Benjamin Verdin (16480km):
3973 days ago 2 categories   What a day !! The wind woke me up this morning around 4am and I couldn't fell asleep anymore, so decided to go already to Herkingen. Arrived there a few minutes before sunrise and the water was coming over the stones at the speedstrip. So rigged my 6.3 but once on the water the wind was completely gone (15 kts !!) and the direction was far too south. Because I didn't want to de-rig my sail (in case of better conditions later), I tried a 460 RDM mast in my 7.0 (normally the same 430 mast as for my 6.3). The sail is a bit stiffer but (especially for light wind) it works great. Must be the first time that me and Big Ed were using the same sail size !!  . But once he is planing, he beats me every run !! AVG with 7.0 was 63.8.
Later on the wind shifted to SW (iso of SSW in the beginning !!) and we could do our runs nicely along the dam. I also changed again to my 6.3 but my speeds didn't went up as expected. A few guys told me that my board was sticking too much, so moved my mast position more backward and moved my boom higher by a few inches. Still my speeds were very disappointing. Really don't know what i did wrong today. The sail also felt a little heavier then usual, so maybe I didn't use enough downhaul. I also might use a 'classic style' speed fin next time (iso a slingshot). After a while the wind almost disappeared and I was ready to go back for my 7.0 sail when the wind direction suddenly changed by more then 30° and increased by at least 5 knots. I was very powered up most of the time, but my speeds were hardly better then with less wind. Also my 6.3 became almost too big for me. Very strange because I am used to hold the Racing Blades far longer. Must have been the downhaul...
If you see my distance today, you couldn't tell that I didn't try enough. It just didn't work out for me today...
Big Ed and Regi were flying as usual and Dirk was very efficient as usual going very fast on a freeride board !! Congrats Dirk. Just too bad you had to end your session too early because of your crash on the CA44. I hope your foot isn't hurt too bad. I saw Dennis doing a nasty crash as well during his first run on the CA. That's why I will never ever sail again on 45cm wide speedboards. They are off course alot faster, but at a sudden moment during your run, you need to stop that bloody thing and it can go very wrong...
Because of the very broad course, almost no freestylers. Just in the afternoon when it became more square there were a few of them.
Because my speeds didn't want to go up after endlessly trying, I tried to do some alpha's. Did 4 alpha's > 45, but again this is quite disappointing because I was expecting far higher numbers. With a completely trimmed set a high 40 would have been possible.
After all, I sailed more then 130kms on my speedboard along the dam, so my hands need some rest now  . Nice endurance training for my upcoming Boracay surf travel later on this month !! I was the first one on the water this morning and the last one off... From sunrise till sunset = getting the max out of your day 
I also have a new board in my trailer today, the Falcon F89 2013. Can't wait to give it a try !!
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