NOAA: Sunny, with a high near 82. Breezy, with a south southwest wind 9 to 14 mph increasing to 16 to 21 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 30 mph.
Looks like a good day for the Marina. I don't think there will be enough SW for the bridge pool. Wind should be S-SSW in the 5.8 to 4.7 range. I plan to get out there early. Too many days last year and this year where the wind starts much earlier than forecast. No rain. Should be windy all day with a 4:00 pm rip. Water temp at West Side now 59 F. Hope to be able to wear my 3.2 suit at the Marina. Hope we see Rich, Staffan and the Sepper too.
Well, I just got into town about an hour ago
Took a look around, see which way the wind blow
The wind wasn't as good as they forecasted for the day. When I arrived Reid and Ady had 4.7 sails rigged but the wind wasn't looking that strong so I rigged my 5.8, it was marginal 5.8 condotions. Ady and Ried made the best on their 4.7. The wind shut down around 2:30 so I took a break, Rich and Glen were rigged by then I believe they rigged 5.2 and 7.0 respectively. At around 3:30 it started to pick up so I went back out. I decided to try a trick, attempted to jump jybe and ended up Charlie Browning on my head, hit my head on my mast and put my head through my sail. Stund and sore I sat the rest of the afternoon out. I tried to get some good shots with Reid's camera but as usual I fell a little short. Guess we'll see when Reid posts the pics. In the end we all got a good workout but nothing to write home about. Will fix my sail today so its ready for the next session. I learned what not to do for sure, perhaps trix are for kids not for 50 year olds after all.
Ah, Chris don’t give up just yet. Head bumps and busted sails are part of the game-collateral damage. No pain, no gain!
The 4.7s were a mistake indeed. We were expecting the wind to keep picking up and shifting in the optimal direction, but it levelled between 20 and 30 mph instead and kept shifting back and forth between S and SW. Chris made the right assessment with the 5.8 while me and Reid struggled with inadequate sails and wasted precious time. I had my 5.2 down at the launch so I rigged up at some point and it was sufficient for the gusts, but still not enough for the numerous lengthy lulls. Finally started practicing the Downwind 360 , but unfortunately forgot to step over in front of the mast on all of my 3 attempts and of course the backwinding part was unsuccessful on any of them. Anyhow, at least I pulled the trigger and started trying and like any other moves I ever learned this won’t happen right away but the pieces will start falling into place slowly one by one. Being underpowered may have been a good opportunity to try the Upwind 360, but it didn’t even cross my mind then . At least I practiced the Helly occasionally since my success rate on the wobbly 94L lags mightily compared to what I achieve on the pancake flat and wide Atom.
After a short break later in the day I decided to go from underpowered to heavily overpowered for a change and launched the Atom with a 6.5 Retro, which was hairy but a lot of fun at the same time -good old-fashioned blasting and carve jibing till my batteries drained completely.
The after-session pork chop and a bottle of Boston lager at the “Power Jibe” felt like Heaven as you can imagine. Good day overall, except the 4.7 part.
Believe me Ady I know all about collateral damage, I have taken my lumps, I have broke numerous booms several masts, and put holes in many sails since a started windsurfing back in the 80's. Im sure this wont be the last, just frustrated because I made stupid mistake.
