A Ka'a'awa woman whose body was found yesterday following an apparent windsurfing accident Saturday loved to be in, on or near the ocean, be it scuba diving, canoe paddling or sailboarding, her husband said.

Dan and Monica Weyant shared a passion for ocean sports during the six years they were married, Dan Weyant said.

Monica Weyant, 36, was ocean-wise, her husband said. She had taken up scuba diving before sailboarding, paddled for the Waikiki Yacht Club in two Moloka'i-to-O'ahu outrigger canoe races, was a strong swimmer and had been windsurfing for more than six years.

She earned an undergraduate degree from the University of California Berkeley and a master's degree in information sciences from Chaminade University. Most recently, she worked in information management at HMSA. The couple had no children.

Weyant said his wife set out from Kokokahi Yacht Club on Saturday morning, wearing a "shorty wetsuit" but no life jacket. Life jackets are bulky and tend to get in the way of veteran windsurfers, he said.

She was supposed to baby-sit later in the day, and had a couple of hours to spare.

"She wanted to go windsurfing — out to Coconut Island and back," said Weyant, who went with his wife to the yacht club that day.

INTENSIVE SEARCH

Monica Weyant had made the trip by herself a number of times before, about a mile or so in each direction, hardly a challenge for an experienced windsurfer, her husband said.

"It was a good day for windsurfing," he said. "Winds blowing about 15 knots and choppy conditions on the bay."

When two hours had passed and his wife had not returned, Weyant called authorities and reported her missing. He used a catamaran to comb the waters between Kokokahi and Coconut Island.

Around 3:40 p.m., Monica Weyant's sailboard was found on the shore near Lilipuna Road, across from Coconut Island. Dan Weyant identified the sailboard and a short time later he found the board's rigging in the water nearby.

But no Monica.

He searched the waters for the rest of the day Saturday; was back on the water as soon as it was light enough on Sunday and went out again at first light yesterday.

The fire department search also resumed at daybreak yesterday and her body was spotted when a Fire Department helicopter made its first pass, around 6:40 a.m., over the area where search efforts were concentrated over the weekend, said Fire Department spokesman Kenison Tejada.

She was found when a rescue team captain who was aboard as a spotter saw what looked like a body right next to a seawall of an oceanfront property along Lilipuna Road.

"The body was found in the same general area where the sailboard was found earlier and where a witness reported last seeing her," Tejada said.

He said the search for the missing woman was centered in the same area on Saturday and Sunday without success, but the water was much clearer yesterday.

"Visibility wasn't too good the past couple of days," Tejada said.

The body was recovered by Fire Department rescue workers and turned over to the Department of the Medical Examiner.

Tejada said the sail and rigging had separated from the board but that none of equipment appeared to be damaged.

He could not say if there were any obvious injuries to the body.

Dan Weyant took the sailboard and rigging back to the couple's home in Ka'a'awa and has inspected the parts time and again.

A universal joint that connects the mast and sail to the board was not broken, although it appeared a clip might have come loose.

"The only thing I can guess is that the rigging maybe popped out and hit her and knocked her out, but that's purely a guess," he said.

The equipment his wife was using, Dan Weyant said, was about "five or six years old," but was in good repair.

LIFE VESTS NOT COMMON

Eitan Waldinger, a windsurfing instructor at various locations for the past three years and who now works for a shop in Kailua, said it was not unusual for Monica Weyant not to have worn a life jacket.

"The only windsurfers you are likely to see wearing a life jacket are very inexperienced novices who probably don't trust their swimming skills very much," Waldinger said.

And while a universal joint is a high-stress component, Waldinger said he has never known one to fail.

"The only thing I can think of is that the mast must have come loose somehow and knocked her in the head," he said, adding that the only thing Monica Weyant might have done differently was windsurf with another person "if nobody was around."

But Waldinger said a trip of a mile or so in each direction is hardly considered extreme by experienced windsurfer standards. And, he said, windsurfing is the kind of sport where participants keep track of and check on each other.

Kane'ohe Bay attracts far fewer windsurfers than nearby Kailua Bay, which may have played a part in Weyant's death, he said.

"Probably nobody saw her go down or realized she was in trouble," he said.

Reach David Waite at dwaite@honoluluadvertiser.com.