The Missing Link

We had some nice ENE winds last Saturday, perfect for practicing jibes on the very flat water in East Bay. I focused on what Guy Cribb calls the "Missing Link" - dropping down after the sail flip to re-accelerate. That worked quite nicely - here's a short video:



On Sunday, I taught my first windsurf lesson since getting my US Sailing Windsurf Instructor certification - the light wind tack. We met our friends Bianca and Jonathen at the same spot, East Bay in Osterville, which is also a great light wind spot. The goal was to get Bianca to switch from the shuffle-shuffle-drag beginner tack to the 2-step tack. We practiced a lot on land - first the footwork, then the entire sequence. It paid off - once we hit the water, Bianca's tacks looked great right away. Success!

I am definitely looking forward to giving more windsurfing lessons. It's the perfect time of the year for working on planing jibes - when it's windy, we can usually find a perfect spot (like East Bay) somewhere on Cape Cod.

Nina Catches Waves

The weather today was just too nice to not go outside and play. With NE winds around 15, we decided to go SUP sailing at Chapin. By the time we had rigged, all the kites were coming off the water because the wind was dropping. Nina's 5.0 m sail and my 5.7 were small for the conditions, but it got us out to the (also small) waves. Too spoiled from perfectly flat water, the main use I found for the waves was as an excuse to fall off - but Nina had fun, catching one little wave after the other. Here's an example (make sure to turn the sound on):


More fun expected tomorrow - hopefully enough wind to plane on reasonably-sized gear. See you on the water!

Windsurfing lessons on Cape Cod

My friends have been telling me this for a while, but now it's official: I am certified. Certified by US Sailing as a Windsurfing Instructor, that is. To get the certification, I had to complete a 4-day instructor class, and a 5-hour First Aid/CPR/AED class. Both were interesting classes, I definitely learned a lot. Now I'm eager to practice what I learned, so I am offering free windsurfing lessons on Cape Cod for the first 10 takers. Details about topics I 'd teach can be found here. If you are interested, it would be great if you could let me know a couple of days in advance.

Otherwise, October has been uneventful so far. We had decent wind last Monday, although I needed my 6.5 m sail most of the time to plane. On the upside, it was warm and mostly sunny, and the SSE wind created unusual conditions at Kalmus. I also did sail a bit the next two days, but it was more like typical summer sailing, barely planing on relatively big sails. Still fun, but no Rocktober yet.

Busy weeks

After a number of very busy weeks, we're finally relaxing a bit at home. Busy time started with the ABK camp Cape Cod, which was fantastic, as usual. Then we got a few days with fantastic wind that let up just in time to give us a couple of days to prepare the ECWF Cape Cod. This first-time event was a big success and lots of fun, but afterwards, we were exhausted. But 5 days later, we were driving down to Hatteras, where I took a windsurf instructor course organized by US Sailing. During the 4 class days, we had some great light wind and planing sessions, and on the 4 non-class days, I was fully powered on 5.5 most of the time. Here's a picture with Nina on the last day, when we sailed the Canadian Hole for the first time:

A lovely spot, perhaps even a bit flatter than the Island Creek location where we had stayed before. My legs were a bit tired from sailing 200 km the day before, so I ended up with the same old mistakes in my jibes - can you spot the problems in the next picture, and predict what will happen?

For teaching windsurfing, I really need to practice the "sandwich" approach, so let me start with the good things: the sail is oversheeted nicely, with the clew pulled behind me; and I am standing in a balanced stance, looking into the turn. But my front arm should be more extended, and the knees should be bent more - especially since I am sailing the boom relatively low (since I was fully powered). The next picture shows what happened next:

With the rig too close to me, and the knees to straight, I hooked in just as I started switching the feet, which made this jibe end wet. But at least I had the boom cam footage to see exactly what I need to change! Funny thing is that my jibes on the first planing day were great - after sailing in Kalmus chop before, I still remembered to bend the knees enough. But after a few days in the relatively flat Avon waters, and with tired legs, things left room for improvement on the last day.

Funny how what I did the few days before influences my style. I tried to go for a few chop hops, but they ended up disappointing. Looking at the camera footage, once again the reason becomes clear:

The sail is wide open, the nose of the board is way up and pointing downwind - yes, I had been working on the takeoff for the flatwater loop, Andy Brandt/Remko style. Now if I only had pulled up the back leg and pushed down on the boom with the front hand ... maybe next time.