Well was a bit of a weekend of it just past.

Ben - came out on Sunday and we had a run with Simon in the morning at wynnum @ rosebay. He is getting frustrated too rough give me smooth and a wakeboard he says. I think Ben needs some lessons to get him going - he just doesn't seem to be able to hang when the board gets going - I say stay low and move back (but I am dad and am only learning too) He says when he steps down the rear of the board once he is going it sinks and the front of the board rares up becomes unstable and he falls off most of the time. He is not much heavier that me so must be technique. Hopefully he persists with it as he is coming along really well. Board Pacifico with 6m saverne synergy.

Jaye - went to RQYS on Saturday and had some time with Cameron and Pat (Thank you for that) on the Bic techno - he did really well. Had a go with 3m , 4.7, and 5.3 (which I was running). 3m - comfort zone now I think, 4.7m sail found it heavy and hard to uphaul. Did ok with the 5.3m sail - go figure. Sunday was with us at wynnum did well and started with the 3m and progressed to the 5.3 and stuck with that. He did very well a natural both Cameron and Simon commented. Board Naish Kaihlua 180

Anita - had another go on Sunday and did well with the Naish 180 and 3m kids rig

Me - Pacifico 200l with 6m severne synergy (our biggest sail) Well I was doing great til Simon say show me a gybe (only worked out what a gybe was last week - lucky) Thanks Simon for the tips will practice that one - easier that uphauling which I might ad I am getting very good at. MMM not quite sure but the 6m sails used to scare the crap out of us but don't seem to anymore in fact we are discussing getting a 7m sail (daunting with the prospect of uphauling).

I progressed to the Naish 180 and the 6m synergy and seemed relatively comfortable on it even though it still seems quite flighty to me as far as going in a straight line in a bit of swell. I am very comfortable with the Pacifico so I guess that probably means time to move to something smaller like the naish 180 and get comfortable with it.

Another fun weekend on the boards - I still reckon the pacifico is faster. Have fun

Cheers
Morgan

Update -

We got brave last week and bought a 7.5m Neil Pride off Simon at Boardcrazy. With great trepidation we put the thing up at Thompson's Scary stuff until we had a go - man what a nice sail all of a sudden we can beach start 100% and get a little more pace in the light winds we have been having.

Ben - smashed it with the 7.5m really enjoyed it in light winds around 12knots at Thompson's. Completed some very nice gybes and tacks very cool.

Jaye - well what can I say at 60kilos he not only started with the 5.3m sail on the Naish 180 and loves it but Sunday at Lake Weyba when I turned my back was off on the pacifico with the 7.5m sail beach starting, tacking and gybing man these young ones pick it up quick - have to get him a harness now. mmm only been on the board about 10 times now.

Anita - with some encouragement from Kelly was up and going with 5.0m at the lake - nice one. Had a nice long go didn't give up and stuck with the 5m sail all the way. Her comment is I would like to go faster....

Me - Apart from my arms being permanently sore nervously got on the monster (pacifico) with the 7.5m sail, expecting to be smashed, and had a ball this is the stuff. Was going to put up the nine on Sunday at the lake but don't have one lol. Sunday at the lake I managed to complete a couple of nice low wind gybes and the tacks were ok too. Water started 100% in both directions woo hoo - I think I need to get the harness working next, my arms are caning.

Here is a couple of images
Anita and Kelly


Ben N Jaye


Dad n Jaye

Looks like it might be a bit of a walk at Wello this afternoon.

Foot straps are on Jaye's board the 180l - time for him to start aiming for these I think. Lets see how his gybing is like in a bit of wind.

Ben and I will be on the Pacifico 200l are looking to use the harness - see how we go - looks like around 20 knots the question what size sail 5.4, 6, 7.5??

Hook in, stay low, arms straight, stand back and look in the direction heading and have fun. MMM sounds easy enough... Bring it on

Man what a blast at Wello this afternoon

Anita just watched - tomorrow she says up for a go - nice

Ben - blasting with the harness - jealous. We decided on the 6m synergy on the pacifico. Couple of decent stacks good man.

Jaye - I put the foot straps on the 180l see how he goes - no worries straight into the straps and planning. Nice going Jaye I think he needs a harness. Will go see simon tomorrow see what he thinks. He is already asking for a gps. Not going to happen buddy lol. Not yet anyway

Me - what can I say mmmm how many times do I have to be told to put the boom up higher. Lol so I put the boom up and was planning that monster out to the middle. But no harness TO hard had a go and got flung for miles. Rather just have a blast but mana arms are sore. Tomorrow there is always tomorrow to try the harness.

