gino_aki

Nearest places would be some of the hotels or vacation rentals in north Kihei. That said, there is really no place with accommodations that is more than 30-40 minutes from the range unless there's an accident somewhere on the highway to and from. Except for Hana. Don't stay there if you don't want a 2-3 hour drive each way. Courtyard by Marriott Kahului Airport is right outside the airport proper, and the Maui Beach/Maui Palms complex is close by if you want to stay in the central area of Kahului/Wailuku. Anything in Lahaina/Ka'anapali/Kapalua will be pretty pricey as will anything in Wailea and Makena. Hope this helps. Gino

Troy approved our match at Level II and will be creating our online squadding page at uspsa.org soon. Already starting to get entries so don't wait too long.

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I know this is way early but figured a trip to Hawai'i takes a bit of planning. Limiting entries to 80 competitors excluding RO's who enter. Message me for any additional info. 2017 Hawaii State USPSA Championship (Eugene Aki).docx

Just ordered some...waiting to see if they can ship to Maui.

I started when Ted Blocker rigs were ne plus ultra for "combat competition" and yes it was a PITA to rig up and down before and after a match. Funny thing is that I'm now using the old Blocker belt (with velcro glued to the inside) as my outer belt with a Safariland holster and CR speed pouches. Custom attachments for the pouches since the belt is 1 3/4' wide but it sure is easy to put on with the buckle being in front. Good for SS, L-10, and Limited with a change of spacers. As far as attachment without belt loops is concerned, one of our better shooters had his wife sew the soft side of the 1 1/2" velcro tape you can buy at fabric or hardware stores to his surf shorts at waist level because that's what he likes to shoot in.

Another Hawai'i story...laying on my creeper under one of the mixer trucks trying to tie up a rewire job on the rear lights when something skittery crawls up the jeans, nightshift is when all the creepies come out. Turns out to be one of our 8 inch centipedes. How I ever got out from under that truck and into the restroom (about ten feet away) without knocking myself out while trying to shuck them pants at the same time.... I did get bit luckily not anywhere real important but after that I taped up the legs of my jeans for awhile.

Going in the "easy" direction might not always be available. A fairly well accepted training adage is to "practice what you're not good at."

Or you could just leave the mag in the car and just use the 140's...unless they measured at chrono and you already shot half the match, in which case you are coulda, shoulda, woulda.

I'm pretty sure I'd feel right at home on that third squad.

I rotate sports. If the surf is happening, I'm at the beach. I also used to play a good deal of volleyball, but the knees can't take that anymore.

I may be way off base here, but I'm wondering after having perused this topic if the OP is asking the right question? Underneath it all, I'm wondering if what he's really asking is when did there become such a divide between the more casual shooters and the serious competitors in USPSA.? I know I felt it a little at the last Nationals I attended (and yes, I admit two Majors in a span of fourteen years is not a realistic sampling) and sometimes feel this separation even at my home club. I guess I'm also wondering if our more casual shooters ( a camp I guess I'm in if measured against the time and effort put in by other posters here) start to feel like guys on the outside looking in when their more serious brethren congregate at a match or on a forum?

I think Mr. Foley would consider committing USPSA to such a deal but he'd have to put it before the board. And if he's as smart as I think he is he'd also put it before the general membership. If he didn't he'd be no better than any of the current "leaders" that so many here and elsewhere already despise.

Ask just about any serious amateur surfer if all the growth in the sport brought on by televising major competitions, with the crowds at every good spot, and "pro" surfers who obviously are "entitled" to all the good, not so good, and mediocre waves because they have to train, whether they think all that benefited them the "participant" surfer all that much. When better athletes start crowding you out of your local range with Allen Iverson, Ndamuhkong Suh, or Adam Jones attitudes, will the sport be better off? There may be a place for a media/spectator driven shooting sport but USPSA is not it. It would have to have standardized courses and probably be moved into purpose built arenas/indoor venues with way more moving/reactive targets to generate the level of viewership needed to interest bigger non shooting related sponsors. And frankly, you could have that sport with blank operated laser guns and light sensitive electronically scored targets of whatever shape.

