Messages

16

Gear Talk / Re: Compression footprints on my touring board. Wondering if this is a problem.

« on: July 31, 2019, 09:55:37 AM »

You need to check if your board has a leak.

You should, of course, have weighed your board when new. If not do it now. Then monitor.

What you describe happened to me twice.

Once when a friend took my board out without closing the venting screw. First thing I noticed were those foot dents. Exactly as you describe. Had to set it out to dry for a summer. Once dry the dents went [mostly] away.

The other when riding another board (on a DW) a friend kept falling on my board on his knees. I was next to him and kept begging him to PUHeeeeease fall in the water instead (warm summer, go figure). After that my board quickly developed those foot dents you describe. I felt something was wrong. Soon enough my board was very heavy. Had to cut the deck right off. It was totally waterlogged. Deck was cracked (under pad) right around where knees would fall.

Always monitor the weight of your boards.

17

Training, Diet, and Fitness / Re: Shoulder pain and THC

« on: July 12, 2019, 12:51:45 PM »

^ good skill to have

18

Gear Talk / Re: Should I blame David John?

« on: June 23, 2019, 02:27:29 PM »

perfect light quiver
 

19

Downwind and Racing / Re: Sucko Downwinder

« on: June 20, 2019, 06:04:29 AM »

Downwinding is very popular in the gorge. Windsurfing still is as well, though there are probably more kites than either. For me, I haven't windsurfed for at least two years. I started in the 80's, got fairly good after about ten years, got hurt (doing other stuff) and didn't get back to it for about ten years. When I finally did I sucked at it, and I've never spent enough time to get back to where I was. I was a little bored with it anyway, especially with all the gear and the inevitable sail and board changes.

Downwinding is me, a board and a paddle. The simplicity is a big feature and I feel like I'm going someplace (even if it's only ten miles usually covering the same territory) instead of just going back and forth across the river.

When I first got serious about Windsurfing the Gorge was where I went whenever I had a chance. Then I sailed at Manzanita and liked it a lot better. You can sail out until there's nothing but ocean on the horizon, and there's waves. Bought a beach house there and owned it for 35 years.

To answer the question, I'd rather downwind than windsurf. I still have all my gear, I might swing back to windsurfing some day. But almost everyone I knew who windsurfed no longer does it.

Same same. Exactly.

'sept I still know some crusty ol' windsurfer diehards. Most lost me at "kite". Skiing keeps us in touch.

20

Downwind and Racing / Re: Squall! Seen from the inside

« on: June 17, 2019, 12:01:56 PM »

for a good lesson on what to look for a sea watch the boats in the background while watching

21

Downwind and Racing / Re: Squall! Seen from the inside

« on: June 17, 2019, 11:56:06 AM »

well, this is really boring. Just spent 30 mins trying to post a link. Total nOOb!

damnit
so... go to facebook and search on

Huit minutes à bord du Grand Surprise Morpho où l'on retient son souffle. Des images qui

22

Downwind and Racing / Re: Squall! Seen from the inside

« on: June 17, 2019, 11:52:45 AM »

s

23

Downwind and Racing / Re: Squall! Seen from the inside

« on: June 17, 2019, 11:52:18 AM »

https://www.sail-world.com/news/218697/Bol-dOr-Mirabaud-2019--An-epic-edition

24

Downwind and Racing / Re: Squall! Seen from the inside

« on: June 17, 2019, 11:51:47 AM »

s

25

Downwind and Racing / Squall! Seen from the inside

« on: June 17, 2019, 11:42:25 AM »

Here is a really interesting video of what happens when a squall hits you and how much time you get. Seen in real time.

Hint: when you see that kind of sh!t unfurling in the sky ... batten the hatches. Like hardcore.

This was this past Saturday, during a regatta on alpine Lake Leman, Geneva. The biggest, by participants, inland race in the world. Storm warnings were out 24h before. So everyone outthere knew. But still, when it hit...

