Sometimes, it takes a big trip to learn to appreciate new things.
Coaching at Camp Tanamakoon
3 months ago
Saturday, March 16, 2019
Sunday, March 3, 2019
Lake George
One of the things that had drawn me to Australia were windsurfing videos from Lake George in South Australia. In a good year, you can windsurf Lake George on glassy water in 25 knots, without any chop. So we ended our trip with a couple of weeks at Lake George.
But things did not seem to work out quite as planned. Before we even got there, we saw multiple reports that the water levels were much higher than ideal. In good years, the chop-killing weed reaches the surface; but in February 2019, the weed was covered with about 2 feet of water.
The trip from the Perth region in Western Australia to Beachport in South Australia took us a few days (partly because we did not drive at night, when there is a high chance that you hit a kangaroo). When we arrived in the afternoon, we drove to the launch light away, and it looked beautiful - very flat, with about 20 mph of wind. Unfortunately, we did not get to sail that day. The next day was quite windy - but cold! Temperatures dropped to about 14 C (57 F), and it rained a bit at times. Our summer wetsuits proved to be a bit too light for the wind, which also was very gusty. We started to question how smart is was to leave Western Australia for that. The last spot we had visited, Albany, had been fantastic, and rewarded us with several personal bests each; but we only managed low 30-knot numbers this day. Frustration again, similar to the first really day at Fangy Land: the better windsurfers got speeds in the high 30s, and one or two even got 40-knot top speeds.
It got a bit warmer the next couple of days, but the wind remained light. We got to meet a number of Australian speedsurfers in the local pub and on the beach, including the holder of the official 24-hour world record, "Kato". Kato saved me from rigging in dying winds one day by letting me use his gear in the last few gusts, and let me use his Mistral IMCO longboard another day where the wind again was light and gusty. In many parts of the lake, the weed was too close to the surface to fully extend the daggerboard, but I still had a blast, even though I had to use the 6.3 m sail, since Nina was using the 7.0 on the big slalom board. But another advantage of the light wind was that I was able to get some drone footage, without having to worry about the drone getting blown away. Here's some footage of Nina on the 7.0/112 l combo:
Unfortunately, our friends Mike and Dot had to leave a few days later, and the three "Teletubby Brokeback Speedsurfers" from Mandurah who shared the cabin next to ours also left when the wind forecast was very poor for several days in a row. That meant that we lost some of the gear we had used (or hoped to use) in very light or very strong winds: Mike's 4.4 m sail and 39 cm speed board for Nina, and the 112 l slalom board (a loaner from Jonski - thanks again!). On the bright side, it prompted us to switch to a lovely AirBnb place with lots of space, a super-friendly host, free loaner bicycles, and frequent sightings of kangaroos right next to our place - nice!
The wind finally returned for the last two days of our stay. Here is a GoPro short video that I took at the beginning of the first day:
This was in about 5 knots more wind than in the first video above, about 18 knots. At almost all windsurf spots, 5 knots more wind would have also created more chop - but not so here! The heavy weed limits how big the chop gets, and the water was very smooth. The wind picked up during the day, probably reaching averages near 25 knots before I stopped sailing, but the chop never seemed to get any bigger. Sweet! Well, I should be more specific: the chop did not get noticeably bigger in the middle lake, which is shallow and weedy. We actually ended up sailing a bit in the big lake, which is deeper at parts, and has substantially less weed; in the deeper parts, the chop is more comparable to the Hatteras Sound (think of the area near Avon, in the middle of the long distance race).
Here are my GPS tracks for the day (click on the image to see a larger version):
We started at the bottom-left corner, from a launch known as "5 Miles". The mast mount video above was taken right in front of the launch. We then sailed up to "The Spit" - a sand spit that separates the middle lake from the big lake above it. The sand bar is just perhaps 10 meters wide, and a meter tall, so the water behind it is perfect for speed sailing. I spent most of the day on the Falcon 89, and got a top speed of 34.8 knots on it - the fastest I had ever been on a slalom board. After a couple of hours, when Nina took a break, I got six runs on the Isonic W54 speedboard in. Three of the runs were above 35 knots, and the fastest had a 2-second top speed of 37.09 knots (68.7 km/h) - that's the second-fastest I have ever sailed, and only the second time I have sailed faster than 35 knots.
