fangy (22667km):
3908 days ago Well I am spitting chips!I am not sure if a week of solid sledging has come home to roost but someone got revenge on me today. I hit the water just before 2.00pm with the aim of getting a solid session thinking it might be the last of the season. I had just got hold of the right size cams for my Koncept so I was keen to try it all out. First couple of runs were very ordinary and I went back in a whacked on a few shims around the place with instant results. Back in the groove and although the tide was a bit high I had a brilliant afternoon sailing around doing whatever took my fancy at the split second...absolutely no planning went into it, just all "in the moment' stuff. The wind filled in even more after 4pm and I had some absolutely stonking runs and in the last hour knocked what felt like my best speeds and alphas and I was pretty confident of distance too.
Toward 5 ish I was getting tired at the top end and got lazy in my gybe and ended up getting hookin halfway through - not sure what happened after that but the end result is a whole lot of bark off my left shin and a hamstring that got stetched further than Warnie's credibility when he was using Liz's face creams. So I end up lying on my back floating in the usual foot of water trying figure out how I am going to sail back with one leg. Turns out you can, just not well and with a few !@#$ thrown in.. I got back close to the car and then just floated in with the wind. There were no crabbers out today, supposedly because the crabs are running out. Unfortunately they missed a few. As I was getting dragged along through the shallows i ran into a couple and luckily only one of them had a chance to get a nip in. His aim was not bad and awfully close to a bullseye, so i then rolled over onto my side and dragged in with crown jewels in a more protected postion.
I ended up on the beach and lay there slowly trying to sort things out without being reminded of a leg muscle that was still complainingmore than Troy Buswell's front bumper about the treatment it had received. I got to standing up and figured I could hop ok. So i lay back down and took the mast foot out of the board and took a cup of cement before trying to hop up the stairs with my sail. But wait! A kiter has turned up and is running towards me! Hallelujah! he obviously can see my pain and my faith in fellow man is restored. He gets to me and I say " thanks heaps mate" as I balance on one leg and go to give him my rig so I can go back and get the board, quietly hoping he will go and get that as well. Instead he just looks at me, at little confused and says " so are there any restrictions on kites here?" I wasnt expecting that, but he is a kiter and you have to re adjust your expectations of language processing when you talk to them. No worries, I will speak slowly and give him time to digest all this information, that is, water good, wind good, and then pause and give him time to focus on the more immediate problem of getting my kit back to the car.
Kiter goes " thanks mate" and runs off to set up his kite whilst I am still standing there like a fat Karate Kid on one leg...
To end this long story after crawling up and down the stairs I got my kit sorted and packed and thought to myself at least i will have some huge numbers today, time to check GPS - its flatter than a pancake, the last data recorded at 3.48pm (before the wind really filled and I got cranking) thereby robbing me of the chance of a few speed and distance PB's... The thought crosses my mind - Which sledge got me into this much trouble?. So here I sit with Nurofen and wine and contritely wish to apologise to ( in no particular order) Snags, Fairybob, Hardcase, Elmo and Decrepit..
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Fave gear Manta 54, TR9 6.3m Pepeweed 23.5cm 48 degree rake.
. I will have to come back one day