Ride with Tyson

Poor abused blog readers: I'm on a road trip in the Pacific Northwest right now. Of course, the first stop was the Gorge. Lots of pictures and maybe some more writing will be coming, but for now, have this. I will say the first day I got there was described by some locals as "the windiest day all summer". I sailed the Hatchery and it was extremely intense. More scary fun than my normal sessions, but it was a fun day overall.

Tyson Poor and the other pros were, as per usual, ripping. A couple days after the "extreme" day I flagged Ty down while he was sailing and had him sail with the mast-mounted camera. He kindly humored me and here is the result.

Teach me how to Grubby

I have this hope to complete the trifecta of sliding 360 moves this year, but I'm not sure if it's going to happen. I completed my first spock a year ago. I made my first flaka a month ago and now I'm hoping I can some how make a grubby or two before the year is over. I've actually had a few very close grubbies. I've water started out of one and biffed the exit a few times when I've rotated cleanly.

The move itself is sorta like a cross between a flaka and spock. Sound ridiculous? My theory is that the entry is a lot like a flaka (deep downwind, unweighting everything) and if you do that correctly the exit will be like a spock (sail steering with some slight backwinding). The actual initiation of the move is different than either of those moves. You sheet in while jumping like the vulcan, but then you hold on and kick the tail as far downwind as possible.

When I watch this video the main mistakes I notice are:

1. Not enough speed off the wind. Like the flaka, a proper setup is a big key to success for the grubby.

2. Not getting the sail back across my body during the slide and extending the clew hand (often symptomatic of the sail being heavy because you don't have enough speed).

3. Leaning the mast too far downwind during initiation. This is the crash that tends to roll me into a quasi loop.

Anything that I'm missing?