Episode #94 - Kevin Collins / Maui Foil House

Luc Moore (00:00.846)
All right, we'll just check the mics. Just one more time, sound and sound.

I think we're rolling. All right, Kev, thanks for joining me on the show today.

Kevin Maui Foil House (00:12.797)
Right on, how's it? It's not like you're real far away. It's not like you're real far away right now.

Luc Moore (00:15.309)
Pretty good, pretty good.

Just just in the recording studio down the hall. You got Maui foil house stuff everywhere. Anyways, thanks for the studio. And thanks for bringing us out here. It's been a really fun introduction to actually getting on the water in Maui. It's my first time actually winging and windsurfing here. So it's been a nice little tick off the bucket list, which has been pretty cool.

Kevin Maui Foil House (00:44.54)
Right on, well I'm glad you're enjoying yourself. You definitely scored some crazy good conditions.

Luc Moore (00:51.317)
March was awesome. I was almost out every day at Ka'a mainly and just getting used to that wave over there. But there's some pretty cool people out of there. Like I know the Steve Meyer owner of No Limits is always sailing out of there. Kane and Gabby and Kane's dad's always there and a bunch of other guys I'm starting to get to know. It's a super fun crowd and that's when it was like, hmm, this wave is actually, it's pretty friendly for the most part, right?

Kevin Maui Foil House (01:20.454)
Yeah, it's It's world class. I learned the other day from Mickey Eskimo. He said that Ka'a means rolling wave, and so it's it's appropriately named and we love the Ka'a foil park.

Luc Moore (01:20.471)
Pretty friendly beginner spot. Yeah.

Luc Moore (01:37.419)
Yeah, no, that's been a super fun intro into it and I got uppers and lowers nailed windsurfing in 35 knots, so that was cool. Two for all of us windsurfers out there. no, was there. I only caught a few of them. I think the swell from that weekend was kind of fading off, so I didn't get much, but it was still pretty fun just getting my feet back in those saddles and getting past the reef.

Kevin Maui Foil House (01:47.144)
Excellent. Was that a party wave for you?

Luc Moore (02:06.636)
which was my biggest thing that I was looking forward to because I hadn't done that yet. So, uh, yeah, pretty stoked about that. But Hey man, like Maui foil house, we're going to dive into that. What is it? Where is it? How did it get started? But I know you've been in this industry for quite a while and you have a heck of a lot of experience. So we're kind of just looking forward to get to know you a bit more.

Kevin Maui Foil House (02:28.837)
Right on. Well, yeah, the I've been on Maui about 24 years now. My I decided to move to Maui because I was going to be the first kitesurfer electrocuted for foiling and and I mean for for kite surfing in Florida in the summertime chasing thunderstorms. So I decided to make the smart decision and and move someplace where it was consistently windy and lot less electrical storms.

to feed my kitesurfing addiction. So anyways, I moved to Maui and just changed my whole lifestyle from being a sedentary computer jockey and doing video editing. I was also at that time, I was the editor of Kitesurfing Magazine. So the addiction was real and to the wind sports. I just decided that I had to feed that addiction.

Luc Moore (02:59.661)
That's fair.

Kevin Maui Foil House (03:27.781)
all year long. So I moved to Maui and just did a, you know, like, I guess, hardcore riding for 15 years straight and just really, you know, push all career aspirations to the side and to the back and just learned, you know, all the wind and waves here in Maui and just kind of live the waterman lifestyle on a budget.

Luc Moore (03:55.422)
Wow, okay. When did you kite for the first time? And how did it get you hooked?

Kevin Maui Foil House (04:00.838)
I I kited, well, I had been windsurfing hardcore in Florida since 1984. And, you know, but I was only, I was pretty much addicted to wave sailing. So I was only getting like five good days a year and I lived right on the ocean. So I was like, I was aware whenever the conditions were right. And then when kitesurfing came along, it was a game changer because I could go out and weigh less wind, have fun and a little, you know,

one to three four foot shore break because we didn't have these big fins and the boards were lighter. I've started riding surfboards back then and yeah, it just became in a, you know, the seven mile down winter was a standard evening session. so I, my, my, my, my wave days went up, you know, I went up, you know, I went from getting like five good days a year to getting, you know, a hundred days a year with my friend, Greg and Shied and Latham and.

Luc Moore (04:48.841)
no way.

Kevin Maui Foil House (05:00.612)
all the boys from Cocoa Beach. was just a, was a great experience, but just wasn't enough. You know, in the summer times when the, when the thunderstorms came through, it was, you know, kind of life, life threatening.

