Ady wrote:
I'll go dance only if you hold my hand!

Ha! That looks painful! I do see how the “light step” is a must if on has to be successful going through this ritual.

It has been a while since I updated this thread. For those interested to know more about foiling and my progress with this activity, i’ve Been out a couple of times on Lake Michigan since I took a lesson last winter in Bonaire and I have to say, I’ve not been impressed with my skills: 50 yard up, crash and repeat. Then, this weekend I went back out on the 4th and the 6th and for completely unknown reasons, I had a breakthrough. Set up with the 8.5 in a light NNE 10-13 kn and off I go up and flying for as long as I wanted. Magic! I have no idea what clicked, but this comes to mind: I started to be more efficient with my pumping, shortened and move forward my harness lines (saved some energy), and been more gentle moving feet, weight and rig. I still do not put my foot in the back strap: I need more time on the water flying before I commit fully!

Anyhow, this was awesome and fun. I managed to go out something like 3/4 of a mile flying back and forth. No jibe yet. The conditions were not that easy further out as the lake had 2-3 feet of swell and of course resulted in a couple of interesting crashes when the foil was breaching in the troughs between the crests. My foil mast is 71cm and while less intimidating when learning, I clearly see why most “normal” foils have 95-100cm masts - much better in the swell.

Finally, Saturday I started with the 159 Falcon/9.4 NP V8 on a 56cm fin in flat water N 13-15kn, then installed the foil on the Falcon with the 8.5 Lion in N 10-13kn, then switched to the 120 Bolt on a 44cm fin in NE 14-16kn and after 2-3 hours on the water, I got caught way upwind near the south jetty completely overpowered in a 6 foot swell and 5.0 conditions as the wind picked up all of a sudden. I initially sat on the board and let myself drift back to shore but lost patience and muscled my way back in a downwind moment of totally irresponsible but heroic hell of a ride. Wish I had the camera still on to document but the battery had died a long time ago. Once back to shore I was wiped out. Though if I still had a bit of juice left, I would have rigged the 5.2 Zeta/115 Starship and that would have been the first time I would have sailed all my gear in the same day!

This is becoming addictive.






Always fun to watch the vid after the fact: it certainly didn’t feel that dramatic of a crash in real


Kinda artistic crash shot


Cannot ignore normal windsurfing... my head is still on, don’t worry

Ha! Indeed! Funny video Ady.

What to do when there’s nothing else to do? Crack your board and repair it! This is the latest consequence of my foiling woes: board landing nose first, the guy and his rig over the handlebars all hooked in, and bang. I was expecting this to happen at some point but this is the first time I crack the nose of a board this bad. Luckily, the wound was wet a little but the board didn’t drink too much at all.

Stage 1: Assess the damage and cry







Stage 2: open up and clean the wound, and cry







Stage 3: apply bandaids and smile





Stage 4: sand and finish to a perfectly inconspicuous state (next)

Fiberglass, epoxy and 320 sanding is done and the board is ready for more action. Even removed the anti-slip texture in a somewhat “intentional” layout. Now, I need to find some paint to match, then finish with a coat or two of clear varnish, followed by a light sanding to 400 grit in hope to match the factory look.
But I think this nose hasn’t yet seen everything this year and I’m wondering if I should stop the repair at this stage and wait till the season’s over for a full nose job?...

(Thanks to Apple iPhone’s mysterious inner workings, the pics below are upside down, but I can feel Reid might stop by and do some magic of his own!)

(some photo magic done by admin)

Couldn’t get the perfect matching red but it’s approaching. At least the board is functional, ready for the next blow!

iPhone pic are all inverted. Maybe the Admin might do some more magic?








(Admin did some 180 photo magic)

That’s an outstanding job you’ve done here brother! Better then new!

Thanks Ady.
With praises like this, I'm opening up for business and will take over for The Board Lady.

Sunday August 4. Easy morning on the winsup with “junior” on North Beach in Sheboygan, WI. We did some paddle and then I rigged the 6.0 for some lazy cruising around the bay. Light wind at less than 6 kn, flat but cold water (~58 maybe?) and we did all we could to avoid falling in! Good father and son time at the beach.

Ady wrote:
Thanks!
Yes, I thought he would when we came back from Bonaire 2 years ago (he sailed almost everyday). So, I've tried to get him back on it for the past couple of years but he is not interested. I think he's got the "if-daddy-does-it-it's-not-for me" syndrome!
Maybe when I won't be able to sail, he'll find it worth a shot.

Maybe to bring some hope to this desperately light wind summer, here's a small piece of video from back in May. The session was a lot of fun. This was the first time I tried the 2 new Ezzy Zeta sails (Loved them!). The footage are a bit washed-out as the gopro decided to set its sensor to manual against a pretty dark background and therefore "burned" everything I shot right after. It's kind of artistic I guess.

I also included the fast-rigging of the Zeta when I had to switch to the smaller size. The music was just right for this kind of editing I think.

For those not liking my musical choice, just skip to 5:29 for the same but with very little music.

Tuesday August 13: from something that was very average at noon, it turned into one of the best Lake Michigan session I’ve had this year. The conditions were very stable with what looked like NNE 15kn. Swell in the 2 to 4 feet and water temp close to 70 probably. I rigged my 8.5 and the Bolt. Went upwind all the way to the harbor and did a few tacks in the harbor on flat water. After 90 minutes of this game, it was time to head back with a few downwind tacks at full tilt. Really an awesome time on the water today. I’m stocked! The down side is that I have no pics to share as I didn’t took the gopro for the ride. Oh well...