This week was great up in Wisconsin!
- Friday 07/28: Sheboygan, NNE 15-17 knots, 2' swell, no shorebreak, 124L + 8.5 Lion
- Monday: bar
- Tuesday 08/01: Sheboygan, SE pm thermal 15-18 knots, 2-3' swell, light shorebreak, 159L lightwind + 8.5 Lion (cause crack on the AtomIQ 124L)
- Wednesday 08/02: Sheboygan, NE 17-20 knots, 6-7' swell, moderate shorebreak, 159L lightwind + 7.5 Cheetah (cause still 124L crack not fixed and too many lulls for a 100L+6.5)
- Thursday 08/03: nothing

And tomorrow Friday looks even better with a promising NW. Time to get the 100L Starship back on the water. Likely Winnebago in the afternoon, launching at Windpower or Deadwood.

Edits: memory is failing... was drinking at the bar Monday... and there was no wind Thursday! Ha!

Oops! Busted that knee again...

Yep! Overpowered in a gust (was on a 5.0), back foot escapes out the strap over a piece of nasty chop and off I go forward with the front foot that releases a tad late. My skills and physical aptitudes (or lack of) are partially at fault for sure but the footstrap setup is clearly wrong. You remember our conversation on the topic? I set the front out and the back as a single centered. This might be ok in wave riding but going straight in heavy chop in 25-30 knots just means trouble: Back foot centered and front foot outward makes the body slightly turned forward which has a tendency to make the back foot pressure less constant and can provoke an unwanted release off the strap if the ride is jerky because of the conditions. When rethinking the session, I should have called it off sooner. I was not in control and should have noticed something was wrong. Dumb.
I also think I set the stance a bit too wide...

I was in SF visiting family a couple of weeks ago and went to Coyote Point for a couple of afternoon sailing in the Bay. I rented the same Starship as mine but the straps were inboard front and back... Wind 22 knots + chop comparable to Winnebago and no problems.
Live and learn.

Ady, your advices are always welcome.
For sure the Starship has been wild to ride ever time and it got me injured twice. I never had any such issues with the Starboard or the more recent Fanatic. But I still think this may be due to my totally inventive and wrong strap setup. I got to correct it and give this thing a second chance. I was sailing the same board in California 3 weeks ago and it behaved very differently than mine.

I don't have a lot of experience with many boards but one thing for sure is that the Starship is really super fast when powered up. This thing is like a rocket! This also makes negotiating tightly packed 1-2 feet ramps and chop quite physical and challenging. I love the speed but I never get to sail on flat water when I get to use a 100L board. So something a bit more tamed would be a good thing.

Your experience with your 2016 Kode makes me think of how comfortable I am with my AtomIQ. In Bonaire last January, I sailed the 2015 100L and the 2016 106 Liter and both were super comfortable and predictable. The water conditions were more flat but the wide body short board recipe is making things a lot more easy to deal with. Even my new Falcon lightwind that I pushed last Wednesday beyond its intended usable range was fun and safe: 4-6 foot swell past the lighthouse, NE 17-20 knots and rigged with my 7.5 Cheetah. The Falcon was still predictable and remarkably sail-able which are qualities that I never really experienced with my Starship so far.

So, like you suggested, might be time to trade for a more comfortable pair of shoes. But for now I need a strong knee brace and a few weeks of rest!

Ady, I might not be at the same stage of maturity in the sport as you have. Blasting has a way to still put a smile on my face. After more than 15 year interruption and about one year back into the sport, I'm just getting more comfortable with basic transitions. Once I improve in that department, I might find interesting to go learn a few more tricks in the waves. That said, I do enjoy surfing the swell on the return runs and don't think of speed at that point. That's a good sign, right?!

I used to sail a 9' glass custom in 3-fin config back in the days. I remember the difference when I set it to a single fin. I wonder how would sail the Starship in a 3-fin configuration...

I like riding on the rails now that I have the hang of it with the Starboard and the Fanatic so I'll probably set the Starship in dual strap in the back, shorten the stance a bit, and give it one more shot.

Good call on the fin size. I started the session with a 5.7 and the 32cm stock fin. I then switched to the 5.0, got lazy and didn't change for my smaller 28cm fin. Bad choice. If I had, that would have made a difference in the handling for sure. My sail was trimmed properly though: max downhaul and mid outhaul. The gusts were just really hard to handle with a board that was going all over the place.