You would think so but the R.O. is looking right at her hand so either it wasn't caught until too many shooters had already gone through to designate it a forbidden action or it was addressed in the overall match briefing. Her hand is pretty close to her holster in many of her other starts also so.... I'd have to see what other competitors were doing or allowed to do to make a more reasoned opinion. I know when I design stages that my WSB's aren't quite so abbreviated but that may just be me.

The two islands with the most active clubs are Maui and O'ahu. VISSC here and MPPL, Hawaii Practical Shooters, and Rhat-Rhat Boys on O'ahu. The guys on the Big Island lost their range in Hakalau and I've heard they're shooting on someone's private land down in south Kona in Hawaiian Oceanview Estates but can't confirm that. Too bad Kaua'i doesn't have a range. We shoot every Sunday except the first of the month, weather permitting...the weather usually involving the wind. Drop me a line here if you plan on getting out this way and I'll get you all the pertinent info. Ben B: Cool, drop me a line before you come and we can give you the scoops, too.

Wow, I guess we live in a semi-utopia out here on Maui. I don't think we've ever had 70 shooters at our state match much less the club ones. We fluctuate between 10 and 22 shooters depending on how life is going for any of our group of guys. We still set up just before the match on the 3 or 4 Sundays we have matches a month and usually start shooting around 9 am and everything put away by 2 pm. We have one dedicated bay which we manage to usually set up four stages in and everybody helps. If we had an influx of people who stuck with it we might start seeing some of the problems you guys on the mainland are dealing with but for now we seem to be operating at a pretty comfortable level. When we've had visiting shooters, this wasn't a topic that ever came up and most didn't bat an eye at the way we ran things so I for one would not really have dreamed of the admin stuff you guys run into. Some interesting ideas here especially the one about pre-registering folks for the "season." With more and more of our personal electronics becoming interconnected I would think that an app for running all the interconnected timers and electronic scorepads should be percolating in someone's brain, perhaps even an idea for a totally integrated scoring system run over a dedicated local wireless network. And regardless of whether we seek out more numbers to add to our ranks, range development and affiliation should always be a priority at the local and national level.

Hey Gino! I'd like to see what counts as a cold day at Ukumehame. Coldest thing I've seen there is the beer after the match. I think it got down to 68 F one winter...that was so cold I had to wear a long-sleeved T-shirt with the cargo shorts. When you going to come back and shoot with us?

I suppose if I needed to warm my hands I could always go across the highway to the beach and stick them in the sand...

Eric, great pics!

I had the pleasure of meeting a very personable shooter yesterday who was here on Maui visiting family after competing at an IPSC match in Thailand. He's from Calgary and sponsored by CZ and JJ Racaza. We don't often get to see shooters with his ability out here and it was amazing to watch. Despite the horrid conditions vis a vis the wind at 35 mph he ran away with the match shooting in Production Division. Our guys were pretty much in awe. His name is Trenton Sukovieff and I predict he's going to be making waves in our sport very very soon if he's not there already. We were flabbergasted to learn he's only been shooting for about a year or so although he did mention that he has competed at very high levels in Xtreme(?) Skiing. Great guy, keep an eye out for him. He's gonna go places.

Beware of becoming addicted to the camraderie displayed by the shooters and especially the people who put on the matches if you are of an inclination to help out regularly. You may find out that it becomes more fun to set up and run a good match and watch others having a great time than actually shooting it yourself.

The value of USPSA to me personally is being able keep my relatively low membership number and being able to walk around with an R.O. certification card in my pocket. The magazine rarely prints anything about my neck of the woods (probably something to do with all that Pacific Ocean in the way or lack of a pidgin english translator) and classification rarely matters except to the two or three club members who actually travel to the mainland for matches. People "win" their divisions at my club by virtue of being the only shooters in that division, members or not since the only "award" given is getting to hear that they "won." The only other "value" I can discern that USPSA provides us with is the stories that our traveling shooters bring home about meeting others who enjoy this sport the way we do. We also get the "value" of you USPSA members visiting our island every so often and bringing the wealth of your knowledge and camraderie to our matches. Now that I'm sort of retired, I may be able to do some traveling to some of your clubs to spread back some of that aloha.

It should. You may have to modify which ever spacer gets you the closest for width.

I'm not sure this counts since I caused the failure...blowing up a newly Magna-Ported Bar-sto barrel on a squib before the R.O. or I (a fairly new shooter at the time, mid 1980's) caught it.