The wind came up again today, which was fortuitous because Jeff let me demo the Axis ART 799 and 899. There were serious whitecaps when I pulled up to the parking lot so I pumped up the Reedin SWX 4.2 again (more practice equals better understanding right?).
The pattern is stronger winds up front (in and around noon) with a decline as the afternoon progresses. With this, I bolted on the ART 799 first.
I spent an hour on this foil so I can get a good feel for it. The issue I noticed with the Reedin SWX not liking wind below 20 mph was exacerbated by having such a small front foil on. You can see the wind - as strong as it was, still had a lot of ups and downs - which was super evident on my speed chart below.
Lots of blue... means lots of schlogging.
At times I looked and noticed I got blown downwind. I was not going to paddle back - I had to wait for the gusts, and I learned with the Reedins (both the SW and the X) it is best to point more downwind during a strong blow and get the wing and front foil pressurized quickly. Then when you are up on foil, start rounding up wind. Once you are moving, you can point really high and you need a lot less wind to stay up on foil (until you need to turn... then the painful process of getting back on to foil starts over).
It took a while and several startups, but I did wing back to the launch.
At this point, I wanted to switch out the front foil to the ART 899. The wind had dropped a notch by this point, but if you stuck closer to the runway, the wind was pretty good still. Harris came out by this point and after I practiced my transitions using this foil, I headed out to join him at Firsts. I caught a couple of waves, but the last one was overhead and was breaking - awesome present from the Southern Hemisphere considering the time of year. The 899 surfs really well - rolls over easier than the 999 (as to be expected considering the shorter span and narrower chord).
From my tracks you can see the wind had more east in it today. Despite these two foils being smaller than the 999, I did not seem to go appreciably faster (20.6 on the 799... go figure - I though I would have hit 25mph with this foil; and 21.8mph on the 889 - I did feel like I could go faster on this one, just need a little more consistent wind).
I'll take a picture with all three ARTs lined up and post that later. One last note from today's session - I've been experiencing what seemed like episodes where the foil loses traction and I almost wreck. At first I thought the rear stabilizer was breaching - but I notice it happening when I am towards the channel side of the harbor area - lots of chop and turbulence. I recall reading about mast ventilation - and now I think that is what is happening as it does not occur on the top of the harbor (towards the taxi way) as there is significantly less chop up there. Also oddly enough - this has only been happening with the Project Cedrus masts. It really doesn't even happen if I am just cruising or surfing waves - it only happens if I am pinching hard upwind and am in choppy conditions. I'm going to have to study this more.
I think this is the last session I'll have with the Reedin SWX 4.2 for a few days at least - the forecast calls for lighter winds for at least the next week. Lighter winds - not zero winds, so I'll keep the Ocean Rodeo handy!
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