Finally, I don't expect to do things right and might not always agree. I found listening to others experiences very enriching though. But sometimes, one has to make the mistakes to learn first hand why thing are better a certain way.

For now though, I really like sailing for speed. Adrenaline rush is why I'm in the sport more than technical prowess. But I'm sure I'll come to the conclusion at one point that there's more to it than just speed! So let's see what happen next.

Again, a pleasure to read you and always nice of you to share your unfiltered perspective and advice. I successfully back in the sport when I got my 124L AtomIQ because you recommended it and you have been spot-on!
Cheers.

Thanks for sharing Ady.

Tomorrow is the eclipse of the sun and as I'm getting ready to look up into the heavens, this reminded me a few pics I took during a pretty special day in Sheboygan! It was on July 5 at the end of a nice light wind session. A westerly front was coming and suddenly the sky featured an unusual and beautiful cloud formations that resembled an inverted mountain ridge. It was amazing to watch.

August 27, Sheboygan WI, North Beach, SSE 15-17 knots (my guess), 4' swell. I went north beach today because the shore break on south beach was big and messy (didn't want to break something...). North Beach is semi-protected by the north pier and offer sailing conditions with less chop but still with roller coaster swell wrapping around the lighthouse. The only issue with this launch is the wind shadow the first 100-150 yards out due to the marina buildings and other land obstacles. So a little buoyancy is necessary to get out far enough to catch good wind. My124L is still disabled so I took the 156L Lightwind Falcon with the Ezzy 8.5 Lion for a ride. I am impressed with the range of this board. I though that it couldn't handle swell, chop or anything above 15 knots but to the contrary. It really is a fun, fast and easy to control board. ...a purchase I didn't regret.

Ouch. Thanks for the warning. I can see how it can easy happen. After all this extends more than half a meter down in the water. Unless the wind is weak or I'm on a smaller board, I tend to unconventionally waterstart with my back foot on the board which i guess makes the fin no longer a risk factor (it gives me better directional control of the board while in the water) ...But obviously not on this picture since my left knee wasn't bending as well as I wanted with the brace.

That's a really nice Falcon, Gregory!

Thanks, Mike.

Today, I squeezed a session in Winnebago between 2 meetings during an extended lunch hour. Launch at WindPower. When I got there, 7.5 conditions then by the time I was ready to launch 8.5 and when it was time to go back to work 6.5-ish. My head's spinning in confusion. I ended up rigging the 8.5, always edging for big to make sure I get something out of my hour of sailing and put the 124L on the water. Love my job!

Yesterday, Friday 22, I took a day off to sail across lake Winnebago. This is part of the annulal Wind Power Championship that's happening this weekend. A bunch of friendly windsurfers racing long boards with +10.0m2 sails get together to see who's the fastest, the most skillful and tactical sailor. I don't have that kind of equipment (neither the skills!) but thought I could join the casual crossing of the lake event the day before. My Lightwind Falcon plus a 9.4 cambered sail would be good enough to keep up I though. Well, not quite because I realized that an old Mistral racing board is far more nimble than I remembered: it goes downwind and upwind in ways that the Falcon isn't capable of. So in sub-planing conditions I couldn't keep up but as soon as the wind came to 11-12kn with nice gusts at 13-14kn, the Falcon came alive and propelled faster than anything else on the water. So instead of participating to a traveling journey around the lake, I ended up with a local friend crossing the lake over and over our own way.
After Wednesday's fiasco on Lake Michigan, this Friday that predicted a poor and boring day on the water turned out to be a blast. The water was flat, the gusts powerful enough to get the French Toast on long-lasting planing stretches (that's how I name the Falcon since it resemble one, in proportions at least!). Don't have a gps to know how many miles I sailed yesterday but from 1:30 to 4:00 it was uninterrupted fun going upwind and downdwind, experimenting with the sail trim and the board's planning capabilities in lulls. Oh, and no wetsuit required: water 71 and air 87! A perfect summer day of fun. Drove back home with probably a slightly idiotic smile on my face, remembering the day, the chats and the beers on the shore!