A hairy day at Horst.

Before the day started I decided to prove the speedpotential of Olivier's UFO Weed Speed Design and walk the "Swedish" way. I took the Rockstar 54 and the Weed Speed 24 and decided to go for the big winds in the midle of the lake. Close to the shore the water was flat but it was very gusty. I also wanted to find out just how good the Xsteps really are on regular but substantial chop. The front step was skimming the water like a pebble bouncing on flat water. I could really push the nose to keep the angle low and the back step ddid the rest in the gust. Anyone in doubt should seriously reconsider his second thoughts on our wilde concept. Ron translated the original ideas in a masterly fashion and the more I sail the rockstar series, the more I love the boards. The Weed fin helped the board to track and this resulted in two runs over 8o peak speed at the point where the wind was strongest and the chop the most severe.

the wind increased and turned a little from slight off shore to side shore making it possible for me to get enough momentum for the bigger board to go fast over there as well. the fastest run resulted in my personal best topspeed on a board of this size (54 wide 80 litre). After the run the wind picked up to gusts of 45 and possibly a very short period 50 knots. I just went for it and after the inevitable crash I laughed and realized the mental block is gone completely. As I went for it I accellerated to 77km/h over full chop and from behind a gust simply overthrew me as the accelleration of the board just didn't follow the forward movement of my body trying to hold down the sail. y harnessline crashed and I missed the most fun part of the day. Still stoke with the speeds set on a speed/slalomboard and a weed fin on open water.