Nuking at the WTF level

[PonoBill]

I thought the beginning of the week was full of tasty gorge nuking treats. I didn't realize it was just a warmup for yesterday. I had a pretty good idea it was going to be crazy when I carried my board down to the water--it was difficult to hang on to it. The parking lot at the event center was nearly empty, there were only a few people on the grass and no kitesurfers on the spit. One lone windsurfer in the water doing about mach 3. One kiter. No wingers. I put that mostly down to it being early and I blew up my 3.5 and headed out.

I should have known. As my friend Tony Garmey says about challenging race tracks "that separates the sheep from the goats". He's from New Zealand. No, I don't really know what that means either but it seemed about right.

Yikes. Crazy wind. Like 35 gusting to WTF. I did a few passes on the edge of control and quite a bit past it. I started wearing my goofy Spartacus helmet the day before after my board blew over my head twice following some over foiling face plants and the foil went past my ear with a fairly loud whizzzzzz. Earth to Bill--this is your last warning. Wear the fucking helmet. I was glad I had it on.
I was up on my tiptoes going over every swell, very hard to keep the board under control. The gusts were so strong that they shoved the board around under my feet. 3.5 meters was much too big.
I went in and pumped up my 2.8. This little toy is so rarely used the price tag was still on the bag. I headed for the channel up by the bridge. My plan was a nuclear upwind/downwind. About halfway there my little toy got ripped out of my hands by a gust. It hit the end of the leash and just stayed there like a patient poodle. I had more than enough power to stay up on the foil with the wing tugging on me. "Hey look at me, I'm doing a Chris Anderson." Of course, Chris does that every day, and he does it on purpose, but still...

I reeled the little bugger in and it started darting around like the poodle suddenly got rabies. I managed to get the handles and continued up the river. When I got to the hatchery the swells we so monstrous that it was hard to go upwind. With virtually no one around to do body recovery the entire enterprise started seeming unwise, so I downwinded back up the river. I was back at the EC in a flash. A few other wingers and windsurfers showed up. I mowed the lawn with occasional forays to the bridge, but my wing got blown out of my hands twice more (this thing is about the size of a pillowcase) and I started getting cramps in my back leg, so I bailed after about two hours. Gregg Leion (Covesurfer) came by and gave me shit about the size of my wing. If it looks tiny to Gregg, it's megatiny. I have boardshorts that are bigger.

I went back for a second session in the late afternoon and found a much lighter wind. So light that most folks were on 4.2-5.0 with the lighter folks on 3.5. I blew up my 6.0 and had a blast. What a great wing that thing is. The wind kept dropping and I was having a great time, though I kept getting sloppier. My Switchfoot jibes are coming along well, but after an hour or so I didn't make any. I kept losing the turn and splashing down. Commit, dammit!

I came in after about two hours of playing. The wind still looked good for my monster wing. But I was beat. I woke up with leg cramps, ab cramps, and arm cramps about four times last night. Oh well, the cost of doing business.

[Phils]

Yep, it has been windy.  Last couple of days I have been on my 2 m at Swell City and been ok to a bit overpowered.  Biggest waves I have winged on.   It has been amazing fun but I am at my limit until someone makes a smaller wing.

[PonoBill]

Any smaller and you can just hold a hanky.

[Wingingtanuki]

Just out of curiosity, what size foil are you using with these tiny wings?

[PonoBill]

Axis 890. I could have used something a lot smaller, even with my fat ass. It was challenging to keep the wing in the water.