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The forecast wasn't great, but I just needed to get out and be on the beach today. I pulled out the longboard and threw it on top and headed to Bird Island.
It was light when I arrived, so I rigged the 7.8 and put it on the Equipe and went and fooled around for about 30-45 minutes... pointing high, railing the board, running low, etc. I was in the straps and planing most of the time, and it started to really fill in, so I came in and put on the Allstar 70 and the 44.5 cm fin. At first it didn't work well at all. I had flashbacks to Friday and was just about to come in to put the Equipe back on when it started to pick up and fill in. I ended up blasting around for about 90 minutes. The wind was E, SE, which I like a lot becaue the wind is nearly straight offshore and the reach is a long reach along the shore. I went for a few miles and it goes from flat to choppy to rolling chop and back. It's a lot of fun. The Allstar loves to get air off of chop but I don't think it's made to be landed from jumps so I try to avoid it. It's an easy jumper though because of all the surface area.
BIB can have some weird cross-chop near the launch. But on this reach, about 2 or 3 miles out, the small chop is clean and the little rollers are nice and organized. In this direction about 30 knots would be a lot of fun.
After awhile it started to stay windy so I came in for a break and to decide my next move. I ended up pulling out the Carve 111 to see how the 7.8 would feel on it. Windsurfing Magazine says the C-111 will handle sails to 8.0, and Star-board.com sails it can go up to 7.2, so I decided to see who was right.
I will have to try again, because I don't know if it was me or the too-big sail -- it didn't feel very comfortable. I think it was just a bit windy for that sail. At that point it had jumped to a consistent 23 or so, and that's kind of big for a 7.8 on such a small board, I think. I think the Seatrend might have been okay, though. The wider style seems to be able to handle the bigger sails even in more wind. The Carve just kept wanting to go UBER fast and then the sail would start to melt-down. It wasn't fun, that 7.8 meter Gorilla. Having said that, it was surprisingly forgiving overpowered. I didn't eat any boom, but there were times I had to fight for control a little bit. It could have been worse, I think.
So, I came in and in record time had my 7.8 taken down and my 6.6 rigged up. I would have left the 7.8 up, but I needed the boom, and I was getting tired so I figured that it was 6.6 or go home. I got back out and planed around for a few minutes but then old inconsistent wind came back. It was a lot like Friday where it was not total slog, but not total plane either. I think that's the most frustrating. You get on a plane, then it totally shuts off -- zero to 5. Bam. Slog. But, you can't just get into the slog mode, it's a gust again! Bam, you're planing. Bam, you're not. I didn't hit a single decent planing jibe on the Carve because it was so up and down. I barely would be planing before I would be slogging again. If I had a rare sustained plane, it was used for pointing toward shore (remember, offshore wind). I've been psyched to practice my jibes for about a week now, but there hasn't been enough wind!!! Argh.
I'm not a guy who likes to sail for miles and miles and never jibe, but it was nice today to be able to do just that. Since the wind was marginal, once you were on a plane, it was best to stay up there. For every jibe or tack, it could be minutes before a big enough gust came by to get you on a plane.
I worked a little bit on pumping today. Fin pumping was working really well. I can see how that really helps, even if you are in enough wind to plane anyway... you get there so much quicker. Sail pumping wasn't effective because the wind was basically on or off... there wasn't enough to pump against in the lulls and in the gusts there was enough to get going with a few fin pumps.
I left a little down, because my hands and wrists were both tired. My wrists, especially the left, have been giving me a lot of trouble lately. I've been wearing a brace on the left to keep it immobile as much as possible, but it still hurts a lot. I think it has something to do with a couple of recent injuries to it, and working a lot on the computer. Because my hands and wrists were sore, I was having trouble in the slog-plane-slog-plane mode. That is the worst for your wrists and hands because you have to use them so much.
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