Cabin Fever and a York point session.

Sunday turned out to be a good early spring SSW day. The morning started out with a threat of thunderstorms. By mid afternoon it was sunny skies and warm winds. My day began at an event called Cabin Fever. It is the second annual gathering of a bunch of local outdoor clubs. The purpose if the event is to showcase the each clubs particular sport or recreational activity. Bruce, John C. and Jack were manning the booth promoting W.E.T and trying to get curious people passing by interested in our sport. They had a land trainer out there, a fully rigged shortboard and John's extensive collection of toys. During the time I was there 4 people received tutorials on basic sail handling and lots of fliers were handed out promoting the two introduction to windsurfing lessons planned during the summer.

The W.E.T. experience, Cabin Fever 2009




Jak giving a quick land trainer lesson


See how much fun, hopefully she will be at the intro.


Couple of WET guys. Dave T, Jak, John Q, Bruce.

The wind was beckoning and I had yet to get in my March session for the 12 month club so I had to bail around noon to go sail. I headed on over to York Point as that was the closest SW launch. When I got there Dave had just come in from a 5.9 86l run. Pete had just arrived as well and we both rigged 5.8. I went with the larger volume board at 102l and rigged with extra downhaul. Before I got out I snapped some photos of Dave buzzing the pier. The way his pier comes off the point allowed me to get some nice up close and personal shots.

Winds were S to SW air temp was 60-70 and water was low to mid 50's.

Once I hit the water I found there was a little rust to knock off, it had been over a month since my last session. The wind was wild, the board and sail combo ended up being perfect about 65% of the time, 15% was underpowered and 20% way over powered. I got slammed quite a few times in the gusts, After about an hour it seemed like the wind was getting stronger, well at minimum the gusts were. I went in and rigged 5.1 and changed to a smaller fin. Had I brought the 85l I would have pulled it out. The chop was getting pretty rough for the 102l. Thank goodness the Cross has those dual density pads, they made the ride tolerable.

A couple cool things happened this session. I made my first jump. It wasn't anything to write home about but it was significant to me because a saw the ramp, steered to it and consciously made the attempt. I do know I cleared the fin because when I landed I spun out. That in itself was another accomplishment as I was able to recover without crashing. After a rest and a tour of Daves new construction I headed back out for one last sail. The wind seemed to have backed down some so I grabbed the 5.8 and hit the water again. In the gusts the combination of the bigger sail the chop and the small fin kept causing me to spin out. I did finally adjust my stance and sheeting angle to stop it from happening. The final accomplishments for the day were completing my first tack and first jibe on that board. Only one of each though.

The wind came back up again but I had enough, my body just couldn't take any more. So I pulled the camera back out and got a few more shots before packing up and heading home. All in all it was a great YP session Dave had his highest head count with 8 sailors enjoying his launch.

Looks like another good couple days on tap hopefully I can find time to get in another session. Maybe with the air being warm the water temp will come up enough so the shorty can come out of the closet soon.

Jump sequence Dave Kashy

George

Dave and Greg

Kashy fins Hydrofoil???

Todd

Pete

Sanity Maintenance.

It's been almost a month since the last time I was on a board and it is really starting to get to me. It's not been for a lack of wind either. We have had at least two days a week that have been sailable but work or some other commitment has kept me busy those days. The bad part is sailing for me has become a integral part of how I relieve stress and not being able to get out there and glide across the water, harnessing what nature provides is adding to the stress.

Early on, reading through the other blogs and message board posting gave me a much needed vicarious rush but now it's not having the same effect, it too is becoming part of the problem. Seeing the photos of tropical locations and reading the session reports is fueling irrational thoughts of jumping on a plane or in my car and disappearing to one of those perfectly windy locations. Thankfully, knowing I have to take care of my responsibilities has kept me grounded. Sometimes it sucks being a responsible adult.

Oh well, I guess I'll just have to resign myself to dropping everything the next windy day that comes along and just get out there. Maintaining ones sanity has to become a priority at some point.