After hearing about my speeds, Nina wanted a few more runs on the Isonic. I ended up getting quite cold waiting for her, so I started to sail back to the launch, which was about 1.5 miles upwind. Since the wind kept picking up, getting back was reasonably easy and quick. I later looked at the GPS tracks of Hardie, who did more than 40 knots that day, and they confirmed that the wind picked up a few knots during and after our trip back. However, we were quite tired by the time we sailed back, and not quite sure how easy it would be to sail back upwind. I was definitely happy to have a few reserved left to manage the 7.0 m sail in gusts that must have been above 30 knots!
For the next day, the wind forecast had predicted a few more knots of wind, so we decided to drive out to the spit. It's just a 5 kilometer (3 mile) drive from the 5 Mile launch - but the road is "very interesting", with sand, huge potholes, and rocky areas. It took us 30 minutes to drive the last 3 miles! But at least we now had the option to change gear whenever we felt like it.
I went out first on the 7.0/89 combo, and quickly got a top speed of 34.5 knots. The wind seemed to be picking up, and both local expertise and the forecast predicted an increase, to I quickly rigged down to the 6.3. Unfortunately, the wind had other plans, and stayed perhaps 5 knots weaker than the day before, so I had a hard time even getting 34 knots again. But the water in front of the speed (below in the image above) was just a few inches above the weeds - tons of fun to go back and forth in! I tried to improve my 1 hour personal best, but had a few problems jibing, so ended up 0.8 knots short of my PB. Nevertheless, these three hours of going fast for a couple of kilometers each run in "chop" than ranged from about 1 inch to maybe 3-4 inches were some of the best hours I even spend on a windsurf board. The SSE-SE wind was a lot steadier than the gusty SW-WSW wind we had on our first day of sailing at Lake George! Even Nina, who usually gets bored going in a straight line after a minute or two, sailed back and forth with a big grin on her face for hours, and ended up improving her 1 hour PB without really trying. After these two days, we both understood why windsurfers from all over Australia come to Lake George!
But things did not seem to work out quite as planned. Before we even got there, we saw multiple reports that the water levels were much higher than ideal. In good years, the chop-killing weed reaches the surface; but in February 2019, the weed was covered with about 2 feet of water.
The trip from the Perth region in Western Australia to Beachport in South Australia took us a few days (partly because we did not drive at night, when there is a high chance that you hit a kangaroo). When we arrived in the afternoon, we drove to the launch light away, and it looked beautiful - very flat, with about 20 mph of wind. Unfortunately, we did not get to sail that day. The next day was quite windy - but cold! Temperatures dropped to about 14 C (57 F), and it rained a bit at times. Our summer wetsuits proved to be a bit too light for the wind, which also was very gusty. We started to question how smart is was to leave Western Australia for that. The last spot we had visited, Albany, had been fantastic, and rewarded us with several personal bests each; but we only managed low 30-knot numbers this day. Frustration again, similar to the first really day at Fangy Land: the better windsurfers got speeds in the high 30s, and one or two even got 40-knot top speeds.
It got a bit warmer the next couple of days, but the wind remained light. We got to meet a number of Australian speedsurfers in the local pub and on the beach, including the holder of the official 24-hour world record, "Kato". Kato saved me from rigging in dying winds one day by letting me use his gear in the last few gusts, and let me use his Mistral IMCO longboard another day where the wind again was light and gusty. In many parts of the lake, the weed was too close to the surface to fully extend the daggerboard, but I still had a blast, even though I had to use the 6.3 m sail, since Nina was using the 7.0 on the big slalom board. But another advantage of the light wind was that I was able to get some drone footage, without having to worry about the drone getting blown away. Here's some footage of Nina on the 7.0/112 l combo:
Unfortunately, our friends Mike and Dot had to leave a few days later, and the three "Teletubby Brokeback Speedsurfers" from Mandurah who shared the cabin next to ours also left when the wind forecast was very poor for several days in a row. That meant that we lost some of the gear we had used (or hoped to use) in very light or very strong winds: Mike's 4.4 m sail and 39 cm speed board for Nina, and the 112 l slalom board (a loaner from Jonski - thanks again!). On the bright side, it prompted us to switch to a lovely AirBnb place with lots of space, a super-friendly host, free loaner bicycles, and frequent sightings of kangaroos right next to our place - nice!
