Elwood, VIC, AU

Interesting day at Elwood, had a couple of runs on the 30+ knot NW, then sat out while it gusted way above that. Had a few more when it dropped a bit, then had one run in the 30 knot W before that picked up more! JP 91l freestyle wave, 4.7m NP slalom, 30cm fin

Lysterfield, VIC, AU Skippies

Ne, N, NW

10 - 40 kts

Waves on the lake!

Xcite 120 Koncept 5.8 C3 Venom 36

Damn gusty - worst I have seen it.  Could hold it when it was gusting 30 but not 40kts!

Matter of survival.  Got out a few times but struggled coming back in.  Sailed half washed down to the swimmers beach. Packed up gear and thanks to Col walked it back.  Col got the best 5 mins of the day when everybody packed up and the wind dropped abit and stayed consistant

Lysterfield, VIC, AU

At it's gustiest, 30-40knots N most of he afternoon. Some exciting times with boards and sails flying around on the bank, luckily nobody injured.

Had one run with 6.7 saber and Moondo's 150 something, then changed to smaller 5.7 saber, 105 rocket. Spent a lot of time in the water getting pummelled by the gusts. Just before the W change, had a good 5 minutes of constant wind, unfortunately the GT11 battery had given up by then so it missed all those runs.

Lysterfield, VIC, AU

Very gusty Northerly... hate to see what the actuals were !  

Started on the JP160L with 5.5 NP Fusion... ended up on Josh's 4.0 and still felt like I was getting punched in the back !

NOT a fun day in the office lol !!

6 categories

Swan Bay, VIC, AU

Man did I get F*&ken smashed today!!! I feel like i went 10 rounds with Mike Tyson.

Did the road trip with Kato to have a play on Jacques' & Red's home turf.  Up at 4:30 to be at Kato's by 5 and then did the 3 hr drive.  When we got on the water by mid morning it was a building 25-30 and was great.  I need to use weedies more.  Took me over an hour to get the technique sussed to get up wind properly after numerous runs at 26's & 27's sideways, i finally got it wired and got up ready for my first nautical run of the day... and the wind dropped out (calm before the storm it turns out), got my peak on that run and came off the plane a couple of times hence the shite NM.

Grabbed some lunch, Jacques got on his phone and said it was 35 building to over 40 with 50gusts in Geelong.  I laughed it off... and boy did i pay for it.  Went back out on the 5.9 that i was using in the morning got up ready for another Nautical and it was suddenly 40+ and i had 2KM to get back.  I got absolutely smashed and ended up body dragging and being rag dolled for about the last 600m.  Once back i sat out for a bit with Jacques and watched Kato sit out a crazy squall in the middle of the bay, smoke off the water everywhere around him. 

It seemed to calm a bit, so changed down to the 5.3 and went back out chasing Jacques & Kato again...  It hadnt calmed down at all.  Got semi comfortable and started another nautical this time on the W run, mid way through hit something, stopped dead, massive catapult and ripped my harness.  Lucky i missed my mast and sail because i wouldve been straight through it.  This time had even further to get back, so I part sailed (no harness), part body dragged and part crawled through the mud banks the couple of km's back to the car... Not fun.

I'll be back and better prepared ready for that (for me) elusive 30+ NM.  Really thought today was gonna be it.  Ah well.

Swan Bay, VIC, AU

Whoa, what a storm front. The water was amazing, vaperising at times. Even had water spouts in one squall.

Thanks goes to Lester for rescuing me (and one other famous person) from the car park. I just had to sit on sail when the trough hit. Not enough hands to move both sail and board to safety.

Still, incredible fun and awesome to be part of.

Fanatic cross, 5.5tush storm, 34fin