Short session today had to get back for work used the 41 today felt nice very easy to get going but did'nt have alot of time to get it tuned properly would have been great to sail longer and get more runs ... next time.

started off with the 48cm board and the Avalon 5.3 sail for the alphas.

When wind picked up after lunch changed to the 43cm board and the koncept 4.4 for the speeds.

Lake George..

Sails and boards felt great today. Total control at all times.

1st time on new Hot Sails Maui GPS 5.5 - very nice sail fast and comfortable and like the 7.3 it rotates perfectly.  Started with a 1 hour on the isonic 86 combo with Black Project weed speed 31 and 5.5 - fin worked excellent heaps of drive upwind and during the hour had a couple of 39 knots peaks.  Also managed some nice alphas too and jagged a pb.

The wind had picked up so changed to isonic 50 with GPS 5.5 and Vector Weed Speed 23.  1st run managed a 40 peak with 40 knot 10 second.  Fin felt good but damaged bottom and rear edge on 1 run early.  Managed some 41 knot peaks but found it hard to find the flat water and time a gust.  Later in the day adjusted outhaul and dropped cleat out rear of boom.  Luckily found it re-adjusted and took off.  Bang broke outhaul rope 500m downwind of launch area.  Knackered at this time i had to walk through knee deep mud back to shore.  Grabbed a new outhaul rope and went back out and also allowed me to clean up damaged fin.

Still stuck in the 41's and by this time i was stuffed and had to head into town for tea.

Not the peak and average i was after but time with new sail i am sure the numbers will come.

Good to get out and clear the head and heart from the last 1.5 weeks.

Not enough wind for a 5.0 but wanted to get it tuned.5.8 would have been nice.

day morning gybes with nomad fin

day 3 arvo

Lake George, SA, AU 

Fanatic Falcon 85, 5.5 evo3, 23KA/CL

Finally home after a seemingly eternal F.I.F.O. mission that i book-ended with some social catch-ups with old friends now liviing in Radelaide.

Woke up this morning at 2:30am (Perth time) to drive back through the Roo's in the dark to make my flight. it all seems like a bit of a blur right now, and suffering mixed emotions, someone hand me my tampons...after reviewing my data at home, gotta say that i feel like a right royal twit! ....Mistakes, there were a plenty...

Here is a list of things not to do, hopefully others can learn from my mistakes.

1a. Take the right gear (SHOULDA taken the CA44) Got carried away with going fast on the wrong gear.

1b. Go with at least one other from your team (SHOULDA waited for at least one more SRM'er for backup/team scores).  

2. Allow for more than 1 decent day (WOULDA been better if Day 2 was as per Day 1) Stupidly decided to leave the hour category for Day 2 which didn't happen. Arrive earlier, warm up into it, don't get arm pump in the first 2 minutes. Familiarise yourself with the place- it's not your typical sailing destination, for me at least it's a compelety unatural feeling to be sailing in such ridiculuously shallow water, weed and quicksand.

3a. Tighten up those alphas (COULDA got a 26.4 alpha at 57m, and my PB of 24.97 was only 360m long- that's 140m of juice at the end that went astray)

3b. COULDA tried more nm's ending in the shallower water, where i was pinching at the end of the session as I gained in confidence (See item 2 - familiarisation)

4. A KA/CL 23 is NOT a weed fin!

SHOULDA, WOULDA, COULDA.

Hopefully i will be less cynical tomorrow after a good sleep and maybe try again next year, when i will know what to expect a little better.

On a positive note I really enoyed meeting some of the friendly GPSTC crew, which has once again demonstrated the immense value of this website's social culture.

THANKS ESPECIALLY TO JIMBOB - SAMMY THE SNAIL SALMON - TRICKY - HERBY - KIMBA - CHRIS A. and the guy in the ute who showed me how to get where i needed to be.

lg DAY 3

Firstly I have to thank Matt and Ado for comming along for the ride and Matt for encouraging me to go out again.

This trip wouldn,t have been possible without the help and support from Amac (Ka sails), James (Carbon Art) , Adam (Ion) and Woz at RPS.

The idea of doing a distance record was formed after last years trip with Daffy as we were very impressed with the flat water and consistant winds,ideal for this type of mission.

Started at 5am and was very slow to get rigged rigged as I was still sore from Monday crash and slept really badly. Motivation wasn,t very good but this is what I came here to do. On the water by 7.30 with the Ka 6.6 and the Ca 53 with the wind a nice 18kts .....perfect. Had a few hrs of this untill the wind went just weird....1/2 the lake had good wind and 1/2 had NO wind and then it would switch sides making it very hard work for a few hrs.

Then as people arrived for their next LG pb fix so did the wind and it started to crank. Soon it was a sold 25+kt and with the 6.6 up the board was flying up and off the wind,this is when the good 1hr was done.I had a bad case of the giggles in the middle of one run after bouncing my way through some ugly chop while the board handled perfectly. This sport is sooooo much fun.

Soon the wind got too strong so I tried the Ca 40 for a run but I was too worn out to deal with the small board so it was back onto the 53 with the Ka 5.8 instead.

I had tweeked my back a little in Sundays crash and it was starting to give me so issues so I had to go up wind on one tack long bearaway into a jybe then a long reach with a short bearaway to try and relax it. Worked for a while untill the back leg got sore. Then it was just rotate up wind/down positions and preserve the body.

As the last sailor went home it was just me and the swans crusing across Lake George and when the sun set I called it a day.......530km

Matt checked the distance and said "get back out there and do 4 more laps, I,ll set up on of the lights" and so with no onboard lights and a very set sun I did 10 2km laps of Lake George. The swans weren,t very happy and the last run back was in total darkness with just the green light on the beach to aim at and it was a hoot. Thanks Matt.

Morning.....felt great ,arms/shoulders a little sore ,big blister on the left hand and the legs a bit stiff. Finished the morning with a coffee with friends and then drove back home to Wonthaggi.

No rest ,off to Dargo tomorrow to help with the bushfires

Sl 53, Koncept 6.6, Wolfgang 26 Duo weedie

LG - Lives Good