The Egg Island Slingshot adventure

My lovely wife had recently posted a link to a description of the "Slingshot" manouvre in the Windsurfer International Magazine, and we were dying to try it out today. After hearing about how flat the water at Egg Island in Lewis Bay can be, we decided to imitate the freestylers who often sail to there from Kalmus. We were on the water just before low tide, where the chops is small and regular, so Nina decided to sail the F2 Missile. She had tried it only once before, with limited success, but her sailing has improved a lot since then, and she has been on small (72 and 77 l) boards quite often. So this time, she did just great.

The water behind the sand bar at Egg Island was beautifully flat. The wind was a tad more gusty, especially at the approach to the sand bar, but nevertheless, these were almost ideal speed conditions, with wind averages around 30 knots. Nina quickly broke her old personal bests, reaching almost 50 kmh. Dean got his best speed outside of Hatteras, with more than 34 knots. Your's truly sailed while listening to the GPS Speed Talker, and it quite often spoke of 30 and 31 knots. At the end of the day, my 2 sec top speed was 31.4 knots (58 kmh), and I even broke the 30 knot barrier in the 5 x 10 second average. Being on my 5.8 KA Koncept certainly helped - but Egg Island at low tide sure is a great speed spot. Now why again did I never sail there before in SW winds?

Here are my GPS tracks for the day:

 It was nice to see Nina work on speed for once, and she found sailing the Missile "very interesting" (in a good way). After I short break, I borrowed the 4.5 m wave sail that she had sailed all day for some bump and jump fun.  Graham and Martin were still out, and they both worked on loops. I saw some very nice tries, and at the end of the day, Graham actually made it around and water started out of a loop attempt - congrats! The pain on the back will eventually go away :)

5.5 in 36 mile winds

Last Sunday was a fun day in Kalmus. The wind was certainly having fun making fools of us: after averages of 25-30 mph all morning long, it dropped below 20 when we arrived at the beach. We waited a bit and then decided to rig bigger, only to be almost blown off the water after the first few runs. Rigged smaller, the wind dropped again. Here's the meter readings from iWindsurf for the day:

 

Nina was lucky enough to take a break during the 4 pm calm; I practiced schlogging my 82 l board with a 4.2 sail instead. But a bit later, the wind finally picked up for good, and the real fun began. By now, the tide was getting low, and the chop started to be better organized, making chop hops and playing with the waves easy.  A couple of times, I got the feeling of actually sailing through the air during chop hops, a rather nice feeling. The boom cam video from early runs showed that I still was way too tall during my jumps - here's an example (albeit taking from shortly before the landing):

Definitely something I need to work on. Getting small should help in the spin loop attempts, too, something I'll start again soon now that the water is getting warmer.

As we got nearer to low tide at 6 pm, the water got very flat, and it was time to switch to speed runs. The wind kept going up, and my top speed started to creep above 50 kmh (31 mph), which is pretty fast for me. By then, the conditions allowed 600 m long speed runs parallel to the beach in knee- to hip-deep water. I was fully powered on a 4.2, but I decided to see if a larger sail would indeed help me go faster. Since I already had the 5.5 Matrix rigged, I took it for a few runs. It's a very top-end oriented sail, and it did indeed hold up very well in 36 mph average winds, with gusts up to 44 mph. The flat water certainly helped, although the strong onshore winds did whip us some noticeable chop even in the shallows. My averages kept creeping higher, and in a run where I caught a nice gust, my top speed was above 55 kmh - a new record for me. I should have gone for a few more runs to get even faster, but I was starting to get pretty tired. A couple of guys asked me about my sail's size, and apparently doubted my mental sanity when I told them it was 5.5 - I guess that's something a speed surfer has to get used to. I actually did switch back to the 4.2 to see if it would be slower than the 5.5, but got only one run in before my arms started to cramp up, and I decided to call it a day.

