Mahalo Pluses and Minuses

We got one of the first Mahalo’s in the US and after using it a season would like to comment on it. We’ve been using that Mahalo as a big boys (read fat mans) (sometimes racing) board, general all around beach toy and standup paddle board for the family. For reference I am 118kg and a local B Fleet quality sailor/racer, my primary sail is a 10.5 Sailworks Retro, I weigh 265 lbs. and over the years have owned and sailed several of the earlier generation WC Race Boards and have sailed the *board Serenity.

In the bunch we’ve had 2 Superlights and a Bermuda (the plastic version of the classic epoxy Superlight) all wonderful boards if you weighed exactly 155 lbs. At the time I owned them other sailors would comment that while subplaning I put up a wake like a power boat and I couldn’t get them to plane for s**t. I always thought it would be great if someone (Mistral) would take that design and tweak the rocker lines and chines, but that never happened.

Although I doubt that it was Patrice’s intent, that dreamed for redesign of the Superlight is what he accomplished with the Mahalo and the addition of the step tail was absolutely brilliant. In my opinion at 118 kg, for big guys the Mahalo is a better board in virtually every respect than a Superlight or any of the more modern WC Raceboards. One caveat, I haven’t sailed any of the newer 295 L boards but I expect the step tail would be a great equalizer when it comes to planning.

Photo courtesy kona-windsurfing.com

In the Plus column:

1. It rails up wind very nicely.
2. It planes off better than any longboard (with the mast foot at the back of the first mast track just forward of the centerboard) I’ve ever sailed.
3. Tracks very well with the stock fine and turns on a dime with a 30 cm fin.
4. The EVA deck is very comfy.
5. It’s relatively inexpensive I.E. it doesn’t have a mast track.
6. It’ll float the whole family, well not quite but just the same with 295 liters of displacement it’ll float alot.
7. Chris, I and the kids love the way it paddles in all modes arm, sit-down or stand-up.

Minus column:

1. It could use a mast track (see +1 and +2 above) or maybe not (see +4)
2. I’m the only one in the family that could initially get the centerboard through the gasket. Per our trusty fish scale, it took 30 lbs 79 cm out from the pin on the center board to pull the centerboard through the gasket, which translates into 116 lbs of pull at the centerboard knob which is 20 cm from the pin. Application of Teflon spray (McLube) to the centerboard and gaskets reduced the forces to 5 lbs and 13 lbs respectively. At least Mom can now flip the board over and use a finger to extract the centerboard.
3. To be fair this is a perennial problem with boards having centerboards, any gasket that’ll tolerate the hydraulic forces on it created when planning will have to be very stiff. The longer the center board the worse the problem.
   It planes heavily (see +2 above), a different fin helped and a sail cut for a longboard would probably help even more.
4. The EVA deck is more fragile than that on *board’s Starts and Goes. Expect your harness hook to tear patches loose than have to be glued back down with “Household Goop” (found in all fine Wal-Marts everywhere)

Conclusions:
Recreationally this is the best longboard we’ve ever owned. Open class racing would demand an adjustable mast track, but it would make a grand One Design racing board just the way it is. Additionally with a small fin installed and the sail in the rearmost mast track the Mahalo may the best board currently on the market for instructors wishing to use Roger Jackson’s technique of riding with the student while kneeling on the board just ahead of the mastfoot. We love it and hope it stays on the market in one form or another forever.

This article has been written by Raymond Kuntz who is a LBWS reader and owner of a Kona Mahalo. Originally the review was on the discussion forum. The LBWS team thought that it was worthy of an article in the review section of the site. Please feel free to add your comments.