83.6km next year's course?

Amazing, and crazy.

What were you riding?

Zeeko spitfire wave foil on a shortened shinnster and a 7m kite. Foiling from 12-30kts so it handled the strong south winds and wind shadowed north side well.

Whose pump did you borrow?

I pulled an old style pump out of the shed when I got back to town. Takes forever but it works.

Solid effort, well done!

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Bletti said..
Zeeko spitfire wave foil on a shortened shinnster and a 7m kite. Foiling from 12-30kts so it handled the strong south winds and wind shadowed north side well.

Can I see your shortened shinnster? I'm curious

I took about 13 inches off the tail and moved the pads. I mostly ride with my rear foot in front of the back strap and my front loose, but I'll sometimes lock in going upwind or when fighting the swells to start.

Lol, madness.
How long does a trip like that take?What sort of prep is required? Did you tell anyone you're going?

That is oh for awesome! I would have joined you if i was there. Super cool

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Plummet said..
That is oh for awesome! I would have joined you if i was there. Super cool

I would have joined you as well...

Bloody Impressive! What an adventure.

So that Slingshot half-strap didn't snap the? Mine lasted 3 tacks
Great voyage, btw.

Welcome to 1992 on a windsurfer. The race always was both ways. Some peeps here seem to not know that...?

However, ballsy effort unless you had 10 flares, EPIRB, phone, and told plenty of people your intentions.....
Even then.....

Blazing a trail Bletti. Mad skills bro

Did you go clockwise around rotto?

And, Mark_australia,

Did some windsurfers circumnavigate Rottnest and cross the channel both ways in 1992?
No doubt it's possible, never heard of it being done.

fark that, with the amount of biteys around rottnest at the moment yea nah. impressive effort though

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dusta said..
fark that, with the amount of biteys around rottnest at the moment yea nah. impressive effort though

Not wrong there.. mate ran over some cray pot ropes yesterday, jumped in the cut them off the props.. as soon as he got out of the water.. 2 seven footers followed him out.

Mad effort though .. you must have slept well last night!

Epic effort, conditions that day were pretty full on too, wind was around 30knots out at Rottnest and some big choppy seas, bloody good effort on the foil

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Mark _australia said..
Welcome to 1992 on a windsurfer. The race always was both ways. Some peeps here seem to not know that...?

However, ballsy effort unless you had 10 flares, EPIRB, phone, and told plenty of people your intentions.....
Even then.....

Why isnt the race both ways now? to me this would be the most logical. As the top guys are doing it under half hour, there and back would be under an hour, not unrealistic or overly hard.

Surely it would remove the logistical nightmare of getting everyone to the island and getting their gear back etc.

If the race was there and back lapping the island would be very challenging technically and would add a bit of unknown into the event. Where as now you can kind of tell the winner 5min after the start.

^^^ I wondered that the first time it ran. One way is a strange choice as everyone needs ferry and / or support crew.

There and back was a smidge under an hour in windsurfing races I think. Dunno about all the way around though, adds too much risk of rescues in the wind shadow on north side. (Not everyone is a course racing foiler)


Anyway I need to say oops now I didn't realise he went around the island also. Fark me

Thats amazing - you must have clocked put around 40 nmiles. I don't think I would be able to get the theme song of Jaws out of my head on the west end.

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Frayed Knot said..
Lol, madness.
How long does a trip like that take?What sort of prep is required? Did you tell anyone you're going?

Took about an hour each way. The swell was huge on the crossing compared with what i've seen on l2l crossings.

I've been away in New Zealand (I even met Plummet on a few occasions) for the past few months making beer and traveling. I had plenty of opportunities to ride my foil around islands and funky wind (Bay of Islands, nearly all the way from Auckland to Waiheke Island, to the far side of Kapiti Island, up the Abel Tasman, much of Wanaka lake, etc...) . i've gotten use to wind shadows and much fewer boats on the water than around Rottnest, so other than the sharks it felt comfortable going around Rottnest. That said, I did lose my board twice and the second time for about 5 minutes I was seriously concerned I could be taking the ferry back without it :/

I shared my gps via phone with 3 friends live and gave them updates when I could get reception on the island. I carried day and night flares, PLB, radio, phone, helmet, lifejacket, diving knife, pump, salad rolls, beer, tools, lines, and kite repair, a change of dry clothes, and most importantly, crunchy peanut butter.

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alverstone said..
So that Slingshot half-strap didn't snap the? Mine lasted 3 tacks
Great voyage, btw.

