Two residents of Kula, Maui, completed a historic voyage aboard the worlds largest 8 masted, 16 m sailboard (52 ft!) on the other side of the globe.

Heike Reimann, professional windsurfer ( G545 ) for HotSails Maui and Ralf Simon of Kula crossed the Baltic Sea from Fehmarn Island / Germany to Lolland / Denmark in fine weather after four months of intense training with their 6 teammates.

The team was led by the godfathers of tandem windsurfing, the Charchulla Twins ( 71 ). “These guys are incredible. When they hit the water, they really transform into some 30 year old. They really look funny with their ZZ Top style beards, but there is no way you can tell their age when you see them on the water”, says Heike.

Under heavy media attention, the team jumped on the foreign danish beach and set the flag of the “surf republic”, the sign for windsurfers without borders. After a few minutes of rest, the team decided to change its original plan to take the ferry back and sailed right back to germany. ” It is just too much fun and the team is in perfect shape”, says Manfred Charculla, the “older” twin.

“It is absolutely not like sailing a regular windsurf board”, explains the experienced windsurfer Tim Buchwald. “Every position is different. When you manouver, everybody must do something different, sometimes exactly mirror inverted. Also, it is quite a challenge to cross one of the worlds most frequented seaways with their really huge containerships, tankers and all that.”

The sailboard will be donated to the Museum of Windsurfing on Fehmarn island, Germany and should be on display soon.