Man it was fun got the monster flying almost literally. She takes some holding onto. Tomorrow will try the 180l

We all had a blast

cheers Morgan

Sounds like a great time Morgan

Good to see the kids progressing quickly.

Cheers Jeff

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jirvin4505 said..

Sounds like a great time Morgan

Good to see the kids progressing quickly.

Cheers Jeff

Yes Jeff he seems to be coming along very well and fast - he did fall off a fair bit as he was trying new things like feet in footstraps he has a few bugs he has to iron out but wow what fantastic progress - I am impressed and very jealous lol

Cheers
Morgan

Nice meeting you Morgan and Ben yesterday at Wello. Sure was a nice day for sailing. See you in the water. Keep up the good work. Steve

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Steve713 said..

Nice meeting you Morgan and Ben yesterday at Wello. Sure was a nice day for sailing. See you in the water. Keep up the good work. Steve

Same here Steve -loving it.

Well today

Jaye with his new harness thank you Simon was straight into foot straps and hooked and blasting. Fell over a lot though. Brief moments of looking as though he new what he was doing lol.

Fantastic

Visitors will ad more later. Pretty funny

We it was yesterday now visitors left late.

I managed to get into the back strap - thanks Cameron for the tips - hooked in and I got thrown from pillar to post lol. Interesting with the foot in the back strap and hooked in seemed ok - will have another go today.

Anita though headed out and didn't seem to be doing very well at all miles away where I couldn't do anything to help - sent Jaye for a rescue mission and he fell off a 100 times and seemed to take forever for him to get there. Once there he endeavoured to tutor her how to actually turn around and head back. Didn't work and she walked back about a k in the water lol. I made one comment "how come if you cant turn around and head back that you went so far" MAN did I get told.

Not sure if Anita is going to have another go today we will see - might be a little too windy for her

Having fun

Lovely to meet you Morgan and Anita. You both had some great runs out at Wello today! Thanks for giving me a go of your smaller sail, definitely felt better for me given the wind.
Karen

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Hibiscus said..

Lovely to meet you Morgan and Anita. You both had some great runs out at Wello today! Thanks for giving me a go of your smaller sail, definitely felt better for me given the wind.
Karen

And nice to meet you too Karen. Good to see another learner in our midst.

Well what can I say about today's runs

Firstly the two boy piked and played with cars instead pffft to that lol.

Did I say I was going to focus on the harness.... Hooked in twice and got flung straight away..... That sucked big time!!! Who needs it I anyway.

Someone said it was over 20 knot wind today sure did seem like it too. Had some fantastic runs out there today, beach starts about 50% of the time - pacifico with 6 m synergy the monster smashed it today with some very on the limit of control runs - hold on, hang low, staight front arm and straightish front leg, look in the direction u want to go and blast across the top of that swell. Seemed to work ok.

Fired up the naish with the six on it and couldn't even get a start, tried for at least half an hour - that sucked too so swapped back to the Pacifico and away I went.

Anita - yes did get back on the horse - bit surprised but good on her on the naish 180 with the kids 3m rig and smashed it. When we swapped she had a go on the pacifico and said it went too fast so waited patiently for me to finish falling off the Naish to get going again. Nice work girl keep up the good work.

We met some more really nice people today - seems windsurfing people are very friendly.

We would like to say thanks to all you guys that missed us - hope we didn't get in the way too much

Lot of action down at Wello today.

We will sleep well tonight

A couple of photos







I think we are making some progress with the windsurfing learning curve - enjoying it

Its great to see you and the family having a go and succeeding.

You gotta nail the harness. Its the pathway to heaps more fun.

One method to stop catapulting when you hook up, is to sit in your harness when you hook up, so the sail has to lift you up to throw you over the handlebars.

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Dwbh said..

A couple of photos







I think we are making some progress with the windsurfing learning curve - enjoying it

It looks like you have horizontal creases in your sail next to the mast, which indicaters you need more downhaul on your sail. This will help make your sail more controllable.

Thanks John340 for the tips - I think we need all the help we can get - I will have to look at more down haul and more weight down in the harness.

Well Well Well (and that is not just 3 holes in the ground)...... What a hard sport to learn. When I decided to go wakeboarding i was up and going first session woo hoo. When I decided to jump on a single ski i was up first time and blasting out some high speed fun. When I decided to learn Stand up Paddle boarding I was up and going first time. I was on the monster with the Ka 5.3 m sail - 6m should be the minimum he says - I did seriously think about it because of your logic power to weight, but settled on the Ka. This has got to be the mooooost frustrating sport on the planet.

