A glance at Windguru shows that next Wednesdays wind forecast suggests a classic speed day at the Pit.

But this is a classic case of the winter Pit blues.

The tides are completely wrong and the high tide heights are extreme. High tide is right around noon and with the short daylight hours morning low tide will be before dawn and same in the evening. The result is that there will probably be no clearly defined bank for most of the day and access to the inlet will be problematical at best with the possible exception of a couple of hours immediately after dawn, but that is probably too early for the best wind and the tide will be rushing in causing severe pressure waves on the course. A no-win situation.

Are you posting this Andrew to make sure you are not inundated by interstate riders on a classic day? :-)

I was working on Weds and Thurs but I had Wednesday low at close to 8am and Thursday 8.45am.
That would leave an hour or two from day break for some classic flat Pit if Huey wanted to play.

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yoyo said...

Are you posting this Andrew to make sure you are not inundated by interstate riders on a classic day? :-)

we must be a suspicious lot...i had the same thoughts...propaganda?

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yoyo said...

Are you posting this Andrew to make sure you are not inundated by interstate riders on a classic day? :-)

Noooo....

Really, it gonna be crap. Just trying to save people a lot of trouble and disappointment.

why WHY WHY did you have to jinx it??!!! "its gunna be SOOO good" leads immediately to a forecast downgrade. Guess what?

Magic seaweed has it looking OK for Dawn Wed , but not epic . Maybe worth waking up at 4.30 ???

magicseaweed.com/South-Australia-Surf-Chart/35/

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mr love said...

Magic seaweed has it looking OK for Dawn Wed , but not epic . Maybe worth waking up at 4.30 ???

magicseaweed.com/South-Australia-Surf-Chart/35/

Hmmm, That model looks nice for Friday Morning and that would give a couple more hours of low water in the morning.........

Sorry Daffy, cant feel too sorry for you!!!

As I was saying when you most kindly put Chris and I up over there for the weekend, you guys have got it too good!!

By the way check the Perth forecast for the next week, its is virtually all red!!

Cheers

Matt

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MattL said...

Sorry Daffy, cant feel too sorry for you!!!

As I was saying when you most kindly put Chris and I up over there for the weekend, you guys have got it too good!!

By the way check the Perth forecast for the next week, its is virtually all red!!

Cheers

Matt

Oh yeah? And what is the air temp over there?

All the models seem to disagree again but it appears that Wednesday might be the best day as of now if it happens at all............ Dawn Patrol.... brrrrrrr!

its a balmy 12C at the moment

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slowboat said...

its a balmy 12C at the moment

Yer Bloody cold here too 15C

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slowboat said...

its a balmy 12C at the moment

Must be midnight then....

i had to wear socks last night.

it was very cold.

Andrew, it DOES get cold here but only usually at dawn in winter (midnight is still OK). Unfortunately dawn is often when some of us like to sail in winter after the winter fronts come through at night lifting roofs and downing trees and if you get up real early you can often catch the tail end of them.

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yoyo said...

Andrew, it DOES get cold here but only usually at dawn in winter (midnight is still OK). Unfortunately dawn is often when some of us like to sail in winter after the winter fronts come through at night lifting roofs and downing trees and if you get up real early you can often catch the tail end of them.

Oh, I am sure it gets 'cold' there just as it does in Qld!

Reminds me of a conversation I overheard in the showers at Crescent Heads 30 years ago after a great morning surfing session. One guy was complaining about how 'Bloody Freezing' the water was. I was thinking, thats funny, it was really nice and warm where I was and I am sure we were on the same break. The other guys asked him where he was from. He replied 'Noosa'. Says it all!!!

Cold is all relative, but I know I shudder at the thought of 5 degree C air temp dawn patrols with a wind chill factor matching the reason why I am there - a 30 knots SW gale straight off the Antarctic. "Feels like": minus (inset brain and body numbing figure here)


I met a guy from West Kirby, UK once and his descriptions of sailing on days when there was ice and snow on the beach made me realise it could be worse!

The clear skies here can give below zero dawn temps but last year it usually just went down to 3 degrees. But it also heats up during the day so we don't get that miserable, cold all day, Antarctic gale.

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sailquik said...

yoyo said...

Andrew, it DOES get cold here but only usually at dawn in winter (midnight is still OK). Unfortunately dawn is often when some of us like to sail in winter after the winter fronts come through at night lifting roofs and downing trees and if you get up real early you can often catch the tail end of them.

Oh, I am sure it gets 'cold' there just as it does in Qld!

