Thursday, January 1, 2015

Happy New Year!

It is nice to have friends who are crazier about windsurfing than I am. Marty made the two-hour drive to Cape Cod this morning, even though temperatures were below freezing and the wind forecast predicted just 18-19 mph. But it was sunny! I obviously had to join him.

By the time we got to Kalmus, temperatures had climbed to a balmy 34ºF (1ºC), and the wind was between 25 and 30 mph. Close to low tide, the water was shallow and flat on the inside, with some nice ramps on the outside. We rigged 5.3 (I like power!) and 4.7, and off we went.

I was just mowing the lawn, happy about every dry jibe, happier still about the occasional planed-through jibe. Marty played around - 360s, duck jibes, and the obligatory loop tries. We put the GoPro on his boom for most of the sessions, so we'll have some fun diagnosing why Marty can't loop. It is a mystery. He can do much harder tricks. He even tries loops on a regular basis! Even the great Andy Brandt has been dragged into hour-long discussions about this topic. Will video evidence help? We'll see.

A fantastic day it was. We windsurfed for two hours, until it got dark. The hand warming tubes in our Ianovated suits got plenty of use today. Yes, they worked well. Do you think Marty would have tried loops with cold hands? He's not that crazy! Me, I was just lazy. Carrying all those extra pounds I gained from Nina's fantastic Christmas cookies is work enough! I barely fit into my suit and harness anymore. Maybe that's one reason I gave the GoPro to Marty today :-)