The wind finally returned for the last two days of our stay. Here is a GoPro short video that I took at the beginning of the first day:
This was in about 5 knots more wind than in the first video above, about 18 knots. At almost all windsurf spots, 5 knots more wind would have also created more chop - but not so here! The heavy weed limits how big the chop gets, and the water was very smooth. The wind picked up during the day, probably reaching averages near 25 knots before I stopped sailing, but the chop never seemed to get any bigger. Sweet! Well, I should be more specific: the chop did not get noticeably bigger in the middle lake, which is shallow and weedy. We actually ended up sailing a bit in the big lake, which is deeper at parts, and has substantially less weed; in the deeper parts, the chop is more comparable to the Hatteras Sound (think of the area near Avon, in the middle of the long distance race).
Here are my GPS tracks for the day (click on the image to see a larger version):
After hearing about my speeds, Nina wanted a few more runs on the Isonic. I ended up getting quite cold waiting for her, so I started to sail back to the launch, which was about 1.5 miles upwind. Since the wind kept picking up, getting back was reasonably easy and quick. I later looked at the GPS tracks of Hardie, who did more than 40 knots that day, and they confirmed that the wind picked up a few knots during and after our trip back. However, we were quite tired by the time we sailed back, and not quite sure how easy it would be to sail back upwind. I was definitely happy to have a few reserved left to manage the 7.0 m sail in gusts that must have been above 30 knots!
For the next day, the wind forecast had predicted a few more knots of wind, so we decided to drive out to the spit. It's just a 5 kilometer (3 mile) drive from the 5 Mile launch - but the road is "very interesting", with sand, huge potholes, and rocky areas. It took us 30 minutes to drive the last 3 miles! But at least we now had the option to change gear whenever we felt like it.
I went out first on the 7.0/89 combo, and quickly got a top speed of 34.5 knots. The wind seemed to be picking up, and both local expertise and the forecast predicted an increase, to I quickly rigged down to the 6.3. Unfortunately, the wind had other plans, and stayed perhaps 5 knots weaker than the day before, so I had a hard time even getting 34 knots again. But the water in front of the speed (below in the image above) was just a few inches above the weeds - tons of fun to go back and forth in! I tried to improve my 1 hour personal best, but had a few problems jibing, so ended up 0.8 knots short of my PB. Nevertheless, these three hours of going fast for a couple of kilometers each run in "chop" than ranged from about 1 inch to maybe 3-4 inches were some of the best hours I even spend on a windsurf board. The SSE-SE wind was a lot steadier than the gusty SW-WSW wind we had on our first day of sailing at Lake George! Even Nina, who usually gets bored going in a straight line after a minute or two, sailed back and forth with a big grin on her face for hours, and ended up improving her 1 hour PB without really trying. After these two days, we both understood why windsurfers from all over Australia come to Lake George!
Wednesday, February 27, 2019
The Car
Our trip to Oz is almost over. Yesterday, we said goodbye to the Falcon:
We bought the Ford Falcon station wagon a few days after we arrived. On the inside, the lining under the roof had been removed, so it did not look pretty. But it drove well, and had only 220 thousand kilometers - about 100-200K less than similar 15-year old cars.
It has had a few little problems. The day after we bought it, we discovered that one of the doors in the back could not be locked. Back to the mechanic who sold the car. He "fixed" it - it was now permanently closed, and could not be opened anymore. Much better! The back seats were folded down to accommodate our windsurfing gear, anyway.