Windsurfing learning curve - 3 months in and got absolutely smashed at Viccy point yesterday. Tried to stay on the board but a wave and a gust and lift off, a couple of times I managed to save it with my foot firmly holding me on in the back strap. Decided it wasn't the day to learn the harness - tried to hook in once and smash - didn't even make the hook and loop come together.

OK I decided after an hour and a half getting smashed that I will work on deeper water beach starts as a practice - with determination and 100 attemps over an hour or so - I was knackered sore everything out of breath but, managed a few at the end. Stay low and go, got to stay low when you step up onto the board they say - it is right i must have said it at least 300 times before, it would seem I may have figured it. I just got flung and flung and flung - how much fun was that..... NOT. Should be on Australias funniest videos lol. At the end, this oldish tired brain started to switch into listen mode and I made a couple of ok starts in those conditions. Not quite ready to sell all the gear, but got really close - if it wasn't for the couple of good runs I had at the beginning there would be some gear for sale.

I take it that this is either, all part of the learning curve, or maybe I am just one who cant get it together or too old or too fat or whatever, not sure, will keep going at it and see what happens. Not about to give up at this point.

Jaye - was the same - he just got smashed. Was just Jaye and I this week - Ben doing family things and Anita took one look and said No Way.

I really do have to take my hat off to all you guys and girls who blast past me out there, hooked in feet firmly in the straps on your boards looking like you are having soo much fun.

That's all part of the learning curve, in 6 months time you will have another goal (i.e. carve gybe) which will be just as challenging, all part of the fun. Having said that it was pretty challenging conditions being so gusty and choppy. You probably learnt a lot but it doesn't feel like it on those days. When you go out on a calmer day it will all seem so much easier

Keep at it...

Don't beat yourself up" I've surfed for 30 years, indo, Fiji, Peru. Thought windsurfing would be a piece of cake, wrong! 3 months in I can remember a day just like that.and quite a few since" If you're in it for the fun,some days you're better off knowing when to do something else.may take a bit longer to get there but youl enjoy it more and won't throw your gear in the bin.

Hi Morgan I'm with you

I've got a chainsaw!!! Means nobody else has to experience the pain and pleasure

Just kidding but know the feeling well.

1 good day and you will fell the love again

Yes an epic weekend - couldn't make it to the gym this morning!

5 hours on the water on Saturday - 2 hours at queens dealing with the surf getting lessons from Damo - making progress on water starting.
Lunch then Nowork texted me Sandstone in the arvo????? Ok if I must! 3 hours later had to crawl off the water. All the tide was gone
(Flame suit on) riding my new board thanks to Kurt. I was like a kid - just one more run. Okay another run

So I back up on Sunday feeling fatigued but Nowork and Deejay were back at sandstone and the wind pumping

Felt completely different to previous day - more gusty?- just couldn't get comfortable. Catapult after catapult cracked nose of the board

Gave up after 2 hours- decided to concentrate on water stars. Getting them most of time now. Still can't find the back strap

Nowork was opposite - couldn't get a grip on Saturdays conditions with his 115l board then on Sunday trailed his $50 special 98l board and was away

So just sending love and respect - certainly not an overnight sport - I've got the mental and physical scars to prove it

Decided at this stage to invest in private lessons to keep the sport progressing. Often I feel learning windsurfing is like learning snow skiing.

My friends said come skiing!! We'll take you to top of thredbo and by the time you reach the bottom you'll be able to ski

Well after being rescued half way down I decided - contrary to my friends advice - to 'waste' some money on lessons.
Changed everything and still took a couple of seasons and lots more lessons to get what 'just ride on your toes' meant and felt like.

Some days with windsurfing I feel like I'm at the top of Thredbo crashing my way to the bottom
With advice on 'commit to harness' making sense' but appearing like black magic and ' a little bit of this and that' and you'll be in the straps equally baffling.
The learning curve can appear as steep as Thredbo!

however on the days when it all comes together
Getting trashed on an epic day is certainly a downer, these days I see it like - well I'm in over my head trying to ski ' black' runs when I'm only just at ' blue run' level.

I'll fix my board and push on

Resspect++++ to you for doing it without harness. I had a short planning run without harness (broke a line) and now have blister on my thumb! It was a killer on the arms!!

Cheers Jeff

Morgan

One of the beauties of sailing is no two days are ever the same.

With respect to the harness, my technique has improved a lot this season due to some training sessions I had with Max and the rsx/techno youth. The very simple exercise he had us doing time and time again was to sail in the harness with our front hand behind our back. Initially we did this in very light winds and dropped the boom and moved the lines forward to make it easier to control and hook in and out. Over the course of a few sessions the lines came back the boom went back up to a normal position and we did it in stronger winds. After 20 years of sailing I couldn't sail for any length of time with my front hand off the boom, now I can and I practice it every time I go out.

