Maui Waui! Fall 2020!!

 Paia

We left CBad is Rad at 10am all packed up for 10 days in Maui - The Garden Isle! KPA visited for a day in January with Jenny - meeting her family and playing at the beach for an hour before heading to Oahu... This time we decided to visit Maui because of COVID Oahu had too many people and would be too difficult to enJOY our visit with all the restrictions.

We made it to LAX in a quick 90 minutes - a drive I have done 100's of times now up the 405 to LA! We checked in at the domestic Delta gate, yet had to walk to the Bradley International terminal to catch the flights to Hawaii. It was not crowded on a Tuesday before Thanksgiving week and of course, the COVID global pandemic had reduced global travel by 80% or more. Patty finally agreed to go after I convinced her Hawaii was the safest place to be in the US - possibly the world right now. With mandatory NAAT COVID testing for anyone entering The Islands - COIVD rates are some of the lowest in the world.

So we made it to Maui in 5 hours, rented our Wrangler Jeep and made it to our 2BR Casa in Paia for the night. Picked up groceries at Mana Foods - the only grocery store in town - and settled into our new Home Away from Home for the next 5 days. We all woke up early due to the 2 hour time difference and the excitement of a new place! After Ashby did his 30-minute check-in we checked out Ho'okipa - the main surf spot on the North Shore of Maui. It was overhead with solid sets coming through every so often, yet there were a handful of newbies playing around inside so it looked doable for Ashby (& me!).

We surfed for almost 2 hours - with Ashby catching a bunch of reforms on the inside. Conditions were intense with big sets breaking outside creating strong rip currents along the east channel out to sea. The lifeguard told us what to do (& not to do!) so we went out where ~10 turtles were sunbathing along the rocky & reef covered shoreline. Fortunately, we had a fun time and never felt uncomfortable in the winter North Shore conditions.