the shoot you always need to share sails and there are minimum amounts of everything. On the last day we finally could get some freestyle shots for Neilpryde. but it was blowing 30+ knots. Steven already had all his stickers in the 4,5 so he sailed that and I had to hold on for dear life on my 4,8. That sail has incredible control, because with anything else that session would have been mission impossible! Anyway I came out of the water smiling because I was using bigger than Steven hahaha.

For Starboard we were able to wrap things up quite quickly!
We had some really good sailing at Kihei and Kanaha. The new board designed by Taty is quite promising. Really stable! For the pictures we had to share the flare between Oda, Taty, Kiri and I. It’s fun to see what each of us does with it .
With Starboard I really feel like I’m part of a family. There are a lot of girls on the team now and it’s so much fun to get to know each other and spending time together!

After 2 weeks of photo shooting I finally could get some sailing in for my self.
That was literally the first time in 2 months that I could sail without a camera pointing at me. What freedom!!!!
My mission for Maui was to land Pushloops. I think it took me about 3 days to start landing them regularly. I went around asking everybody what to do! I got some great tips, but in the end you need to make that switch in your mind yourself. After getting faceplanted a couple of times and twisting my foot, I decided to stop being a sissy and go for it.
5 seconds of courage. I saw this wave, went up and finally threw my head back like Adam lewis told me and at the right moment pushed out like Erwan jeauffroy told me. That feeling of being wipped around and getting back upright is indescribable! I was hooooooked! Until I left maui I didn’t stop trying pushloops! The fun factor of doing this move is soo high! Now I know they’re only a little bit scary but quite easy.

I only sailed Ho’okipa once or twice.It gets too crowded there for me and I was focused more on jumping anyway on that trip. I had one or two really fun freestyle sessions with Gollito at Camp one. This guy blew my mind once again landing huge Loop shaka’s. I’m afraid these are moves I’ll never be able to reproduce!

After all of the filming and photoshoots it was really fun to go sailng for myself and explore the island. For the first time in 8-9 times that I’ve been ther I finally did the road to Hana with my friend Molly and Julian. I went up Haleakala twice and went around the westpart of the island with my other friend Astor who spontaneously came over to visit. I had loads of dinners upstairs with the Schettewi’s who used to live in Aruba ( What are the odds?!). and loads of coffee in town. Swam at Ho’okipa and took pictures under the water with some of the most radical girls I know. Had BBQ’s under the stars. Maui was a blast once again!