5 categories

Savudrijska vala - Ribic.

Sunny and nice overall, quite strong wind 8bf, gusts up to 10.

Manta 54 , vapor 5.0, select 29

3 categories

Savudrija bay, buragan +-40 knots

manta64 - vapor 5.5 08 - c3 sting 32

First time after long time that I had to really think about going in the water or not. I rigged my ex vapor 5.5 2008 (BIG thanks to Marko the luftbremzer) and after some time of mental preparation I went into the water. I made 50 meters, got destroyed and after several waterstart attempts I returned to the beach. I thought - that was windsurfing for today. Gusts were probably more then 40 knots, water spraying all over the place. Then I saw this crazy mf, Mitko the luftbremzer, and he went straight downwind with 5.0 to reach the "speed spot". I could not believe that he did that, so I had no choice, I had to go with him. At the "spot" conditions were equally wild, but much more gusty, probably 10-50 knots. Windspeed from 15-35 knots was not existant :( Angle was good for deep downwind runs and this is the only thing I could do. I have to confess that I could not do "normal" windsurfing, just downwind speed runs near the stone wall and survival pointing back thru wild chop and spray to the next round. At first couple of runs, I was completely out of control because wind was so gusty that I could not keep the sail locked in. I was on the egde of catapult all the time because of short strong bursts of wind. Then I tought, well this must be the speed conditions, so lets try to make some good speed. I made adjustments to my gear and my head (mastfoot more back, less downhaul on the sail, less chicken) which helped a lot with speed. I made 3 more runs, and each one was faster. The last one was pretty scary because of low tide coming, I could not go near the stone wall, so I had to go in small 20cm chop and that was the fastest run!!! :) I was pretty happy that I did not got destroyed so I decided that was it for today. When I tryed to get to the beach, I realized the wind was even stronger then before and it would be extremely dangerous to try to windsurf back because of offshore wind, so I did the long walk of shame back to the beach.

By the way, this new C3 fin is AMAZING. Sting is very wide and fat and I was sceptical how fast is it. It is fast as hell but at the same time extremely controlable and easy. It trims the board so nice, you do not have to work to put the board in right position for speed, the fin does it by itself! The nose did not fly at all, not in the strongest gusts! Extremely happy with this fin!

Big thanks to Mitja also! I would not make this PB without him. He "motivated" me with his survival downwind run to the spot. Otherwise, I would not go.