I moved to California a couple years ago with this idea that I would be able to windsurf a little more than the dozen or two sessions that I was getting while living on the east coast. I wasn't geographically or employmently set up to windsurf on the weekdays, and only occasionally on the weekends. The Northern Virginia area where I was living was an hour away from good potential wind and water locales (on a rare no-traffic day). I had the opportunity to move to a windy place and I pounced on it. My working hours stayed the same (Eastern Standard, that is) so I was also amazingly afforded long afternoons every day I could pull my carcass out of bed before sunrise.
After a year of settling in and tuning up, I was really ready for a season with a lot of time on the water. I learned how to make the right decisions about where to go and when to catch a lot of sessions that I otherwise might have missed. My best friends became the people who had the same obsession and ultimately my starvation for the sensation of planing was only fortified. Here I sit, a man whose thoughts are maniacally overrun with one, singular and repeatedly redundant thought:
ME WANT WINDSURF
And me windsurf indeed took place, more so than I ever imagined.
What more fitting word to describe the lusting infatuation I have for windsurfing than "a gross".
In 2010 I windsurfed 144 days.
Planing. No gear over 100L board or 5.6m sail.
7 comments:
Nice, dude! That's a lot of time in the straps!
snob! LOL
...and when it's not windy, the surf's pumping :-D
Great year! My best ever was 130-something sessions, but there was a 7.0 in the quiver.
Way too jealous to post anything positive... :)
You'll be picking off the tricks fast with that much sailing!
Fish, unfortunately for tricks, talent becomes part of the equation.
Puff, the guys who have slalom gear with a 7+ sail got a lot of days I missed this year. At least 30 more days it seems. That's another $1500 investment though and I think days off can be a good thing so I've not gone for that.
My 7.0 sits atop a large freestyle board (JP 109), is light, camless, and I do carving freestyle with it (I bought it after a fellow ABKer reported hitting donkey jibes with a camless 7.5).
I own a "slalom board" (a 2000 Bic Techno) which comes out for racing events and nonplaning freestyle shenanigans. But if I was replacing all my gear I'd probably size the 109 down to a 100, and the 7.0 to a 6.8 (whatever the biggest light sail that will rig on a 430 mast is.)
Nicely done. You can be proud of your growing trick roster as well!
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