Peter was born in Cape Town, South Africa in 1970, where he grew up on a lake and started windsurfing in 1980. Peter loved racing, and starting with the local series on the lake where he grew up, Peter rose through the ranks, winning his first Windsurfing National Championships in 1987, at age seventeen. “This was a great time in my life. I spent four months a year travelling throughout South Africa, competing on a National circuit, doing what I loved, while all my friends were at school!”
After high school, Peter turned his attention to the Professional Windsurfing Association (PWA) World Tour, which covered twenty one events around the world, two of which were on Maui.
“I first came to Maui in 1986, and can remember thinking, conditions are good for windsurfing, its warm, its nice, but, whats the big deal ?' A few years later, I remember shivering on a beach in France, convinced I was suffering from frostbite, and wishing I was on Maui! .... a little older, I understood the Maui magic. I decided to move to Maui, and make it my home in the mid 90's. Maui is such a beautiful place to be, especially when you can be on the ocean”
Its fair to say, Peter is a “water baby” and with his passion for windsurfing, moving to Maui was inevitable. He worked in the industry developing windsurfing equipment for years, and still enjoys racing on the local summer series. Peter's daughter, Caroline, is cut from the same, water essential, solar powered, cloth, as Peter. Seen above with dad, on the windsurfer and stand up board. “I can remember thinking how great it was that I could thrive in my own world when windsurfing from our front lawn onto the lake. Being on the water, what a blast ! That feeling lives on in me, as I'm to be able to take Caroline with me, and experience the ocean, and all it has to offer, with her.”
While he's spent most of his life in the ocean, Peter enjoys cycling, and plays tennis. He has made Maui his home and lives Upcountry in Kula. Cycle to the Sun is a bike race which starts in Paia (sea level), and ends at the summit of Haleakala, 10 023 ft later. It's a popular event on Maui. Here, Peter is at at 7 000 ft elevation, which is just inside the Haleakala National Park.