Luc Moore (05:12.375)
I can imagine. Yeah, that move to Maui, like how was that for your first year here? I've been quite the quite the change.

Kevin Maui Foil House (05:20.858)
Yeah, when I got here, felt like I was gonna be, you know, like all my legend heroes were here and, you know, Robbie Nash, Pete Cabrinha, all these people I had met before, but, you know, I felt like I was gonna be, you know, getting to ride with these people and watching, you know, learning the whole thing. But it turns out that, you know, those guys had real jobs, building brands and, you know, and, you know, you didn't get to see, you saw them on the water occasionally, but.

but they were working hard and I was on a different path of just riding hard, you know? That was really where I was doing.

Luc Moore (05:50.612)
Yeah.

Luc Moore (05:55.307)
Nice. Well, any kind of highlights looking back at your early kite surfing days here, because there's so many different beach breaks, or certain with different wave spots and anything stand out.

Kevin Maui Foil House (06:09.881)
Well, I think my focus was, you know, riding, getting good enough and feeling qualified enough to ride at lanes and Ho'kepa. And so I kind of got in a lot of trouble being an early adopter for those places with the kite surfing. And there was a lot of resistance among the windsurfers for people kiting at Ho'kepa.

Luc Moore (06:36.842)
Hmm.

Kevin Maui Foil House (06:39.245)
So there was, you know, there was that whole side of the story. And other than that though, you know, I was always looking for the days when there were no one surfers and no surfers out. And I was like, you know, that's the day I got to go. So I ended up going out on some really crazy big days and doing some, getting some crazy beat downs and you know, just.

Luc Moore (06:54.63)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's fair.

Kevin Maui Foil House (07:06.821)
breaking my arm and doing all sorts of crazy things that, you know, lot of times, most of the time was by myself.

Luc Moore (07:13.938)
Really? And those were early kite days as well, right? So nowhere near the same security as you have now.

Kevin Maui Foil House (07:21.209)
Yeah, most of those were in the early, you know, pre bow kites and pre you know, pre SLE kites. So they were the kites pulled like trucks and you better be prepared for August.

Luc Moore (07:38.154)
So I guess this all contributes to the vast amount of experience that you have you learn through those hard days and now they're significantly easier. Those waves are not easier, but definitely the gear is a heck of a lot better. How did you get into editing that magazine? Just as an offshoot.

Kevin Maui Foil House (07:59.012)
Well, used to, had my own magazine from 1984 to 1992, where we traveled the Caribbean and the Southeast United States covering windsurfing. And, you know, the windsurfing industry went through some, some highs and lows, you know, advertising budgets came and went, you know, but it was a great experience. I mean, I, I got to travel down to the Caribbean. I met lots of people, friends from the Caribbean.

Aruba high winds, Curacao Pro-Am, the Dominican Republic events, got to meet a lot of the pro racers who came from Maui to the Caribbean to do the big money events in the Caribbean. And it was great. I mean, I really, I wouldn't trade that for anything. I didn't, didn't make any money, but it was, it was a great experience and fed my, my wind addiction at that point in time. So after that, you know, I was, I just got it doing creative direction.

Luc Moore (08:51.305)
Mm-hmm.

Kevin Maui Foil House (08:56.782)
for America Online and had my own advertising agency doing web development and interactive CD-ROMs. so I stayed in with the creative stuff and then went to, when the opportunity to become the editor of Kiteboarding Magazine came up, I kind of jumped on that and that was a quick stint that was right at the cusp of kite surfing and

coming coming to the forefront of as a new extreme sport and I was like I said obsessed so you know I got that got my wind addiction my wind fix and so I was there was a lot happening people were having crazy experiences and people you know as the editor I was like right up the forefront of getting to see all the new developments and you know talk to all the top pro riders and

Luc Moore (09:30.665)
Mm-hmm.

Kevin Maui Foil House (09:53.94)
and all the new equipment changes, it was great.

Luc Moore (09:57.54)
awesome. Yeah, like you're it's an awesome way to connect your passion with a little bit of work and see where that takes you. That's pretty cool.

Kevin Maui Foil House (10:05.988)
Yeah, yeah, that was the impetus for I mean, I got I was here in Maui covering the Red Bull King of the Air in 2001 when that event got canceled. And so it was, you know, the the writing was on the wall to come back to Maui after that.

Luc Moore (10:21.36)
Mm-hmm. Hmm. And now I know you got a couple different businesses, but before we hop into that, how'd you start foiling? Like when did that journey begin for you?

