the taste of humiliation...

[PonoBill]

Obviously I needed some. Today was pretty rough, very confused swells and lots of gusts at Doheny. I went out on my 12'2" in the morning and immediately fell in a dozen or so times. Hard to be fast when you can't stand up. I plugged away at it and did some reasonable times, but only for short runs. I couldn't engage my legs at all--too busy doing the bogaloo on the board.

No need to worry about theoretical hull speed in these conditions--I averaged 15.20 minutes per mile, that's less than 4mph. Hmmm.

So I took out the Starboard 12'6". Much easier to stand on and I could get my legs into the mix. I paddled hard for what I figured was one lap--1.5 miles--looked at my watch and discovered I'd done 0.3 miles. Yikes. I did 1.6 miles, averaged 16.55 minutes per mile.

So I'm reduced to another math problem--one of those nasty word problems we all hate. Assuming Billy falls off his board three times per mile, and it takes him 30 seconds to get back on and paddling each time, which board should he use?

I also tried the Point in the afternoon, but by then the wind was up even more and it was blowing the nose all over the place.

I think I understand a lot better what Rand and Byron were talking about. I've been spending too much time in rivers.

[stoneaxe]

Damn....that's painful! What the hell were you paddling into?

That's the stuff I like to play in most of the time for workouts but I don't expect to be fast in it. I wouldn't even attempt the 12-2 though. Especially lately.

Sat supposed to be NW winds 10-12 kts, 2.5 ft at 12 sec from the SW. Going to make for interesting mix.

[Velasco]

Sounds like the weather is going to be an "equalizer" for the BOTP -

Should be a great race!!!