Upwind 360

The planing upwind 360 is a pretty basic trick. Many ABK campers who can do it in light wind learn it in a day. Not me. I worked on it during several camps, and never got a dry one. Until today!

I really like this move when Andy Brandt does it the "sail forward way" - keep the sail luffed in front, instead of moving it to the back. Looks so cool when he snaps around!

I had a couple of tries that I water started out during the last few sessions. Today, after the wind had calmed down a bit from "Surprise!" 28 mph averages, I got a dry one. And another one right after. Cool! Of course, the camera battery had given up by then. The image above is from an earlier try that ended wet. Maybe I should have charged it after the last session.

I knew I was close, but I think it helped to watch Mike Burns doing Flaka's with a mast mount camera yesterday evening (no, I'm not working on Flakas - that's Nina!). Very nice of him to demo such an "easy" move for Nina. I had the image of his fully extended front arm in my mind today, and that helped. He also was the wind sacrifice today. Forecast was 10, we got mid- to high 20s for a while. Many thanks, Mike!