I went out to ride with my friend Phil yesterday. The wind was still strong, but it was definitely less intense compared to the past few days. I opted for the Ensis 4.5m and stuck with the Kujira 980 (and the 15.75" rear stabilizer).
The waves had not really backed down - they weren't a strong as they were this weekend - but they still had a big punch.
The light wind zone in between the outer breakwater and the second channel marker was amplified with this high pressure event (I don't know why). You be winging along fully lit - then right after the channel marker, you had to nurse the wing and the foil to make it through the same area where the white water walls were plowing the fields. With the right timing, you got to just the inside of the breakwater tip and picked up a gust. If your timing was wrong, you got mowed over.
I got mowed over a lot. On one ride, I was trying to make it over a feathering wall - but didn't.
And this is where the wing leash broke. The white water wall that hit me was pretty tall and I couldn't throw the wing over the top of it. The wing, the board and myself got engulfed. I could feel the leashes getting strained, and then no pressure on my right wrist (where the wing leash is). I knew the leash had broke and the wing was on its own and probably blowing away in the wind. After a few more seconds the white water released me and I saw the wing only about 25' away. I got onto my board and starting paddling as fast as I could. The same slack wind alley that was making this session difficult, just also made recovering the wing possible. The wing was still flipping around, but it would get stuck to the water's surface - and I was getting closer.
I did finally catch up to it. I grabbed the front handle, tied two knots using the remainder of the wing leash, then kept on paddling to get to the channel. All of this is in the blue lines in the middle of the below picture.
In the below chart, you can also see the times I was either riding a wave or paddling like there was no tomorrow for my wing - 163bpm isn't a joke....
And another observation - I was going faster with the Reedin wings. Up to 3 mph faster. Something to think about.
Despite all of the complications - winging in challenging conditions makes me feel alive -
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