HIGH WINDS AND HIGH SPEEDS AT THE FIRST ROUND OF THE NAVMAN MAUI SPEED
CHALLENGE SERIES

Maui, Hawaii – Blue skies, strong winds and a fantastic atmosphere blessed
the opening round of the first-ever Navman Maui Speed Challenge Series, held
today (Sunday, July 17) from Maui’s Kite Beach. With more than 30
windsurfers and kitesurfers entered, the ‘open water’ event was a huge
success. Pro sailors included Anders Bringdal and former speed world record
holder Erik Beale. Each competitor was provided with a Navman Sport.Tool
M300 GPS unit. But, while no records were broken, Anders still pulled off an
impressive average speed of 36.63 knots, making him the clear winner of the
Open class. In second place was Alex Aguera, with 35.5 knots, closely
followed by Jacques Pauvert, with 34.8 knots.

“I feel very good, awesome,” says a delighted Anders Bringdal. “The whole
event was really cool – I enjoyed it a lot. I did the World Cup for years,
and traveled to many countries, but now I feel it has been culminating to
this event. “It’s a fantastic competition format – you just go out and sail.
Simple. And the Navman GPS unit is so easy to use, and seems to me to work
well. “The cool thing is that it’s great for the windsurf industry, as it’ll
spur people to look at their equipment and think about how they can tune it
– better sails, boards etc – for next time. I definitely plan to do more,
hopefully most of the series, and will try to get some other pros to enter.”

The event wasn’t just about the pro sailors – other classes out on the water
were Men, Masters, Juniors, Menehune, Fun and Kite. And the kitesurfers
proved they were no slouches when it came to fast speeds.

Kite winner Peter Hasler’s speed of 32.63 knots beat many of the
windsurfers. Hot on his fins was Shawn Richman, with 32.47 knots; and
Reinhardt Elischka was third, with 31.5 knots.

Another top speed came from the winner of the Masters category, Michael
Warmuth. He recorded an average of 32.93 knots – not bad for an old-timer!

As for the up-and-coming stars, 11-year-old Jake Golm ruled the Menehune
class, winning every one of his four heats and clocking an average speed of
27.53 knots. Second place went to Connor Baxter (25 knots), with third going
to Zane Schweitzer (21.37 knots).

“It felt good because I was going really fast but I didn’t know if I was
going fast enough to beat Connor,” says Jake. “But then when I found out I
did, I was really happy. It was fun because I think I went the fastest I’ve
ever gone. Now I’m looking forward to doing the rest of the series.”

Youngest competitor was Berndt Roediger, who’s just eight years of age. He
managed 17.57 knots, but more importantly he had a great time in the
process. “I really enjoyed myself,” he says. “I was pleased with how fast I
went today; it was awesome to find out how fast I can go. Now I want to buy
one of those GPS units and go out practicing when there aren’t so many
waves.”

The only female to compete was 14-year-old Paullina Pease, who was up
against fellow Junior Mark Boersma. While Paullina pulled off a respectable
22.63 knots, she didn’t get anywhere near Mark – hardly surprising, though,
as his average speed of 32.93 knots was faster than many of the adults on
the water.

In the Men’s category, Elon Wong took first, recording an average speed of
33.03 knots; followed by Carl Grundy (29.37 knots). And in the final class,
Fun, Niels Van Wessem took top honors, with 29.8 knots. Second place went to
Ben George (28.13 knots), who says: “The whole day was great fun. It has
made me more conscious of my equipment. What I love most is the buzz I get
from racing – and from socializing with other competitors.”

Place Sailor Division Heat 1 Heat 2 Heat
3 Heat 4 Top Avg Points
1 Anders Bringdal Open 34.7 36.9 36.5 36.5
36.9 36.6 44
2 Alex Aguera Open 32.5 35.3 35.7 35.5
35.7 35.5 43
3 Jacques Pauvert Open 34.4 35.1 34.7 34.6
35.1 34.8 42
4 Micah Buzianis Open 33.6 35.5 34.7 0.0
35.5 34.6 41
5 Mark Nelson Open 31.2 33.7 34.1 33.7
34.1 33.8 40
6 Erik Beale Open 31.7 33.2 33.9 33.8
33.9 33.6 39
7 Dave Weeks Open 32.5 32.7 33.1 33.2
33.2 33.0 37
1 Peter Hasler Kite 30.8 31.5 33.2 33.2
33.2 32.6 34
2 Shawn Richman Kite 29.8 31.9 33.4 32.1
33.4 32.5 33
3 Reinhardt Elischka Kite 31.1 31.1 31.5 31.9
31.9 31.5 32
4 Dave Dorn Kite 25.1 29.8 31.2 31.3
31.3 30.8 30
5 Geof Pease Kite 29.3 30.0 28.3 0.0
30.0 29.2 27
6 Karl Rohlfing Kite 24.8 28.4 29.1 27.7
29.1 28.4 26
7 Jesse Richman Kite 27.3 27.8 27.6 26.8
27.8 27.6 24
8 Steve Meyer Kite/Kat 19.6 16.6 0.0
0.0 19.6 12.1 11
1 Elon Wong Men 31.3 32.7 33.0 33.4
33.4 33.0 38
2 Carl Grundy Men 28.2 29.6 29.1 29.4
29.6 29.4 28
1 Michael Warmuth Masters 32.6 33.6 32.6 32.3 33.6
32.9 35
2 Greg Thomas Masters 30.7 32.1 30.8 30.6
32.1 31.2 31
3 Jim Fosbinder Masters 23.3 25.5 24.7 0.0
25.5 24.5 17
4 Jim Gavrelick Masters 29.5 26.9 0.0 0.0
29.5 18.8 13
1 Niels Van Wessem Fun 28.0 29.9 30.2 29.3
30.2 29.8 29
2 Ben George Fun 27.6 28.2 27.3 28.6
28.6 28.1 25
3 Chance Fun 27.9 27.2 25.7 27.3
27.9 27.5 22
4 Quillon Bryar Fun 25.0 26.7 27.4 26.6
27.4 26.9 21
5 Kash Bryar Fun 25.6 27.0 24.8 26.3
27.0 26.3 20
6 Norm Roediger Fun 25.0 25.8 25.3 27.6
27.6 26.2 19
1 Mark Boersma Junior 31.8 32.6 32.9 33.3
33.3 32.9 36
2 Paulina Pease Junior 22.7 22.4 22.2 22.8
22.8 22.6 16
1 Jake Golm Menehune 26.2 26.8 27.7 28.1
28.1 27.5 23
2 Connor Baxter Menehune 24.0 24.2 24.9 25.9
25.9 25.0 18
3 Zane Schweitzer Menehune 21.5 19.9 20.4 22.2
22.2 21.4 15
4 Kalani Hunt Menehune 19.5 21.0 20.2 21.1
21.1 20.8 14
5 Bernd Roediger Menehune 16.0 17.6 17.4 17.7
17.7 17.6 12


OFFICIAL EVENT WEBSITE: www.mauispeed.com


For more information on the Navman Sport.Tool M300, visit www.navmanusa.com
and www.sport-tool.com.

EVENT SPONSORS: Navman, Hot Sails Maui, Haywood Real Estate,
WindsurfingClassifieds.Com, Kanaha Kai, Freestyle, Ray Masters, Waki Jaki
and THE POINT, WestGroup Marketing Communications, Maui Custom Kats, Ocean
7, Maui Sports Net, Sign Solutions.