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Another great day at Grassy Point. All the regulars were there: Chester & Pam, Crab, Bob, Dick, Richard, John. We missed Mike M., but had a couple of out-of-towners, including Mark from New Orleans.
It was a windy day. Most of us toughed it out on sails too big at times. It was up and down, though consistent for stretches of 15-30 minutes at one speed, it would change from 20 to 30 and back. I went out on my 5.4 and struggled to plane at first. I let out some outhaul and downhaul and about 2 minutes later the wind started in on the bigger end of the 20-30 scale. After wrestling for a few minutes, I stopped and downhauled it a bit more, and I switched from my 14.5" fin to my 12.5" fin. I was once again a member of the Tale Walking Hall of Fame. I need a smaller board for these types of days!
It was fun, though. I couldn't control the board well enough to be really fast, though Richard was on an even bigger board than me, and he was passing me. I don't know how he does it, but he's fast in almost all conditions, often on gear that most people wouldn't sail on in those conditions -- sometimes he's on a bigger sail than me in more wind, sometimes he's on 2 meters smaller than me in light wind. He's almost always passing me, though.
There were a few moments that I felt really good on the 5.4, which I've not sailed a lot. After I came in the first time to put more downhaul on it then went back out, it was much "lighter" feeling, much more controllable. I think these Ezzy Infinities are very tuneable and can be changed to the conditions quite a bit. I also felt in control during the gusts, it was my board that was difficult to handle.
The weird thing with the board is that I never feel like my front foot (either side) is in tight when sailing, but when I go to jibe, I sometimes can't get it out of there. Weird. Not having your foot securely in there during a blasting over-the-chop ride is not a good feeling. I'll have to play with it a bit.
A few weeks ago I decided to wear booties full-time. I have tried a few different expensive booties but they haven't lasted long, and often come off at the heel when hit by a wave or when kicking to waterstart or when jibing (bad footwork!). So, I bought a pair of $4.97 Wal-mart aqua socks (Laguna wear, it says) and some elastic and my wife sewed the elastic on them to keep them on. It works great. So well, in fact, that I went to Wal-mart tonight and bought four more pair, for the future. I should be set for years to come, now.
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