The inbound swell hit last night. I passed on the dawn patrol - I actually needed the rest. I ended up taking Noe to a house where she is bird sitting, then talking to Kalani about his wing board, and then packing up to take Noe to sailing practice. I was going to meet Nick at Kailua and go winging, but the parking lot was nuts. I left him with some things he needed to get the kite foil board setup and headed over to Hickam (since that is where I was going to pick up Noe after practice). I got there around 2 and the wind was iffy. There were a bunch of guys out (two on Slicks, Brian on his 4.5, Harris on his 5.4) and the swell was huge - it was actually breaking over the breakwater by a large margin.
I setup the 5.2, bolted on the HS1532CS, and off I went. I did a few warm up laps, then headed out to Firsts. I was crossing the inside when the first big set rolled through. I made it over an overhead wave that was pitching lip and pumped over to the area inside the breakwater. Then the wind just died - I was in a weird dead zone. I saw a gust coming, I turned and pick up ahead high wave (one of the smaller ones today) - and after going through some whitewater, I lost it. I was able to get the wing up above three broken waves and decided it would be best if I went back in to the kiddie pool before I lost or broke something.
The wind was good for the 5.2 - there were a few lulls but nothing like the dead zone out at Firsts.
I was able to milk 17.3 kts out of the HS1532CS.
And in order to not be late in picking up Noe, I headed in around 4:30. While packing up, I got to talk to the guys that were using the Slicks. I definitely like the Ensis V2 better than the Slicks.
My forearms are not hurting - the harness is doing it's job! I think after today, I'm going to take a few days off from winging... I need a break - like prone foiling!
No comments:
Post a Comment