Kevin Maui Foil House (10:34.915)
Well, I actually bought my first foil from Rush Randall. We were underneath, I was like, I gotta get foil. And so I bought one of the first original aluminum foils from Rush Randall. It was underneath the runway at Kaluay Airport. And he was like, know, he's looking up at the sky as the plane goes over, goes, look at the foil section on that. I was like, oh, okay. But anyways, I wasn't ready for the foil.

Luc Moore (10:39.74)
Whoa.

Kevin Maui Foil House (11:04.695)
having to wear boots because you know, as I crash, I crash a lot. That's my modus operandi for when I when I learned a new sport and not being able to swim was a you know, like was above the threshold of the risk I was willing to take because if you once you once you unclicked from the old foils you you're at the mercy and you had these weights on your feet you had these snowboard snowboard bindings and it was just a risk I was unwilling to take and

Luc Moore (11:06.567)
Mm.

Luc Moore (11:13.062)
Yeah.

Kevin Maui Foil House (11:33.602)
So I, you know, I played around with doing some different experimental things with foils back then, but then, you know, I needed to cash. So I sold that foil and I watched the sport really closely from, you know, 2002 to, to literally like when, when some of the first foils from France started coming to Maui where they were able to ride without, you know, boots and bindings and we're using more foot straps and

That was the game changer. But it was truly only a couple of French companies and you know, the equipment was super expensive and you know, was in the early early days of foiling and I knew I wanted to do it. It was just a matter of waiting for the waiting for the foils to come down in price and then Julian, my friend with liquid force.

Luc Moore (12:12.613)
Mm-hmm.

Kevin Maui Foil House (12:25.548)
showed up with the first production liquid force foils and was just doing some amazing cool tricks and super light winds when nobody else was able to kite. And I was just like, sign me up. I immediately became a liquid force dealer and brought into liquid and brought into liquid force foils. And I think the liquid force foils predated Nash foils, Cabrinha foils predated all of the old companies. They were the first production, you know, reasonably priced foil.

Luc Moore (12:30.951)
sick.

Kevin Maui Foil House (12:53.408)
it wasn't super performance oriented. And of course I found the top end of it immediately, know, like just get going as fast as you could, then the thing would just blow up. So, but it was a great, it was a great experience. rode, rode those things. I got to the point where I was making my own custom foils to adapt onto their system. And yeah, so, you know, I was manufacturing, I was making boards in my garage here in the Maui foil house and I was.

Luc Moore (13:01.999)
Yeah.

Luc Moore (13:13.926)
No way.

Kevin Maui Foil House (13:22.21)
So I was making custom boards and custom foils for the friend. He had a CNC machine. We were making molds and I was using a jack and doing compressed molds. yeah, was riding my own foils on the Liquid Force equipment until the day I met Armie Armstrong on the beach at Kanawha. And he goes, here mate, try this. And I was like, right on, okay. I was game to try anything new with foiling.

Luc Moore (13:49.935)
Yeah.

Kevin Maui Foil House (13:51.753)
Yeah, immediately guy got on the Armstrong, the early early stuff. And I was like, immediately I could do things like on his foil that I couldn't do on mine. And so I was like, all right, you know, and so army stayed with me a couple times here at the house. And, you know, he brought his girlfriend at the time later became his wife. And yeah, we became friends. And, you know, I believed in him. I believed in his system. And I, you know, I, I

Luc Moore (14:00.922)
Mm-hmm.

Kevin Maui Foil House (14:20.339)
I thoroughly I still do. And so that's what I write exclusively. And it's, you know, it's I consider it to be the best engineered foil equipment on the market.

Luc Moore (14:31.451)
Speaking for those people that are just on audio, Kevin has a nice little backdrop here with some Armstrong stuff. That was actually the second foil that I wrote as well. I started on a cheap one. Yeah.

Kevin Maui Foil House (14:42.303)
And my new baby. I love the mid-length. I'm a mid-length addict right now. Everything's all about the mid-length. You can't beat the mid-length.

Luc Moore (14:51.715)
nice.

Luc Moore (14:55.679)
sick. Yeah. So my buddy, Tom, who's living in Martinique right now, convinced me to, to hop onto Armstrong. And that was the foil that I learned the most on. And I had it up until last year, I think or the year before. And yeah, it's awesome equipment and Armie's just so amazingly stoked that it's fun just to hang out with them and chat and see what's going on. They charge hard now, but he told me that he took so many years off.

competing and racing and having fun that he had to now focus. So that's where all this great gear is coming from.

Kevin Maui Foil House (15:27.274)
Yeah.

