Sorry I missed you - but nice to have a potter around still

Sunday I am going to have a go at the Bayside 1 hour at Wynnum - Who's in

Hey Morgs,
I'm hoping to get down there. Just not sure if I will get there on time.

Went windsurfing at RQ beach last Sunday – turned out to be a good day on the water – not quite as much wind as I would have hoped for but the company was good.

Some planning but not much. Anita tried to get some photos but the camera was flat and I didn’t take the go pro as not much wind so would have been the same as last week.

Well I guess it happened because of Saturday – I decided not to go as it just didn't look like much wind at all. Went over to Manly at 4 and the kite boys said it got up to around 15 knots oh well this is the sport. Now explains why we have come across windsurfers who seem to sit at their favourite spot just waiting……Low Tide yuk! – but must say it is the least walk of most of the spots around, so set up and walked the gear out to the water. All good away we go felt ok but struggled to get on the plane, so decided to just get comfortable and have a blast and burn some calories and work on keeping my sailing fitness up. I could see on the horizon a few windsurfers out racing must be the crew from RQ hope you had fun. I decided to head out across to the middle of the bay cause I could see some white caps and it looked like the racers were doing ok.

I was out about half an hour kind of getting on the plane and not and saw another windsurfer heading out from RQ – with no glasses thought it was you Mal – DAM YOU GOT GOOD ALL OF A SUDDEN – I am thinking how is Mal doing that on the plane and looking good until they got closer and passed me like I was standing still. It was Simon with a big smile not long after he arrived, Dan turned up. The three of us had a nice sail there for a while.

Simon checked out my rig and all good – I set up pretty well (getting that right sort of) Thanks mate. Ok now technique how is that – good. I appreciate all the help I can get. I had the boom around eye level and harness lines pretty short – it was good as I actually felt fairly light footed on the board (weird for me that….) Worked on turning my hips forward.

Stats; Beach Starts 100%, Foot straps 50% (not much wind), Planning sort of 50%, Harness 95%, Gybes yes for both times, Tacks 90% (fell in a couple of times), Stacks a couple.Damage Report; hole in sail – managed to land on the sail and put my knee through the already taped together lower panel. A neat break so tape should work for the moment. Need to take it to Josh.

Had a nice time on the water managed to get up to a blistering 10.2 knots on the downhill run. Rig of choice for the day Rio Longtail 259L, Loft 8.5m sail with BP 50 fin.

Anita was trying to get me to take the Naish 180 out for a spin but I graciously declined that one.

Looking forward to the BoardCrazy one hour on Sunday 1/11/15 – bring on the wind

Cool AntsC

Cheers
Morgan

Looks like not much happening today - will have to wait it out and have a look around 2 at RQ Beach see what's happening then. Willy weather is saying 11knots

Write up from last week is coming this morning and some photos

Tomorrow going to wind wanderers social event at Golden Beach

Cheers
Morgan

Had a great sail yesterday at RQ hit 17.5 on the Rio - Back straps almost all the time - pretty happy with that. Might just be ready for a step up
Still concerned about turning around on a smaller board. Back to falling in a lot and learning how to gybe faster.

Mal was out and smashing it on the Shark - flew past me at one stage.

Clive was blasting around and having fun - I tried to keep up with him a few times but no way. Great to watch

Today heading to Wind Wanderers Social get together at Golden Beach - a great place to have a sail.. it is where it all started with me :-)
Everyone is welcome to come

Cheers
Morgan

You have come a long way since you started Morgan. I think you are going to really enjoy this summer

^^ Ditto Morgan

Had a bit of a week end of it – got in two days windsurfing, and a boxing circuit training class amongst it, woo hoo feeling it today lol.

Saturday – out from RQ/Kite Beach wind and tide looking ok around 2pm so went down for a look and there was Clive and Mal setting up – Great to sail with these guys

Firstly it was light wind again – always with the light wind on the weekends…. All good we persevered and up it came had a really good run and yes sir ree in the back straps most of the time – technique must be finally coming in.

Little recording of all the recent advice I have been getting ‘activate the core – squeeze arse cheeks together – straight front arm – boom up at eye level – weight off the board running in my head. I clocked 17.5 knots ok for a rookie.

Set Up – Rio Longtail 259L, Loft switch blade 8.5m sail and 50 finStats – Water starts 0, Beach starts 100%, Tacks 90%, oops did’t attemp any Gybes too rough, Harness 90%, Foot straps 95% (Back Straps 85% of that), falling off twice.

Is it time to move to smaller board – I have just become used to not falling in and find it hard to get excited about falling in all the time again. I find it very hard to water start that 8.5m sail – the sail itself is just hard to get out of the water – let alone water start with it when my feet can’t touch the ground.

