Author Topic: 50 knot+ downwind near Marseille - video  (Read 39308 times)

PonoBill

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Re: 50 knot+ downwind near Marseille - video
« Reply #60 on: February 18, 2021, 06:49:29 AM »
Yeah, the first time your board blows over your head and hits the end of the leash like a pissed-off Marlin you start thinking about how to double down on leashes. I've done a couple of involuntary long swims. Not fun. I've also proned in after I lost my paddle (and lost my wing while wingfoiling). Certainly doable, but at 74 I don't want to do it unless I really need to. I'll be adding a short two-piece paddle to my foilboard for Maui downwinders this year. I think I can make one about 15" long that will connect to be about 30". Kneeling and paddling is not wonderful, but it beats the crap out of prone paddling with my shitty shoulders.
Foote 10'4X34", SIC 17.5 V1 hollow and an EPS one in Hood River. Foote 9'0" x 31", L41 8'8", 18' Speedboard, etc. etc.

Luc Benac

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Re: 50 knot+ downwind near Marseille - video
« Reply #61 on: February 18, 2021, 08:14:35 AM »
Super. L'etang de Berre semble parfait pour un downwind.

I have to say that when watching some of the big drops, my feet moved on their own volition into a surf stance and I had to go down to the garage to give a pat at my Maliko and Torpedo.
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PaddleSpot

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Re: 50 knot+ downwind near Marseille - video
« Reply #62 on: February 18, 2021, 09:02:32 AM »
Yeah, the first time your board blows over your head and hits the end of the leash like a pissed-off Marlin you start thinking about how to double down on leashes. 

My leash is actually a 4mm spectra rope, with two plugs, and a bowline around my ankle, with a snap shackle for quick release. Just unbreakable.

Olivier Drut
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Re: 50 knot+ downwind near Marseille - video
« Reply #63 on: February 18, 2021, 09:05:07 AM »
Another one, with a coiled leash inside the spectra rope

Olivier Drut
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tarquin

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Re: 50 knot+ downwind near Marseille - video
« Reply #64 on: February 18, 2021, 09:44:53 AM »
Great vid. Must get down there one day. Only a 2 hour drive from me.
 Are you left handed Olivier?

PaddleSpot

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Re: 50 knot+ downwind near Marseille - video
« Reply #65 on: February 18, 2021, 09:53:19 AM »
Great vid. Must get down there one day. Only a 2 hour drive from me.
 Are you left handed Olivier?

no, why ?
Olivier Drut
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tarquin

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Re: 50 knot+ downwind near Marseille - video
« Reply #66 on: February 18, 2021, 10:58:00 AM »
Your bowlines look like they are tied by a lefthanded person.
 I am in Cannes. If you are ever down this way send me a message.
 Looks like you get better downwind conditions there than in the bay of Cannes.

PonoBill

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Re: 50 knot+ downwind near Marseille - video
« Reply #67 on: February 18, 2021, 06:58:30 PM »
I suspect he's tying a tugboat bowline, the same one I do. (note: some websites show a very different knot for tugboat bowline--one that I want to learn. Mine starts as an overhand knot that gets pulled through to form the loop). Sailors ask me if I'm left-handed on occasion. I never tie a regular bowline, tugboat bowlines are quick and easy. I tie them automatically, even when I don't really need a bowline. I'm pretty sure that if I tie the sheets in knots while I'm sleeping it will be a trucker's hitch. I tie them with my eyes closed--it's easier. You learn a few knots, and they work forever. Seeing people do some kind of macrame to tie something down makes me physically ill, I have to walk away. I no longer try to teach them a better way. People who can't tie a decent knot by the time they are twenty are simply immune to learning.
« Last Edit: February 18, 2021, 07:20:44 PM by PonoBill »
Foote 10'4X34", SIC 17.5 V1 hollow and an EPS one in Hood River. Foote 9'0" x 31", L41 8'8", 18' Speedboard, etc. etc.

tarquin

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Re: 50 knot+ downwind near Marseille - video
« Reply #68 on: February 19, 2021, 09:21:21 AM »
One of my Mistral days in the bay of Cannes. The swell dosnt have enough scope to pick up but its plenty windy.

supthecreek

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Re: 50 knot+ downwind near Marseille - video
« Reply #69 on: February 19, 2021, 08:04:40 PM »
Yeah, the first time your board blows over your head and hits the end of the leash like a pissed-off Marlin you start thinking about how to double down on leashes. 

My leash is actually a 4mm spectra rope, with two plugs, and a bowline around my ankle, with a snap shackle for quick release. Just unbreakable.

