Was a bit of a gamble. Started thursday with a tour of Europe and ended today in the afternoon. To be able to do some surfing I took my trailer with me to my work and I was hoping that the forecast would stay the same...
Arrived at the spot around 4pm in light rain and temp of 10-12°C. Together with the rain, the wind picked up a bit. Wasn't easy to choose the correct gear. Made a wrong choice by rigging my 7.0 iso my 7.8 because when I arrived at Hompelvoet (6-7km further) the wind was very light. Everybody i saw today was with big gear, I was on 85L and 7.0 in very gusty conditions. Sometimes 10, sometimes 20 kts... Couldn't find the speed button today. Changed alot of settings during the session, and only in the end when the wind was even less then in the beginning I found the right trim for today's condition: Released my downhaul by 3cm, so i had hardly any leech. At least I could plane earlier like this. First time with 6 spacers in the sail, but it's not perfect. Rotation isn't so nice anymore and even during a run you sometimes hear a camber popping in the right position. Need to work on that.
Today's perfect gear (for me) would have been the F113 + 7.8. In the gusts the F85 + 7.8 would have been the fastest choice, but it was way too unstable. The wind also turned fully north after a while.
At 8pm the wind died completely (10-12 kts) and it took me an hour to reach my car. Luckily 85L is just enough to pull the sail out of the water or to tack. From the 6-7 km, i had to swim only 100m. Too bad i couldn't make the 100 km today.
Next time hopefully without wintersuit !!
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