LOve this place, best wsurf I've had in years.

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WEll what a way to end the 13/14 Windsurf seabreeze season for me. Lilacz Albany, magic magic magic!!  Fave gear Manta 54 TR9 6.3m and NM's pppppppppepeweed 24/42 and alphas 23.5/48.  NO more long weekends away this was it, a magic 4 days, this place is highly recommended.  And it wasnt even that windy today was a solid 18 to 24 kts.

Edit:  For those interested in NM's, todya felt windier than my PB day here, but if you look at the wind direction at the Royal Princess Yatch Club, you will see that the wind have a touch of north in it all day, whereas my PB day had a touch of south in the wind, so those few degrees mean the difference between running too square with north in it, and perfectly braod with a touch of south in it.  Had there been more south in the wind, it would have been NM PB's allround!!

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Jp54SP RSREvo V 7.0 Pepewed 26 at 38 deg the JP54 RSREIII 6.2 MXR24 at 45deg

Great fun with so many locals (Cliff, John, Gaz and Shane) plus MM, CST and he who shall not be named. Beautful weather the sun shined all day and the wind blew.

Thought I would do a NM on the 7.0/ 26 at 38 degrees then striaght into an hour. However across the wind after the NM I was sooo slow. Blew a gybe and found a load of weed on the fin. Just too upright for the runs through weed on the NM run.

Came in and changed to 6.2 and 24 at 45 degrees. tried several miles and was excited to see a 36.5 2 sec and 35.5 10 sec. However dragging through weed on the run brought the total down to 32.64. Bit disapointed by that. I had 5
NMs between 32.61 and 32.79. Pretty consistent.

Today I did my second best ever alpha, on the 6.2 this was but I messed up more gybes today than I can remember doing for months. The swap from 7.0 to 6.2 completely ruined my gybing.

Fantastic to see the 3 wide men so far from home. I am really looking forward to seeing the posts of Fangman and Elmo. They seemed to have fun.

Storm surge shows max height .8m and .7m at 5pm when it was really flat.

So that is the end of 4 straight days sailing ( back to work tomorrow despite good forecast)

Average for the 4 days: 2 sec 35.03  5x 32.6  hour 18.7 alpha 22.9 Nm 30.36 total distance 340 kms.   Loads of friends from MM anmd CSP, some who have sailed here before, some not. Many comments about how good it is and how ood it will be when it is really windy!      Not a bad extended weekend.

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Tabou Thunder 70 & JP Weed 31cm, Tabou Mata 54 & Pepe Crackamonstafat Weedy 28cm 48º, NP RSR Eiii 7.0m

Twas a long day which started the day before having to convince Yoyo and Fangy to ignore all the other forecasts (which didn't look to bad) and have a look at the seabreeze forcast (To all those who know my opinion of the seabreeze forecast, yes I know I hang my sorry little head in shame). eventually all my misplaced skillz learnt from selling gaskets finally convinced the boys that it was a go.

The day started out well hitting the road justr after 5, picking up Yoyo he must have not liked the early hour as he came out scratching his eyes and rubbing his groin (may have mised that up) still wearing his Pikachu Onesie, thankfully it was still dark so we quickly loaded up quietly singing Hava negel.

Once loaded we programed Karen to give us directions to go get Fangy, Karen screeched "are you MAD thats bloody Coodanup the how of the criminaly insane" we replied "yep that's the house" with Karen muttering all the way telling me regularly I was going the wrong way and asking me "are you REALLY sure you want to go there?" We could tell we'd entered Coodanup by the wrecked cars and the people running terrified down the streets.

Then we found "The house of Fang" Pikachu was trembling one the floor muttering I want to go back in my Pokemon shell, to desrcibe the house is nigh on impossible, the main nighlight is where other powerlines in the streets have running shoes adorning them Fangy's place has teeth hanging from the power lines, this in itself wouldn't be to much of an issue except some of them are still attached to their original owners (or close relatives)

Fangy hearing the commotion out the front of two sets of knees a knocking comes bouncing out in his full combat Tigger Onsie ready to pounce, just as well I was in diguise wearing my Grover onsie otherwise the trip would have been over before it had begun. We had been quickly loading all of Fangy's kit when we hear the beeping of a forkift reversing, Tigger driving it bringing forth a chiller the size of the frozen foods section at Woollies, we shoe horn that into the car then realize we now can't fit it so Fangy being the smartest of the bunch reaches in grabs a Banna a flicks over the fence into his nieghbors yard, Result we can get going (it was a fair sized banana).

