Crazy gusts - what to do?

[coachg]

[swchandler]

Ever notice that the best sailors always do everything with such style and aplomb, even in the worst of conditions. It's like they're so in control, and they look good and comfortable doing it. You'll rarely find them doing goofy stuff that doesn't make a lot of sense. Do you think that you could ever catch them stretched out with their front foot up by the mast and their rear foot in the strap because they're fearful of being catapulted? Do they think about the front footstrap being a "bear trap" ready to crush their instep? I don't think so.

[isobars]

[jingebritsen]

coachg, slogging unhooked thru the impact zone is mandatory if one wishes to sail in the prescribed punta san carlos MO. most down there intentionally do so because they want to be nicely powered when wave sailing that side off break. methinks the only time one would be slogging hooked would be waiting for the right set to roll in. the whole rest of the sesh is sailing unhooked.

i wind sup for hours unhooked. loving every minute of it.

again, the best way to deal with gusty conditions is to rig a slippery, large sail, and jibe in the gusts. try to glide thru the lulls. thus avoid slogging.

[GURGLETROUSERS]

A regular session on my surf ski, constantly breaking back out through the impact zone (battle speed paddling power - or be hurled back in) is good for arm, back, and core strength fitness, and out of harness windsurfing. (And much more rewarding than prancing about in a gym! )

But I have to titter about all this BFF stuff. When out on my mahusive Mahalo tandem super-tanker board I need a bloody telescope just to even see the back strap. The notion of stuffing one foot in it, and straddling the mast foot with the other would quite explode my head. (Not to mention other more sensitive areas of my anatomy! )

No, I'll hook in, both feet out of straps, and happily and comfortably gallumph along at a purposeful speed, for miles on end. It's the other side of the coin to high wind short boarding, and just as satisfying.

[cgoudie1]

3 hours ago, I slogged a sinker downwind from Blackberry Beach to
The Boat Ramp,(in the Gorge) on a failing Easterly, and boy would
that have been a long slog (probably about a mile), if I hadn't been
hooked in for most of it. I like being hooked in while slogging. ;*)

-Craig

p.s. up until that time it was solid 5.2 for a couple of hours, with mini swells
by the red bouy ;*)

[cgoudie1]

If you say so.

I'll presume then that you'd equally enjoy the below to ripping jibes
and powered jumps. How do you feel about sex without orgasm?

;*) ;*)

-Craig

[coachg]

[GURGLETROUSERS]

Well, without getting too philosophical, man can't live by strwberries and cream alone, and remain content. (Solomons lament.) I feel sure most of us had cave-man ancestors who banged their heads against the wall to avoid a surfeit of pleasure.

But isn't variation the very fuel of life? Didn't you actually enjoy slogging your sinker - or why mention it!

The O.P. likes his lake, or would simply have given up bothering to windsurf. When I was in that first years flush of windsurfing (wow - secret of life, and all that) everything, and every day felt wonderful, and I couldn't get enough of it.

The shame with many, is that they go down that blind alley of ever higher winds and smaller boards ONLY, and become disillusioned (in real world less than perfect conditions) with the whole thing, and drift out of the sport. They don't seem to 'get it' that sessions of less intense activity on bigger boards actually enhance the whole experience of sailing, can be a 'thing' in themselves, and keep that magic flame burning brightly.

Why else would some of us be in it for life!

[jingebritsen]

yes, if one is dealing with dying winds, then it is okay to slog hooked in, but when gusts come in like canon balls, i won't. it's all about context here. the op wanted to know about gusty stuff. that could the occasional puff, to 18-38 wild stuff with rotary directions and such.