Reminds me of a conversation I overheard in the showers at Crescent Heads 30 years ago after a great morning surfing session. One guy was complaining about how 'Bloody Freezing' the water was. I was thinking, thats funny, it was really nice and warm where I was and I am sure we were on the same break. The other guys asked him where he was from. He replied 'Noosa'. Says it all!!!

Cold is all relative, but I know I shudder at the thought of 5 degree C air temp dawn patrols with a wind chill factor matching the reason why I am there - a 30 knots SW gale straight off the Antarctic. "Feels like": minus (inset brain and body numbing figure here)


I met a guy from West Kirby, UK once and his descriptions of sailing on days when there was ice and snow on the beach made me realise it could be worse!

Much worse! You had to keep your hands in the water to warm them up as the air temp was so cold! Don't forget the water temp in Winter is less than 10 degrees! Unfortunately windsurfing in the UK is a winter sport!

Ahh well. It all seems to have gone now anyhow so all you other teams can rest easy for a while longer. Latest forecasts are showing 15-20 knots max on the Wednesday and Thursday mornings.

thats about 10-15kts more than we've had here for weeks. I'd kill for a partially planing grovel on the 8.5m about now... hows that for desperate.

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slowboat said...

thats about 10-15kts more than we've had here for weeks. I'd kill for a partially planing grovel on the 8.5m about now... hows that for desperate.

Exactly what I did last Friday. Had been reasonably windy from the NW all day.By 4.30 when I could finally go sailing it was under 10 knots but with a big black raincloud building over from the SW. Built a roaring fire and selected a nice red before rigging up the 8.5 and waiting/hoping for something. It did blast in at about 13 knots with the rain about 6pm so I did a partially planing grovel in the pitch dark, ran out of wind and had to walk home but gee it was nice.... or maybe that was just the afterglow of the red and fire.

Slowboat, when are you coming over next? Been here 4 months and had 4 sails. Ever chance I've had to go to Sandy, forecast let me down. This place is a darn side colder than WA in any season.

Maaaate! I was thinking of giving you a call to find out what road you decided to take... but days turned into months etc. Those forecasts that let you down... well I have some credit with Virgin from cancelling flights :) I'll be there next time a proper blow is looking likely. Theres been no wind here for months. I mean even your formula gear would be dusty. Its really bad. As for Vic- colder? bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

I got up early for a Saturday since I heard wind. Then I heard the thunder. Someone around here must have done something really bad lately cos huey is really pissed. I mean theres been so little wind we are all going nuts. And then he chucks in some wind to get our hopes up but its full of deadly sparks. He(She)'ll get bored with tormenting the peasants soon.

Cold? Only 'cause you went via Darwin. Once you've been there a while it will seem normal. When you're on form you should get some great numbers at SP, Kev.

Good to hear from the both of you. Actually got out on formula kit a few weeks ago in a northerly. Good fun on the bay, nice and flat. Wasn't too bad in Feb either. Warm..ish, nice breeze..had a couple of sails on slalom kit. Wicked chop thou. Hanging out for SP.....there always room at the inn for a couple of mates from WA.

How was the season in good old WA?

crap

Got some new toys here. 20 5Hz gps units. The sort they're using in the AFL. Will bring some SP at the speed week.

Tell us more , Kev.

What brand and model are these? Or are they custom units?

Can we search them on the web?

Dave

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yoyo said...

Tell us more , Kev.

What brand and model are these? Or are they custom units?

Can we search them on the web?

Dave

A google search turned up this Dave.

Quote from article: "According to GP Sports, the company that provides AFL clubs with GPS units, it is technology available from July 1."

so following that lead I found this:
http://www.nk.com.au/GPS_main.htm

But these are 1 hz units and I dunno about their claim that they are the worlds smallest GPS units!

edit: found this also: www.powerhousemuseum.com/collection/database/?irn=352413

just did the same re google......
makes for some interesting reading involving the afl clubs use of the technology.
the price looks expensive at $4000 per unit but obviously there is some conectivity involved i guess there must be some body monitoring involved as well re heart rates etc.
would be great to see it included in the telecast of the footy..i would be interested to see what sort of alpha juddy could pull for example!

We've just aquired a set of 20 GPSports units. Not the world's smallest but easy to afix to the body as they have a nice vest etc. The 5Hz units will arrive shortly and we will be doing some trialing with them for accuracy etc vs the 1Hz. First impressions are that they are quite small, light and robust.

I will try to get these to a speed event as they have real time tracking. Cost is quite prohibitive (over $20000 for the set), but that the benefit of working at uni.

Will post a review once the new units are in.