4 categories

Leschenault, WA, AU

Awesome mission to Australind with Lao and Jonah.

Mostly sunny, 15 to 25 with a few gusts around 30 knots.

The plan was for a more relaxed sail today and the Isonic is such a great board for that – it just glides through the lulls making today heaps easier than last week here on the speed board. Faster too. Board PB 2 sec by more than a knot.

Attempted just two naughties and got 33.2 for both so super-stoked

Stoked to see Jonah smash a bunch of PBs and Lao crack 40 now he’s got his fins dialed.

Jonah will be a top speedster for the team if we can get him away from his wave gear more often

          Isonic 86, HSM GPS 6m, Vector DWS 27

3 categories

Leschenault, WA, AU

On a road trip with Mark and JJ.

Day started badly, my dog escaped out the garage whilst i was packing the car and took 45 mins to retrieve.

Got on road and nearly ran out of petrol (again) on that bloody road to Bunbury...JJ saved the day by waiting for me at the petrol station jerry can at the ready just in case i didnt quite make it!

Then finally got on the water with my newly aquired isonic 87 (from Isac), reflex 3 6.2 and lockwood custom fin (about 28)

Eased in gently but after an hour met in the middle of the estury to compare figures. found out Mark and JJ were up in the 38/39 region and i was in the 36s so i grew a spine, let off some outhaul and locked into a good gust and got 38.6 on the dial....very pleasing!!

got back to the car where JJ being the professional speedsailor pulls out a laptop and feeds my memory stick in and out comes a full set of stats from some fancy programme...very happy with a bunch of PBs!!

Thanks for a great day out with the boys!

After work sesh at Melville.

Got down there at 4 in the midst of a massive squall.  After that it dropped to around 18K and I contemplated the 7.6, but (wisely) chose the TR9 7.0 instead to go with the M112 + 36 Sting.

As it turned out the 7.0 was a handful in the gusts, which were nudging 30K.

The breeze swung from WNW to W after I got on the water, and I struggled to fnd my mojo.  Nuking gusts, but quite choppy as well.  I was pretty overpowered at times, so hesitated to really drop the hammer.

Had a good mile run down to Majestic.  Big spin out mid-run after hitting some rogue chop, which probably cost me a 30, but happy enough with 29.65. 

I was trucking back upwind, doing close to 30K, and hit another rogue chop, which resulted in an involuntary jump, followed by a massive catapault.  Fairly knocked the stuffing out of me 

Went in to heave on some more downhaul, which made the gusts a bit more manageable, and went for a few more speed runs til dark.

Good sesh, but pretty brutal conditions, I think I'm gonna ache tomorrow.

3 categories

Bendyland North: unfinished business!

Late post due to WWA committee meeting last night. Sorry to keep you in suspense!

The Moral of yesterday's story: keep experimenting!

After the last session down in Benderland I was not happy with how Lurch was feeling with the MXR weedy. So I e-mailed Martin at MXR and he deduced from my info that I either needed to get a bigger MXR weedy or get rid of that draggy Lurch (he never liked them apparently!)

Depressed I even spoke to Snides about buying his JP45

So when the opportunity came for an outing with Mr Speedyroo, JJ back on the same ground. A different approach was called for to avoid my backside being handed to me again.

 Got to the water to find it blowing hard so rigged the Blade 5.6, Lurch combo. While rigging the wind backed off so rigged the iso 90 / 6.3 / choco 27 too.

Went out on this first and was pretty powered up, got a few runs at 35 and headed up the top to get a mile in early so that I didn't cop flack from Speedyroo for not backing him up. The mile run was pretty lumpy at the end but knew it was respectable with a 33.8 and 32.9 10sec in it.

Came in to report and take Lurch for a spin. 

Martin had said that he didn't think I was getting enough lift from the MXR 22 (he has done 46knots on one) to get Lurch's fat arse out of the water and that a bigger fin might help. Not having a bigger MXR weedy I looked in my collection and decided to try a Tectonics Falcon 26 pointer and hope weed would not be a problem.

First powered up bear away for a 38.44 display and it felt easy! Board felt like it should when accelerating in a slingshot and the fin was rock solid through the chop! Stopped next to Mr Speedyroo to rub it in! knowing it would get his dander up (he had said he was taking it easy)

Wind was down at this point so slogged back to the carpark for som refreshment and a kit change.

Back out on the iso for a 37 display and a bunch of 35 10 secs

Speedyroo was hammering out the runs after that and next stop I am greeted with a big S@#t eating grin and a 39+ from Speedy! For an iso86 PB!

Couldn't let it rest at that so back in for Lurch and some weight (only 3Kg as it really wasn't nuking windy)

Worked my way further North and watched JJ and Jonah doing some smoking naughty runs before they called it a day.

Started to do some big curved bear aways in to the shore hoping to catch the bullets off the dunes in the flatter water.

First good run was a 39.6 display with a 38 10 sec and then finally got a sweet gust for an extra few degrees off the wind and a 40.85 display! Woohoo!

All the runs were heading in to the fence line on the East shore

At this point saw Jonah leave and so decided to head back downwind ( a lively ride) despite wanting more.

JJ was calling it quits so decided that I would call it a day too.

A great outing with only a couple of rain squalls and even some sunshine!

Awesome to see Jonah out ripping on new gear and unfamiliar territory big effort!

4th fastest 2 sec so got to be happy with that! Results from Realspeed to keep comparison fair.

LB6.3 / is90 / choco weedy 27 (mile, hr) LB5.6 / Lurch / Falcon 26 (speeeeed!)