Yeah, we did the, I did the same thing. So I know exactly what he means. I call it pre-tired. I pre-tired and now I'm a working man again.

Luc Moore (15:42.767)
That's fair. So when did it do you kind of come to the conclusion that you wanted to take your passion a little bit further than most? And then let's say open work on Maui foil house or work on your other businesses that you have here going on in Maui that are wind related.

Kevin Maui Foil House (16:00.394)
Well, my other brand was Malolo Hawaii, which Malolo means flying fish. It's this one right here. so I kind of came upon that when I was doing some cruising in the South Pacific and I just trying to figure out what the next brand was. mean, one of my other brands is Kite Hawaii, but Kite Hawaii is kind of like.

I didn't want to name my boards kite Hawaii. So I needed, I wanted to board a brand for my boards. And so I did Malila Hawaii. And so everything kind of revolved around that. It my, my, one of my original t-shirt designs. It's a surfly glide and that predated, predated foiling. So it was like still surf. Yeah. That's the, yeah. So, you know, I just combined my graphic arts and my, my

Luc Moore (16:48.158)
wait.

Kevin Maui Foil House (16:54.72)
ability to work with my hands and started making boards and I didn't make very many. I made them mostly for myself, learned a lot, learned I didn't like itching and I didn't like glassing, but I did it. I learned how to do it. so anyways, know, it's been a process of, you know, what's, you know, what the, building boards had to do with getting

Luc Moore (17:06.845)
Fair.

Kevin Maui Foil House (17:24.115)
what I wanted without, you know, on a budget, you know, so I just did it myself. And then everything else is kind of revolved around, you know, just being, being, being in the water all the time and, and, know, offering up services to, you know, some travelers who come into town and meeting people at the beach and, and, you know, making friends. I've got friends throughout the world now. I love it. And, you know,

Luc Moore (17:27.876)
you

Luc Moore (17:35.493)
you

Kevin Maui Foil House (17:53.471)
Hopefully in the future I'll be able to do some more traveling and some strike missions to places and I'll look on my phone and I'll see you know, I'll see who I know in those places and reach out to them and We'll meet again

Luc Moore (17:58.136)
Mm-hmm.

Luc Moore (18:02.501)
Yeah. There's so many fun, guess foiling, which we've talked about in the show a bunch of times, it's opening up so many cool and new destinations and traveling is significantly easier than windsurfing. Even though we still love windsurfing. what is going back to you? What is Maui foil house all about?

Kevin Maui Foil House (18:26.152)
So, you know, Maui is a kind of an expensive destination, but it's world class and that, you know, it's got, you know, consistent trade winds and, you know, the trade winds create the downwind foiling experience, you know, now, you know, all winter, like October through April, May is, you know, just world class.

waves, probably some, you know, every day, you could say it's better than most places in the world. And so I, you know, I bought this house, I've lived in this house since 2009 with roommates. And then during COVID, the opportunity came to buy it came up to buy the house and I was in a position to be able to purchase the house. needed a ton of work. had been a windsurfing rental for 30 plus years and it was falling apart. So

I convinced the owner that I, you know, I had the ability to purchase it and fix it. And I was, he insisted that it had to be fixed. couldn't, it wasn't a tear down at that. Although some people would have considered it a tear down. So I've spent the last, you know, five years literally rebuilding the house from the ground up and refinishing it from the inside and outside. And, and I got to this point and it's, you know, I just want to

Luc Moore (19:40.613)
wow.

Kevin Maui Foil House (19:50.692)
offer people the experience of being able to, you know, use this as a base of operations for right in downtown paella, you know, for people want to stay for a couple nights or a week or get guided lessons or even unguided lessons and just come, come with their suitcase and then rent the gear for me if they've already got experience or you know, take a quick lesson, let me check them out and then guide them on some of the different, you know, great places to

Luc Moore (19:57.379)
you

Kevin Maui Foil House (20:20.434)
to foil in, in Maui. It's, you know, there's so many different things to do that, you know, my specialty is wave riding and I don't expect anybody to, you know, go out and ride, ride waves like I do or where I, where I ride. But, you know, I do meet, rippers from all over the world that come and, know, they're, they're qualified and it's great riding with, people from all over the world who come and recognize how

Luc Moore (20:29.506)
Hmm.

Kevin Maui Foil House (20:49.373)
you know, what a quality place Maui is for winded waves.