While sailing slightly overpowered on the 5.5, I practiced waterstarting in both straps, and got better at it. I usually was fully planing in both straps and the harness within a couple of seconds after starting, which (a) felt great, and (b) made sailing rather effortless. Schlogging the 82 l board definitely was a lot more work! Here are the GPS tracks from the second half of the day:

The first runs in the upper part where bump & jump and a bit of wave play. The last set of runs where the speed runs. For once, my speed run tracks show a pronounced difference in angles, with downwind runs followed by a steep upwind part. During the speed runs, I stayed parallel to the waves at about 115-120º; for top speed, I probably should have gone even deeper (125-140º), aiming towards the beach. Still, seeing that the (non-cambered) sail was perfectly easy to handle on both the downwind and upwind legs in the rather strong wind was a nice confidence booster for the next time. The one problem I did have a few times were spinouts. I used the "Carve" 27 cm fin that came with the board, and a weed or speed fin might have worked better. Next time we go to Kalmus during low tide, I'll also make sure to bring my F2 Missile - Kalmus at low tide (and outside of the summer season) is an excellent playground for little speed toys.

Here's a short boom cam video from the first session of the day:

Speedsurfing in Hyannis

This is our tale from a day of windsurfing in Hyannis on March 18, 2011.


View Sea Street Beach, Hyannis in a larger map

7:05 am: 23 mph winds (20-28)
Getting ready to leave. The forecast predicts the best wind at 11 am, with a drop afterwards. The best forecast is for the Cape, but tides are very high, so we have decided to go to the Sea Street Beach in Hyannis, with plans to tack up to the "Kennedy slick" - the pier in Hyannis Port harbor that stops the waves and creates really smooth water. The parking lot of Ocean Avenue is large enough, and starting at the Sea Street Beach instead of Kalmus should cut the effort needed to cruise up into smooth water by more than half.

8:40 am: 29 mph (24-33)
We stop for a short coffee break in Hyannis. The wind is still picking up :)

9:10 am: 22 mph (18-25)
At the beach, ready too rig, but the wind has dropped. According to the wind readings, we'd have to rig big, which we don't want to do. We drive to Kalmus to check it out - more white caps, but similar wind. We decide to rig my 5.8 race sail and a 4.2 for Nina, hoping that the wind picks up.

11:00 am: 38 mph (33-47)
Finally on the water! The wind has picked up so much that the 5.8 is a bit big for the chop at the launch site. I go for one run out, then head back on the beach to warm up the hands.

Nina seems to have problems with waterstarting about 1/4 mile out, where the chop gets bigger and irregular. After almost 10 minutes, she finally makes it back to shore. She does not look happy. The open-palm gloves she was wearing are not warm enough for long stays in the water. As her fingers get warm again, they start to hurt badly. I carry her gear upwind while she screams into the wind.

With her 4.2 sail on a 76 l wave board, the sailing was ok, but she was totally overpowered when trying to waterstart. Wind gusts hit 47 mph, and she just got pulled straight over the board a number of times. We decide to rig the 3.7 sail for her. Here's a video from her run out:


11:45 am: 36 mph (32-40)
I hit the water again, this time with the 4.2. I still got plenty of power, but it's a lot easier to hold than the 5.8. I then watch Nina as she goes out. The 3.7 North Ice is not just smaller, but also easier to depower than the 4.2 Expression, and she's doing ok. I try to convince her to tack up to the pier to get some really flat water, but she looks sceptical and tells me to go ahead.

12:00 pm: 35 mph (30-42)
I sail upwind to the wall, hoping for some nice speed runs. The water is a lot rougher than it was last Saturday, since (a) the wind is stronger and (b) the tide is higher. Still, I make it up into the harbor inside of the boat ramp within 15 minutes. Launching at the Sea Street Beach makes the trip up to the wall a lot easier.