A day later, we discovered that the door on the back also did not close. Not feeling too smart now, but finally understanding why there were so many disconnected cables in the back, we almost drove back to the mechanic again. But before we had a chance, our windsurfing friend Mike fixed it for us.
The only other issue was a flat tire a few weeks later. A couple of tires were now close to the legal limit, and he were planning to drive through the Nullabor, where there are many hundred kilometers between towns. So we replaced all tires for AUD $360, hoping that the new tires would make it easier to sell the car.
The biggest bummer about buying a car was that we left Lake George a few days earlier than absolutely necessary, so that we'd have a few days in Melbourne to sell the car. Of course, conditions were perfect a couple of days later, and some guys got their magic 40 knots for the first time. At least one of them improved their previous best by about 4 knots. Who knows what we could have done? Maybe next time..
We ended up selling the car to a guy from Canada who is here for a year. It helped that the car was registered in Western Australia: transferring the registration can be done by mail; no safety inspection is required; and the registration (which includes insurance) can be extended easily over the internet, which he did right away. We got exactly the same amount we had paid for the car, so it cost us less than $600 for the registration and the new tires - a lot cheaper than any rental would have been! Perhaps we got lucky because nothing major broke, but the car was made to be used as a taxi, and it's supposedly good for a million kilometers. Seeing that there are lots of these Falcons around with more than 400K kilometers, that probably true.
How was Lake George, you wonder? We'll fantastic .. but that's a different post.
It has had a few little problems. The day after we bought it, we discovered that one of the doors in the back could not be locked. Back to the mechanic who sold the car. He "fixed" it - it was now permanently closed, and could not be opened anymore. Much better! The back seats were folded down to accommodate our windsurfing gear, anyway.
A day later, we discovered that the door on the back also did not close. Not feeling too smart now, but finally understanding why there were so many disconnected cables in the back, we almost drove back to the mechanic again. But before we had a chance, our windsurfing friend Mike fixed it for us.
The only other issue was a flat tire a few weeks later. A couple of tires were now close to the legal limit, and he were planning to drive through the Nullabor, where there are many hundred kilometers between towns. So we replaced all tires for AUD $360, hoping that the new tires would make it easier to sell the car.
The biggest bummer about buying a car was that we left Lake George a few days earlier than absolutely necessary, so that we'd have a few days in Melbourne to sell the car. Of course, conditions were perfect a couple of days later, and some guys got their magic 40 knots for the first time. At least one of them improved their previous best by about 4 knots. Who knows what we could have done? Maybe next time..
We ended up selling the car to a guy from Canada who is here for a year. It helped that the car was registered in Western Australia: transferring the registration can be done by mail; no safety inspection is required; and the registration (which includes insurance) can be extended easily over the internet, which he did right away. We got exactly the same amount we had paid for the car, so it cost us less than $600 for the registration and the new tires - a lot cheaper than any rental would have been! Perhaps we got lucky because nothing major broke, but the car was made to be used as a taxi, and it's supposedly good for a million kilometers. Seeing that there are lots of these Falcons around with more than 400K kilometers, that probably true.
How was Lake George, you wonder? We'll fantastic .. but that's a different post.
Monday, February 4, 2019
With A Little Help
Two days ago was our last day in Mandurah - and it was windy! Mike did not believe my prediction of wind between 25 and 30 knots, so we went to Fangyland instead of Liptons. Fine by me - I love Fangy's Weed Farm!
We arrived to plenty of white caps, and a big crew on the beach, getting ready to go out. It was still cloudy, but the end of the clouds was in sight, and several sailors predicted that the wind would pick up once the clouds were gone .. which it did. I got out just before that happened, so I had some time to get dialed in on the Falcon 89 with the Racing Blade 6.3. Nina went out on the RB 5.0 with Mikes 39 cm "wide" speed board. Yes, all of 39 centimeters. She had to suffer through plenty of comments on the board - one guy remarked that she should have a second board, one for each foot. He had a point - the board looked more like a water ski than a windsurf board! Since she does not waterski, it took her quite a while to get comfortable on the board. Once it became clear she'd keep using it, I switched down to our Isonic W54 speed board.
