It's been two weeks since I got home from San Francisco and I can finally feel my body start to get back into it rhythm. Good food, Good time with my family and lots of time on the water.
Yesterday was the first day that I really stepped back on my course board in earnest. It's amazing what you forget but also amazing what you remember. For instance I forgot how much of an Anaerobic activity it is to ride that board in the chop but I also quickly remembered how much fun and how rewarding it is. The board is relatively large compared with other Kiteboards. Roughly 170 cm long and 70 cm wide it has an enormous amount of float and with my 36cm long fins it has an absurd amount of power capability in it. With 14-17 knots of wind at Cow Bay I was ripping on my 15M while most everyone else was on 17M and looking only decently powered up. I was able to do some long reaches out to R2 and beyond. It felt good to just get in the rhythm of moving over the waves. Wind was from the NW and so as you got out towards R2 there were some decent hip high waves which really make you move the legs. The difficult part in to try and keep your body straight and not hunched over the board. This is where the Gorilla Bar really comes in handy because you can have one hand on the trim system and one hand on the bar. Always adjusting to the wind. When I go upwind I find I am looking ahead to the next puff AND the next wave trying to process how I am going to navigate both and be proactive in my movements not reactive. This can be more difficult as you get more tired. On the other hand when I am going downwind in the chop I find myself really just looking at the waves and not so much at the wind. The board is so difficult to maneuver downwind and takes so much weight and trim adjustment when the waves are up that so far I have not been as good at looking at the wind. Then again we are always going faster than the wind so that helps.
After a lunch break I went to meet up with Rob and take a look at his SPOTZ by JC Foil Board. Very interesting to look at it up close.
The forward foil is concave on the bottom while the aft foil is convex on the bottom. The foils also appeared to have a large amount of resin saturation in the carbon and looked rather brittle.
I think there is huge room for development here and I cant wait to get started.
More to come shortly.
B
Yesterday was the first day that I really stepped back on my course board in earnest. It's amazing what you forget but also amazing what you remember. For instance I forgot how much of an Anaerobic activity it is to ride that board in the chop but I also quickly remembered how much fun and how rewarding it is. The board is relatively large compared with other Kiteboards. Roughly 170 cm long and 70 cm wide it has an enormous amount of float and with my 36cm long fins it has an absurd amount of power capability in it. With 14-17 knots of wind at Cow Bay I was ripping on my 15M while most everyone else was on 17M and looking only decently powered up. I was able to do some long reaches out to R2 and beyond. It felt good to just get in the rhythm of moving over the waves. Wind was from the NW and so as you got out towards R2 there were some decent hip high waves which really make you move the legs. The difficult part in to try and keep your body straight and not hunched over the board. This is where the Gorilla Bar really comes in handy because you can have one hand on the trim system and one hand on the bar. Always adjusting to the wind. When I go upwind I find I am looking ahead to the next puff AND the next wave trying to process how I am going to navigate both and be proactive in my movements not reactive. This can be more difficult as you get more tired. On the other hand when I am going downwind in the chop I find myself really just looking at the waves and not so much at the wind. The board is so difficult to maneuver downwind and takes so much weight and trim adjustment when the waves are up that so far I have not been as good at looking at the wind. Then again we are always going faster than the wind so that helps.
After a lunch break I went to meet up with Rob and take a look at his SPOTZ by JC Foil Board. Very interesting to look at it up close.
The forward foil is concave on the bottom while the aft foil is convex on the bottom. The foils also appeared to have a large amount of resin saturation in the carbon and looked rather brittle.
I think there is huge room for development here and I cant wait to get started.
More to come shortly.
B
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