Halloween Sailing

Glassy water most of the morning with clear sunny skies. SW winds built up by 3 or 4 pm, and by 6pm I ignored by aching right shoulder and loaded kids and gear into the Subaru and rounded the bend to Surfdale. An older sailor (balding and grey) was coming off the water--he had made a couple runs indicating enough wind for the 6.4 (again, being the biggest sail it would have to suffice). A kite surfer struggled for a while, then finally made one run to the east, dropped down, then skipped on back. But that was it--clearly not his day. Onshore poses a bit more risk for the kite as well.

While I rigged, the kids played basketball, then once I was on the water they retreated to the car for some ipod time. I surfed an hour or so, planing most of the time and working on short board tacks and carving hard into jibes. I stayed within 20 m of the beach (high tide) on the relatively flat water (meaning timing the waves to make a run on one side or the other of a wave). The harness lines were fine today. I also raised the boom height to keep the sail more vertical while leaning into it. The Fanatic Shark is much better suited for this level of wind, and I had to stay out of the footstraps on a few runs to stay fully powered up--a bit exhilarating to just grip the edge of the board with the booties while cruising along. Also a number of runs requiring the footstraps. Overall a good day. Home in time for a quick pasta dinner, then preparation for trick or treating, which was a bit of a bust for the boys--just not celebrated here on the house to house basis like we do in the States. At least the Halloween Disco was a good time last night (I probably could have been out on the 6.4 yesterday evening too--but one must rest every now and then)