By then, the wind was quite strong. Meter readings on shore later showed 25 knots with gusts to 32, but it may have been a bit higher on the speed strip. Everyone was taking breaks at the end of the runs, which were a bit longer than a mile - almost 2 kilometers. That was rather nice - lots of tips on where the flattest water was, how to tune the gear, and so on were exchanged. One of the local legends, Stroppo, first showed Nina the run below the weed banks where the flattest water could be found, and then made sure I also knew about it. Very nice!
I was using GPSLogit with bluetooth headphones, and had heard "35" several times during runs. The GPS watch confirmed that I had set a new personal best, and finally (!!) broken the 35-knot barrier. That helped me relax a bit. Or perhaps the wind just picked up. Whatever it was, I saw a 37.6 on the dial after the next run. That was 2.8 knots faster than my old personal best - a huge jump! I had also tried to copy Stroppo's approach to a nautical mile run, and had improved my PB for the "nauti" (often spelled "naughty") my 2 knots. Sweet! I was getting a bit tired, and we had a big drive planned for the next day, so I decided to call it a day.
Nina said she wanted to stay out, since she was finally getting comfortable on the tiny speedboard. When she came in a while later, she was glowing - she had just improved her personal best by more than 3 knots, to 35.78 knots! At the end of the day, we each had improved our personal bests in three categories - top speed (2 seconds), 5 x 10 seconds, and nautical mile. Sweet, sweet, sweet!
It was time to say good bye to the local speedsurfers we had gotten to know during our stay, an extra-ordinarily nice bunch of people. Quite a few of them had also set new personal bests - the two teams I mentioned in my last post, the Mandurah Mob and the Pinnaroos, each set a total of 9 PBs that day. What a day!
The big question is: what made us (and others) go so much faster? Clearly, the conditions played a big role: strong winds and very flat water. But we had had quite similar conditions before at exactly the same spot, with no or just marginal improvements. But this time around, the wind direction was different, so the runs in smooth water were more than twice as long. Together with steady winds, this gave us plenty of time to get used to the conditions and to the higher speeds that were possible.
Just as important, though, was the company of better speedsurfers. Their friendly and freely given advice (both during the session and in and after previous sessions) was super-helpful. Mike's 39 cm speed board was essential - not only did it enable it Nina to go wicked fast, but it also freed our speedboard for my use (and the W54 was much more appropriate for the conditions than the slalom board!). So a BIG thanks to Mike, Stroppo, Ross, and all the others who have helped us!
Yesterday, we drove to Margaret River, and arrived just in time to witness a Severne team photoshoot, complete with helicopters and mast-high wave. The show was amazing, with super-high back loops, one-handed aerials, wave 360s, and more. I went to thank multiple world wave champion Philip Köster after the session, and got to shake his hand - cool!!!
Today, we drove on to Albany, another famous speed spot. After stops for a walk through giant tree tops and at the "Elephant Rocks", one of the most beautiful coasts I have ever seen, we arrived a bit late at our bay-front cottage, but I managed to squeeze a session on the big gear (112/7.0) in. This is another perfect spot, with weeds sticking out of the water that keep it really flat and create a "jibing heaven. Despite only about 16 knots of wind and a top speed below 29 knots, I managed to get an alpha 500 of 23 knots - just 1/3rd of a knot below my personal best! Sooo much fun! And there're more wind in the forecast for tomorrow :-).
Between all the fun, I somehow found the time to check our individual rankings on the GPS Team Challenge. Here's what the top 10 for the speedsurfers in USA teams currently looks like:
Somewhat magically, I already advanced to third place, within 2 points of the second place - and we still have a couple of weeks at super-flat, super-fast Lake George coming up! Nina is currently on the 8th place, ahead of 30 guys - the girl is fast!
