I'll be there for sure Oliver..

I'll check with Jonathan, Dave, Mick, Mike, John, Helke, Haro and Mark... It's looking good. (25-35 knots)

Let's hope there's no east in the north wind this time... btw.. great picture..

DJ

I'm just about to head off now.

It's been honking all night and the wind is gusting between 30-35 knots right now just like the forcast said it would be..

Waa-Hoo! ..

DJ

Forecast for Saturday until midnight
Winds: Northerly 30 to 35 knots, decreasing to 20 to 30 knots by early evening.
Seas: 2 to 2.5 metres then decreasing to below 2 metres late afternoon.

Here are a couple of pics from today. It sure was bleak, the sound of the wind around us was deafening and it had plenty of kick to it with gusts up to 50knotts. We caught stacks of really long runners. DJ was absolutely flying on his glide and remarkably, didn't fall in once. What a great way to spend the morning.



Greg about to catch another runner on the PSH Gun - you can get a bit of a sense here of the size of the chop


Paul on his C4 taking a breather at the half way point

Good pics Oliver. It looks like your having fun but it makes me shiver just looking at them.

I got lots of runners and one full-on honest to goodness surfing wave. Multiple turns cruising on the face in surf stance and the whole bit.

Most of the time it was easiest to just cruise along and take the runners as they came along. It always looked that the big faces were off to the side where everyone else was.

It wasn't cold at all. It was kind of fun to crash and fall in to cool off. Most crashes were caused by the board nosing in to the face of the wave in front.

DJ blasted off into the sunset from the beginning. I think this downwind thing has a heap more skill involved than it looks. For the rest of us, the big performance difference is falling off or not. If you fall off the backmarkers quickly make a good 50m distance on you (or vice versa). A good wave is enough to gain 50m on the paddler ahead.

During falls the wind could catch the board. At one stage I had a PHS 12' Gun twirling around my head at the end of the leash. That could end in tears. Most of the others had similar events.

The run from Green Point was a bit of a marathon of paddling on the right hand side. The coast swings away a little and in that wind there was a definite possibility of missing Sandringham. Next stop Black Rock, Ricketts ... or Rosebud.

Just holding the paddle in the air as a sail made 8 kph. Paddling was just something to keep us amused on the way.

This strong wind downwinding is not something to be taken too lightly. It is impossible to paddle into a 40 knot wind with wind swell. If you don't keep your wits and plan ahead you can be in deep ****.

I'm looking to go kiting tomorrow. I'll see you as you head past ... if I'm up that early.

Cause windsurfers are gay of course. Everybody knows that. How you doing Mikey? I keep meaning to look out for you but I don't spend much time at windsurfing spots.

Hey Gorgo, did you buy the PSH 12 or is she on loan? I would have thought that would be a great board for the really wild down-winders like yesterday, probably just a bit too much rocker to keep up with the Glide but maybe a little easier to control. There is certainly an art to the down-winder, took me a couple just to work out exactly when to really put in the effort to catch the waves.

I returned it. I'll try to borrow it again and take it for a surf. It was ok on the downwinder so if it's outstanding in small to medium surf then I could be interested.

I'm trying to work out where to go next with SUP boards and the best thing is to try everything available. It's also loads of fun.

I saw you guys paddling through today. Through my binos I could recognise DJ in the lead and Oliver in the middle. The wind picked up to a gusty 20-25 knots about 2:00.

champcrow said...

Hey Oliver how does the Naish 11'6'' handle the big down winders?

Danny, The big 11'6" Naish does very well on down-winders IMO..

When it pearls it bogs down where the Glide cuts through with its pointy nose.

Once you learn proper down-winding technique you avoid pearling and head off left or right across the runner.

The sharp rails in the forward half of the Glide can be a little catchy at first but once you're used to it it's not that bad and does give you more speed.

The 11'6" doesn't catch and might not be as fast it is more forgiving..and that's what you want in early days of down-winding.

DJ

JonathanC said...