We ask Karen very nicely to point us in the direction of Albanyakastan, poor thing she must have been that desperate to get out of Coodanup that she wanted us to go via Perth.

Finally with Barbie girl and fus on loop we were of to the promised lands. 1 hour latter we had to stop to refill Fangy's chiller, another hour later the Karen had a nervous breakdown Panic set in "how will we find our way to Albanyakastan ???????" aaarrrrrrrrrgggghhhhhhh eventually though following the front of the car as it pointed in a southerly direction we rolloed up at Da Spot, only to find parking was scarse, no probs with a company hack, parking found.

Hit the water first up with the Thunder with the target of knocking out an hour, It was great fun, the hour was slowed down a fair bit as I stalled most of the 42million left handed gybes I had to complete, the right handers were good, jst got to learn to hold the pepper in the right hand so I can become ambidexterous.

Finished the hour came back to shore to change boards as the wind was biulding, when disaster hit!!!!!! I was in desperate need of a labour ward, totaly unheard of in the wilds of Albanyakastan, fortunately Cliff one of the top local crew could sense my desperation and pointed me in the direction of his house, quickly shrugging of my sailing kit I stubbled of up the street cluching my stomach and freckle trying to remember which driveway he pointed out, fortunately I chose wisely. A short time later I was pleased (or sorry) to annouce the arrival of a 3lb Collingwood supporter.

Feeling MUCH Happier I got back and set up the Manta with the Pepe Crackamonstafat weedy he had loaned us for the weekend.

Farkenellemacpherson this thing could kill the sales of Viagra and put Pfizer out of buisiness. straight up no dialing climbed up hill like a Lance Armstrong on a fresh batch of go juice, was blown away butthe up wind capability that I flagged my attenpt on the hour and just went straight up to the Naughty takeoff point, unfortunately not knowing precisely where that was I required to start from I run up onto the second sand bank only to discover it wasn't sand but shells, rocks, broken grinding wheels and the occasional rabbit trap resulting in me scrunging the tip of this work of art, for the uninnitiated that is refered to as "Elmoing your gear"

Muttering to myself I took of down the Naughty run which was well naughty, huge chop coming in at about 2", sounded like a 2 minute fart going down the run, never a struggle as it's just balencing on the board and pointing, went back and did it again this time without the scrunging, did a the run got a sweet gybe out of it got hit buy a ripper bullet and took of across the bay, Nº 2 hour attempt was under way, If I thought the fin was good going up and down wind it was better square, the puppy was awesome, Elle was in hiding so I went hunting all over the bay for Meagan for the next hour.

Unfortunatley 35 years of masterbation had taken it's toll and not having my granny specs on I couldn't read my watch and see how my longer I had my hour so after fluffing my third gybe i a row I flagged the hour thinking it done and headed back up wind. After dropping the data I pulled the pin 15mins early which left me still with a mid 22hour. Oh well.

Another unfortunate was that I had just worn another hole in the top of each foot (one of the wierd arsed side effects of losing weight) so with that in mind and not wanting to do more damage the last Naughty was launched.

We packed up at 4 to watch the wind and conditions improve and Hardz go back out with Evets top bang out some corners.

Once loaded we climped back into our Onsies and climbed aboard the Muppet bus adn with I'm too sexy blaring from the stereo we set sail for te Mount Barker BP for THE Burger, no shit kiddies this is the place after a long days sailing, the Steak bacon and egg heart attack is the biz and sets you up for the long haul home.

Nice casual drive back and after depositing Yoyo and Fangy back at their respective abodes I got home just after 10pm 17 hour road trip roughly 8km's driven for everyone one sailed.