We arrived to plenty of white caps, and a big crew on the beach, getting ready to go out. It was still cloudy, but the end of the clouds was in sight, and several sailors predicted that the wind would pick up once the clouds were gone .. which it did. I got out just before that happened, so I had some time to get dialed in on the Falcon 89 with the Racing Blade 6.3. Nina went out on the RB 5.0 with Mikes 39 cm "wide" speed board. Yes, all of 39 centimeters. She had to suffer through plenty of comments on the board - one guy remarked that she should have a second board, one for each foot. He had a point - the board looked more like a water ski than a windsurf board! Since she does not waterski, it took her quite a while to get comfortable on the board. Once it became clear she'd keep using it, I switched down to our Isonic W54 speed board.
By then, the wind was quite strong. Meter readings on shore later showed 25 knots with gusts to 32, but it may have been a bit higher on the speed strip. Everyone was taking breaks at the end of the runs, which were a bit longer than a mile - almost 2 kilometers. That was rather nice - lots of tips on where the flattest water was, how to tune the gear, and so on were exchanged. One of the local legends, Stroppo, first showed Nina the run below the weed banks where the flattest water could be found, and then made sure I also knew about it. Very nice!
I was using GPSLogit with bluetooth headphones, and had heard "35" several times during runs. The GPS watch confirmed that I had set a new personal best, and finally (!!) broken the 35-knot barrier. That helped me relax a bit. Or perhaps the wind just picked up. Whatever it was, I saw a 37.6 on the dial after the next run. That was 2.8 knots faster than my old personal best - a huge jump! I had also tried to copy Stroppo's approach to a nautical mile run, and had improved my PB for the "nauti" (often spelled "naughty") my 2 knots. Sweet! I was getting a bit tired, and we had a big drive planned for the next day, so I decided to call it a day.
Nina said she wanted to stay out, since she was finally getting comfortable on the tiny speedboard. When she came in a while later, she was glowing - she had just improved her personal best by more than 3 knots, to 35.78 knots! At the end of the day, we each had improved our personal bests in three categories - top speed (2 seconds), 5 x 10 seconds, and nautical mile. Sweet, sweet, sweet!
It was time to say good bye to the local speedsurfers we had gotten to know during our stay, an extra-ordinarily nice bunch of people. Quite a few of them had also set new personal bests - the two teams I mentioned in my last post, the Mandurah Mob and the Pinnaroos, each set a total of 9 PBs that day. What a day!
The big question is: what made us (and others) go so much faster? Clearly, the conditions played a big role: strong winds and very flat water. But we had had quite similar conditions before at exactly the same spot, with no or just marginal improvements. But this time around, the wind direction was different, so the runs in smooth water were more than twice as long. Together with steady winds, this gave us plenty of time to get used to the conditions and to the higher speeds that were possible.
Just as important, though, was the company of better speedsurfers. Their friendly and freely given advice (both during the session and in and after previous sessions) was super-helpful. Mike's 39 cm speed board was essential - not only did it enable it Nina to go wicked fast, but it also freed our speedboard for my use (and the W54 was much more appropriate for the conditions than the slalom board!). So a BIG thanks to Mike, Stroppo, Ross, and all the others who have helped us!
Yesterday, we drove to Margaret River, and arrived just in time to witness a Severne team photoshoot, complete with helicopters and mast-high wave. The show was amazing, with super-high back loops, one-handed aerials, wave 360s, and more. I went to thank multiple world wave champion Philip Köster after the session, and got to shake his hand - cool!!!
Today, we drove on to Albany, another famous speed spot. After stops for a walk through giant tree tops and at the "Elephant Rocks", one of the most beautiful coasts I have ever seen, we arrived a bit late at our bay-front cottage, but I managed to squeeze a session on the big gear (112/7.0) in. This is another perfect spot, with weeds sticking out of the water that keep it really flat and create a "jibing heaven. Despite only about 16 knots of wind and a top speed below 29 knots, I managed to get an alpha 500 of 23 knots - just 1/3rd of a knot below my personal best! Sooo much fun! And there're more wind in the forecast for tomorrow :-).
Between all the fun, I somehow found the time to check our individual rankings on the GPS Team Challenge. Here's what the top 10 for the speedsurfers in USA teams currently looks like:
