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The cottage industry. The professional lifestyle. The exceptional people within the windsurfing industry who make their livings here on the North Shore. And during the month of October more of them come around, because of the board tests. In the past two days, for example, we had visits here at Club Paradise, where the test is headquartered, from guys you coul d talk and listen to for hours. Trust me: I've been around, including some 17 years as a staff writer for Sports Illustrated, and what goes on here on Maui with this sport, in the R&D field alone-never mind the astounding sailing itself-is uncommon and remarkable.
First, for spaghetti the other evening, came Eric Beale, who is preparing to head for France in about three weeks, for another attempt on the windsurfing speed record, which he once held. Now he's shooting for 50 knots, with a rig that uses a vertical carbon fiber wing molded into the mast.
Friday morning American Windsurfer's publisher, John Chao, and I visited Dave Ezzy of Ezzy sails. Very bright guy. Very high standards. Very unique lifestyle-his loft is right there in one the cottages in his small compound, just up country a bit from the town of Paia. I wish I'd had a tape recorder or a phographic memory (and the space here) to faithfully present the views and experiences he shared with us.
Here where we're sailing, Bill Hansen of Windwing sails and Bruce Peterson of Sailworks, both from the Gorge, visited for quite some time. Jeff Henderson of Hot Sails was here too to help rig his sails, and will be back again. They've each provided more than a quiver of sails for us to test. Bruce, one of the best sailors in the Gorge, mostly wanted to talk about Indy cars, a world he dreams of getting involved in, and Bill, another fan of fast cars, sailed with us quite a lot and told stories on some of the pro sailors he's made sails for.
For me-and for all our guest testers, for that matter-one of the special things about the test, as opposed to a mere sailing vacation in Mau, is the opportunity to talk to and learn from guys like this. The designers will all be here at one time or another over the weeks, to give presentations on their product-more like guest speakers. We have 10 new RRD boards up on the rack waiting to have their brains sailed out (and yes, boards do have brains-how else can you explain it when your board acts as if it has a mind of its own?), and next week Roberto Ricci, the mad Italian who designs them, will be dropping by.
 Last night we staff folk discussed and debated till far too late, the methods we'll be using in an attempt at accuracy in the tests. These postcards will be providing information that the magazine can't have room for, stories and anecdotes and sidebars and other asides, while the hard-core equipment evaluation will be saved for the magazine-besides, I won't be writing it until we're long gone from Maui. But we'd like you all to know that we're doing backflips to try to make this test the best in history-any magazine's history, not just American Windsurfer's. And, speaking for myself, I'm confident it will be.
The nature of our approach will be simplification (and boy, is it ever complicated to achieve that), precision, fairness and integrity. The industry needs that, for credibility, and almost everyone within the industry agrees.
But we are neither naïve, nor are we kidding ourselves or anyone else. Integrity and objectivity are not the same thing. Even objective opinion doesn't exist, when it comes to sailing. Objective, scientific evaluation is an absolute impossiblity. There are mountains of variables, things we can't begin to control, which change by the foot, when you put a sail on a board and the board in the water.
What you'll eventually get in the magazine, and glimpes of here on the website in the next five weeks, is a painstaking approach to achieving an accurate description of how each board and sail performed here, under these conditions, in the hands of these sailors. That's all you can do. Sounds easy. I don't think it's ever been done before.
Some of the boards and sails that might interest you will turn up Missing in Action. Not all of the manufacturers or distributors are comfortable with a test that is so committed to raising the level of integrity and concern for the prospective buyer, and so they have chosen not to have their equipment exposed to you by American Windsurfer. We happen to believe they're shortsighted, and that they're also displaying an indifference toward you. They have that right and power, and they are exercising it.
But here's the bottom-line goal of our test. What I assure you has never been done before-as sailors we've all been victims, including me (maybe especially me)-is careful, caring guidance of the average sailor, so he or she doesn't buy the wrong board or sail for him or her, and end up frustrated or unhappy. That's one of the general things that's hurt the sport for so long. What will come out of here five weeks from now will not be gospel, so it should not be taken us such. But it will be credible. It may be influenced by human fallibility and elements our testers don't have a grip on, from atmospheric to aerodynamic, but it will not be twisted or painted by who advertises in American Windsurfer and who doesn't.
I've already rambled too long, but there's just so much going on. Stay
tuned for lighter stuff, funny stories and personality profiles, in future Postcards from the Water's Edge. It will be my pleasure.
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