Kudos to the great seamanship out there. 212 yachts abandoned the race, 49 dis-masted, 3 sunk, gusts of 60 knots measured. No casualties among race participants.

One woman died in the squall. Not part of the race but on a "pleasure craft", near Geneva.

Vid is 8 mins. Watch 'til the end. It's kind of funny. The crew handles it very well... until...

For the 4 min version watch the first few secs and then skip to about 03:45 when it really starts to honk.

Sail world article for more info:
   

s

 

26

Sneak Peeks, Rumors, and Wish Lists / Re: New 2020 Naish Javelin

« on: June 14, 2019, 12:58:22 PM »

...
Nah. Once you're in a well made surfski and you find its so easy to hold 13kph, you really forget why the hell you were trying to drag yourself anywhere at 9kph with a back breaking effort.

When I'm 80 they can wheel me out to get into sit-down sports thingies. Not before.

27

Sneak Peeks, Rumors, and Wish Lists / Re: 2020 Naish Maliko pics

« on: June 14, 2019, 12:55:21 PM »

^ yes, but...

could make that whoops, "now it's gonna be a side wind grind", kinda sucky

28

Wingsurfing, Windfoiling, Wingfoiling, Wing SUP / Re: Tried the Naish wing today

« on: May 30, 2019, 02:12:41 PM »

... but I need my gear to help me out, not add to the challenge. Oh, well, I guess mid June isn't THAT far off. In the meantime I'll go beat myself to death trying to downwind foil.

I always choose my gear for the toughest part of the day.

A 2 week wait can be tough though. You sure you can handle that? Damn!

29

SUP General / Re: Bizarre but fast looking pedal-powered paddle drive

« on: May 25, 2019, 02:23:35 PM »

I was expecting something really stupid, but hey, that's a pretty clean stroke! Impressive and pretty simple [given how complex it is].

He could have the blades dig in a little deeper. Just a guess. The blades certainly rise up high enough on their recovery phase to be set a bit deeper. The board, rudder, outrigger are also pretty damn sleek.

It's just a lot of hassle. Only thing missing is the simplicity of SUP. 

30

Random / Re: Investigations into Trump - obstruction, campaign, taxes, business, etc

« on: May 15, 2019, 02:24:21 AM »

The reason AP and Reuters pops to the top of the credibility chart is simply that they are feed sources for news organizations--not for consumption by the public: What, When, Where, Why and how. As such they have no discernible bias, and no opportunity to exercise whatever they have.
 …

If you look closer the top row is meant to be just that; raw feed sources.

…

Luca--a few days reading comments on Youtube will have you reaching for the reset button on humanity. People aren't just stupid, they're willfully ignorant and mean. There's a certain natural isolation that keeps capable and reasonably intelligent people isolated from the stunning stupidity of most people: You never have any real interaction or a conversation with someone who is really stupid unless they are related to you, and at least half of humanity is as dumb as a bag of hammers. It's the critical piece that democracy forgets about, and the reason why functioning liberal "democracies" are all at least republics. A real democracy would last a year at most.

I recommend you visit Switzerland and spend some time in remote places speaking with simple uneducated and not-so-smart people. A local café is a good place to start but you could also go further than the last village and stop and talk with locals. You’ll be shocked how informed they are on issues. With borders never far away you’ll be surprised how many can speak a foreign language so you can actually talk with many of them. If you give the people the power to vote they actually will go out and get informed. Which actually is the first step to un-dumb them.

Here’s the history and the theory
   https://houseofswitzerland.org/swissstories/history/way-modern-direct-democracy-switzerland
but, as said above, it is the effect it has on how informed Mr&Mrs DumbF#ck are as a result that is pleasantly refreshing.


A “democracy” with representatives that are paid into position by the big and powerful companies and lobbies drifts very quickly from being a true democracy. I heard Chomsky talking about that when I was 18 but now it is becoming even more extreme.