Another Sneaky Waikanae Southwester came in today!
Location: Waikanae Beach
Equipment: Naish 7.2m Wing, Naish Hover Ultra 125L, Foil Naish Jet 1650
Wind: 8-10kts when we arrived.
The day was beautiful and we were really looking forward to another session on the water. The wind was light so I set up the 7.2m Wing. My first tack out felt good and steady. The water was calmer and I was able to play around with foot positions and try running off the wind slightly to get a bit more speed. On my first tack back to shore and I jumped off a little early (was planning to walk back upwind) so I tacked back out again playing around with the wing and board positions.
But to my dismay when I tacked back to shore I was a long way down wind. There was a strong current with the incoming tide and I think I let it push me too much downwind. So it took a while to walk back up the beach for the next run (especially walking into the current and the wind)
The next run I focussed more on pointing the board upwind. The wind was increasing and I was trying to pull in a bit more on the wing to utilise the wind. A quick hand adjustment to a lower grab handle felt so much better. And I even started to feel some lift in the board. Tacking back to shore and the speed was increasing and it was feeling good. The board definitely lifted momentarily but it was over before I knew it and I don't really know what happened. Surprisingly my partner onshore did see it. His comment later was that I put front foot pressure on too soon so the board dropped back down before it really had a chance. I jumped off and turned back to tack out again. As I got up a bit of speed I got another lift but this time I couldn't get enough pressure on the front foot and it just kept lifting until I fell off the back. Hmmmm. This is a challenge. But I am keen for more days like today as it was so nice out on the water and even though I'm not successfully on the foil I am having a lot of fun trying, and being able to stand on the board and tack out and back is still good practice and does feel like you are achieving something.
The wind then cranked in to over 20kts suddenly so it was a careful tack back to shore on my knees (as I was way overpowered on the 7m wing).
What a day!
(We forgot the Camera today so the photos are from a previous day on the same Wing.)