12:20 pm: 34 mph (29-42)
Time for a few speed runs at the wall. Today, the harbor is not really as smooth as I have seen it before. At high tide, some of the waves makes it through the holes in the pier. Furthermore, the wind is more WSW than SW, which gives the waves a bit more space to form. Once past the initial section of the wall, the water gets smoother, although the chop starts to form 100 feet from the wall. My speed runs are up to 300 or 400 meter long, although just half of this is downwind. Rather than running into the chop past the cover of the wall, I start my jibes well before the end when the water is still prefectly flat. Here's a video:


The video shows how much smoother the water gets closer to the wall. Is also shows that the tail of the board seems to constantly away in the speed runs. However, I think that's just an illusion from the boom-mounted camera, caused by sail movements. My stance was definitely not locked in enough.

Since Nina is not following me, I decide to cut the session at the wall short and sail back. Playing with the increasing chop on the way back is a lot of fun. Back at the beach, we chat with a few other sailors that have arrived, including Martin. Nina says she was sailing ok, but had some problems with waterstarts, and just could not make it upwind to the wall. I think it was a combination of the strong winds, the chop, sailing just once in the last 4 weeks, and the frustrating start with the too-big sail.

1:15 pm: 30 mph (25-34)
The wind seems to be dropping, but I go out for a few more runs on the 4.2. Not planing all the time, I go back in to switch sails.

1:30 pm: 25 mph
Sailing with the 5.8 again is fun at first, but within 20 minutes, the wind drops to below 20, which is just not enough from my 82 l board, so we call it a day. Back at the beach, a number of windsurfers have arrived by now, but they need to use bigger sails. After a short drop, wind averages stay above 20 mph until almost 4 pm, but we've had enough playing in the 35+ wind earlier.

--

Sailing from the Sea Street Beach was definitely a good idea. Right at the shore, the wind is perhaps a bit weaker that in Kalmus, but it picks up to full strength a short distance from shore. The chop at the launch area is nicely organized and smaller than in Kalmus, making it easier to get out on a very windy day when the tide is high, and allowing some fun wave rides. As you sail out for half a mile in SW, you loose the protection of the Hyannis Port harbor pier, and the chop becomes very similar to what you get sailing out from Kalmus. For speed runs in the "Kennedy Slicks" next to the harbor wall, this is a much better launch than Kalmus, since (a) you have to sail upwind only for 1/2 mile instead of a full mile, and (b) you avoid the worst chop, making it easier to get to the slicks with a larger sail. The parking lot is not as large as in Kalmus, but big enough for a number of windsurfers, and there is plenty of grass for rigging. That said, I'd probably pick Kalmus over Sea Street on a less windy day, especially when I am not planning to tack up to the wall for speed runs.

My top speed for the day (53 km, 28.8 knots) was a bit disappointing. The wind was definitely strong enough to go past 30 knots. The only thing that was apparent while I was on the water was that the sail was not quite as well-behaved as last Saturday, when I reached similar speeds in less wind. The different was probably the boom: I used an aluminum boom instead of my regular X5 hybrid boom with a carbon tail piece. Even though the boom was near it's shortest setting, I think it flexed more than the hybrid boom. The more interesting thing was the movements of the board tail ("mini spinouts") that I did not notice while sailing, but which are easy to see on the video. I'll make sure to use a large fin next time, and will check the videos to see if that helps. Trying out my old Mistral slalom board is another thing I'll try - it's not as wide, but has higher and sharper rails, and is still the board that I have set my personal records on.

Kalmus Season Opener

I went for the first windsurf session in Kalmus yesterday. Jeff, Graham, Chris, Martin, and a few other windsurfers also showed up, so we had almost a crowd, considering that the water temperature was about 38 F (4C), and the air about 42 F (6C). But it was sunny, and we had great wind:
The averages were between 30 and 35 mph for almost 5 hours, with gusts below 40 and lulls that stayed above 25 for a long time. That's nice, steady wind!
We all missed the first 2 hours; most of us hit the water shortly before 11 am, just when the tide was low. Chris and Graham went out on 3.5s and were nicely powered. I wanted to go for speed, so I rigged my 5.8 KA Koncept. But despite the low tide, the water was just to choppy for me to keep the sail controlled and sheeted it, and the wind was still picking up. I just was not comfortable enough to try and tack up a mile to the Hyannis Port harbor for speed runs, so I rigged down to a 4.2 m NP Expression.

