Great little session at Melville on Friday afternoon.

100l Patrik, 6.6 KA Koncept and 34cm Vector2

Melville Beach, WA, AU

Melville Beach, WA, Patrik 125, Code Red 5.1, Choco 27

Fun as well as terrifying that I'd hit the sand bar. Gusty as but some very strong gusts. Nice to catch up with Shaw and Geoff,

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Peel Inlet, WA, AU I started with 6m and it was a mistake, sucked out all my juices. Later I used 4.5 and I was still overpowered. I feel so guilty that I did not do the 1 hour that captain wanted. I am sure Mark did it. I drove to the Cundinup and I met JJ. At first I did not recognise him without his blond hair. It was good to see his smile for going over 40, no matter his haircut was nothing like on the picture. Good one. I learned a lot if anything!

MASIVE JUMP ALLEEN. CONRATS.

EPIC SB Beaver!

I guess the shark kept a lot of people away. Only a handful of guys, and just MMob Sam and I on the speed run.

A bit shallow early on, probably fine but I was running a deeper line just in case. Towards the end there were waves breaking over the bar which was sketchy, resulted in one serious stack at a smidge over 35 knots.

Lots of 38's, and a 39 just to tease me. The elusive 40 still out of reach.

I took a friend down to have a go, unfortunately he ended up going head first through his sail fairly early on. It was nuclear!

Good to meet Sam, shame about the Cobbler sting.

CA SP47; F8 Ram 5.4; Curtis Lockwood 23.5; 4kg lead

Melville Beach, WA, AU

A sunny afternoon on the Swan and a chat with a few of the crew - nice to catch up again. :)

90s F2 Sputnik 280 - Tushingham Lightning 5.3 - FO Weed 28 (reshaped)

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Coodanup, WA

NM mission and Coodanup delivered - super stoked to get two 35 knot and three 34 knot NMs, especially as I was sailing more square than usual.

It was proper windy (25+), even had to change-down sail. Not enough water to get on the inside run but plenty of flat sections in the middle.

Stoked I can get decent speed from the delta fin, I had my doubts before today.

Fangy's is awesome, with a more favourable angle on the wind and longer runs, I reckon big speeds are possible.

Top day alright with Mike, Pas, Fangy, Rod, Wozza and later Salty and Stroppo.

Mistral 47, GPS 6 and 5.5, Delta 17

Melville, 5.8 KA, Sonic 95

Good fun in shallow and gusty conditions. Probably not the "avoid surprises and unexpected movement" the Doctor had recommended but still a lot of fun. At times 5.8 was too small and then gusts would come through and it was from perfect through too much to scary.

Very shallow in spots but nice and uncrowded. Good to chat to Geoff and Patrick.

Had to be home for 5pm Xmas "park party". People were complaining it was cold and windy, didnt bother me (but I had a jacket and beany on).

Melville

Peel Inlet, WA, AU

5.4 Overdrive, lorch speed board, 23 Tribal speed weed

EDIT

Started out on the Xfire 90 and 6.0 but came back in after only one run to change down.

Back out again but still struggling in the chop through the boat channel, I could see a few other sails down wind in the flat water, but actually getting there was going to be tricky. Eventually worked my way downwind to the flatter water so now I cold see what the new board and fin combo was really like.

The board/fin combo was so nice and just felt solid and secure which gave me confidence to push a little bit more on each run. First 35 then 36, 36,37, 38  but I was still holding back quite a bit while I'm getting used to the new gear. Next run I decide to give it everything and went flat out and also trying to find a flater run near the shallows all I found was the bottom and CRASH stacked it at full speed.

After that I dcided to call it a day as I was feeling a bit dazed. 

Cant wait for anoher day like that so I can put the pedal fully to the metal, I know I havent got anwhere near this boards potential yet.

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Greg, you are a good man for letting go of the 47.

Mark, I owe you a beer.

I did it!!! This is what dreams are made of!

More in a little while guys... Time for a few champagnes with the missus

Edit: Decided on liptons with Mark, Alan and Jason today and on captain's orders we were chasing the hour and nm. Packed the 7.0 and 6.3 blades and arrived around 2. Should have packed the 5.7!!!!! It was properly nuking when we arrived. Rigged the 6.3 at medium settings and plugged in the iso 81 and did one run, getting lifted like a kite before heading back to shore. Wow. Overdone and then some!!! Mark had a 5.6 and boy was I jealous!  

