Beginner/intermediate gear for the Gorge & Portland

[rhorton1]

That's awesome. Thanks for the tips. Definitely will be looking for an impact vest type flotation jacket, and I'll use that trick with my waterstarts! Work smaryer, not harder, right?

[isobars]

I never swim my gear around and I lift a sail out of the water only if I choose to do so.

If I need to reorient my rig or board, I just grab 'em and swing my legs in a big horizontal circle. Within three such circles I can rotate stuff to any angle I want. Swimming is for getting our butts somewhere else, not for rotating.

The only time I lift a sail is when it's riiiiight where I want it AND I'm fresh AND it's not flooded AND I'm in a hurry AND I wanna. Otherwise I just pop the board tail beneath the boom and let Archimedes do the lifting for me. Caveat: this isn't as easy with big boards with floaty tails, and tall guys who run their booms high may need to extend their board tails with their forearm to create a place to rest the boom on.

[30knotwind]

I always used the tail of the board too until I tried the tip of the mast trick, it is way easier when the mast is upwind of the board.

[johnl]

I quit using the tail years ago as boards got shorter and I got tired of tearing up my booms. I found going to the tip and lifting it was simple and easy. Of course after learning the clew first waterstart it got even easier

[isobars]

I pad my board tails. Haven't damaged a boom or knowingly wasted a calorie waterstarting in my last 72,000 waterstarts.

Mike \m/