Back out on the water, I was still fully powered on the 4.2, and tacked up to the harbor, which took about 30 minutes. Here are the GPS tracks:

The harbor is nicely sheltered by a stone wall, which makes for great flat water for speed runs. The wind direction was just a bit too westerly for totally flat water and top speeds, but I had a total blast everytime I got near the fall and went on downwind speed runs. Here, I paid for my caution: the 4.2 that had made getting there easy enough was a bit small for deep downwind runs. Of course, it's also a bit slower than the double-luffed, cambered speed sail, so my top speeds staid close to 50 kmh. Still, entering jibes at this speed in perfectly flat water is an absolute blast!

After a bit more than an hour of 700 m runs in the harbor, I decided to take a small break and then head back to Kalmus beach. Just in time, too - the wind was going down, and I was able to plane only about the first half of the way back. After that, the 82-l board was just a bit too small for my 200+ pounds (counting all the layers under the dry suit) and the Kalmus voodoo chop. The last 15 minutes were more work than the hour before that! By the time I made it back, my arms were starting to cramp up, so it was time to call it a day.

Talking about voodoo chop: my little cruise yesterday helped me understand why it is so disorderly in Kalmus. Since last fall, we took advantage of the the plethora of sailing sites in the area, and encountered nice swell in Duxbury, Skaket, West Dennis, and the Sakonnet River. In comparison, the chop in Kalmus yesterday was very chaotic, with almost no discernible patterns: the typical Kalmus voodoo chop. As I was sailing back from the wall in the harbor, I noticed that the swell picked up (no real surprise here :). At first, the swell was 100% driven by the wind, and therefore going in the direction the wind was going. I was a bit amazed how fast it built up - just a few hundred feet from the wall, the swell was perhaps a couple of feet high. But as I was leaving the shelter of the wall and approaching Kalmus beach, a second set of waves came into play: waves that were coming from the open ocean. These were parallel to the shore, and almost at a right angle to the wind and the wind-driven waves. As the two sets of waves intermingled, things became chaotic and unpredictable. I had actually made a somewhat similar observation in West Dennis recently: with a wind direction more parallel to the shore, the swell pattern there also became a bit more chaotic (although not nearly as voodoo-like as in Kalmus).

Still, I think Kalmus is one of the really great places to windsurf. If you don't feel like improving your chop hops or other skills in the vood chop, just sail out to the point for nicer waves (something I still have to do), or sail over to the harbor or Lewis bay for some nice flat water. Hope to see you there soon!

Time to mix it up

Looking at my last few posts, it seems that I have been concentrating on speedsurfing recently. So when I read Peconic Puffin's post "The Legend of Frank and Lauralee", I thought is was a nice reminder that there is much more to windsurfing than just going fast. By chance, that was exactly the same feeling I had after a few days of great windsurfing in Kalmus over the weekend.

We had several days of a lovely SW setup where the wind in Kalmus often is a lot stronger than predicted, and stronger than anywhere else in the area. Last Friday, averages in the afternoon were up to 35 mph, with gusts just above 40. On Sunday, averages stayed at 30, with gusts around 35. High tide was in the early afternoon, which meant a lot of high chop both days. Nina sailed our 3.7 both days, I was on a 4.2 and 5.0, fully powered to overpowered.

I was tempted to seek out flat water near the breaker or over at Egg Island for some speed runs. Fortunately, I had tried this the last time before when we had sailed in Kalmus, and it had not worked out well: the wind turned WNW, so instead of perfectly flat water, I got nasty high-frequency chop. That day, I had a lot more fun after turning around and sailing in the chop in front of Kalmus beach, which was higher, but also much better organized and easier to sail. So on the two windy days, I stayed there, too, and worked towards two of my goals for the year: better chop hops, and getting more comfortably in high chop. Not surprisingly, a couple of nice practice days close together resulted in some progress. I sailed old JP 96l board both days, which was ok, but a slightly smaller (and newer) board would have been better. Still, I started feeling much more comfortable and relaxed in the high wind & chop conditions, and at the end of the second day, I managed several dry jibes in a row on the outside, in the high chop. They were not as pretty as my flat water jibes, but dry is dry. The funny thing is that I know well enough what to do - but as soon as wind and chop pick up, I get intimidated, and revert back to old bad habits. As Mike Tyson recently said on the Ultimate Fighter - it's all confidence (and practice). With a couple more days like this, I'll call my goal of being comfortably in high wind and chop accomplished.

