3 categories

Ducks are all dead today,couldn,t buy a good run today. Spent a lot of time at the wrong end when the wind hit or when it stopped. Spent a lot of time in the water,floating. Ended up doing 5 runs for the session. Couldn,t get anything useable out of the Navi, all spiky so posting with the Garmin,Sorry Yoyo, but my times won,t make any difference  Looking forward to a good speed session next month. 

2 categories

Well what a day, I was absolutely dying to use the new board so did the wild drive down to the Pitwith howling N West winds,rain and tree branches / debrit on the roads. It was still NW when I got there but I wanted to get wet so rigged a 5.0 Koncept ( first use of this as well). My first run was a bit hairy, it was so square when you got past the dunes and bloody windy, couldn't sheet in. I pulled the run up very short but still had a 41.5 peak.

Next few runs were a bit slow as the wind backed off and was stiil super suare sothe runs were really short. Where is that WSW shift that was meant to happen. Oh , here it is!!! Rain squall, horizontal rain , frigin wild. Yee Haa!! Daffy takes of and stacks about 20 metres down the track. Matthew does the same . Will I wait fot it to back off??? No , stuff it . I,m off.   Holey S..t its windy, I can't sheet in , I can't see a bloody thing , rain and sand blasting my eye. balls. Wheres the bank? , this could be  ugly.  How do I stop? Managed to do a run, board feltgreat but I was convinced it was a dog of a run as I was so overdone. 44.36 on the dial, ooh Ah.

I look upwind to see Daffy absolutely blasting down the course, just as he reached me he launched it to a spectacular dismount. Double flip with twist I think , not sure if there was a pike.  Judges score 9.8,9.9,9.8. Points deducted for the entry, splash a bit big. I was a bit concerned he was hurt and was about to swim out but he gave me the thumbs up. Cool.

The wind backed off , went NW again ,very gusty up and down. The rest of my runs were pretty crap as I was way underpowered. I should have changed up but I far way too slack.

A tough but  fun day. Really stoked to use the board and and really confident that it is fast. It was super smooth and so easy to sail as well.

OES Velocity 62(custom), KA Koncept 5.0 09, Lockwood/McDougall KA 23 Assy

Fun but tough day at the Pit. Biggest chop/swell in the channel that I have yet seen there. With the wind being so West it was either a long walk back up the run getting sandblasted, or out into the  channel to zigzag back up and get a bit thrashed in the chop. Great to see the team members have such good runs, something to aspire to...and very big balls on the part of the crew who launched into the howling SW squall that came through!  Some very wild weather and like Martin, a lot of tree debris to dodge on the drive down early this morning. Nice to meet Anthony from SA today who looked to be having some good runs.

Lorch Div S 63L, KA 23cm assy, 4.4 Koncept

Great to see some fairdinkum wind.I just couldn't seem to get settled on the 5.0,the CA40 and the KAssy 20(with 9kg of lead on my shoulder blades).

Tried a few setting changes like moving the mast track forward,changing the height of the boom,sliding my harness lines around and I would have pumped my balls up with a bike pump if I could have...

so on the last run of the day I pulled out a new Strike 18 fin and it made everything feel right - can't wait 'till it blows 40+ again

4 categories

Talk about windy! Problem was as expected the wind stayed WNW for longer than forecast. We kept trying to make runs only to find ourselves almost square as soon as we cleared the dunes. The wind was occaisionally swinging breifly in gusts closer to west and I managed to time a few ok and got some runs right around 39-40kts. Then finally, just after low tide we saw another squall coming. I was indecisive about the 4.4m or the 5m but decided I had better be ready with the 4.4m in case it was a good one. Man, was it ever! It hit with belting rain and whipping up the water so I couldn't see more than 100m. After two false starts (read, slammed!) I got going. What a ride!!

When I came out from behind the dunes the accelleration was fantastic, but I was having trouble staying on the bank. I had to go with it but I was getting further and further from the bank by the second. The water seemed pretty flat so I just went for it. The feeling of speed was incredible! That was until I caught up with the chop. I was still accellerating when the board started to fultter and bounce. I thought about hanging on for a split second but then realised I was on a dead end ride into bigger and bigger waves. It could only end badly so I decided to bail out in a semi-controlled manner before the inevitable full on disaster. All I can remember is bouncing and rolling, trying to stay curled up as much as possible. When it finally stopped, much to my surprise, I found I was not hurting anywhere!

I gave Martin the thumbs up (thanks for keeping an eye on me mate) and tried swimming in. It was still too strong to try a waterstart. Both the board and rig were getting thrashed every time I tried to raise them. Finally it eased and I sailed to the bank to recover. 44.96 on the max speed! That is definitely the fastest get-off I have ever had!!

I started to try to walk back but another burst came through and I had to sit on my rig in the water, back to the rain. Had to have been a solid 40+ Knots!

After that the wind had a few brief swings to WSW and back to WNW. We got a very few nice normal type runs every now and then but soon the tide was rushing in, and I mean rushing!  There were more 40 plus runs to be had but only of you wanted to play russian roulette with the whoopdedos and be trapped in the inlet 'til after dark so we packed up and escaped.

Well done Martin on the 2 sec PB (in the squall just ahead of me), and on the maiden voyage of the new 'Love Stick' as well!!

Earlier runs on the 5m Koncept and iSonic 50 with TM50 fin. The big squall run and a few of the later ones on the CA40, 4.4m Koncept and KA 20 assy fin. The last couple of runs on the 5m with the CA40 again as the wind eased.

Lots of the pit crew and an interloper from SA!

Yeeeehaaaa!!!

Was wearing 4kg lead + 1kg of heat pack.