The purpose of the exercise was to learn to control the sail through your hips, it might be worth you trying the above on light days to get the feel and develop the muscle memory without getting smashed by every mistake.

Three months in and you are allready getting water starts! They took me about a year to start getting. Windsurfing has a seriously big learning curve. Every one you saw on the weekend that were caving it up has had days like that. I'm not sure how much wind you guys had down there but I was getting smashed with a 60l board & 5m sail yesterday, but still loving it. Next time you go out in better conditions for your level the stoke will be back and most bad memories of the weekend will be erased. In fact scroll up and have a look at those pictures posted on these 2 pages with the knowledge it gets even better than that.

Hi Morgan

You look good in the pics, you always have good days and not so good days. Think how far you have come in six months and how far you will be in six months from now.

Good Sailing
Ross (Hervey Bay)

^ +1 I agree with ROSSS. You look good in the photos. Good stance, balance, sail and foot position. Its a matter of time on water and persistence and you will be comfortable sailing in your harness and footstraps in 15kts of wind.

Yesterdays conditions are another story. With higher wind speed you have less time to react. You have to develop the muscle memory. That comes from time on water.

I reinforce what ROSSS has said, you've come along heaps in 6 months, the next 6 are going to be a lot of fun.

I am humbled by such positive reinforcement you have all given me. I really appreciate it.

Going to head down the coast next week end - young fellas birthday weekend and we taking the boards and some sails, the pacifico and the naish and see what happens. I know Ben(older son bottom pic) will want to have a go on Wednesday after work somewhere, I just asked Jaye after yesterday and he says Yeah when we going. So thats it - can't be out done by these young fellas.

One thing for sure is you can't take the sport for granted. It wont let you lol.

Hehehe! Slapped silly,Had a gutful, 2 days later your looking for green arrows"Your AN ADDICT!! So you will be in the straps and planing and be beating yourself up for not getting thru a carve gybe before you know it

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togalog said..

Hehehe! Slapped silly,Had a gutful, 2 days later your looking for green arrows"Your AN ADDICT!! So you will be in the straps and planing and be beating yourself up for not getting thru a carve gybe before you know it

Yeah would seem lol - keen as to get out again

G'day Morgan

I am also a learner-driver (probably 'intermediate' level), so really interesting reading this blog as I was 'there' not so long ago

I can get into the harness and the footstraps, and do beach-starts (working on deep-water starts) ... my major downfall is I can't gybe in a strong wind ... friends always pay me out about having to do 270 degree tack turns when sailing downwind in heavy air.

Saw some complaints about the swell ... agree this is a massive pain in the @r5e, especially on Moreton Bay where the waves seem to be 1m long and 1.5m high. I've come back wanting to leave my gear on the beach, report it stolen and claim insurance on a couple of occassions...

Then one day this absolute weapon of a windsurfer (must have been at least 65 ... probably reading this post and laughing) came screaming up next to me on a big day after seeing me having trouble getting over the waves. he said I should try to stand up as straight as possible, keep my legs relatively straight and don't attempt to bend my knees like a skier going over moguls. He said 'stand strong and blow a hole through the wave in front of you' ... which worked really well. He then twitched his back arm and disappeared into the distance, like Batman or something.

So the best thing I've learnt is windsurf near a bunch of others (without getting in their way), and have a chat to them at the beach afterwards and they will 100% of the time be able to give you some sort of valuable tip. Looks like you're already well amongst this though, I'm sure you'll be one of those people I'm asking advice from before too long!

Heading down to Rose Bay / Manly this weekend, going to try my hand in the forecasted 20+ knot sou-easter with a 5.3m sail. Hope to see you out there!

Tim

We are heading down to Currumbin on the weekend - mmm wonder if the inlet is ok for sailing? Jaye has some buddies coming down (for his 15th birthday) who don't windsurf and the boss (Anita) has said that no windsurfing - am taking the gear anyway . I get to pack the car lol. Might check out the train this arve on the way through. But have been told its the boys week end not ours. Fair enough - so the idea is to get his buddies up and going, the inlet at currumbin might just be ok in a SE hopefully.

Non of us are experienced enough to sail in the waves yet. I should be able to practice something in there surely, while they are fishing or surfing.

No Rose Bay or manly or Thompson's or Wello this week end. I know, I know - he should have picked Cootharaba for a holiday with his friends - I tried but got shot down lol

Have a good week end sailing everyone
Cheers
Morgan