Luc Moore (20:54.071)
Yeah, it's such a it's a such a special scene here and the people at Ka'a when I've gone, they've been extremely friendly and they help you with whatever it is that you need help with. So it's been kind of fun. I've been going with the evening crew because normally like everybody gets off work and they go for catch a couple waves then. But yeah, that's a pretty fun service actually, because you do get to be social and meet so many people.

and learn more about them and find out how they found this passion. And a lot of them, let's say they're coming to Maui and it might be a, maybe their only trip here or only two or three trips here. So it's, it's really important to be able to help them through that process. Cause a lot of them, they might just do it once, check it off their bucket list and not come back. So that's kind of a cool opportunity.

Kevin Maui Foil House (21:38.557)
Sure. you know, and then also, you know, you know, like I, I met cash as a young man, a young kid. And, you know, I, I met him through, you know, my son. and, and then later on when I, when he, when I learned he wanted to foil, he, you know, he reached out and I hooked him up with Armstrong and that's been a super gratifying,

you know, experience because I mean, just the other day we had this, this enormous swell that was just, you know, the one of the biggest swells I've ever seen. I've got some photos here where cash and I went out to a peer one, which was an unusual

Luc Moore (22:20.725)
Yeah, if you want to screen share, that'd be... ...fantasy.

Kevin Maui Foil House (22:33.436)
You know, was so big that we were able to go.

Kevin Maui Foil House (22:39.165)
here. We were able to ride some just enormous waves. This is these are some of the shots of cash at at Pier one. And thanks to Jonah. Or that can you see the photos is it going

Luc Moore (22:49.107)
Whoa.

Luc Moore (22:52.605)
of for

Luc Moore (23:00.061)
Yeah, yeah, it's perfect. Yeah. So cash and I like cash is episode just came out last week. And we talked about this on on the show. So it's kind of cool timing that we get to talk with you about it again. But

Kevin Maui Foil House (23:16.954)
Yeah, cash cash is unbelievable. Like I, I really, I find it incredible. Like in a situation like this, I think I might be just out of frame, but I'm over here on the shoulder looking back at him riding these waves and just in astonishment with my eyes wide, you know, just like going, my God, this kid's incredible. Yeah. And, and we're so stoked for cash and all his, you know, compliment accomplishments as a world champ to two time world champ and

Luc Moore (23:44.577)
Yeah.

Kevin Maui Foil House (23:47.63)
And then, you know, so it's it's pretty amazing to see, you know, his, his ability, his abilities get, you know, taking taking kitesurf, I'm windsurfing, foil surfing, you know, and specifically, wing surfing to such high levels. And there's a there's a shot of the old man just playing it safe.

Luc Moore (24:10.646)
Yeah.

Luc Moore (24:14.947)
there you go. Yeah, right, You're not playing it safe if you're out there. Attaboy.

Kevin Maui Foil House (24:16.828)
Look, run, run, run, run it for the shoulder. Run, run, run it for the shoulder. Basically, you know, just trying to, trying to survive cash didn't cash did have a did did total a wing on that session. and I didn't so I'm on but then cash got the cash got the goods like that. And I did not get the goods like that. So we're gonna call we're gonna call.

Luc Moore (24:34.166)
shit.

Luc Moore (24:43.295)
Yeah, that's...

Kevin Maui Foil House (24:44.987)
We're gonna call Cash the king right now. I mean, he's definitely doing things that nobody else is doing when it comes to wing foiling. And I think it's just a testament to his skill and his willingness to do new things and his lightning fast cat reflexes, I guess.

Luc Moore (24:49.088)
you

Luc Moore (25:07.456)
And his passion, like I've talked to Cash on multiple occasions and I asked him what was the driving force and he loves it. It's for the joy of it. And that's what allows him to be creative and to come up with different ideas and then to push his boundaries like that. But he's definitely a passion and joy oriented person, which I think is super important when you're in these conditions. I think that stuff actually keeps you safe because you're charging for the right reasons. So

I definitely believe that there's something that keeps you a little bit safe. If, if you're doing it safer, calculate it. There you go. That's the word I was looking for.

Kevin Maui Foil House (25:40.878)
Let's not let's not call it safe. Let's call it calculated. No, let's calculate it. I think I think that's the word is that cash cash knows where what his level is. And, and he's calculated in his he he might be less calculated if he had to pay for all this gear.

Luc Moore (25:54.312)
you

Kevin Maui Foil House (26:02.362)
For now, for now, he's getting he's getting gear and Armstrong is happy with his pushing the boundaries. So I think between South Africa and his world championships and and everything that he's doing, you know, everybody is just like blown away by his ability to read the wave, read the conditions, know what his limits are knows what you know how far he's willing to push it.