I've had about 30 sessions with mine and it's still going strong but I mostly only use it to position the foil when starting and my foot might just rub slightly underway.

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KBwhokbs said..
Blazing a trail Bletti. Mad skills bro

Did you go clockwise around rotto?

Yes I figure clockwise is the way to go as you have more wind to go upwind around the west point then can cruise easily on a foil even in lulls. I had plenty of fun carving around bombies on the north side in light wind even though I hit one that captured my foil for a while!

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Jaykos said..
Thats amazing - you must have clocked put around 40 nmiles. I don't think I would be able to get the theme song of Jaws out of my head on the west end.

Just a touch over 45 nautical miles with all the tacking :) I sailed across the pacific to move here and averaged 120 nautical miles most days so to do 45 in under 5 hours felt good! My legs are still a little dead but it didn't keep me from Margs main break today :)

Thanks for all the nice words guys. It's something I've wanted to do for a while and I'm happy I got a solid day of wind to do it! I doubt you'd want to schedule a race though as if the wind was much lighter I don't know if it would be possible to get around the north side unless you went far offshore.

Nice one Bletti.

I would love it if the L2L race was around the Island, but I doubt it would ever happen.
However, even Leighton to Rottnest (and something like around Phillip rock) and back would be good.

I can't believe the hoohaa about the 'challenge of the crossing' now, FFS I am well into my 50's and it is an absolute walk in the park.
Don't get me wrong I really enjoy the race as it is and appreciate the efforts put in to run such a smooth event but I think it just makes sense to go from Leighton out and back, I'm sure nearly everyone would like more of a challenge.

Logistics would be so much easier, there would be way better coverage and spectator numbers for the start.
Heaps of the racers would have it done in an hour, so it's not that long for people to watch the start and finish.

I thought Redbull was known for running Extreme events.

Logistics for the competitors would be easy, logistics for the organisers grow exponentially. Better to do what this guy did, be organised, be safe, have a blast

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Bletti said..
I took about 13 inches off the tail and moved the pads. I mostly ride with my rear foot in front of the back strap and my front loose, but I'll sometimes lock in going upwind or when fighting the swells to start.

Um, isn't the foil bolted on backwards?

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AUS 808 said..

Bletti said..
I took about 13 inches off the tail and moved the pads. I mostly ride with my rear foot in front of the back strap and my front loose, but I'll sometimes lock in going upwind or when fighting the swells to start.

Um, isn't the foil bolted on backwards?

It looks that way, but it's a type of foil called a Canard. It gives the rider more of a surfboard feel by allowing more back foot pressure to carve turns.

No,

it's the board bolted on backwards ;)

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Bletti said..

Frayed Knot said..
Lol, madness.
How long does a trip like that take?What sort of prep is required? Did you tell anyone you're going?

Took about an hour each way. The swell was huge on the crossing compared with what i've seen on l2l crossings.

I've been away in New Zealand (I even met Plummet on a few occasions) for the past few months making beer and traveling. I had plenty of opportunities to ride my foil around islands and funky wind (Bay of Islands, nearly all the way from Auckland to Waiheke Island, to the far side of Kapiti Island, up the Abel Tasman, much of Wanaka lake, etc...) . i've gotten use to wind shadows and much fewer boats on the water than around Rottnest, so other than the sharks it felt comfortable going around Rottnest. That said, I did lose my board twice and the second time for about 5 minutes I was seriously concerned I could be taking the ferry back without it :/

I shared my gps via phone with 3 friends live and gave them updates when I could get reception on the island. I carried day and night flares, PLB, radio, phone, helmet, lifejacket, diving knife, pump, salad rolls, beer, tools, lines, and kite repair, a change of dry clothes, and most importantly, crunchy peanut butter.

Good thing you brought beer and crunchy peanut butter otherwise god knows what could have happened!!

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dbabicwa said..
No,

it's the board bolted on backwards ;)

It doubles for a better table this way :) It also fits in my van better

Apparently someone rented a Zeeko spitfire from a shop in the Canary Islands and accidentally mounted it backwards (small wings in the back). They were able to ride it reversed and commented that it was more stable than the Alpine foil they owned lol

Pretty awesome effort on your own....gutsy even. Kudos for sure. Hey, looking at your rig, do you normally ride with your back foot out of the strap on tacks or do you always keep your back foot in the strap? I tend to ride my SP over the mast more than further back (ride strapless) but was curious about how much time you spend with the foot back without loads of carving. Cheers and well done. I dare say your most likely make tasty beer as well.