It was really nice to see a whole lot of ABK campers show up on Sunday, including Martin, Jeff, and Cliff, along with many other windsurfers (Gonzalo, Vadim, Michael, and a few more). There were a number of kite surfers there, too, which was ok, since they mostly stayed out of the way. Of course, one stupid fellow had to be the exception, and show his supposed superiority by passing windsurfers in the water at a distance of a couple of feet, spraying them while he passed. I did not see the guy myself, but both Nina and Jeff, who spent more time in the water, had the "pleasure" of his close encounters. What an idiot - everyone, even the best surfers and kiters, loose control sometimes, and kiting so close to someone risks serious injury. I heard about this only at the end of the day, otherwise I probably would have asked the guy what he was thinking. On Sunday, I was passing every kiter on the water at will, so it would have been easy enough to be a pain in his ass if he had kept up the attitude. But he was just one bad apple, and I've been sprayed by similar idiots on windsurf boards. If you want to prove you're a great kiter or windsurfer, show it by keeping a mast length distance when passing. If you pass close enough to spray someone in the water, especially when there's plenty of space, the only thing you prove is that you are an inconsiderate idiot.

But back to the fun parts. Good old bump & jump sailing in the chop was a lot of fun. Even if your primary focus is on speedsurfing, there's plenty of reason to mix it up sometimes (i.e. often enough to get comfortably in unusual conditions). For example, practicing chop hops will teach how to control the board in the air, which can be rather useful when a speed board take off from some unexpected chop. Practicing jibes when fully powered in difficult conditions helps to build the skills and confidence needed to jibe at very high speeds, which then lets you reach high alphas and better long-distance averages. And of course, the feeling in a nicely powered jibe is a thousand times better than any chicken jibe or fall, even if the water is shallow enough to stand. If your jibe is already great, keep going on to duck jibes, 360s, donkeys, loops, and new school tricks. Martin showed very nicely why both day - he tried a lot of different things, but when he just jibed, all the extra skills helped him to get around in a really beautiful and fun way.

Another example why one should mix it up is what happened during our last trip to Fogland. Hoping that the wind would pick up just a bit more, I used my big board and big sail, only to be bored to death between the three or so runs that I got onto a plane. Nina instead picked her 76 l board and 5.0 sail, and went to practice Geckos, tacks, heli tacks, and uphauling on a small board. Guess who had more fun and learned more? No contest.

But if you've never done any GPS speedsurfing, you should try it, too, especially if you're at the intermediate level. Here are just a few reasons:

• To get speed, you have to go deeper downwind than you otherwise would. You'll get more comfortable at this angle with practice, and you may see that planing through jibes gets a lot easier with more speed.
• To make up for the downwind runs, you'll have to learn to go upwind better, too, so you'll increase your effective range while sailing.
• You'll be looking for really flat water, which can then help you planing through your jibe and with all kinds of carving moves.
• For speed, you'll typically want to use larger sails, so you learn to sail better when overpowered, which can give you a security reserve if the wind picks up unexpectedly (or just save you from having to rig a smaller sail).
  
• If you find a spot where you can do longer speed runs (like Duxbury in east winds), you'll have plenty of time to experiment with stance and equipment adjustments to learn how to sail more efficiently. If nothing else, this will allow you to use smaller equipment at other times.

The more you mix it up, the more fun you'll have. I always have to think about Dave White here, who has held a number of speedsurfing records, appeared in trick surf instructional videos (despite being "Larger than your average WWF wrestler"), and wave sailed even in hurricanes.