No photos the photogragher AKA Anita was getting a sail wet

Nice day on the water

Cheers
Morgan

Heading to RQ around 12 - wind looks good on the arrows and willy weather

See you down there

Cheers
Morgan

Hi Morgan,

Can we sail there today even if not in races? Thinking of going earlier ~10:30am. Don't see any rain about yet.

Chris

hi Chris, sure thing plenty of room for everyone, see you down there

Going to head to RQ at around 10.30 to have a look

Nice to have a sail with you today Wind Dragon :-)

Ok - well, I entered the water with great trepidation - my experience with a 160l board wasn't so good. Prepared to crash, crash and crash some more I headed into the water. I set up the Loft 8.5m sail with the Drake 48 fin supplied with board. To my absolute surprise I stepped onto the board and there was my first beach start successfully executed. NICE!

I had decided my best option was to stay in close - it was a nice onshore SSE so no worries if I ended up in trouble - just sit there and float back in. Headed about 1k out and turned - first tack SPLASH... - I am in the drink. That's ok I wanted to see what it was like to up haul - stable as, up haul no worries - check.... Man my hat stayed in the water (Wilson all over again) so had to tack back twice to get it.

Made it out late Monday arvo for a short blast wind was around 15 to 20knots NNE 6.6 Avanti sail, 48 Drake fin, AtomIQ 160L at Wellington Point. Man I just couldn't get the thing on the plane - close but no cigar. Thanks John and Glynn for your valuable advice - bear away until I am on the plane then foot straps then point upwind. Still couldn't - perhaps I should have stayed with first choice a 7.5m sail. I did get on the plane once - the board was wobbling wildly then went easy still going in the right direction but as soon as I tried the foot straps SPLASH!!! in the drink.

The board is really stable, easy to up haul on and get going - confidence building

Stats: Planing .5% , Gybes Sunday 50%, Tacks both times 90%, Deep water beach starts 90%, Up haul - a lot, speed took my GPS but no point in even looking wouldn't have exceeded 10knots.

Really nice to have a sail at Wello - deffs our favourite location to sail.

Jaye came along as well and had a blast on the Naish Nitrix 135 with a 37.5bp fin and Naish 6m sail. No GPS but had a blast smiles all round.

Cheers
Morgan

Yep I agree with you Morgs that the 6.6 was too small for the conditions, didn't see many whitecaps in your vid, so the 7.5 would have been heaps better. Always next time. Always hard to match the right set up for the conditions, but then the conds change and ...bugger.......
It's one of my probs as well ie. rigging too small for the cond.
Great to see you really getting into it! Cheers

Hi Morgs
The new board looks nice. Definitely needed more sail. sounds like it went well for the first time out though. Looks like a bit of wind coming for the next week so plenty of opportunities to give it another run.

Nice water starts Morgan.

You were so close to planning at the 2.56 in the video. A slight bear-away on a wave and pump of the sail and you would have been there. Don't try and get into your footstraps until you are planning, otherwise you'll just round up into the wind.

I thought you were going to rig your 7.5! I din't realise you rigged your 6.6. Glynn and I rigged 7s.

Wind looks good for Thursday for another try

Yep looks like you need more wind before you try to get in the straps. Nice waterstart! You'll love the smaller board when the wind gets up.

Hi Morgan. I've watched your video many times today. Thanks for sharing. I see so much of my self in it

I've edited it and added comments. They are how a keen beginner sees things

Too me it looks like you aren't classically powering up with your front foot pointing forward on the centreline and driving the board off the wind and forward. The Sam ross videos describe this

Start of his series



I have trouble with the out of harness bit.....

plus I get a lot from the KP video

pritchardwindsurfing.com/how-to-get-planing-on-your-windsurfer

I've edited your video from my perspective



Nice to see some rear foot first - I do this when choppy and gusty. It allows me to drop over back leg and power up quickly without getting catapulted

Peter Hart emphasises keeping board flat as you bear off
See if any of my ideas help

I never quite understood the bearing off bit untill I got on the BIC techno 283 , it's almost automatic with a little pressure on the lee side and it's away. On my wider boards it really happens when I get my first foot in powered up and I kind of crunch and pull up (drive my toes) in the Footstrap


Cheers Jeff

Thanks for the comments Greg, Bugs, John and Sue - I need all the help I can get - very frustrating part of the learning curve watching everyone planing by but not being able to get on the plane yourself. Knowing on the Rio I would have been planing no worries....... But the next step in this windsurfing adventure is a shorter board, more speed, easier to handle and more control and most importantly lighter to carry everywhere lol.


