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orgasmic !

Bob wrote:

Saturday was great at 3rd. Me on a 4.2/77 l. Saw Claude thrashing the swells near the channel marker, and heard his orgasmic yells. I sailed very well today and felt strong.



Claude admits:

I was on 4.5/73l.  And yes, you caught me in the act  .

What an “Encore” !!!

 

“I am so-oooo  tired, I don’t know what to do…”

I moved to the next album The Double White, another classic after another beating day with more and stronger gusts.

C’mon, 3.7 should be small enough.   It got ripped out of my hands!

And catching a 40 mph gust when I was accelerating (not by design ), down a logo high swell was enough adrenaline rush to make me feel dizzy.

I am still mad at myself for choosing to jump instead of surfing a beautiful set of clean swells that I had chance to watch rolling by, toward the San Mateo bridge after crashing the jump.

Fortunately a fantastic moment was going to happen (_'it’s happening'_ “Almost Famous”) when Fred dropped in front of me, catching a nice roller.  He had speed and I did not, he was starting his bottom turn and I was pumping like hell (a 3.7 ha ha!) to join the fun and catch the next roller.  Miraculously, because I was already exhausted, I plunged and carved, and for 30 seconds (I am reliving the moves with a stop watch) we were in synch, surfing the same set 30 feet apart winking at each other.

Oh what a feeling.

Famous quote

A day in the life

 

“’4000 holes in Blackburn Lancashire”….should has been “4000 ramps to chose and fly….
 That classic song did not represent the pace in the channel, but the title, a  CLASSIC, a day to remember, like Thursday May 26,  3.7m OP, OverPowered [for the newbie’s], during  the  whole  time.

Look at the chart below!!!  

And for me, another step toward windsurfing nirvana   

In the rubbles of Chernobyl as another mentor of mine was describing the scene of jibe demolition derby, I found a key to open another door: Wind-SURFING.

It took a bit of courage to throw myself on top of those big swells while I was already overpowered, my arms suffering, but then after that difficult commitment, the pain was gone, I was in control, gliding on smooth water and turning again…

….Whoa….”I’d love to turn you on”

Claude, the ultimate pragmatist...

 That' s what I was called by my good friend Peter (in picture).
After a forced diet of 5 days without wind, Wednesday I was definitely not going to schlogg!!  So with a baggy 5.5 I went.  I did not even feel the holes.  Not an exceptional session, but I am almost ashamed to say that I was satisfied while most of the sailors on smaller sail had a mediocre session.
It’s better when everyone is stoked!

Tomorrow should be happening

Net progress

I wish I could report some improvement on my tweaked inverted no hand Spock, but for two reasons I can’t.

First, sadly, there was no wind lately; except in my backyard which drove me nuts

Second, I can’t even dream about those transitions.

So seriously, for a change,  3rd av. Jack’s cam, in panoramic style and full view,  http://www.poulton.net/windsurf/3rdcam/pan_full.shtml , will let you see the progress on the net extension.

Workers are installing beefy pylons.  I was afraid the light rain we have gotten would delay their progress. 

No place to hide

a good nap

I took a nap following the prescription you gave me last year, Bob, and because watching Kiyong schlogging is boring.

Don’t feel bad Kiyong I get bored watching Tyson schlogg as well.

When I woke up, the caps were back as well as a major high cloud.  So I rigged big 5.5 just to be sure I would get anyone bored watching me ;-)

Kiyong was coming back laughing at me with my 5.5.

I had a small full hour of intense sailing.  Never felt a hole until I was goofing off, caps surfing 200 yards from the ramp where I lost plane.

Looking back, I was very lucky on my timing, especially on the way back.

Bite the bullet

In a flood tide, we all know that fin makes a big difference.  Another factor is the time and ground you lose to get on the plane.  With a bit more floatation you will be planning sooner and sustain though the shifts or holes.

So 10 liters more can make your day enjoyable or take the walk of shame.

I would even go further if you know the forecast or can read the sky.  With rainy days ahead, you will have time to rest so bite the bullet, rig a bigger sail and take advantage of the present conditions.  You can always put lots of downhaul and then adjust the outhaul in the water.  If you get overpowered then go upwind.  You need a rest, take a dip in the channel, you’ll see the marker moving west in a hurry!

In a flood you always want to build you upwind capital.  Go big.

A strange look

Who could have predicted an encore like that!   

And I though the swells were good yesterday!  What a treat, so clean, so long.  I never spent so much time unhooked since I learned to uphaul. It was insane, 7 turns on one long swell, my arms were burning.  Good thing I rigged the 4.5 instead of the 5.0 the day before.

But it adds up, not to mention the good time at our own neighborhood bistro hosted by my good friend Ann.  I had skipped the shower to refuel right away; the sound of a Petite Syrah was very inviting.  I don’t think Armstrong use this regime, but with a name like his……

After 2 days like the last two you could call me Noodlearms!

When I came out of the water, a stranger looked at me and started laughing.  No, it was not the famous yellow helmet tilted in a weird position, but a smile ear to ear that was stuck on my face because there was no energy left in the muscles to release it.

The plot has worked….

Taking Lolita out, not only worked for me but it got my other board jealous.  My original Naish 8’5 did not want to stay behind, so unleashed she went, launching me higher than ever on Thursday.  The swells came out for the party as well to make my old friend shine.  It opened new doors for me as I felt more confident trying different things higher on the swells.  At time, I though I was in the waves.

