The things you find on craigslist!

Vintage 1959 Gas Powered Surfboard. Surfing history! - $1550



This is a perfectly running 1959 Gas Powered Surfboard. $1,550. Very rare. Works great. Only a few left in the world.

I can't help but think... doesn't it kinda defeat the purpose?

How not to repair a modern windsurfer.

Here's my most frequently used board, a 2001 JP Freeride 275. It's obviously 275 cm long, 129 liters and 64 cm at its widest point. It's not perfect for me, it's really more of "big dude's" freeride board. The reason I say this is because it has a lot of volume for it's size, yet a pretty narrow tail. I think if I were to own another 130l board, it would have a wider tail for early planing purposes rather than the narrowish tail this board has. I say it's for big guys because it's really thick and floaty for it's shape...I weigh about 170 lbs (77 kilos) and I can easily slog a much less voluminous board.













But like my mom once said: "This is why you can't have nice things!"

I did not create the moniker "The Human Catapult" for nothing. It seems like my gear is broken just as much as it is fixed. I don't know of any good board repair places around here, so I've just been patching it up with a ding stick when I get a hole. I'm considering buying some new gear this year, but it would be more of a shame to break nice stuff, so I guess I'm still on the fence.



Below is a short tutorial on how to use the epoxy stick to patch holes.







1. tear off a chunk of the stick and smush it up in your fingers for a couple minutes. Please note "smush" is the technically correct description for this.

2. smash the putty onto the crack or hole. Make sure there is no space for water to leak through. Fill in the hole as much as possible.


3. (Most important) Entertain and impress your friends with the left over putty by making figurines of your favorite surfers.

From the Crunch Files

When Surfers and Mammoth Waves Collide, There are Definite Winners and Losers

Full Article and pictures here.

I gotta say, this would be fun to see from the beach, but no way in hell do I paddle out in conditions like that.

Taking the Plunge!

A bit of relevant background info: I'm from Florida. I don't like being cold.

But I gotta plane, I just GOTTA!










Soooooooooooooooooooo....


I bought a 5/4 wetsuit last week, the O'Neill Mutant with a detachable hood. I have no idea what kind of air/water temps will work good with this thing. The guy at the local shop told me it depends from person to person on the air and water temps they can handle... go figure.

And I still need to buy some gloves and thick booties. If any of my dear readers (hi mom!) have any suggestions on this front, it would be appreciated.

Bonaire Trip Report

Let me make this as simple as possible: Bonaire Rocks. Even without much wind.

The first two days of the trip, there wasn't any plane-able wind (of course, I had no interest in using anything bigger than an 8.0 sail). This turned out to be a good thing for the two beginners in our group. My girlfriend (foreground, nudist colony and windmill in the background) had a great time scooting around in the super-non-threatening Lac Bay area. On the 2nd day, we walked out to the reef at the top of the bay and snorkeled a bit too. This was actually really cool, and even on a light wind day, slightly challenging. All kinds of fish, I even managed to see a Hawksbill Turtle. We ended up snorkeling almost every day, and it was never disappointing.

I think the first planing happened on the 3rd day in the morning. I was probably on a 7.3 with a 130 liter RRD Spitfire. This light breeze was around for about an hour that day, then we were once again reduced to lightwind freestyle (I should be fair and mention that this was an abnormally un-windy few days, just bad luck from what I was told).

I rented from the Bonaire Windsurf Place, and was pretty happy with their selection of gear. The service there was also outstanding. My buddy rented from Jibe City. We switched gear a few times, and I gotta say those hifly boards are super user-friendly. Especially the twin fins. That said, I kinda prefer sailing gear that challenges me at this point.

The 4th and 5th day were decent but marginal. I rode a 7.3 and a 6.5, and a bunch of different boards. One of the few unfortunate things is that the water of Lac Bay can be shallow, so you can't ride a big fin out there. If it were possible to use formula gear, there would have been planing conditions every day.

Our last sailing day was outstanding. I was on a 6.0 all morning, all the way down to a 90 liter board (the smallest board I've ever got into the straps on to this day). I felt like a jibing whiz until this day... the smaller boards come around a lot faster, but you can't flub the footwork or sail transitions. If you're reading this blog, you probably already know all this. Anyway, it was still super fun to sail a tiny board. My windsurfing started in Florida, where you can get by with 150 liters on 99% of your sailing days.

Our approach to the trip was one to keep costs down. The plane ticket was about $500, we split an apartment 4 ways @$1000 total. We tried to cook a bit, but I also used a public forum to find cheap but good local food (http://www.bonairetalk.com.) The restaurants I recommend checking out are Maiky Snack, El Fogon, and Bobbejans. For $1000 we had travel, lodging, and board rental for a week. Not so bad. The only thing I would have done differently is to plan a longer trip, because there is a full day of travel on either end. We did find entertaining things to do on our long layovers in San Juan, however.

What's wrong with this picture?

This is the only picture in existence of me jibing, and I've used it as my profile picture, mainly because it really screams what this blog is all about. "Aaron, you suck."

This was taken in the outer banks on the ONE FRIGGIN' WINDY morning we had the whole week.

I can name about 5 things I'm doing wrong during this "jibe" (that I'm not even sure I survived).

This is an open invitation to all the excellent internet semi-pro windsurfing gurus of the world to point out just how many things I'm doing wrong. The more mean and chiding you are, the more points you will be awarded by the judges.

Ladies and Gentlemen, a new potential windsurfing vehicle emerges..

Getting your gear from one place to the other is hard. I find myself staring at vehicles driving down the road, trying to visualize how a rack with boards could be configured or imagining how one might fit booms into a new car.

Right now, I drive a Toyota Matrix... which has done the job pretty well. Great gas mileage, back window hatch can be opened to use the "shove" stowing of gear method. However, I would like to enter the world of boards-in-the-car someday. The obvious choice is a cargo van, but then I think of driving one of those big lumbering things, as well as the mpg, then it seems a little less attractive.

In any case, I'll stop blathering on and introduce what I think would be an awesome windsurfing vehicle: the 2009 Ford Flex. Although the all important "cargo depth" statistic isn't available, I've looked at many pictures, and I believe this vehicle will have at least 8 feet of depth. Using Pythagorean Theorem, I imagine one could fit boards of around 9 and a half feet in the back of the car.

Killer.

If you want to see more pictures, check out: Ford's website, where you can navigate through a bunch of marketing mumbo jumbo flash presentations.