 |
| iWindsurf wind meter readings for Kalmus 6/11/2017 |
We made it to the water early enough to catch the best half hour of the morning wind, and stopped as soon as the wind dropped, hoping for a second session in the afternoon after it cooled off. The short pickup at 4 had us return to the beach; but by the time we arrived, the wind had dropped down to 13. We spent the next 2 hours talking to friends in the parking lot, and rigged the next time the wind picked up. It was another false alarm! But this time, we waited it out on the water, and were rewarded after half an hour of shlogging. It got better and better during the next hour, until it got dark and the sand was blowing. Everyone (about 5 windsurfers were left) came of the water tired but happy.
While the heat was to definitely to blame for the lack of wind in the middle of the day, it also has warmed up the water quite nicely. A 3 mm short-sleeved wetsuit is plenty warm, and requires frequent falls to avoid overheating - summer is freestyle time! Nina is now seriously thinking about the loop, so I practiced a few chop-hop exercises that might help. One is jumping far rather than high, and keeping speed; the other one is trying to kick yourself in the butt with the back foot, while keeping the front leg at least somewhat extended. I'm pretty sure some teaching gurus have said that both of these exercises help with the loop - but regardless of that, they are also fun. For once, neither my knees nor my ankles complained about the bit of jumping around, but it may have helped that the total time on the water was less than 2 hours. I also got my first Carve 360s of the summer season, so I was pretty happy. Here are the GPS tracks (a bit shifted to reduce the long break between the sessions):
