The WPB Wing Crew hit the beach today. The wind was white capping on the outside when we showed up - but as we setup, you could tell the wind was dropping already.
I had originally hoped to use a smaller wing - but I pumped up the SW2 5.2 to make sure I didn't get skunked. With No.34, I felt confident that the Spitfire 840/350P would be sufficient. And I shifted to the Ultrashort fuselage to be able to use the Evolution Cedrus Wind mast.
I had to paddle out past the breakers to get to the wind line and stay steady enough to get the board to lift. This session was initially looking to be mundane - with small waves, enough wind to get going, and testing out different configurations on the new board. It actually panned out to be a phenomenal session!
Initially the wind lightened up and I had to kneel on the board and try to get out to the wind line - it worked (but look at the blue line from the starting point - that was a long run before I got to wind that would enable the foil).
And you can see the wind speed at the beginning of the time I was out - it was light at around 12 mph. It did pick up and from that point I came down a few more times in between long runs when the wind dropped again.
Then the sets started showing up - like overhead sets. I caught several of the waves and it was incredible!!! Lined up, with the wave breaking right, wing luffed and the foil and mast behaving perfectly. The pitch stability of the Spitfire on the Ultrashort made for really smooth riding. The Evolution Cedrus mast never ventilated and the combo of the foil/fuselage/mast gave me the confidence to focus solely on ripping the overhead waves top to bottom. Roland had a smaller wing, with the wind slacking (this was in the dead wind zone in front of the cabins), was in the impact zone and got a front row seat to me riding three of these great waves back to back. This session was so good!!!
I could feel the wind slacking so I headed in. Without footstraps, I couldn't keep the board up on its side when I got in close to shore. I got a chip in the stabilizer - small price to pay for a tremendous session.
W:12/FD:10/F:4/S:5
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