That was some amazing DW conditions! Nice vids  :)

I do have a comment on your leash arrangement.
I couldn't tell if you have any stretchy part of you 4mm Spectra Rope, but it didn't look like it.
A guy went surfing small waves with a leash similar to yours.... just an unbreakable thin rope tied around his ankle
I watched him bury the nose of his surf SUP, so it shot up behind him and  the line strangled his ankle and almost cost him his foot.

He crawled up on the beach, barely able to talk, he was is excruciating pain.
There were 3 army buddies with him that tried to cut the line off his foot for about 5 minutes.
the line had sunk into his flesh so deep, that they couldn't get a knife blade under it.

I told them to cut him if they had too, but they had to get that line off before he lost his foot.

He just laid there, almost unable to speak... if he was alone, he never would have gotten the line off.

There was a 1/4" deep groove in his ankle left by the thin rope and he could barely walk afterwards.

Not something you want to happen offshore in 50 mph winds, where you could bury the nose and have a similar violent tug on your thin rope leash.

Apologies if you have this all settled, but I thought something should be said in case other readers decided to use a thin rope as a leash.

Pics of the incident:

PaddleSpot

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Re: 50 knot+ downwind near Marseille - video
« Reply #70 on: February 20, 2021, 01:10:33 AM »

Not something you want to happen offshore in 50 mph winds, where you could bury the nose and have a similar violent tug on your thin rope leash.

Apologies if you have this all settled, but I thought something should be said in case other readers decided to use a thin rope as a leash.

You are totally right. But a properly done knot will never strangle the ankle. And I have a triple bungee along the rope. And booties. And a quick release. I've been using this system for 3 years, first with a 10mm rope around the ankle, then downsizing to 6, and now 4mm. I fall a lot, no violent tug so far.

Olivier Drut
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Re: 50 knot+ downwind near Marseille - video
« Reply #71 on: February 20, 2021, 01:14:33 AM »
The cool thing with this system is that you can keep an eye on the wear and tear of the rope. On a regular leash, you generally see nothing until it breaks.
Olivier Drut
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PonoBill

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Re: 50 knot+ downwind near Marseille - video
« Reply #72 on: February 20, 2021, 01:53:51 AM »
I stick with Urethane, having a bungee launch something at you is trading one hazard for another. Urethane stretches enough to take up shock but has a lot of hysteresis that takes time to overcome. That means it recoils slowly. Generally, even a serious stretch goes away after a few hours and most of the stretch from a shock is recovered in seconds. But unless it's coiled it won't fire back at you if it gets released. I pull them apart with a truck to see where my old leashes fail. I've done that the dozens of leashes over the years. They don't come whipping back.

I've seen people forego a cuff and just use a rope when they forgot their leash, it always looks really dangerous to me. If I was alone, where my board couldn't nail anyone, and didn't mind swimming in, I'd surf without a leash rather than use a rope, but I'd skip surfing before I'd just tie the thing to my leg.
Foote 10'4X34", SIC 17.5 V1 hollow and an EPS one in Hood River. Foote 9'0" x 31", L41 8'8", 18' Speedboard, etc. etc.

PaddleSpot

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Re: 50 knot+ downwind near Marseille - video
« Reply #73 on: February 20, 2021, 02:08:52 AM »
I stick with Urethane, having a bungee launch something at you is trading one hazard for another. 

The bungee part is only 50cm long on a 3 meter leash, it doesn't provide enough energy for a 14' board to come back to the sender  against 40kt wind + bumps.
Olivier Drut
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PonoBill

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Re: 50 knot+ downwind near Marseille - video
« Reply #74 on: February 20, 2021, 06:58:10 AM »
Probably so. I've done the same belt and suspenders approach with standard leashes for downwinding, backing them up with 4mm spectra that's a foot or so longer than the leash. I reduce the tangles by taping the cord to the leash about every foot or so and making a flat loop to take up the slack. That gets held to the leash with velcro ties at each end. I don't worry about the swivels--I bypass them. I've never seen more than a few twists.

I see people do clever things like dual leash plugs and then negate the benefit by threading a single line through them to attach the rail saver. I do two loops and one of them is loose and floppy. If the line breaks, which is common, the second one holds and is obvious.

In my testing, I've seen leashes break everywhere. At the cuff, at the rail saver, in the urethane, at the molded join, at the swivel, in the swivel attachment, and cuff velcro wears out or gets plugged with stuff and won't hold. You name it, I've seen it. It's become an end-of-Maui-season tradition--pull all the leashes until they break. Get new ones next year. I should have taken notes and pictures, but I didn't. For some reason, I don't do it in hood river, so I have a big box of leashes I don't use. Handy for hooking up the grandkids and daughters since they don't do spooky downwinders.
Foote 10'4X34", SIC 17.5 V1 hollow and an EPS one in Hood River. Foote 9'0" x 31", L41 8'8", 18' Speedboard, etc. etc.

 


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