Mark came back in and told me how to rig properly (downhaulled and outhaulled the life out of it) so we went back out for round 2. Thanks Mark. I might have called it a day at this point if not for some encouragement.

Long story short - still got worked like a mofo with max down haul!!  spent the next hour sussing out the spot with Mark who had already smashed out some 39s. Made my 35s seem embarrassing so after an hour decided to try to make it out on the speed board now that I roughly knew the run. To put this in perspective, crasher was on a 5.5 - ridiculous! 

Got the sp47 and headed back out... Straight downwind. What a blast!! First run 37.5, basically sheeted out in damage control just getting out to point gray. Got the mile here as this was the only mile I could do. Tried lining a few runs up and had a 38 or so but the wind seemed to be dropping. Mark agreed,  it had backed off!  Booooo! 

The 40 should really be Mark's because of little coaxers like "it's just here for the taking ". He really pushed me to grind more runs. If only the original 30 knots was still here in it's full force. After tireless runs, finally got the "slowboat" run, just a long downwind picking up gusts on the way. 40.5 on the dial!!!  Woohoo! This was a real moment of ecstacy. The holy grail. 39.5 10sec.

Spent the rest of the arvo just trying to milk gusts to back up marks 5x10,  pity I only had a couple of fully powered runs. The later it got, the less wind there was. 2 x 39+ 10 seconds and a bunch of 37s in the end. 

Over the moon to get 40 finally.  Big ups to Mark for keeping up the spirit! And a smoking mile Pb to boot! Superb!!!!

All up, it was a great day at a new spot trying the speed thing all arvo, sailing with good company. Couldn't have imagined work with a 30knot breeze outside!

Iso86slim/weedster 28, ca sp47/slingshot 22, RB 6.3

Stoked!!!!

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Peel Inlet, WA, AU

Sorry to keep everyone in suspense.

Great effort by all!

Plan was to try for an hour before going for naughties.

Rigged the 5.6 for comfort as it was looking much windier than last time. Went out for a couple of runs and came back with my tail between my legs!

Put 5kg of weight in the jacket, more downhaul on the 5.6 and smaller fin.

Saw Doddi having his pre sailing beverage and he suggested the other  side of Pt Grey. We had seen Fudge thundering around over there with some huge explosions of spray as he had big offs!

The first task was getting there downwind across hell chop in the channel! Once over there I was pretty cautious but watching Doddi smoking through the shallows. Went upwind with him for one run but was no where near as powered as he was and not keen to get that shallow.

Saw AC1 belt in to the shallows and have a huge off but he lived to tell the tale. 

Runs were short with a sharp pull up but good fun. Mission 1 achieved to get 40+ out of the 91 to justify my non-speedboard approach.

Just about as we got the run sorted out the wind shifted which made the flat water a bit gutless so on to mission 2.

I had earlier tried a run from Liptons to Ward Pt channel marker but had not been able to get deep enough in to the bay and hit the hell chop before getting to the marker for a 32.7. Decided to have another go but the start was slow and hit a hole near the end with minimums in the 27s. Peak in the mile was 37 with a 36 10sec so could have been epic! Next time!

This image shows just why being able to sail upwind well is important. Jake gets a longer run in to the flat to build speed and bears away even deeper for a 41 display vs my 40.4

Realspeed numbers 40.21 for my 2s and 37.97 for 5x but still 3rd best 5x and just outside the top 5 for 2s. Mile PB has stood for 4 years so good to get it out of the way!

Loft Blade 5.6, Mistral SL91, MXR 22 weed

Stoked for the energizer bunny to crack 40. He was happy!

Delighted that AC1 found Lurch to his liking. It might not look the goods but it can fly!

Great to see Speedy killing the Nm! 3rd best all time WA naughty behind Stroppo and Doddi! Will have to put Coodanup on the list for the New Year.

Good job, Chris! The 40 will come! Sorry we didn't join you at the Beaver but we got distracted!