S2MAUI
The increasing popularity of this relatively new sail brand among the Polish community of passionate windsurfers -you know, the guys with the cool toys and skills arou-made me curious enough to google it and find out that it’s a collaboration between the ex designer of Maui Sails-Barry Spanier and a young CAD guru called Art Szpunar. I even noticed Micah Buzianis in some of the pictures /ex Maui Sails/JP team rider/ and it turns out he is in their team now. Check them out if you are wondering:
www.s2maui.com/about/
vimeo.com/294508153
Full line of models from race down to 2 !! batten wave sails. For the camber fans /Gregory take note / they even offer a 4.6 two cam freerace model called Wicked.

They had a disagreement with Phil McGain and left Maui Sails to form S2 Sails (Maui Sails 2?). Really good sails. I sailed Alchemy (5 batten) and Dragon(4 batten) in Maui last two years and Micah rented them to me as he worked in Second Wind store at the time. I've watched him practice at Kanaha riding S2 Venom. He's so fast. I think Rafal knows Art Szpunar from Poland.

I believe Maui Sails started as a partnership between Phil, Barry, Kevin Pritchard, & Rick Whidden (was involved with Fiberspar back in the day). KP was the first to leave and sell his share in the biz to Phil... I believe he could make more money as a rider for a big brand than what he could get out of Maui Sails. I think he went to Gaastra IIRC. Can't remember who was next to leave, but I think it was Barry. By that time Maui Sails had already employed Art, and he was doing all the sail design. Barry was very complimentary of Art when I talked to him about "who the new guy was."

I think Barry and Rick Whidden also had a great working relationship with Art, so that spawned a new company along w/ someone else whose name probably isn't currently in the ether.

I had been riding Maui Sails as my personal sails since 2009, and I switched to S2s in 2017. I've really enjoyed the continuity and evolution coming from Maui Sails into S2 over the years. By the end Maui Sails in 2015 had practically zero sail development for three years, especially in the wave and freestyle ranges despite a mast bend change.

The sails are super light and have a nice, soft feel. Materials are top notch. Small company, so they have a shitty info on their website.... no sail weights, no rigging guides or rigging videos. I weigh all my sails when I get them, though.

disclaimer, I'm a retailer in CA who sells S2. i figure some of you probably knew that already from reading the forums on iWindsurf, but maybe some of you don't know that. Anyway, just thought I'd post some additional info on this subject. OK, going windsurfing now! Woohoo!

Barry started Maui Sails in 1978 with his friend Geoffrey Bourne after their sailboat shipwrecked in South Pacific. If I remember right, he spent quite a bit of time in San Francisco building his ferro cement sailboat from scratch. He sailed it all the way to New Zealand and hit some rocks. Their business was yacht sails. Later Neil Pryde started to work with Maui Sails and Barry designed many sails for Bjorn Dunkerbeck. In late 1990s Barry started to design sails for Gaastra. He lobbied the US government to use sails on big shipping boats to fight climate change in 1980s! I have a tremendous respect for the guy.

If I didn't have a nice quiver of Naish sails, I'd go for S2. Maui Sails Gladiator masts work nicely with S2 sails and can be found on sale quite cheap (maybe because people are switching from Maui Sails)

usawindsurfing.wordpress.com/2019/05/08/...ddk-YuYxxpjjSaDhgfow
"The first rule is this: do not promote windsurfing as a destination sport. This is one of the main reasons why we fail – we try to windsurf all the time in the places we don’t live. We need to develop windsurfing where we live and sail there with whatever equipment we need to maximize that. Then the idea of the windsurfing destination becomes fiction. We need to push for backyard windsurfing in the US and forget about the island paradise wind condition places. None of that works to develop the sport, because development is all about creating infrastructure and grass roots programs. Keep the local scene active and interesting and we’ll grow the sport, it’s very simple. Stop looking around for real estate in Bonaire, stop flying to Brazil, sail in your backyard and promote your sport in your hometown. Build energy, events and infrastructure and stay at home. How does windsurfing die? It goes to Maui. Never go to Maui."
Alex Morales quote
Alex is the owner of a board/foil design and manufacturing company in Miami. Super cool.
www.tillo-international.com/?page_id=15
That slalom 114 is a dream:
vimeo.com/104585047

You people, need to stop looking for real estate around Clinton Lake.

Reid Fillman wrote:
Yup, that’s a prime example for destination sport. Clinton sucks, don’t go there
I get Alex, but he lives in Florida for all I know and for someone in the cold Midwest thats a dream destination all right. I personally don’t dig much that activism, mass participation stuff and the reason I’ve posted that is his board company and the fact that he’s the guy who escaped Cuba on a windsurfing board back in the 80s. The guy has big balls, I give him that!
Btw have you noticed the boom in new windsurfing equipment companies elsewhere in the world lately? I totally lost track of all the new brands in Europe and just read yesterday an article/interview on the PWA official site promoting Arnon Dagan’s new board project FF ff-boards.com/ Just recently Finian Maynard also got into the boards business www.fmxracing.com/ not long after establishing his successful high end sails business Avanti Sails avantisails.com/ . And the list goes on and on and on . Who buys this stuff?I mean, this is not cheap stuff, these are expensive high end products. Is there really so much demand for it abroad? I personally don’t see anything like that here in the US. Fascinating!

Ady wrote:

Word is, on the west coast of Michigan, kiters are returning back to windsurfing. For "more sensation". Folks have offered to give them back their old equipment. They don't want it back. They want the new windsurfing gear.

Probably single millennials with high incomes and some older empty nesters that want to experience every freaking sensation known to mankind. That’s great if it’s true, there will be a lot of cheap second hand equipment after they get bored again and move to the next new great thing. It may lead to another bust /like the 90s/ for the ballooning windsurfing industry, but until then everyone capable can make good money out of it.

Did you know?...

The word surf / surfing means windsurfing in Germany!

Boom!




Surf Festival Fehmarn 2019
www.surffestival.de/festival/

"Tens of thousands of visitors are expected to visit the festival at the Baltic Sea island organized by Europe’s largest windsurfing print magazine SURF. In 2019, there will be even more brands, who will present their latest boards, sails, foils, SUPs and accessories."

my friend from France calls it "riding". He's coming to visit in two weeks. I hope it's windy while he's here. He also says the best croissant in the world is in San Francisco (Tartine Bakery). Another one of his peculiarities, he thought it was safe to leave his brand new Skate on his roof rack when he lived here one summer. I went to his house one day and asked him if he wanted me to grab the board off his roof rack, and that's when he told me he leaves it there overnight. I told him he was crazy, and he insisted he'd been doing it for months, and two days later it was stolen. Luckily someone in Oakland was trying to sell it for $100, and another friend of mine bought it back. but i digress

Kevin Kan wrote: