A challenge for GPS boffins. Store the locations of rocks and have the GPS beep a warning if you are on a collision course. it should be possible for the gps to filter the warnings as a function of tide and fin length.

Ian K said...

A challenge for GPS boffins. Store the locations of rocks and have the GPS beep a warning if you are on a collision course. it should be possible for the gps to filter the warnings as a function of tide and fin length.

yeah but it wouldnt stop beeping!

ive hit a few but nothing too bad yet. at least theres a rough idea where they are, point grey they are even more stealth.

whoa Adam thats a ripper
theres lots of those swimming frisbees down there,
swimming around with their tails out of the water sometimes.
i had a sess down the bottom of A land back in feb, by myself, srrounded by at least half a dozen of them all swimming around with their tails in the air..quite weird but at least they where visible..those ones anyway..

BundyBear said...

Here is a vid of me hitting the snot weed at around 30knots, scary what you sail does when you go over the handlebars like that. also there are two more hazards of Hardies featured at the end, sorry I forgot to add tunes to this edit

Land on one of those two end hazards and............

Been meaning to put that stack up for a while now, if I had not got that snot the sand 50 meters further on would have got me anyway should never have run so far in with a 34 cm fin

Ask Haggar about what can happen

Ian K said...

It seems though that the statistics of crashing in shallow water aren't all that bad? You don't often hear of people getting injured? I suppose if you stay hooked in and hanging onto the boom you'll hit sort of parallel to the mast/water surface and none of your extremities will hit the bottom too hard.

Maybe not permanent injuries but they sure hurt at the time.
I haven't hit the bottom but have been swung around on my harness line so my back was slammed and hyperextended across the boom. I have heard of that happening to others too. You lie there stunned for some time hoping you havent fractured a vertebra (and grateful in a twisted kind of way that the water is shallow because you can't sink and drown).

Windxtasy said...


"

Maybe not permanent injuries but they sure hurt at the time."



My stats were based on the three 40 knot-hit-the-bottom crashes I've seen at Sandy Point. Spotty, Sailquick and Mr love. They all hop up quickly and check the water depth a 2nd time. I've only been to Sandy Point a couple of time, I wonder how many crashes happen when i'm not looking?

(Spotty's may have been just under 40, Has anybody done 40 knots in the duck pond ?)

Ian , I was really lucky, it could have been much worse. I ended up on my bum in about 300 mm of water, if it had of been my head I think it would have been a different story. If there were rocks, I would hate to think.
The force of the impact sheered my Carbon boom in 3 places and snapped my SS spreader bar in half. The leeward rail of my board near the nose was compressed where it drove into the bottom after the fin grabbed.
The only injury I got was a really bruised hip and thigh, so my body obviously hit the bottom, again if I landed on rocks it would have been ugly.

sorry Ado couldnt resist dragging this up again

sorry about the noise in the back ground..think i stepped on a sharp rock!

Windxtasy said...

BundyBear said...

Here is a vid of me hitting the snot weed at around 30knots, scary what you sail does when you go over the handlebars like that. also there are two more hazards of Hardies featured at the end, sorry I forgot to add tunes to this edit

On the video that looks more like a rock...

The black patch of death which goes under his board just before the is a big Algae clump (no rock), as you can see it'll stop a weedy.

If you pause at 1.37 you can see it, the tan coloured stuff around it is also snot but stuck to the bottom, there is even fin marks just to the right of the patch where other fins have gone through leaving a trail in it ( your fin isn't necessarily touching the bottom).

We are already getting inundated with snot down on the run to about 150m out, in another month we will have mats of the stuff out there, some of which are that thick you can stand on them without getting you feet wet.

From now until it clears you either slog your way out through it, or walk down the channel and launch from the end, the deep water is the place to be.

ah the joys

Windxtasy said...

On the video that looks more like a rock...

No rock just a clump of snot slightly below the surface, you cannot see it until you are practically in it This one was a long way out too