Craig Cunningham: Cruisin' on Maui, Hawaii with the LF Crew

So we've been out on Maui for a while now! I came out here after the Philippines with good friends and fellow Liquid Force Team rider Brandon Scheid and Sensi Graves! That night Sam Medysky flew in from Canada to meet up with us at our new place, The Kailolo house in Wailuku! The house was just newly renovated and completely decked out and we were lucky enough to be the first crew to stay in the new pad! With beautiful views of the ocean and west Maui mountains from both the front and back porch, a one minute walk to Rivermouths to surf or a quick 5 minute drive to Kitebeach we had a good home base to kick off this adventure!

LF Voyager @ the Kailolo Kite House

View from the front of the Kailolo Kite House

View from the back of the Kailolo House

And an adventure it was! I haven't ever been on a kite trip where we did so much exploring, sight seeing and touristy sorta stuff. It's all good though, there is so much to do and see on Maui it would take you years to complete everything and we had our sights set on kiting, surfing and exploring as much as we possibly could every single day! Some of the highlights so far have been the Road To Hana trip where we navigated the gnarly road of switchbacks and 51 single lane bridges all the way around the east side of the island, the lush bamboo forest, 400+ foot waterfalls, Haleakala Volcano, lava tubes, craters, tons of rainbows and double rainbows, the Rip Curl store, snorkeling the reefs, black beaches, white beaches, red beaches and just hiking the island with good friends to some of the most beautiful scenery I've ever seen in my whole life!

Road to Hana sunset

West Maui Mountain Hike

cave in the lava tubes

chillin at the Rip Curl Store in Lahaina

beautiful view from a drive around the NW corner of the island

hike through the bamboo forest

Brandon and myself on top of Haleakala Volcana

400+ foot waterfall at the end of the "7 Pools" hike

awesome Banyan Tree

With all the adventure you'd think we hadn't had much wind and you'd be right. December and January has been pretty dismal for wind with only a handful of sessions. But then at the end of January the crew started building and so did the conditions. My girlfriend Tahnee arrived as well as Julien Fillion Liquid Force Designer and Team Rider flew in with all the new 2012 gear ready to be shot and tested! Perfect timing as Henning Sanstrom Liquid Force Team Rider/Filmer from Sweeden showed up and brought the wind and swell with him! The next day Jaws was going off for the first time all winter and the NE trades were pumping too! The first big wave session of the trip went down and the stoke within the household was super high! I haven't done much big wave riding at all so pulling into some of those mackers with a kite really got my adrenaline pumping! The waves here are so perfect and unbelievably fun! I have much more respect for kiting in the waves now and want to do a lot more of it myself in the future! The freestyle conditions on the other hand aren't exactly as good as the waves. It can get really good just not as consistently as I was hoping for... there is only flat water in one direction (regular tack) which is switch for me and it is usually blowing the wrong wind direction to get deep into the flat water anyways but there are goofy kickers and I've been having a lot of fun and taking a lot of beatings learning how to boot off them! After that first really good surge and a few epic days of wind and waves Nuria Goma LF Team Rider from Spain and her boyfriend David Romeau arrived just as things were starting to mellow out but still scored some of the goods! Shortly after the crew kept on growing with the additions of one more LF Team Rider, Jason Slezak and Slingshot Team Rider Eric Rienstra! With such a solid crew of people and the chill locals Kitebeach is a super fun place to ride and hangout! I've been waiting to come here ever since I started riding! Looking up to guys like Lou, Elliot, Morris, Sleezy, Stone, and Moe! It's crazy to be here now, in the same spot but with a new crew trying to push it as much as we can! Maui is bound to get lit up with some good riding and good times in the next month or so!!!