4 categories

Quite a day! Long time away for minimum return. Did the lake - same story - rig in good NW - rain squall - SW!! Bugger!! Nil return!

Back to Hardies - glassy - Coffee with the Elmos (many thanks mate - apologies for Slowey's blueness from mouth).

Back to Hardies - waiting 8hrs - 9 hrs - 10 hrs waiting waiting - finally the wind comes cold and hard!

Doppler post - 5.8 koncept, 95 gladiator, 32 F1 - had the CA 47 ready to go but... - its still clean!

12.5 hrs away from home - I had to bring chocolate!!

5 categories

What a mission.

Leave home 7.30. Notice a lot of wind on the way there.

Get to Melville to see a solid 20-25+ on the water. Yeeehar.

Frantically rig 6.6m and SP47. Another shower is on the way.

Get onto the water. Wind is dropping. Must be a lull.

Sailed over to Attadale foreshore.

Wind died.

Waited 15 minutes in the rain under my sail.

Started wading.

1:30 later, get back to the car.

Wait another 30 minutes for wind to start moving.

Give up and decide to go home and get warm.

10 minutes after leaving, stuck in the middle of the Mitchell Carpark, the wind fills in- I'm watching the water whilst waiting for some F(*KWITS in front of me to realise that it was really only a few drops of rain and not the collapsing of the 3 gorges dam so there really was no F&^%ing reason to slow to a stop.

Uturn at charles street, ring snides to find he and PD are sipping tea with the enemy.

I ask Steve the direction of the wind, and he says its SW(?!!) so Peli Pt is is, and just as I turn off the fwy, he says, its still a bit west. (*&^K!!!!). So I drive to PP anyway.

Its WNW. So I wait there watching the trees swaying for about 10 minutes before losing patience and head back to Melville.

Its blowing when I get there so rig up the 6.6m and the SP47. Guys hooning back and forth.

Put rig on water and the wind drops. I get one run barely planing and only just make it back. Everyone else now totally stopped.

Now I'm starting to get a bit frustrated. Bugger it. I need a sail. Its 8-13kts. 8.5m and the big board goes up.

A couple of runs barely planing and the wind starts to build. When I see a 30 on the dial its time to have a crack at the 6.6m again.

It all got better from there. Wind filled in. Chop filled in. A couple of runs in the 36s and then a 37 totally overpowered.

Time for the 5.8m. I'm stoked. Finally get enough wind to even think about using it.

Getting really powered up now. Some scary 38s in some ridiculous chop and waves.

Then I lose it half way to Majestic point in the middle of the "ocean" at 38kts and hit the eject. Eerie feeling watching the chop whiz by before touchdown. Seems like a long long time. Then I hit and start bouncing until I bounce into the chop and bury.

Wind swings a bit more to the south, so I eventually decide that I shouldnt waste the opportunity to have a crack at Pt Walter.

Tack up to Pt Walter. Loads of wind. Almost getting slammed in the gusts. PB coming up for PW for sure- even though the sandbar will be mostly underwater.

Last tack, the wind is dropping. I can see the whitecaps dissapearing further downwind. I hope its just a lull.

Nope.

A few small puffs came through with some grovelling. Nothing more than 15kts behind the sandbar. Got some 3 or 4 second puffs in the chop off where the sand bar was totally underwater. Very sharp. But it all held together to hit a 39 on the dial in one gust.

A couple of 38s, then a 36 and the wind was getting lighter. Time to head back or swim.

Very gusty trip back to Melville, with some bouts of pumping to link the wind patches. Just made it back to the carpark with literally seconds to spare before the wind switched off. Phew.

Since I still had the 6.6m rigged I went out again to test my new 33cm fin on the SP60. Was marginally planing, but the setup felt sweet.

All done. Big mission for not that many kms on the water.

Claude made it down after the wind died, so I dont think we'll see too many planing kms from him :(

Point Walter as the wind died, sonic w52 rs4 5.8 tec f1 28

1 categories

Went for morning session down to Hardies only to find the MM boys grovelling around with next to no wind, conditions not about to improve so headed home, looking better in the afternoon but unable to get out until 1hr before sunset by then the wind started to drop off but still a few gusts hanging around, used Isonic 86 , 6.1 , 29cm F1.

Great to see the SRM boys posting some good times considering the average conditions.

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massive tooth ache  will comment later

edit- re checked the alpha in real speed

the mission began for me at 0400 in the car by 0415 and 2 and a half hours later pulled in to yo yo's run with pd in tow.lots of rain , and some wind.rigged in the rain trecked the 300 odd meters to the water with 2 boards and 1 rig to suddenly find the wind had done a 180!!!! turned around marched back to the car and swearing,once again,to never return.in reality this place has the makings of an awesome spot the problem is wind direction and speed is critical and sadly it seems you would have better chance of winning lotto than arriving to find it firing.

another hour back north to find hardies run peeking out at about 3 knots, had some fun watching some of the crab crew drifting and walking through the shallows.luckily elmo came to the rescue and dragged pd and myself off to elmoville for a much needed cup of joe.as pd said there was an awkward moment when i took a call from slowy(in elmo's kitchen) and decided to put it on loudspeaker for pd and elmo to hear only to have slowy describe colorfully his mission in fine detail and un abridged!

we eventually got back to hardies and chin wagged with crasher for an hour or so before the wind stated to show signs of picking up.

pulled the 5.8 out only to find by the time i had it threaded it was 5.0 weather! things where looking good by the time i hit the water with the 5.0 and the ca44 it was a good 25 in the gusts,another 10mins the gusts where hitting 30 and i was wishing i had rigged the 4.4.

the wind stayed around for 2 hours or so and the rest of the crab boys rocked up and every one was zipping.

on the way home a bad tooth decided it wanted out,and the last hour and a half was a trip of foggy pain.however seeing the results of the days work seemed to take the edge of the pain....slightly

dentist tomorow......ahhhhhhhhhhh