Wing Foiling Session - 2/27/2021

And after all the errands were run, I got to go winging.  The reports were saying 20+ with gusts into the 30s - by the time I got rigged up the conditions were roughly the same (but slightly weaker).  Not wanting to repeat yesterday's experience, I bolted on the HS1850 - I had to use the 232 rear stabilizer because the chopped 300 was on the prone setup.

This is the first time I had the 232 so I guessed (further up than the 300 setting) and gave it a go.  There were some waves on the outside - so I figured I'd see what it was like.  There was plenty of wind to get out to the break - and I caught a few waves.  I was set up for a chest high wave - the drop was intimidating mainly because of the excess power I had in the wing that I couldn't seem to dump.  The other reason was I still had some back foot pressure (foil not far enough forward).  I figured it would be best to get the foil adjusted and not get hurt because I had to manage too many variables.

In case the chart below (and the others like it that I have been posting lately) doesn't really make sense, these are graphical displays of the runs I make.  If I was moving at speed and foiled through my transitions, the graph would be the same level and there wouldn't be any black in between - you can see that in the third block in.  So this first part of the session was pretty good - up on foil more than not (compare this to yesterday's graph.....)

And this was after I moved the foil forward.  There was still some back foot pressure, but less than before.  I'm still going to have to bump it forward a hair next time I go out.  During this part of the session, I mainly practiced my transitions.  I am pretty much jumping right back on foil from my outside tacks.  I do not drop when I jibe.  My inside tacks are a bit more frustrating - I seem to be getting hung up on carve the nose of the board through the wind.  I can get the board halfway, and even transition the wing, but maybe push through one out of every 10.

A few of the black bands were lulls, but a few were me contemplating going in, or jamming back out in the gusts.  On most of these runs, you can see the sliver of black space in the middle of the runs - that is me transitioning.  Pretty cool huh?!?

The winds are supposed to be really strong again tomorrow - I might inflate the 4.5 and stay on the 1850 (but might also try the 1550...)