I was so happy that I had to kiss her.

"Bar pressure left"...................................kitemare #2

The other day I snapped a line, so to be 'Kite Responsible' and advocating safety, instead to repair the old set, I decided to replace all 4 lines.

Nice bright colors, it looked good.  I attached each line to its dedicated hook in my back yard and measured the adjustments to be made.  It made my wife happy to switch to 23m shorter lines because now I do not have to be standing in my living room with a dripping harness, with the sliding door opened, inviting "all" the flies inside, in order to taught the lines.

Anyway everything was ready for test flight one, although I do not fly much if I can decide, but you know kites, they have a mind of their own.  Especially older kite, like people, it's hard to teach them new tricks.

In fact, the lesson of the day was my kite, a 16m Aero II, showing me "bar pressure left", as it was diving right all the time.  Being somehow still newbie to this, I did not notice when I launched, although I never walk that fast toward the golf course.  That should have been a clue!  I was just proud of myself for getting control of the beast.

Anyway in the water, my left arm was getting as big as Swartzaneger when he was on steroids, and it was very uneven.  So what happened?

I had noticed that the two yellow front lines had an inch difference, but I had compensated by putting one further down a knot on the leader line.
The problem occurred when I attached the front line to the kite.  With my older line, they were color coded, but this new set had 2 identical yellow for the front and it was easy to choose any one of them.  I basically reversed the front lines and amplified the offset resulting with a kite pulling right all the time.

So the tip is……Get some colored heat shrinkable tubing and color code your lines.

The Squid and the Whale.

 

No I am not going to review this must see movie, but instead rave about the lonely orange patrol seen in the channel.

Down by the bay...........where the parking lot shrinks..............have you ever seen a whale.........with an orange colored sail?  You know the rhyme.

With lots of space around them those two strange ‘animals’ with the same color kite and sail were often seen on top of each other. It was like one of them was pulling the strings of the other. 

Yes a kiter can share space with a windsurfer, although it looked like they were on the same wave at time.

‘Squid zing’ every steep section of the growing swells they had a ‘whale’ of a time cutting each other off or riding one behind the other alternating jumps or flights.

I can’t wait for the DVD to come out.

I took Lolita out.....

....and she was happy.  For the first time this year she got to play.  She looked good with her Swedish top (4.5) over a slim waist of 73 liters Hawaiian tan, a perfect outfit for the 23 mph in the channel.

She complained when it turned south west for a bit, just when the swells were building. And she got lonely as her friends were far away.

If you want to see what she looks like sun bathing on the rocks at Rufus, go to “my gear”.

She got me tired though as she would not quit asking me for new tricks unhooked when the wind switched back to WNW.

So satisfied we rolled back downwind for a well deserved cold beverage.

Tommy’s Overture never sounded so good on the way back home.

Winning cocktail

 Blend half of Coyote chart with half of 3^rd Channel and you get an interesting session.

Throw a big enough sail (5.5) to get through the SW launch, a small fin to blast over the bolding sand bars and a small board (80L) for bigger jumps.

Interesting it was, as the direction was changing from tack to tack.  Going easily upwind on one and then questioning if you were going to make it back high enough to the rigging area on the other.  The ramps were good on both tacks, and did compensate for very few swells but you can’t beat an ebb when there is 20 mph wind at the marker.  Jerry should approve a few 24mph gust ½ a mile above.

Now, with every cocktails there is repercussion if you abuse.  And this morning I feel it, I am tired.  I guess, I had too much of a good thing.

Kitemare #1

It was a small window of blue sky and of NW wind.

I first went 5.5 windsurfing to scout the channel and feel the gusts.

I had to pump to many times to make this session enjoyable so I pumped once to double the size and now kiting 11m was a bit more challenging.

Just below the windsurfing path the wind was mellower and then just when I was comfortable, ZAP! I snapped a front line  

Lucky for me it was flooding and I could stand in the water.   By the time I had drifted to the second beach and walked back to the parking lot, the clouds were back and the wind had turned SW making it difficult for everyone to land.

Going upwind.

          A picture is better than a thousand words.
                Being in the picture is way better.                 
                      Doing well in the picture is pure luck.
                            Being centerfold in the picture is too much to ask.

L'albatros est de retour dans la baie de San Francisco

Coast Guard Jerry

Hello gang,

 
Not much posting to read.  Not even ranting about the conditions.

Don’t expect Jerry to write, he’s relaxing with Mischa, having a well deserved massage.

The poor guy was cramping last evening.  It was not from schlogging brilliantly upwind to catch the fast lane, but from being in the water too long helping a fellow windsurfer who broke his mast a mile out at Treasure Island.  Never mind the pre flight check that it did to find a rope ready to snap to prevent swimming, Jerry stayed with the stranded sailor while his buddy called the Coast Guards.  They came quick from the north (Angela Island ?), they were asking me for “what color wet suit”, I said dark, like anyone in neon color these days?  I wish I knew he had a white helmet.  The wind had dropped quite a bit by that time but Jerry came in flying until an abrupt stop in the pool forcing him to swim.  That did not help the cramping!

So if Jerry is asking you to carry his gear, be nice to the guy.  He DESERVES it, he is tired now.