Good attendance yesterday at Wolf. I saw Alan, Brian and Jim aswell as many others who I don't know by name. It was sunny and balmy 50s. Wind started shifted from SW to W later 12-28mph.
A sure sign for my evolving windsurfing-I rigged smaller then Alan-my 5.8 vs his 6.3. I wouldn't have believed it if someone told me just a year ago I struggled a bit at first, but then I went in, adjusted the dounhauldownhaul and outhaul to medium setting and went sailing again. I was still uncomfortable at this point although better powered up and I realized that my issues are actually coming from the harness lines. 2" back and 2" longer and everything came in a perfect harmony . I thought that 30" are long enough for me, but it looks like 32" felt much better by giving me more freedom to react to gustst and change direction. The longer harness lines definitely make the rig more efficient aswell- by letting you keep it more upright and thus allowing you to rig smaller.
I also moved the footstraps to the inside 4 positions on the Atom which seems to be beneficial for maneuvers and air control in chop hops. The only downside I felt was the difficulty of digging the heel and my front foot searching for the rail when overpowered -but I certainly can live with those issues since speed is not my goal anymore.
I tried to duck and do a helly tack /both unsucssesfull/ for a first time, now that my step and lay down gybes have gotten much better. I intend to dedicate this season to maneuvres, jumping and waves and my pre-abused Kode 86 is finally on its way from Oregon

Hey ady, it was a good seeing you at wolf yesterday, what a beautifull day. I also decided to dedicate this season into doing more 'moves' too( this season I'm finally replacing my (2)small sails with newer gear that is more manueverable)- we will have to compare our trials! I want to bring some of my skatesail moves to the water (duck gybe, downwind 360, )

BTW- WOLF 4/05. Arrived at wolf around 11 am. Wind was around 15-20kn SW (gusty), air was cool but getting warmer. Mike Mooney, downwind mike, and Myself, along with 2 kiters from michigan city, were there at 11. I fully expected the wind to die off by 3pm, so I rigged my 7.0. The wind had a lot of lulls, but when it was on, it was on. I could have sailed my 6.3 (like yesterday) most of the day. I wound up staying on the 7.0 all day, as I expected the wind to die off, but it really never did. In the afternoon, the parking lot filled up and there were probably 6-8 windsurfers, and 6-8 kiters on the water. Wind stayed SW and SSW most of the day, and it was still sailable when we left around 5pm. It was a very very good season opener weekend.

Nice! I have a "moves buddy" now We'll push each other and share experience. I'll start immediately by sharing this great collection of instructional videos by the UK windsurfing coach Sam Ross wich I discovered this winter and wich I like a lot for the simplicity, clarity and espetially the slomo of the critical sections. Highly recommend to anybody novice and advanced alike:
www.youtube.com/user/samrosswindsurfing/videos
Those videos and few articles give me a good theoretical foundation I think and now that the season has started its time for the practice part. My duck and helly attempts the other day were unsucsessfull but at least I was able to recognize /after that/ where my mistakes were which is a quite a break thru . I wish I had the money for a GoPro but I got myself buried in debt already so it will have to wait. Now when will our next session be? Tuesday or Friday maybe??

Hi Ady,
I'm changing from 30" lines to 32" also this season, for the same reason you mentioned, glad it is working out for you.
I just need to get my 6.5 back from the North Sails repair shop so I can hit the water.
Michael

Hi Mike! Glad to hear from you! Hope to see you soon!!
You know what's the additional unexpected benefit of long lines ?! Getting blisters becomes highly unlikely because it alows you to hold the boom with your fingertips only and suspend more of your weight from the lines