yeeeehar!

And its about time I added some comments. The story:

This was my first full session using the KA Koncept 4.4m rig that I borrowed from the shop window on the way from the airport. I only did a couple of runs on it the day before as the tide was coming in to check it out.

Andrew kindly brought down some lead shot to put in my jacket but it was not practical to get together for the first session the day before, so I filled the bags in the morning.

My board was waterlogged from the day before, but it didn't seem to hurt its performance. Hard to tell really!

So armed with a 4.4m, a 7kg weight jacket, and a waterlogged board I hit the inlet.

The wind was averaging 20-25 with gusts to about 40. I was trying to time my runs with the gusts, and occasionally I hit a few rippers. Those were my fastest runs. My best runs were generally at the start of the session. All of them were over 41knots on the display, and I did 23 runs.

My 4th last run was into the tide but the wind was really powered and steady right through the course unlike most of the other runs which usually had lulls. Tim Daddo told me the wind was 31 to 32 knots while I did the run, and I got my max GPS of 46.7kts. The incoming tide did not seem to be affecting the water close to the bank.

So what made the difference from the day before? I think it can be put down to two things. The sail change, and 7kg of lead (and maybe the extra kg or two of water in my board). Conditions? Well its hard to speculate on that one. I dont think the wind was much different- if anything the gusts were lighter than the day before. We did have low traffic though, but that didn't seem to be a problem even on Saturday.

All in all a top day!