In the classic SciFi book, "A Mote In God's Eye" Jerry Pournelle writes about a character trait called (as I recall) the Crazy Eddie. He's the kind of person that in the middle of a trash removal problem where garbage is choking a city and causing health problems calls for a trash hauler's strike. No, I'm not writing about the governor of Texas, this is about a wingfoiler in Maui.
There's been a growing problem with wingfoilers in the harbor and increasing pressure from the Canoe Clubs, fishermen, and commercial users of the harbor to ban wingfoilers using the harbor. The number of wingfoilers in the harbor has grown shockingly, especially given that it's really a lousy place to wingfoil once you get past doing the walk of shame every time you hit the water.
In the middle of this brewing storm, a tourist wingfoiler did this (from a Facebook post):
There was an incident at Kahului Harbor, Maui today with a wing foiler who said he was from Hood River. The wing foiler disobeyed the orders from a tugboat in the shipping channel and foiled around barges and between two tugs. He refused to give way. We spoke with this person and he was not apologetic or had ownership of doing anything wrong. This was a total lack of respect and knowledge of the local environment and issues. Some of you may be aware that the Maui Wing Foiling community is on VERY shaky ground with the canoe clubs and the Kahului Harbormaster at the moment.
Please pass this information along to anyone thinking of coming to Maui. We want you to enjoy world-class wind and waves but we also want you to obey the rules of the road so that we can keep enjoying wing foiling here. And if anyone knows of a person who happens to currently be in Maui riding about a 5'0 Starboard with a blue F-One Strike wing - we would be grateful if you would let him know that he messed up. Any help in identifying this person is appreciated too.
I could care less who this clown is, and I certainly hope he's not really from Hood River. I'm reposting this here to say--don't be a Crazy Eddie. I occasionally see some remarkably stupid close passes to the barges in the Columbia, which I mentally dismiss as a stupid tourist move but that's probably not true. I've never understood why anyone would do such a thing. A tugboat captain maneuvering a massive barge certainly shouldn't have to pay attention to someone on a water sports craft of any flavor. And no matter what idiotic sea lawyer nonsense someone might claim, they absolutely have the right of way, both in maritime law and by the laws of physics. If you wind up in their path they cannot and will not maneuver to avoid you. Far more important, it's a completely irresponsible thing to do and it can result in regulation or outright banning of this sport, as it almost did with windsurfing back when hordes of beginners choked Hood River. Don't do it here, and for damn sure, don't do it on Maui, though I certainly expect that won't be an issue for long. This Crazy Eddie has almost certainly nailed shut the harbor for anyone with a wing.
edit--I thought I was wrong about the name and changed it to Crazy Charlie. But I looked it up and found I was right in the first place--unusual. Maybe I'm not completely senile.
In the classic SciFi book, "A Mote In God's Eye" Jerry Pournelle writes about a character trait called (as I recall) the Crazy Eddie. He's the kind of person that in the middle of a trash removal problem where garbage is choking a city and causing health problems calls for a trash hauler's strike. No, I'm not writing about the governor of Texas, this is about a wingfoiler in Maui.
There's been a growing problem with wingfoilers in the harbor and increasing pressure from the Canoe Clubs, fishermen, and commercial users of the harbor to ban wingfoilers using the harbor. The number of wingfoilers in the harbor has grown shockingly, especially given that it's really a lousy place to wingfoil once you get past doing the walk of shame every time you hit the water.
In the middle of this brewing storm, a tourist wingfoiler did this (from a Facebook post):
There was an incident at Kahului Harbor, Maui today with a wing foiler who said he was from Hood River. The wing foiler disobeyed the orders from a tugboat in the shipping channel and foiled around barges and between two tugs. He refused to give way. We spoke with this person and he was not apologetic or had ownership of doing anything wrong. This was a total lack of respect and knowledge of the local environment and issues. Some of you may be aware that the Maui Wing Foiling community is on VERY shaky ground with the canoe clubs and the Kahului Harbormaster at the moment.
Please pass this information along to anyone thinking of coming to Maui. We want you to enjoy world-class wind and waves but we also want you to obey the rules of the road so that we can keep enjoying wing foiling here. And if anyone knows of a person who happens to currently be in Maui riding about a 5'0 Starboard with a blue F-One Strike wing - we would be grateful if you would let him know that he messed up. Any help in identifying this person is appreciated too.
I could care less who this clown is, and I certainly hope he's not really from Hood River. I'm reposting this here to say--don't be a Crazy Eddie. I occasionally see some remarkably stupid close passes to the barges in the Columbia, which I mentally dismiss as a stupid tourist move but that's probably not true. I've never understood why anyone would do such a thing. A tugboat captain maneuvering a massive barge certainly shouldn't have to pay attention to someone on a water sports craft of any flavor. And no matter what idiotic sea lawyer nonsense someone might claim, they absolutely have the right of way, both in maritime law and by the laws of physics. If you wind up in their path they cannot and will not maneuver to avoid you. Far more important, it's a completely irresponsible thing to do and it can result in regulation or outright banning of this sport, as it almost did with windsurfing back when hordes of beginners choked Hood River. Don't do it here, and for damn sure, don't do it on Maui, though I certainly expect that won't be an issue for long. This Crazy Eddie has almost certainly nailed shut the harbor for anyone with a wing.
edit--I thought I was wrong about the name and changed it to Crazy Charlie. But I looked it up and found I was right in the first place--unusual. Maybe I'm not completely senile.
Sooo... it gets worse. Another foiler went out to get him to come in and a fight ensued, while... Akaku TV was videoing the whole debacle.