Like one of the first examples, like when he got the cover of Foiling Magazine, I was actually out that day at Ho'Ki'Po with him. And I was like riding next to him and I'd see him come in at full speed and then he would do a huge, boost the huge air as he's coming in. And then sometimes the wave closes out and sometimes the wave, you know, shoulders off. And he was...

I could see it in his eyes and midair he was calculating if the wave was going to close out and if the wave was going to close out he would he would sheet in and land on the backside of the wave and if the wave wasn't going to close out he would he would open it up and land on the wave face and make the land and stick it and keep going and and that this was that cover that's in right behind you right there in the offices that's at least you know three years old now.

Luc Moore (27:10.13)
No way.

Kevin Maui Foil House (27:23.77)
So he's doing that kind of He's doing that kind of stuff back as a young grown before he'd ever done his first competition. yeah, he's a unique talent.

Luc Moore (27:24.223)
Whoa.

Luc Moore (27:33.011)
Whoa. What's it like with writing some of those? Cause obviously there, you bring in a years of experience that, that is like, can't, even though you have a lot of skill as a kid, like you need that breadth of experience and all those variety of different conditions. And you end up being a little bit of a mentor for kids. That's just kind of the natural aspect of us when we get a bit older, but what does that feel like to write? Well, a little bit, right? Like he'll.

Kevin Maui Foil House (27:58.777)
I don't know about a mentor. I would say that there's like, he can do it, that old guy can do it. I'm gonna go for it. And then they bring in their cat-like reflexes and I'm like, wow, that was cool. I'm not trying that, but good on you. I gotta pay for my equipment.

Luc Moore (28:02.503)
Like they're just, kids.

There you go.

Luc Moore (28:16.063)
Yeah.

Luc Moore (28:20.512)
Well, I talked to Tom like obviously.

Kevin Maui Foil House (28:28.012)
I'm on the self sponsored program. I got to pay for all my equipment. In fact, the other day on that big day, the next day I had a thousand dollar day where I dropped a kite at Ho'iipa, destroyed a bar and lines and lost the kite, came in on the rocks and was like, yep, you know, that was a thousand dollar day and then went down to Ka'a and had a great session that evening and survived without any accidents, you know, so it's like I still and just I think last weekend I had a

Luc Moore (28:49.289)
Yeah

Kevin Maui Foil House (28:56.953)
you know, I destroyed a wing in the surf, you know, it a little bigger than I thought I didn't chicken jive when I should have and I just, you know, fell down in the surf and you know, destroyed a, you know, $1,000 wing. So it you know, it's, it's not free. There's no pushing the boundaries in the wave. So, so I am the as Kai, Kai Lenny called, determined, called people who play it safe, shoulder soldiers.

Luc Moore (29:12.543)
No. No.

Kevin Maui Foil House (29:26.271)
And I consider myself a shoulder general. I'm not just the soldier. I'm just the general out there. I'm like, I'm all about getting to the channel.

Luc Moore (29:26.815)
Yes.

Yeah

Luc Moore (29:35.55)
that's fair. Looking back and all those years of experience, like how does that make you feel to be in this epicenter of all of this with all this new action? You've gotten to see the start of kiting. You've gotten to play in the start of foiling. Like looking back, how does that make you feel a little bit?

Kevin Maui Foil House (29:55.257)
I love it. think, I think it's kept the, um, it's kept my passion for the sport. Like I was starting to get a little bored with kite surfing. Like, you know, the thing that, the only thing that drove me for kite surfing was kite surfing and the waves. And then all summer long there was no wave. So it was just like, eh, you know, I was starting to get a little bored with kite surfing because I really only wrote a surfboard. But then when foiling came around, it just re-invigorated my whole, you know, love of, of kite foiling, of kite surf.

Luc Moore (29:56.637)
Mm.

Kevin Maui Foil House (30:24.696)
kiting than with a foil because you know I was crashing all the time I was trying to learn new stuff I was really you know loved the the I call it the unicycle you know unicycle on the water you know my my foiling with the kite is you know riding a unicycle on the water and flying the hell using the helicopter to pull you and then flying the helicopter as well so it's really and then there was all the racing thing that was happening I was never very good at racing but I

Luc Moore (30:44.156)
Hmm.

Kevin Maui Foil House (30:54.015)
I did enjoy, you know, trying some of that stuff and experimenting with that and pushing limits and watching the equipment evolve. It's been, it's been great. I, I, I, I can't imagine, you know, not having been an early adopter to all of these sports.

Luc Moore (31:09.245)
Do you think that'll contribute to the success of Maui Foyle House and camps and lessons? Cause you you're coming in with with all the do's and don't do's and all those kinds of life lessons as you learned it all.

