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This year, I took the Kona Mahalo with me to the south of France for my yearly family summer holiday. It was a holiday never to forget!
After a full year of hard work, you sometimes just need to relax on a day without wind.
The Kona Mahalo offers a great and comfortable platform, and it was also perfect for teaching my wife and son. Thanks to the tandem option, they felt really secure and I could instruct them even better. Besides my wife and son, also the beach girls liked a ride on this beautiful flower board. Windsurfing suddenly became a social happening. Of course, the Mahalo is also a nice tool for some decent action. I tried several set-ups and all seemed to work great. Here a picture where I was fooling around on the rail and dagger with my 11m² race sail.
I have also been using the Mahalo with a 6.2m² wave sail in big swells. The "swell rides" where amazingly fun, but the greatest sensation I discovered when steering this huge fun toy into the air. On a given day, I jumped the Mahalo completely out of the water. The tail was 1,5m up in the air; the nose of the 3,8m board was even higher. Felt like taking of with a jumbo jet! What a trill. Only a pity I didn't have a watertight camera that day. Just think about those 80's pictures where they jumped waves with their longboards in Hawaii.
There are no limits on the Kona Mahalo. When there was too much wind for the skills of my son, I took him for a nose ride to let him experience the feeling of planning.
The Mahalo is really a multipurpose family watertoy: Great for stand-up paddling, and if you have a motorboat nearby, put a small wavefin on it and try it as a huge wakeboard. You'll be amazed how well this board works behind a boat.
Even with two persons standing up - or even three!
Like I said - no limits. Just imagine a nice breeze and two friends out planning on the same board, with the front guy flying almost entirely above the water. The tandem option also offered some interesting low-wind possibilities. Ever tried windsurfing a tandem with 1 person?
A lot of fun, good exercise and really not that hard. It's all a matter of balance and centre of gravity. The only thing that looked impossible in the beginning was tacking with two sails and one person, but after going through the session in my head, I succeeded: turn the board into the wind and back the front sail.. Wait and hold. Then quickly jump, let go and switch the sails in both hands. Takes some coordination, but really funny to do. After some days, my son even learned how to use the harness on the Mahalo and he got the board almost in planning mode. Me as a proud father was following him.
Full rail rides are so easy on the Mahalo. Quiet exciting if you stand on top of the rail of a 70cm wide board.
Sometimes, you need to go out in the evenings, like with a 12m² and enjoy the evening breeze. Better then yoga to settle the mind! And indeed, a 3m long boom is big enough for the two persons, and the board is still the Kona Mahalo. With this last picture, we say goodbye to you all and we thank the Kona Mahalo for a great family holiday!
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