Forecasts, thermals, and inversions

September has been great this years - 12 days of sailing, 10 of them in nice strong winds, so far. That's not bad for someone who (a) should work 40-hour weeks, and (b) has to drive about an hour to get to a nice sailing site.

The forecast for last Saturday looked great - more than 20 mph for the entire day, warm temps, and sun. Last Wednesday, we had windsurfed in Fogland - that turned out to be the wrong choice, since winds were just so-so, while Kalmus had great, steady winds above 30 for the entire afternoon. No big surprise here - in late summer, Kalmus often gets thermals which boost the winds 5-10 miles higher than the forecast (and also higher than other sites on the Cape).

Saturday was just 3 days later, the setup was very similar, so I was really hoping for upper twenties in Kalmus. We decided to book a hotel room so we could start early, and sail until we dropped, without having to drive back to Boston. Since the wind was supposed to pick up early on Saturday, I even thought about going for a 12-hour GPS marathon session. Alas, the wind did not play along.

On Friday afternoon, after visiting the local windsurf stores to pick up warm gear for the fall and winter, the wind readings were much better for West Dennis than for Kalmus, so we windsurfed in West Dennis. I had not sailed there in ages, and Nina had never sailed there. I loved it - the wind was just perfect for my favorite 7.0, the swell nice and gentle, perfect for working on chop hops, and plenty of space for nice long runs. We had dawdled a bit getting there, so we sailed only a couple of hours until the fog got too dense, and the wind line moved out further onto the water.

Saturday morning, I got up at 6, only to see that we wind was not as good as promised. Nevertheless, we had an early breakfast and headed to Kalmus. As we arrived, a couple of guys were out having fun, but then, the long wind tease began. From 10 am to 3 pm, even the gusts refused to go above 20, and averages often sank below 15. Every now and then, a few puffs came through that almost had me planing on my 7.0. I was not the only one attracted by the forecast - a lot of the ABK campers showed, including Ed, Mike, Jonathen, Peter, Cliff, Jeff, Graham, and Martin. When I finally gave up and rigged my 8.5 m V8 to have some fun, the wind finally picked up. So instead of much fun, I was fighting for 20 minutes, before I went back in and got the 7.0.

The wind stayed nice for a couple of hours. The chop was not so nice, though, so I tacked up to the wall that protects Kalmus and went for some flat water speed sailing. With gusts still below 25, I did not get any great speed, but I still had a blast until the wind decided to take another break, and I headed back downwind without getting the great downwind speed runs I had hoped for. Still, first time I made it up to the wall, and I had the entire little harbor to myself. Without the expectations of 12 hours of great wind, that would have been a rather decent day.

So - what had happened? Apparently, we had a mixing problem, also called an inversion. The water is starting to cool down, the winds coming in were very warm, so they did not mix down well. This was worst in Kalmus - West Dennis, Chapin, and even Ned's Point had better winds, unusual for SW. I think this time, the fact that Lewis Bay is exactly in the wind direction increased the mixing problems, instead of helping the wind to be nice and steady. What a difference three days and a few degrees can make.

We had seen some indications of mixing issues the day before in West Dennis, when the wind line moved away from the shore as it got later. Fogland had had similar issues last Wednesday, with gusty & weak winds in the cove, but better winds on the south side and on the far side of the river.

The forecast for Sunday was not great - NE near 20 mph for Chapin and Duxbury for a brief period, below 20 most of the day. Of course, computer models and metereologists often under-predict the N and NE winds in Duxbury, so we stopped by there on the way home. At noon, the wind did not look convincing - some kiters on the ocean side had a hard time to get going. We almost drove home when we saw a brave windsurfer go out on a 7.5 with a 90 cm wide Fanatic board. He said he was working on getting in both straps, but he sure was doing fine. After his first run, he stated that this was the best run he had ever had, so we decided to also go out on our 7.0 and 5.0 sails. Gonzalo, whom we had met at a conference in Hawaii the first time and who had been in Kalmus the day before, also came while we were rigging. He was a bit disappointed that the water was so flat, but went out anyway.