Kevin Maui Foil House (31:25.077)
Yeah, I do have a breadth of experience and countless stories about, you know, how things can go, how things, call them a cascading series of failures. I have countless stories of cascading series of failures that lead to like, you know, ending up on the rocks and, you know, getting pressed onto the reef and all sorts of things that people, normal people don't get to experience, you know, unless they actually experience it. So.

Luc Moore (31:29.949)
Yeah.

Luc Moore (31:50.396)
Mm-hmm.

Kevin Maui Foil House (31:52.982)
I would say that, you know, there's a great breadth of experience, a lot of common sense about safety precautions. know, we, none of us, nobody here on Maui and the, you know, in the community wants to see anybody get hurt. You know, we've heard all the stories, we've seen the stories, we talk about it and everybody's pretty precautious. And if you're a qualified waterman, you're always thinking about safety. you know, Jesse Richman is a perfect example that.

him and pottery that they're two of my favorite, you know, kite surfers in the world and and they are super safety conscious when they do the crazy stuff that they do at Jaws. I've done some unconventional. I think I'm the only foil or two to go up to Jaws and ride Jaws unassisted. But once again, it was just a baby Jaws day and I did this shoulder road the shoulders and kept it pretty.

Luc Moore (32:46.662)
Mm-hmm.

Kevin Maui Foil House (32:50.86)
kept it pretty conservative. So, you know, I take my chances, but they're usually pretty calculated where I'm not getting into the critical part of the wave. And then, and then just the early adopting of the wing. This is me photobombing Kai Lenny back in the early wing days. Yeah. So, Kai Kai's great. And he's been fun to watch him grow up and all the, you know, all the multiple, you know,

Luc Moore (32:54.525)
Yeah.

Luc Moore (33:06.515)
nice.

Kevin Maui Foil House (33:18.133)
multiple sports that he's mastered so quickly. And this last one was a world record, know, like five sports in one day was just incredible. now I'm that big sport that I was like, like, I mean, it's just like, it's hard to name them all, but there's definitely five of them. And it's, he's just a, he's just a mutant out there.

Luc Moore (33:25.99)
Yeah, this last swell. Yeah.

Luc Moore (33:38.044)
And such a nice guy too. I him finally in person for the first time at the Pro-Am. A little shout out to Maui Finn Company for the hat and for all that. did a little, went and saw them there, but just a nice guy, a genuine nice person and family oriented, but Jen just loves to rip and continuously push the boundaries and started so young and so passionate and skilled that it's amazing to see.

how he got here, but he got here with a lot of help and support, like a lot of the legends and stuff. It's amazing how everybody in the community kind of steps up and wants to get, help you get the most out of your experience, which I think is a, is a cool thing that's offered here.

Kevin Maui Foil House (34:22.613)
Yeah, I mean, there's there's opportunities for for anybody who comes here to push the boundaries of being a waterman and Kai, there's no greater example of that than Kai and cash. And you know, those the kids who are pushing the boundaries of these new sports that were pioneered here on Maui. Not not always, you know, maybe maybe the sport, you know, they the sport might come in.

And then goes through a dormant stage like foiling did back in the day where Kai did it as a young kid and jaws and you know, with the boots and the whole and then the sport kind of went dormant for a little while until the development happened where the foils got better. And so it's it's it's been a super gratifying evolution to watch, you know, these got these young men and all the watermen on Maui and and, you know, the the the envelope.

the boundaries of these sports being pushed. And over the last 22 years that I've been here.

Luc Moore (35:24.909)
And now the wave season is kind of wrapping up downwind season starting soon. So that'll be kind of another fun adventure to do that. It's actually not as scary as I thought it would be. And the waves aren't as bad. Like you can have calculus, like let's say call on, you can go out and baby stuff and you can actually learn to intro here, which is something that I didn't even think existed because I thought it was just too advanced and too extreme, but it's actually not. You can play with whatever levels.

that you want to play with, which is kind of the fun aspect of things. Are you looking forward to downwind season? I think you're in a couple got into a couple races, right?

