Must work on timing

Timing is important for windsurfers. Good freestylers work on timing in their tricks. Bad timing gives good crashes. I work about 1000-fold slower: I try to time the wind. Bad timing leads to short sessions and good schlogging. I am good at bad timing.

The forecast for today predicted good wind at 10 am, then a significant drop at 1 pm. At 10 am, the wind was good. 10 minutes later, it dropped a bit. Hardie called. I told him that I thought the wind would drop more, and that I did not want to go. So what if it was low tide, and the wind direction (SSE) was great for West Dennis?

Hardie is smarter than I am. He decided to ignore me and go. He called me up and told me so. So I had to go to. The wind was still around when I arrived at WD around 11 am. It actually was pretty strong - averages around 23. Nice!

Of course, this could not last, so I rigged the 6.5, Hardie his 6.3. It did not last. But instead of looking at the water to see that the wind had gone down, I remembered that it had been good 10 minutes earlier, and took my 96 l wave board out. Too small. Back in, get the 110 l freestyle board. Then, 40 minutes of planing on flat water, with only minimal pumping and a few small waits. Nice. Today is still officially Christmas in Germany. I like Christmas windsurfing.

More and more kiters showed up. They don't need much wind, so the wind went down a bit, and we ended our short session.

Had I believed the forecast, I could have had 3 hours of nice wind. The same was true for perhaps 3 out of 4 other windy days recently. But today, perhaps it was good that I arrived late - my back is still bothering me a bit after longer sessions. Maybe my back has fallen in love with the jacuzzi and wants to see it every day. Who am I to argue? But an earlier start would also have meant sailing and de-rigging while it was dry, instead of in light rain. So yes, I should work on my timing.