Great day out at a great spot with a great crew.

Huge congrats to Robin on the Hour PB you looked like you were having a lot of fun

The Three Stooges do Lilacs,

Short version: a long brilliant tiring day with Mandurah mob, Coastal Crochet Team and Albany locals ( who were a great crowd) The longer version for those of you with insomnia- What follows is the result of 8 hours in the backseat looking at the back of Yoyo's head.

Warning - this account could only be more reliable if it was written by Craig Thompson and may contain traces of fact, but probably not.

Before the sparrows started farting I was awake in anticipation of the big day. I was stealthy as drunk bear getting ready because I was under threat of life as a monk should I wake anyone.All was going well and I found myself sitting out the front of my pad watching the sky starting to shed its darker hues. So peaceful. Then I hear a very loud text alert from inside the house. In the spilt second I knew I had just blown a years worth of brownie points. A text from Elmo to say he was on his way plus me being my usual in attentive self when it comes to my mobile, meant I had to vacate premises with haste now and hopefully by the time I returned 16 hours later the situation would be less dangerous.

On cue, Elmo and Yoyo were parking out the front, gear loaded, Elmo plugged in the Navman (which he duly ignored for the next 400kms)and we were on the road. The fading thermonuclear glow coming from the marital bedroom fading behind me was being replaced by sunrise.

I was a little surprised when Yoyo promptly dumped his seat back onto my lap.Not wishing to misread the situation I shifted my legs across the car and waited to see if he was going to roll over on to his front and offer me a Happy Start to the trip.Luckily he was just being a slob and there were no more uncomfortable pauses.

With the unerring sense of direction like a pigeon in a MRI we head up into the scarp. After an hour or so of Elmo conscientiously ignoring every suggestion from the sweet lady in the GPS,she does what any ignored lady navigator would do. She cracks the shits and refuses to talk to him anymore and shuts up shop. Now we all know that Elmo is one smooth talker with the girls so I was surprised when she didn't respond to his attentions. But for what is worth, slamming the unit up and down on the dash might have been a tad optimistic. Yoyo is woken from his morning stupor and seeks to go to her aid and lo! With the gentle caress and careful insertion of his tool,she is reset and booting up again. General rejoicing is to be had because at this stage we did not know that in a lucky break Albany hwy actually goes to Albany. Who knew? In any case as soon as GPS lady realised that once again it was Elmo's ugly mug she was performing for she promptly went down again and not in a way that bought a smile to Elmo's mug.We were flying blind, apart from all the road signs and general lack of options to go anywhere else. Skills in navigation of this magnitude would be bound to impress any Malaysian Airlines executive and as a result we ended up nosing into Albanakastan  just after mid morning.

As we approached Albanakastan the excitement in the front was becoming palpable . Elmo was looking like Mr Squiggle being presented with a tshirt to squiggle on with Miss Jane still inside it.  Yoyo who had been excelling with a Marvin the Paranoid Android level of pessimism almost got slightly enthused. The final one kilometer seemed to take forever as unfortunately we got stuck behind the oldest and slowest resident of Albany coming home from church. Elmo almost found religion himself waiting to get past him. And then we were there.

High teens wind, higher water than ideal, but still a very nice place to be.The featherweights convinced me to whack on the steamer in which I cooked all day being too lazy to change. Penny and Chris were enjoying the place and once again demonstrating that successful parenting is all about getting a good babysitter, Rod and Mitch were revelling in the conditions, well at least Mitch was, the joys of being a parent who hadn't discovered Penny and Chris' babysitting method meant he was on the beach, Hardcase was doing his basking sea lion impressions and at times appeared to almost have a metabolism.

 After deciding not to throw fish at Hardhead just in case it really was a sea lion it was time for rigging up. Although I had promises in place about the delivery of new sails to try out on this trip,I found that promises are fairly flimsy, so armed with my one sail, one mast and one board, I really only had to make a decision on fins. In a rare stroke of sensibility I whacked on my old faithful Delta thinking everything else here is new so just change one thing at a time . 

