19/05/09
2139 (local time)
Sailed from 1530 to 1815
Winds: 14-19 early 17-21 later
Water: Fresh… bit cooler today. Nice chop!
Kit: Starboard F 98 liter early 88 late 5.7 Gaastra Manic early, 5.3 Ice
The Starboard planes early, does everything it needs to, but that’s it. It isn’t a lively board, but rides through chop comfortably. Not a board to rave home about, but gets the job done. I found the 88 liter board a lot more fun. Felt shorter, easier to pop and turn. Gybes nicely, but doesn’t like the rails being pushed hard. One of the things that really bothered me, was the foot strap position. They felt really far apart, and the front foot straps were in a awkward position to really lock the board down to get over chop.
Started off early with the 5.7 Manic! Really nice sail, not too powerful, when overpowered still handles quite well. Even though rigged poorly (not enough downhaul) still sails well, and twists off nicely. It got a bit too windy so I went down to a 5.3 North Ice. I wasn’t expecting this sail to blow me away, because they are all rigged on SDM’s and apparently they are meant to be rigged on RDM’s. The Ice is their down the line wave sail, and even though I was overpowered through the gusts, still felt fine, not really giving me a hard time. Felt very similar to the Neil Pryde Combats.
I’m still looking forward to using a 4.7 Manic on a RDM! This day will come.
Today the guys lent me a small, chunky and chode of a fin, to try some freestyle. When I first tried it, it was on the 88 F , when I jumped on it, it straight away felt as if I were going sideways, the smaller fins defiantly don’t track as well as the bigger fins. I did my first gybe and it held through it. When I came in to try some freestyle, that’s when you can really understand how helpful these fins really are. When you pop them, and make the board turn under your feet, the fin doesn’t catch, I think they are a bit more forgiving.
The Day
Again, today my main aim was to get some Vulcans happening, and today I was getting closer, I even started sliding backwards/sideways for a bit. It was an awesome feeling.
When I sailed over to the Roller Disco aka Shit Farm, Steve-o was getting some footage taken of him, so I though I would pop over to see what was going on. I tried a couple of Vulcans, where one of them was taken on video camera, so it will be interesting to see how they look.
I was told by Colin, that I need to behave like a spring. So when I come inboard to start the trick, I need to take a wide grip on the boom, and then sheet on and release my back hand as I pop the board, and my front hand should be pulling up.
I then saw Steve-o in the bar and asked him what I need to work on. He said that I wasn’t turning my board nearly far enough. And I was landing only going about 90 degrees into the turn. To fix this, I need to pop hard and spring up, and twist my body as hard as I can backward to get the board going the other way.
So that’s pretty much all I have to say for today. I can’t wait to get out tomorrow! I think I will have them soon enough!!! I’m not giving up until I have this trick sorted!
Until then!
Peace out! And pray for the wind gods!
Cheers Steve
Posts
Mate - the thing that got me nailing Vulcans was getting the hand-switch going on as early as possible - I was getting the board rotating, but then crashing in backwards. By thinking about the handswap the very moment you take off, it brings the mast back across you and gets your hands on the far side... I think they've got a turfdog out there - give it a go on that - that's how I learnt... Keep it up bro - see you in a couple of weeks! Ian
ReplyDeleteYeah quick hand switch definitely helps. Key tip is to really look behind you once you've popped. Is easier if you focus on someone sailing behind you as soon as you've popped the board - will give you heaps of slide and will help when you want to progress to spocks! Surely there's some bikini clad wind girls you can convince to sail behind you all day :-)
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