I have been to Ricketts yesterday late arvo and it was ridiculously windy. I went out at 5pm just when Fawkner Beacon went up to 35 knots. Had two runs with my smallest sail 4.7m cranked up very tight (i'm a 96kg heavy weight) and was happy to be back at shore safe and in one piece to concede these conditions were not for me. Also not very pleasing water quality with all that rain.
Guess you had a fuel saving record there! I carried my 82l board to the car when the 41knots gust must have hit and struggled to hold it with two arms.
Last week a 30-40 knot NW, this week a 30-45 knot W/SW.
A few of us were lucky enough to be shredding Ricketts during the maelstrom. Due to the high tide, we were able to sail right over the main reef and hunt down the waves.
Dan G and Hock were both pulling out some huge airs and I was just happy to be hanging on! I quickly became over-powered on my 4.2 and shifted down to my trusty Naish 3.4 [ still over-powered at times]. I must mention it was a fun way to christen my Fanatic New Wave
Thanks to Sean / Tribe Carew for hiding behind the shelter of the SLSC and snapping a few shots. The driving rain in 40 knots made it difficult to shoot.
Brutal sail yesterday! Few of us went to Keast Park while it was westerly then it swung SW (onshore). It was really tough to get through the break. I sailed far out to make ground, harness line broke then mast broke in a breaking wave. 500m swim in followed by 2km board drag up the beach. Fun fun.
Joined Al at Frankston at 5:15 in the hope of salvaging some sailing. Great cross/onshore conditions but damn it was windy! Really hard to keep hold of my 4.7.
no problems really handling the gusts. I've always had a small sail [sub 4.0m] in the quiver, as I really hate missing the handful of really special days each year. The New Wave seemed to handle those conditions quite easily, maybe the subtle concaves helped. It has great grip through the turns and still felt slashy enough for me. A 19.5cm fin would help for the nukin' days. Looking forward to giving it a hurl down the coast.
K Dog, I'll lend my Go Pro to Dan next big day. He did some spectacular big stalled forwards, nice floaty push loops and a few 100 kph Ponch's just for good measure. He's fun to watch.
I was pretty impressed by Dan's sailing made the conditions look easy. I was happy I didn't break anything, same conditions about 10 weeks ago came home with fractured ribs.... at least I can say I went hard last time not like yesterday lame effort from me.
K Dog, I'll lend my Go Pro to Dan next big day. He did some spectacular big stalled forwards, nice floaty push loops and a few 100 kph Ponch's just for good measure. He's fun to watch.