Slowboat (51432km):
2 days ago 2 categories   Coodanup
57 Rapid (98L), 5.8m Apache, 25cm Asy G10.
First pond mission in ages. Monster squall came through while trying to figure out what to rig. It backed off, came in and was all over the show. Was keen to get on the 5.8m since its been a year since I used it... just not enough wind here for ages. Went bigger on the board to compensate for the smaller sail and new 25 Asy I picked up in france. Been using the 23 version for a couple of years but figured I'd get a bigger one for the 98.
First run nailed a squall and I got a bit powered up... 43 on the dial. That was Ant's PB gust. He was stoked!! Somehow managed to clock 39.8kt 500m on that run. Unexpected!
On and off after that with some fun gusts here and there.
Nailed one sick gust shared with Boz for best run of the day for both of us! My max was 45.5... stoked to get these speeds on a board I practically float on.
Then it clocked around more to the south and got square. Some more squalls came through 40kts+ with hail so was pretty unpleasant on the ears! but the runs were slingshots and where it was nuking the chop got mental really fast. Challenging. Most of the boys called it quits as Ben and Dan rolled up for the late session. A couple of good gusts came through with a favourable wind shift, so a couple more 43s and topped up the 5x10. Had a couple of 41 10s to spare hahaha.
Had to bail- was already an hour late for a bday bash. oops.
Mission through "the gap" was a fail on first run. I tried to shoot the whole channel from upwind but ran out of gas before I hit the corner. The other boys nailed it. So I sailed back into the pond and had another crack. Nailed a sick gust and thought I was going to break the board pounding the standing waves! 37.7kts!!!! yeeeeehar.
Good chat with Terry who had a fang out the front.
Obviously stoked with the gear- board/fin combo was spot on. It felt really easy. Board not sticking at all, full lock and go- super confident in the slingshots. I was hanging on way downwind into the slop so the 10sec speeds were pretty close to the 2sec on most runs- within a knot. Also being a asy fin it has a bias for one tack- more stable and more ability to shock load without it letting go. So on starboard tack (ie the run) it was super. I had a quick go on port tack and hit 40.4kts on it and had zero issues getting upwind. Forgot it was an asy fin a lot of the time! Works better than a lot of symmetric fins, even on its off tack! I'm keeping it :)
The frowns from family that I was late were totally worth it 
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