|
My fourth straight day sailing, and third straight on my 5.4 Ezzy Infinity. Man, what a great, unexpected stretch!
Today I sailed my F2 Wave again, but only because it has a better weed fin that my smallest Tuttle weed (the F2 is a standard box). I think the board is taking on water, though. It's really heavy and the fin box area looks bad. We'll see. I might have to drill and drain it. Based on my day in the bay yesterday, the Carve is a better chop board anyway, but I want the F2 for the bigger days, or perhaps just the days when I want to slash a bit.
The wind was up and down, and I just wanted to work on my jibes, so I didn't head up to the playground. I worked on jibing and jumping. Jumping is coming along very well suddenly, but my jibes are still up and down. My starboard jibes are very erratic, but my port jibes are pretty good. It's a consistency thing, as about one of three is just a really good jibe, one of three is a good jibe and the other is a wobbler. I am not getting huge air, but my jumping is becoming more comfortable. I don't feel out of balance, which is my main problem. When you aren't balanced and very comfortable, if you are struggling at all, it's hard to get air. Think of it this way: how high can you jump while you are leaning against a wall or are on a slope of ice or dizzy from twirling? But, if you are ready and balance, you can probably get pretty high. Combine that with 25-30 mph and even a small ramp and the jumps come more naturally. Today I felt really good on the landings, even though I wasn't high. Some landings were nice off the wind, powered, etc. And, I sort of kept control upon touch down by using my rear foot and pushing with my front foot. At any rate, I hope to be able to try it out on the bay soon. The chop at Grassy is steep but very, very small. The best spots might have 12-18 inches.
But, my main "job" today was jibing. I did okay, but the wind was up and down and sometimes it was hard to stay going fast and powered. I ended up staying longer than I wanted because I hadn't gotten to where I wanted to be. Right at the end I tried a duck jibe, but didn't do well. I missed on the grab at the clew and burned. It is so shallow there that I was crazy to even try, though I really want to learn to duck jibe. A few attempts had ended with some major catapults and those aren't fun in shallow water. Next time, hopefully!
|