Melville Beach, WA, AU

Really enjoyed the flat water and getting some carve gybes that felt smooth. Hoping for an alpha PB above 20 knots - Yes!

RRD Xfire 80 with KA Koncept 5.8. Tried 26 Technics fin but water depth over the sand bank was shallow so used a 23 Drake speed fin (sanded down to remove the logo) which went surprisingly well until a couple of speed runs over a little bit of chop, when it let go  - for at least a 100m. Rather disconcerting so moved to a home made 25cm weed fin which felt more stable.

Safety Bay, WA, AU 57 Mistral speed (Slowie didn't get it back), 4m Koncept, 26 Elmo weedy.

Normally 2 PB's would be very exciting but after seeing a 35.47 on the dial 32 is disappointing (I wasn't dreaming, I have witnesses). The 10 sec was only 30 odd though so I suspected it was a spike. Anyway it shows that last week's 32 wasn't a fluke.

Very windy at Safety Bay today so I opted for the tiny sail. Very powered up across the wind but not enough on the downwind runs. I kept almost falling in backwards. Should have gone for the 4.9

It was a joy to introduce Col to the delights of the Safety Bay speed run (I was almost going to say the beaver but that didn't sound right at all!). Wait until he posts! I like to think I shared in his PB's because he was using my fin. Good to catch up with Tomski and the PB twins Rod and Mitch.

Tom bribed the barge guys and they brought in the downwind cables so we could use the speed run early. The tide was perfect and the run was the flattest I have sailed it. Later the barge was parked right in the middle of the top part of the run and the cables prevented any approach, which was bad luck for Rod who was firing and keen to improve on his PB. On a positive note though, the barge must have scared off the kiters. There were only 3 out!

I almost forgot to mention another exciting moment - I had my outhaul loose for the downwinders and at one stage it came completely unhooked in the middle of a run (crosswind fortunately!) and suddenly the clew end of the boom was down around my ankles!

Melville Beach, WA, AU

quick sesh after work RRD 102 7.0 Rs racing, something wrong with the set up today. i suspect too much downhaul as it looked very windy, coupled with pretty gusty winds....still, definately better than not going out!!

4 categories

Day one of Freewave course.

Started at Werner's for set up (much bigger footstraps). Need to try a waist harness.

Drills and on water work to improve acceleration and upwind ability followed by a blast down to South passage for some waves.

First breakage assist (mast) sailed back to shore with boom.

5.3 Kaos / 4.7 Kaos, rider x-onshore.