Barry Spanier : In 1984 when Fred Haywood and I were working together daily we shared ideas continuously about speed, speed, and more speed. One day he showed up at the MauiSails loft with a perfect wing to study and emulate. Sadly, this poor owl must have been hit by a car because he found it dead near the highway, and one wing was almost torn from the body. Being a respectful Hawaiian, he made sure to bury and revere the remains but kept the torn off wing for us to study.

I have spent many hours handling and feeling this perfect ‘design’ move through the air and still continue to compare our efforts to create this kind of aerodynamic perfection out of carbon and plastic with what can be learned in nature.