That interesting DJ, was the nose of the PSH tending to dive deeper into the next wave than the Glide? I guess the PSH is really not designed for the down-winder role, I have thought that it would be slower but "friendlier" - just shows that you really need to demo boards if you possibly can. Do you know anything more on the dimensions of the 14' Glide yet?

Jonathan the new 14' Glide is about 14' x 27".. How wide is your 14' Pene?

You get a really good look at 14'er half way through this vid as the camera pans along the board.. (41 second mark)

Pause it at the shot of the nose.. It looks pretty deep (thick).. Looks great..

DJ

DavidJohn said...

What sail did you have up Mikey.. I may have got a pic of you.. It looked great out there and a pretty good direction for jumps.

DJ

I had a green and white North Voodoo on a red board (Starboard Acid). It sure was good for jumps, once I'd eventually tuned everything right.

Who as it that I saw just standing nonchalantly on their board in the middle of a huge gust as if it was any normal Saturday out on the bay?

I found the PSH pretty stable. Others said it looked like I was working hard to stay upright but I only found it a bit wobbley for the first few minutes. Once I found my legs I was able to stand quite comfortably (which is saying something with 40+ knot gusts blasting through).

I only got on my knees towards the end when I was trying to make ground crosswind. I fell a few times when the nose speared into the wave in front. It didn't take much effort to adjust my technique to stop that happening. I certainly wasn't struggling in the conditions.

I did catch a fair number of runners and one beautiful surfing wave. I also got lots of surges which were great for making distance but not really surfing as it should be. Given the conditions I should have caught a heap more runners but I suspect the problem lay more in my technique than in fundamental problems with the board. With the exception of DJ I never really got left behind at all so I wasn't hugely disadvantaged by the board.

I think that if you're looking for a super downwinder then the PSH is probably not it. If you're looking for a surf specific board that is capable of doing downwinders then it probably is a good choice. I haven't surfed it yet so I can't really comment.

BTW. It is the nicest feeling catching a runner and turning across the face and carving along with a few extra turns thrown in. If it happened in the surf you'd think you were on a crappy mushburger but on a downwinder it becomes a thing of beauty.

There's not enough distance for really big wind swells to build on the St Kilda to Sandringham run. We need to keep an eye on conditions and locations to be able to do a downwinder with a big swell that doesn't put us into life threatening positions. Maybe Frankston, Mt Eliza or Mornington to Mentone on a sea breeze (about 25km)

Session said...


Hi Dave ,

When are you expecting your new 14' Glide ?

are you going the AST model or the all white model and what are your thoughts on the massive nose rocker no issues nose diving on down winders.

Hope you have it B4 the Mambo !!

Rich

Hi Rich.. I should have it in a few weeks (late July/early Aug) and I've gone for the all white.. I've heard that white is much faster than yellow..

I think they need all that nose rocker even if it may catch wind when paddling across the wind and paddling and upwind.

I'm thinking it's more about keeping the nose up just as you begin to catch a runner as the tail gets lifted and as you try and paddle into the back of the wave in front rather than stopping it from pearling when you run into the back of the wave ahead..although it will help then also.

Also I think the very narrow pointy nose is important so that it knifes through the water when it gets pushed under without bogging down and the thickness will help lift the nose again using buoyancy (like the Pene) rather than just relying on the nose rocker alone to resurface.

Interesting stuff.. ..Anyone coming to the Mambo is welcome to have a go.

DJ

Here's the chart from my GPS/heart rate monitor from our downwinder.







You can see in the speed trace where I fall off or stop for a rest and where I catch runners.

The pulse rate is low at the start because I was dry and the transmitter didn't have a good contact. My pulse always goes up to around 180 bpm when supping so that's pretty normal for me.

It's a little odd that my pulse is not so high for the last section. We were paddling pretty hard to get crosswind into the harbour. We were kneeling so that might have something to do with it.

Jeez.. That's right up there.. It must be that survival-mode kicking in..

I'm sure it would be lower (HR) if you were on an easier board.

DJ