What a great day. The forecast was bang on - sunny and increasing west wind all day.
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3 happy windsurfers
and a new wind foiler and a wing foiler
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Wing foiling during my 2nd of 3 sessions…
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The forecast was great…
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| Len getting ready to foil! |
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| Len heading out on a sail that was too small! |
Len and I headed out and started wind foiling. He was on the 4.7 with the Techno and 76 cm foil. It wasn’t enough to get him going so we swapped kit. He didn’t really like the 6.5 with the Stingray and 99 cm foil. He would get up and immediately overfoil. As I was rigging the 6.2 for the first time this year he came in to ask for the Techno back. I mentioned to him about keeping his legs together more like riding an INDO balance board. And instead of sheeting in and pressing heels to head upwind when he’s about to overfoil, that he should bend his knees and sheet out, We put the 6.5 sail on the Techno and he was off again.
I rather enjoyed the 6.2 and was making the majority of my foiling jibes, several without touching down. My one carve 360 was a fail. I did have one smoking jibe and want to see my alpha 100 time (jibe and return) but can’t figure it out exactly…
Len was getting better and better and it was fun to pass each other frequently up on our foils. We were foiling for well over an hour and he was getting super long runs. I saw him pumping the board and enjoying the surfy feeling.
I suggested we head upwind to see the swells at Wedge Island. We worked our way up there over several tacks. The waves weren’t as good with the wind from the west as during a SW wind. And it was getting windier. Eventually we were both tired and overpowered. Heading downwind resulted in several falls for both of us. I still managed to find the floating sunglasses Len was wearing twice! Overall 28 km in 2 fun hours.
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| Len and my wind foil tracks |
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| 28 km of wind foil fun |
Next it was time for me to head out and try some winging. Len came to the point to takes some photos but the GoPro battery was dead. Instead I offered for him to head out on the wing. I went back for the seadoo and followed him around a bit. He was now downwind in the harbour as Vanessas came out in the boat. She got some good video of Len learning to wing and then me heading back upwind.
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| Heading out for my wing session |
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| Winging it before the handoff to Len |
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| Len learning to wing |
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| Winging back upwind to the dock |
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| The wind during our noon - 5pm sessions |
Now it was Vanessa’s turn to go windsurfing. We set her up with her favourite 5.7 firefly sail on the Techno with a 38 cm fin. She was flying and looking great.
I headed out on the Duke 6.2 on the Skate 108 and remembered how much I love that combination. I was pleasantly surprised by two of my three Vulcan attempts. I got around to the other side with my hands on the boom and sliding backwards. I just forgot to lean against the sail and lift my back leg. The last Vulcan attempt was much more like the other few over the last few years. With the water at 24c, I should have tried even more!
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| My windsurfing tracks during sport session #3 |
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| Nice top speeds |
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| Some Vulcan attempts there! |
Sadly Len didn’t really get going much on the 5.4 with the Freewave 116. It looked like 90% slogging and maybe 10% planing. I’ll try and get the 2nd Techno ready for our next session together. I was a total blast having 3 windsurfers out in the harbour on such a wonderful sunny day.
Today of the 3 sports it was definitely windsurfing on my trusty Skate 108 that was the most fun. I did surprise myself with how well the wing foiling went with the small 4.2 wing. And 2 hours of wind foiling with Len speaks volumes of how great wind foiling is - me doing it now 4 years, and Len just his 2nd day.
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