Jeff that is AWESOME stuff - thanks very much for taking the time to analyse the video . I picked the best bits to try and show crucial parts of my day.

The plan was when I put my foot in the back strap to pull the rear out of the water with the crunch - did work for a very short while but ended as you can see - lost my wind - like you said lost power somehow. Like your bic 283 the Rio Longtail, all I have to do is point the toes on rear foot and away we go..... woo hoo.... I have been very spoilt with that board

I have moved the front straps in board to make it easier to get them (thanks for the tip John) will be trying that this weekend.

I will take all your advice onboard and see what I can do with it this week end. Got to remember to stay low - bend that back leg

Cheers
Morgan

Not much happening today windwise - Will have a look at Wello tomorrow around 1 pm

Wello it was and a great day












Nice one – After some serious Car Park rage we managed to secure a park. Love windsurfing at Wellington Point in the Northerlies but man parking is such a pain. Now I remember why I started to go to RQ. But did get a park and it was looking good.

3rd day out on the AtomIQ 160L – decided not to take any other boards so not to get tempted to take the Rio out. Get this thing planing is the focus of Sunday.

Set up the Neil Pryde 7.5m sail (maybe its last run – poor old thing is falling apart – nothing some more tape wont fix) 50 bp fin – the wind was about 15knots, I had moved the foot straps in to see how that works for me.

When I was setting I started asking the guys what size sail they were setting up 6.5 a very friendly guy said also gave some tips on how to get going. Thanks very much for that I really appreciate it – I followed the advice and bam felt like I was planing. I set the sail with maximum down haul and out haul to not be over powered.

Off I went all looking good – felt over powered but all good am going to stick with it. Not interested in being underpowered, First run not so bad I could feel it wanted to go, man it was a bit rough but the AtomIQ handled it no worries – I could still up haul. A couple of runs in and ‘by George’ I was planing – felt the lift an all – had to head much further down wind than I thought. Did have a worry about getting back up wind but with the 50bp no problems.

I have learnt a lot in the short time using the AtomIQ more so it has been the great advice I have been getting from the guys at Wellington Point. And not to mention Jeff – that stuff you sent me last week, really put my mind in another frame from the Rio (very spoilt on the Rio) Thanks heaps fellas. Lets just see if I can keep it up……The water was just flattening out and I had a blow out so had to come in – how frustrating is that – just get planing – water flattens out like a mill pond and no spares.

Building some racks so had emptied van and only took enough……. Note to self ” always take spares of everything”



Did get some footage so put all the footage of others blasting away. It is quite funny it looks like I am quite relaxed in the video - I can assure you I was far from it lol

Great company and fun at Wello

Cheers
Morgan

Hey Morgan, lookin good, a bit more wind and you would have been away. I find its good to ask others what size sail but its also easy to make the wrong choice because of different sailing styles. I like to be more over powered than under so I generally run slightly bigger gear than a text book would say for my weight, I also use shorter 26" lines with a seat harness. It works for me so that's all that matters. Keep an eye on the guys you see regularly and use them as a baseline until you get better at picking the conditions. I sail with Ian at Redcliffe and when he is on 6.5 I know that if I put up my 6.5 it will be marginal and closely consider going bigger. Keep plugging away, nice waterstart

Up, Up and away Morgan! Well done mate.

Hi Morgan,
Have a look at these three Clips re early planning. Just confirms my thoughts that you have your Boom too high ( Clip 2 ). ( I notice a few others have commented on this ).



Also have a look at this thread www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Windsurfing/Queensland/golden-pond-yesterday/?page=-2#lastpost
The sailor with the Purple NP Firefly not planning ( boom too high ) everyone else low boom front arm parallel with shoulders front leg straight and planning. (Wish I was there ).
Just my observation of your clips and photo's. There a few tips in the video's that I will take on board as well.
Keep at it, you are an inspiration to all of us, not just the newbies that you inspire.

Morgan

Below is a link to video from Thorneside last Sunday.

No car park rage, plenty of parking for your van.

Water pretty flat and wind good across beach. Was planing like this for ages back & forth until I broke UJ.

Still can't get video to paste properly - anyway paste this link into web browser & have a look.

See you next weekend.

Mal

?t=1

Ignore my comment on pasting video - it worked once I posted the reply!!!

Mal - AWESOME.....man you are flying

Nice vid Mal. You need longer harness lines. If you found it hard to hook in, you will find it just as hard to unhook and keep on the plane when its time to jibe.
You should be able to straighten your arms and get more of your weight away from the board. Check out the great photo's on the Golden Pond post.