Yesterday I went slalom sailing at Kanaha. I just got a brand new sail from Naish so I was super stoked to try it. On my very first run out I noticed a huge difference in the weight of the sail, their new lightweight material really made a difference. Now with any other kind of sail (wave, freestyle, freeride...) I‘ve never really thought that weight is much of an issue but with slalom it’s a different ball game. The lighter-weight improves your speed because you can really crank down and stay in a tight, sheeted in, position instead of having all kinds of excess weight bouncing around every time you hit some chop. Another reason why less weight is good is because you can easily roll in and out of a jibe. With my old sail I always had trouble with holding my sail down too long in a lay-down jibe. If you hold your sail down too long you will either go into a carving 360 or the sail will flip with the wind and when you’re using a big unforgiving slalom sail it can be problematic, it will usually swing you straight over the nose (very uncool). Needless to say I had a great sesh and now I’m pumped to compete in the Maui Race Series. It’s a great contest that consists of five events every other Sunday from June 5 to July 31 So if you’re in town during that time you should check it out!