Ho'okipa is the global temple of wave-sailing and home of the Aloha Classic, while Kanaha's flatwater nursery makes Maui the one place a beginner and a world champion share the same launch.
The sailboard has two American beginnings. In 1964 Newman Darby of Pennsylvania built a rudderless board with a pivoting sail. The version that spread came from Santa Monica, California, where Jim Drake and Hoyle Schweitzer founded Windsurfing International in 1968 and were granted a joint patent for the rig in 1970; by 1984 it was an Olympic sport. The wing is newer. Tony Logosz of Slingshot tested his first wing prototypes in the Columbia Gorge in 2011, Flash Austin tried handheld wings on foils in Maui in 2018, and by 2019 they were on sale. Maui is where windsurfing is most alive today, and where the wing on a foil was made into a sport. At Ho’okipa the Aloha Classic closes the world wave tour each autumn; in 2025, its 41st edition, Marc Paré left as world champion for the first time.
Learn on Kanaha's flatwater nursery, at the one launch a beginner shares with a world champion.
Two schools work these two launches and one of them names the man teaching — Alan Cadiz at HST, which is rare on this craft. The Professional Windsurfers Association's own 2026 calendar brings the Aloha Classic here from 19 to 30 October, booked by nobody who teaches on it. ⚠ That calendar names the island, not the break.
Living sceneMeccaRecord holderNamed mastersVerified schoolsFounded by Alan Cadiz in 1985 and based at Hi-Tech Surf Sports in Kahului, HST teaches windsurfing, kitesurfing and wing foiling for beginner through advanced sailors. It is the same operation that started as Hawaiian Sailboarding Techniques.
Facts read on the school's own pages, 17 Sep 2026.
Established in 1996, Action Sports Maui runs Monday-to-Saturday windsurfing, kiteboarding and wing lessons at Kanaha Beach Park using stable beginner boards and sails matched to the student's size.
Facts read on the school's own pages, 17 Sep 2026.
VDWS Windsurf / Wingfoil Licence & Instructor Certification · Certifying body: VDWS / IWO (International Windsurfing & Wingfoiling Organisation)
There is a real difference between a school that teaches you and a good-looking website, and too much of the internet is the second kind. Four instruments do the work, and every one of them is visible on the page you are already on.
If a place dodges these, that's your answer. It costs you nothing to ask, and it tells you everything.
This is the short version. The full method is here — the six questions, in order, for any craft anywhere.