The rest was just great - 3 hours of pure fun. The wind made it up to just above 20, with gusts of 25 - nice & steady. Perfect for long runs, so I worked on improving our mile and one hour postings on the GPS Team Challenge. Here's the GPS tracks:


Nina used the flat water and great wind to work on duck jibes for the first time, and had a lot of fun crashing into the water over and over again (although she did get close on a few). I sailed 86 km in 3 hours, with just a short break to switch boards. But even when I thought I was going fast on Nina's Mistral Screamer 116, Gonzalo passed me all the time. Not a surprise - he was on a Fanatic Ray 125 with a 7.3 m North cambered sail, a much faster than my freeride, camberless setup. And maybe the fact that he once trained to windsurf in the Olympics also had something to do with it :)

While I had a blast in Duxbury, the air temperatures were a bit chilly, and my 3 mm steamer was a bit thin for the weather. Time to get out the warmer gear - I surely would have been sweating in my 5/4 semidry.

So, one good day and two great days of windsurfing - I just love fall windsurfing in New England. South winds now can get a bit gusty with mixing problems, but N and E winds are typically super-steady and make for great flat water sessions in Duxbury. Hope to see more members of the Fogland Speedsurfers there next time!

Hopping in Kalmus

We took the day off and went windsurfing in Kalmus. It turned out to be an interesting day - I was on 4 different sails from 7.0 down to 4.2 within a span of 4 hours, and nicely powered to overpowered on each of these. I spent most of the time on a 5.0, Nina on a 4.2. Great day to practice chop hops - here's a short video from on of the later runs (Pete, this one is for you!):

While sailing, I thought some of the hops were quite nice. I focused on the landings, which were decent enough. Plenty of room for improvement in the flight phase, though.

A great day to build confidence for the upcoming Maui trip; we supposedly had more wind today than on a typical Maui day, and more chop than in Kanaha. Nina was a bit frustrated because she did not make it through a single jibe, but I thought she did great in handling the chop. A number of other sailors where there, too, but everyone spent a lot of time changing sails as the wind changed. The water is getting warmer, too - I was never uncomfortable or cold (in a 5/4 semi dry), even when water starting took a bit longer. Another great day of sailing!

Great day in Kalmus

Just came back from a great day of sailing in Kalmus. The wind was a bit weird - not gusty, but with pronounced variation over longer periods. Here's the iWindsurf.com wind graph:

We sailed from about 11:30 to 2:30, with a couple of longer breaks. It was high tide when we started, which gave some nice chop together with the 25 mph SW wind. Funny how much more difficult everything gets when conditions are different from normal - we usually sail flat water in less wind, so this definitely needed some getting used to. I was nicely powered with a 5.5 Matrix (first time on it, nice sail) and my small board (JP 96). My wife was on a 4.2 on her 116 l Screamer with a 39 cm fin. She got quite a few comments on the large sizes, since everyone else was out on small wave or freestyle boards. She did quite a few involuntary jumps, too. But when the wind calmed down later, she was often the only one planing and going upwind. If only I could loose 60 pounds, maybe I can keep up with her ...

I tried the WindMeter iPhone app today. Like the Peconic Puffin, I found it to be rather accurate. It was showing 25-26 mph when the iWindsurf reading was about the same. Had to hold it up for longer than I thought (maybe half a minute) for the reading to go up, though.

While on my small board, I played a bit with the chop, which at points was pretty close to breaking waves. Looked at the GPS tracks later, and did not see any of the turns. Perhaps it's time to check out a ShadowBox? Nice marketing thing they did with the highest backloop contest - love the videos.

Looking at my GPS results from last years technology, I noticed that I got my best speeds near the end, after switching to a 7.0 sail and a 120 l board, and sometimes having to pump to get planing. The chop had gone down quite a bit by then, which is probably why I was going faster.

It was nice to see a few windsurfers show up - there were usually 3-5 surfers on the water, plus a few kiters. Very nice to see Martin from the Cape Cod camp again. He missed the good wind, but worked on his heli tacks and other light wind stuff - because every day of sailing is a great day of sailing!