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Really, very fun day. The wind was lighter than the day before, so I used the Aero, and I might have figured out the fin control problems.
After a few tough round-trips I tightened the footstraps a bit and dropped the boom a lot. From near the top of the cutout to near the bottom, probably at least three inches. That made all the difference. From now on, when I'm using the Aero, I'm going to rig the boom lower than I would otherwise.
After baffing for an hour, I was getting my jibes pretty well, staying dry on all and planing out of over half. It's easy to do on the Aero, which is so big it's forgiving, even though it also is pretty turny. This is a good flatwater board, in my opinion, despite the reviews I've read. I think it would be a good lake board for any middle-American who doesn't get 20+ very often. The Aero and a 7.0 would get most lightweights going in 10+.
But I was getting a little bored, so I started trying duck jibes again. I've done some okay-but-not-great ones in the past, but never on a board this big, and usually on my 5.4, not 6.6. I've been sailing the 5.4 and down days in the bay, though, where it's challenging just to carve a regular jibe, so I haven't done many.
The first few attempts were half-hearted as I just felt too powered-up to want to commit to the rather unhuman sail transition required of the duck jibe. But soon I became more comfortable. I "made" most of them, but only three were good ones. Of the many steps to a duck jibe -- grab back far enough, swing it hard back on the other side, keep the carve consistent, stay low with bent knees, throw early, but don't lean to grab -- I would mess up one of them except for those three. I'll tell you, even on a 127 liter, 74cm wide board, a good duck jibe will convert anyone to a God-praising maniac.
On the way home, I came up over the Intracoastal Waterway bridge over JFK Causeway and the sun was just about to set and I thought, "I live here!" It seemed like a foreign land, a vacation to Montana a few weeks earlier reminded me how different the world I grew up in is. This place is wonderful.
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