I launched soon after and headed out into the bay chop. I was working my way out to the bar in chop that was too big for the delta to be happy (to be fair it's only 16cm deep now) but it did allow me to go exploring all around Lilacs. I soon discovered that my dodgy hammy was also waking up from its slumber and was as enthusiastic about it as a teenage snotgobbler first thing in the morning. Gybing was off the cards - that was just too risky.

 So exploring I went at no great pace, I just wanted to get a feel for the place. I would have to admit at this stage I was wondering what all the fuss was about, but then I had my first crack down the run. A brilliant long run over the weed with wind that just kept on giving and giving. Now I get it! That run is just plain brilliant  and the combination of wind and weed makes a special spot indeed. 

Having sailed almost exclusively on the Delta for 18 months now I have a lot of confidence in what I can do with it , so lining up those patches of weed on the surface and carving through them without blinking was almost as much fun as the run itself. Having knocked a 34 ish on my first run I was thinking its time to try my new Delta speed18. So sail into for a fin change and a quick munch on lunch. 

I spied Penny and Chris doing the same and not for the first time I was jealous of their awesome kit. Penny was cracking out the Tupperware lunchbox containers with cool Disney characters on them. Mine have all got lame princesses and mermaids on them. I contented myself with the thought that at least mine were holographic and Princess Ariel does rock her bikini top.

What I didn't do was sort out the leading edge of the delta where it meets the board. My old F2 stoke has a pronounced hollow in front of the fin box so unfortunately the fin does not sit flat against the board without a small remedial build up on the leading edge. The result was that although the fin felt brilliant stable and fast, it was picking up ribbon weed jamming between fin and the board. Each run ended with enough weed sticking out from under the fin to look like Elmo’s bikini line. 

Although I think this fin is faster I never got a chance to really find out. So back in for another fin change and this time I thought I would try my new MUFSpeed weed. This fin was nice and fast too but I was now too tired to really push it, so ended up just cruising comfortably around on the inside chop However I had to readjust my thinking a little, having got so used to the Delta shedding weed in any situation I had to stop a few times to clear weed I had inadvertently collected. But I has happy for the dip because for the most part I was cooking in my steamer.Its a long time since I wore a full steamer and I had forgotten how much quicker my shoulder muscles tire and my dodgy hammy started to get grumpy as well.I am stuffed and although the wind is still on song I cannot better my earlier efforts. Time to come in pack up and head home with the two other amigos. 

As we leave Steve and Joe are pumping out alphas. I reckon if I ever am incapacitated such that I cant sail I will be there armed with a camera and monster lens. There is just something about a board at speed and that beautiful spray as a result of a graceful clean gybe.Watching those two carve it up was inspirational and a bonus in an already good day. 

We hit the road with Mr Squiggle only slightly less subdued than this morning, having rolled a a massive set of numbers and generally nailed the day. But shortly afterwards Elmo's day of brilliance finished. We stop at a roadhouse in Mt Barker and feast on the BEST burger ever served in a roadhouse. Elmo is just having win upon win so you know it going to end soon...it's Elmo after all and he has got  off the water unscathed.  So when the opportunity presents itself for a muppet to insert another hard rod he takes that chance. Result is one indestructible one piece Kilwell mast inserted into his head in the roadhouse car park. After showing the correct amount of concern, that is to say, none, we load up once more . I am content and knowing that my old F2 has enough water inside these days to keep us alive for several days, the asphalt beckons. The sun is setting ,Yoyo is asleep in the front dribbling on his own lap and I can reflect on the day. 

Lilacs is indeed a special place and surely got to be one of the bests places to sail on an easterly in WA. The tide was too high to be at its best for smoothness and indeed in that regard Fangy's would often produce smoother water, but the run is so good, so long, and that wind.......brilliant! 

Steve pass on my thanks to all the local boys for sharing with such good humour such a great spot. Congratulations to just about everyone  for their PBs in the various disciplines. I  felt very privileged to be in your company and got a serious buzz just seeing how good windsurfers can be. All of you give someone like me something to aspire to. Thank you.

Everyone else give yourself a PB for getting to the end!

And Steve I think I got the words in the right order....