Standup Zone Forum
General => Travel, Trips, Destinations => Topic started by: jpeter on October 10, 2017, 08:18:35 AM
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Planning a Hawaii vaca for next summer. 2 weeks end July/August. Wife myself and 13 yo son. I know ... no waves in summer but we have one teacher and one student here so it is in summer.
I have a host of questions.
- was thinking Maui, but reading up on Kauai it seems like an option.
- how crowded is Maui going to be ? I read crowded or busy but what does that mean ? Are beach parking areas filling up ? Towel every 10 ft on the beach. Any comparison to cape cod is good as I know that well.
- seems obvious I will be renting a car.
- If we do Maui, I would windsurf 2 days of the 2 weeks, it is windy season after all. Son surfs so hope some small surf for other beach days.
- Seems like surfboard and sup rentals on Maui are no problem, not sure I would find a good sup on Kauai from the looking I have done.
- Is Kauai going to be substantially less crowded ?
- Any pro's and con's between the two islands would be helpful.
- We are looking to stay on a relative budget, seems like $200-300 hotel night is about where the decent places are at. Any specific recommendations there ?
- Would like a place close to summer surf spots as that seems like our major recreation.
thanks in advance, Jay
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Not really much comparison to Cape Cod....for the most part you don't have the real large parking lots. On the flip side the beaches are smaller. You won't typically see beaches packed with people like here but you're more likely to have more surfers in the water. I've never been there in summer (except for 35 years ago on my honeymoon) but I've never had problems finding a place to hang at a beach and surf. Summer means south swells so 1000 peaks, Launiapoko, etc... always a place where you can pull over and park along the road. That's my experience anyway as a infrequent visitor. The locals can give you a better idea.
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Actually...there are some parallels to Cape Cod and Maui....traffic at the choke points can be bad and the drive along Honoapilani (sp?) highway can be tedious. I forget who but a few folks have stayed at the condos next to Puamana beach park and liked it.
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Summer = South in Hawaii. You can catch a good swell sometimes, usually enough to keep you happy. I regularly see swell that Hawaiians call "eh" that are the best waves of the year for me.
Not sure between the two, but Kauai is likely less busy but less SUP friendly as well.
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Two days windsurf then what? Most importantly, what do you want to do when you're here?
Golf, horseback ride, zipeline and hiking are all uncrowded. SUP and surfing in popular spots is crowded and now you have foilers buzzing by at warp speed. Only a very few are foiling downwind and given the size of the ocean anyways, that is still very uncrowded. In fact today was good and I couldn't find anyone to go with.
Traffic is like what Stoneaxe posted. Choke points at specific times but really not that bad. I think Kauai is worse with limited roads even tho there are less people. And yes SUP isn't popular there.
Cape Cod has better food.
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jpeter, If I was you I would go to Waikiki and see the sights. Stay downtown and surf you're brains out. Lot's of shopping and fun things to do.
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Thanks Stoneaxe, I like the pull over on the side of the road kind of beaches. Our family are the people who walk way down the beach to have some room. JP
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Surfcowboy, thanks that sounds encouraging about the swell. I will have to research how sup unfriendly Kauai might be. In experience in Mass and RI, I have never had an issue on a sup. End up OTW with just surfers a fair amount of days. Finding a decent sup on Kauai might be more of a problem. JP
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Headmount, the vacation isn't to windsurf, but when in Maui I figure I should get out. If I didn't windsurf it wouldn't bother me. I understand that summer is flat water bump and jump kind of sailing. It's more of a family stuff vaca, lucky for me my son started surfing. I would say hiking, beaching, snorkeling, seeing the landscape sort of stuff. JP
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Rider, I guess I should look at Oahu. Just sort of wrote it off as a busy populated place. Those DOG episodes I watched don't give me any good Hawaii vibes. Good surfing opportunities though ? JP
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I have been to Maui three times now. Two in the winter time and this year in July. First half of July. There was no surf on Maui - the south side was quiet, but I downwinded my butt off. Did M2M😊. What concerns board rentals - no problem - the problem lies in paddle rentals. Most of the places have garbage that weighs a ton and poor quality. I have found Starboard place to have decent paddles out of the whole island. Maui wasn't crowded at all this last time, winter time was a different story. There was no problem with parking - you can park on the side of the road and beach is right there (freedom! unlike Florida 😔). Overall amazing place. Kauai, I heard it is magical, maybe next year I will visit.
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One more thing - don't keep valuables in your car - when you go for a hike just roll your window down.
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Pulled the trigger on the trip, Maui 1st 2 weeks in August. Will have to ask for advice on surf breaks, rentals, must see's, etc when we get into summer. Excited !
JP
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Jpeter, Good call.
I'll answer your question about how SUP unfriendly Kauai is outside of a couple of breaks. I contacted a champion sup racer who lives over there and guides people and she declined to take me surfing anywhere but Hanalei. She also cautioned that she doesn't really SUP surf anywhere off the usual breaks herself.
Maybe she was lying, but she was turning down decent money to do it if she was. If you're not local, be aware. And this is probably why there are few to zero high performance rentals over there. Otherwise you know people would be taking the money. Also check craigslist there vs Maui.
Didn't want to get negative here but wanted this out there for folks who think they might brave it. You're gonna have a ball on Maui, seriously. It's the water sports playground of the islands. Enjoy!
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Surfcowboy, thanks for the info. Guess I will have to learn to surf if I ever make it over to Kauai.
I'm pretty fired up about this Maui trip. JP
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When I lived on Kauai back in the mid 80s before moving to Maui, I got to know a lot of great people, but it can get a bit territorial there. Remember back about 10 years ago when they tried to run a Superferry between the islands. A large number of surfers on Kauai paddled out and blocked the massive 340 foot Superferry from entering the Nawiliwili harbor on Kauai. If these surfers were willing to paddle their boards in front of a 340' ship to keep it from invading Kauai's space, paddling in front of a visiting SUPer would be no big deal. Whether it was right or wrong, I really did admire those guys for going head to head with a massive ship while paddling a surfboard, and coming out on top. It captured the best and the worst of Kauai all at once; courage, pride, the willingness to fight a tough fight, but also sometimes an unwelcoming localism. Personally, I never had any problems, and really enjoyed my couple of seasons there, but that was pre-SUP when I spent my time windsurfing or surfing out of the way breaks that were uncrowded back then. It is definitely one of the most beautiful places on earth.
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Reminds me a little of this scene...
https://youtu.be/cSso6tRfBbo
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First week in maui is done, one to go. So far two windsurfs, two surfs, snorkeling, sights, and volcano hike. We got lucky with a passing hurricane so waist to shoulder surf on the south side. Jp
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Lucky! Hope you get some great waves.
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Did score one more surf day. Best one, head high i guess rare in summer . Got to see my son disappear behind a big wave he was paddling for and come racing out of it 5 sec later. He was surfing. Will put up some pics at some point. Jp