KIM BALL at the windiest USWA Nationals taking place on Maui this past August.

Kim Ball kept a big secret from us until this issue. The President of Hi-Tech Maui, Inc. is responsible for the three Hi-Tech Maui shops on Maui’s Northshore, including the biggest windsurf shop on the island, HI-Tech Surf Sports in Kahului.

Ball is also the organizer of the Maui Race Series which will celebrate their 15th year this year. During this time, Ball and his crew will have run 86 windsurfing events (including two US Windsurfing Nationals) for a total of over 3,600 races.

The Maui Race Series is now recognized as the top amateur race series in the world where many aspiring pros enter to learn, World Cup pros enter to train, and older guys and girls enter just to have fun.

The big secret Kim Ball has been hiding from us was the fact that he has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Nebraska, but never entered the journalism field.  Instead, he spent four years after college in the mountains of Colorado. During an extended vacation to Hawaii visiting friends and family ( his mother, Gloria, was born and raised in Hilo), he decided to stay in the islands.

When the cruntch time came for an article about this years USWA Nationals, Ball came to bat ( no pun intended) and submitted an article that was just not going to fit the four pages the editor had allocated. Based on the strength and quality of Ball’s journalistic writting, the minor article turned into a fourteen page display entitled Cry Uncle at the US Nationals. If Ball’s article didn’t make us cry with laughter, the extra pages he cost the magazine has surely made us cry in front of  the loan officer.

EDDY PATRICELLI making history as the first looper in the middle of the Atlantic.

Another windsurfer that has cost us money and made us cry is Eddy Patricelli.  Patricelli’s personal account of the TransAtlantic Windsurf Race was not part of the plans for this issue. We had assigned Technical Editor Ken Winner to document the event for the magazine and wasn’t expecting to publish two seperate articles on the TAWR. Not only did Patricelli make history for making us publish two versions of a story, he made windsurfing history by being the first sailor to throw a forward loop in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

“Patricelli…” according to Mike Piltzecker, our newly installed Managing and Instructional Editor, “…is a phenomenal sailor!” His article entitled The TransAtlantic Windemption provides our readers with his unique perspective as an US Amateur Team  Sailor in the TransAtlantic Windsurfing Race and a glimpse of what really happened in the middle of the Atlantic.

Eddy’s talents extend beyond just windsurfing, as he is also a gifted instructor, having instructed for Big Winds in the Columbia River Gorge and Vela’s Aruba High-wind Center. He has a BA in Englishfrom Southern Oregon University and has won several writing contests. He is also the 1994 Single A Champion in the US Volleyball Association.