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Welcome to Summer. So Sore...

First on the water and last off.

First sail of Dec and last sail too...

Started in 10-15kts with 'The Crab' Foil, and TRX 7.7. Couple of nearly air gybes, couple of catapults... after peaking at 20kts.

Happily I learned the bliss of foiling DEEP off the wind. If you can turn downwind past 90, past 120, past 140,... past 150 degrees off the wind, and maintain your altitude, the sail is just at the point of 'over sheeting' and stops fighting you... well until the next gust. If the wind is light it is easy to drop off the foil, but even some scary looking gusts felt empty doing this. #NewSkill. 

Then the wind picked up... and I kept foiling with my new skills, no longer scared of the downwinders.

Then the lulls picked up... and I had no respite, so I switched to the slalom board: 

Exo RS4 and ERD38cm fin. Awesome! Planned most of the time, some gybes needed a pump up. Had a fun half hour trying to overtake Justin Lord on his 120L patrick, 36cm fin and Gun 8.2. We were pretty evenly matched actually! He can crank a decent gybe too!

Highlights of the day: 

1. watching the police boat hassle a green jet ski
2. almost air gybes on the foil
3. learning to downwind on the foil
4. foiling all the way to kurnell and back - in 25kt winds as soon as you get past the end of the runway... wow so much stronger down there today!
5. beating a JetStar 767 down the runway side by side
6. beating an Emirits A380 down the runway side by side 
7. loosing to both upwind :(
8. chasing Lord down the runway
9. chasing Lord up the runway
10. NAILING! a couple of lay-down gybes in front of the crowd at the beach
11. nailing a couple of lay-down gybes along the runway (do they count if no one sees?)
12. chatting with Justin about the lack of duck gybes after watching a sailor pull one off
13. pulling of a duck gybe in front of the crowd at the beach... when the gust ran out and a lay-down wasn't an option. The foot of my sail copped a crumpling
14. feeling light on the fin cranking down the runway  -  send it!
15. sailing ALL THE WAY back to the old airport control tower from the far end of the runway, must have had a bit of east in the NE'er today
16. feeling so tired i could barely lift 'the crab' onto the roof to get home :)

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Kyeemagh, NSW, AU

FF115 MS7.0

Nice and warm and as good as it gets noreaster.

And about time too.

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Kyeemagh, NSW, AU - Exocet RS3, 6.5m Maui Sails Titan, 39cm vector fin

Very nice NW wind with a bit more east than usual permitting runs up and down alongside the runway.  Nice for it to happen on a weekend so I could get there early enough to enjoy it.  It became patchy later in the afternoon but by that time I was satisfied.