Kevin Maui Foil House (36:06.345)
Yeah, I'm doing the whole Triple Crown. In fact, I'm probably going to add the Oahu race coming up. So yeah, no, I've been doing those races. This will be my first year doing the M2O, which is going to be exciting. And I'm looking forward to, you know, all these races and pushing the limits. I'm going to do everything with a wing. I'm not that good of a downwind paddle foiler. So

I things to, I prefer my wing and hand. I'm a sailor at heart, I guess. So I prefer the speed of the wing and you know, Armory bringing some new equipment for me to new foils to test out. But last year I had a pretty good run of events with the downwind performance 635 or 655 or something like that. That was a good combination. And you know,

Aiden with the Armstrong guy from New Zealand is just super fast. He smoked the whole fleet and all the starts that he did as far as the M2O and stuff like that. And he's just an amazing sailor. So it's not the equipment. I can't blame the equipment. The equipment's plenty fast. It's the dog, not the...

Luc Moore (37:13.896)
Hmm.

Luc Moore (37:24.09)
Yeah. That's fair.

Kevin Maui Foil House (37:29.877)
Not the equipment. I, you know, I'm going to be I'm going to be mid fleet, obviously, but there are some old guys like Alan Cadiz and Ken Winner and Alex Aguero. Alex is probably doing the paddle thing. But anyways, you know, there's some there's some old guys that, I've known for a long time that, you know, are super fast. And I just, you know, I kind of just have to watch him walk away. But now now it's just for the personal experience of doing it. And 64 years old and it's a

Luc Moore (37:35.704)
Yeah.

Luc Moore (37:43.32)
Yeah.

Luc Moore (37:53.466)
Mm-hmm.

Kevin Maui Foil House (37:57.833)
You know, I'm feeling it every year more and more.

Luc Moore (38:01.114)
64 man, and I couldn't even keep up with you out there. There you go. Good for you.

Kevin Maui Foil House (38:07.701)
Well, the more you hang out here, the faster you get.

Luc Moore (38:11.308)
I think, I think that's the way. Well, hey, Kev, I really appreciate you coming on, kind of sharing a little bit about your history and then how long you've been here and also introducing like Malwae Fowlhouse. Thanks again for everything you've done for us. For people who want to get to know you a bit more, follow you. What are your handles and website and stuff for people at home?

Kevin Maui Foil House (38:34.227)
Yeah, I'm so terrible at self-promotion social media. But but basically, I believe I have a Maui foil house.com where you can you know, you can do inquiries if you're going to be coming to Maui and you need some equipment or you just want to do a self guided tour or you just want you know, want a quick intro to you know, the spots so you're not going in cold and then

Luc Moore (38:37.049)
You

Kevin Maui Foil House (39:00.926)
Foil.House is one Instagram handle that's gonna start getting more and more posts on it. And we're gonna be doing some strike missions to some high quality surf wing foiling and wave foiling spots around the world, including Chicama, Costa Rica for toe foiling, Ecuador for toe foiling, and then also the South Pacific.

Luc Moore (39:25.705)
no way.

Kevin Maui Foil House (39:30.644)
you know, we're going to go to Fiji and, and do some, you know, do some strike missions to some of these places. When I say strike mission, you know, it doesn't need to be huge, but it does need to be windy. So we're going to, for me, in any ways I got to, I got to kind of look and see what the wind forecast looks like, but, um, not necessarily for toe foiling, but you know, it's just like, I really, you know, I've been, I've traveled to Indonesia. There's some exciting places in Indonesia foiling. There is really, you know, it was pretty exciting and

Mr. Bennett's and all those guys have been Kai and all those guys have proven some some fantastic conditions there. But you know, if anybody's interested in organized, you know, joining in on an organized trip to some of these places, we'd love to hear from you. And then yeah, just reach out anytime that you know, anybody's going to make a trip to Maui, we've got, you know, we've got some studio apartments available. And we've got connections with people that have full houses and happy to

to help anybody organize their trip. then July is Dowland foiling month with the four races. And we'd happy to help people organize their trips or rent equipment or come a month early or come three weeks early and do some training before the races. So you don't get gassed during the races. Definitely take some training and...

Armstrong crew will be coming back to Maui for these races and we're happy to support teams in any way we can.

Luc Moore (41:04.201)
Awesome. hey, man. What's the forecast looking like today? You're going to be able to get out for a little rip maybe this afternoon or?

Kevin Maui Foil House (41:13.233)
Yeah, I hope to. It's usually like work all morning and then around three o'clock I start getting antsy and looking at the trees dancing out the window.

Luc Moore (41:23.576)
Nice. Nice. Well, hey, thanks again for, uh, for joining us. And, anyways, well, I guess we'll see you on the water. That's pretty much what we're going to say.

Kevin Maui Foil House (41:31.697)
Yeah, right on. Thanks, Luke. Appreciate it. Aloha.

Luc Moore (41:34.508)
All right. Bye everybody. Absolutely. You're welcome. Bye.