Prayot, Norm and I did the WP-PV downwind run this afternoon.
Wind was just under whitecapping speeds when Norm and I got there. Prayot had already launched and was up on his Appletree Chicken Nugget wingboard.
There were waves, but nothing threatening.
Nice high tide made launching and recovery relatively easy.
Norm got a new board! 125 liter Naish DW Hover board.
I went out with the same board/foil/mast combo as the past several sessions - but opted for the BRM Maliko 5.1 as the wind seemed a bit stronger.
I got up on foil without too much drama and I stayed up for quite some time. I could have easily held my line, but after Prayot and Norm passed the cabins, I felt we were committed, and I embraced the longer flow of riding along with the waves.
Norm did get up on foil intermittently - he needed to move the foil forward to get up faster.
Prayot wasn't getting up being on the wingboard.
And then I hit the dead zone - and didn't get back up until I lined up on Nimitz Beach. I cut my losses and made a beeline in.
Riding with the BRM Maliko 5.1 is actually a joy - it turns well, has a decent low end and pulls upwind without drama. I didn't try to retract the PW because I didn't want to have to deal with relaunching.
As I hit the dead zone, I began thinking whether I would have been better off taking the Flysurfer POW 5.0
I probably would have been able to get through the dead zone on foil, but I would have missed out on the perfectly dialed in power that the Maliko 5.1 had today.
Tomorrow looks like the last day with wind for at least a week. One more day of parawinging!
W:56/FD:115/PW:42/S:8
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