Speed Surf - 60 Days of Summer Day 51

Today it was all going to be about going as fast as possible in a somewhat straight line. It is amazing to look back at the old speed needles that people used to test the speed barrier with and I love these old pictures of the early pioneer Fred Haywood.

Fred Haywood in Weymouth, UK

It is amazing how gear and speeds have changed.

The Black Project Fins VMax Speed Challenge is run on the same course that Fred himself used to train. The course is not very flat nor very windy but the reef does provide some protection and the summer winds do provide enough puff for some respectable speeds. Check out the full results and report here. While I set a new 100m PB of 33.7 knots it was someway short of what I had expected which may be partly down to the fact that there was a decent swell which made the conditions rather tough and probably distracted me a little! At the end of the day I was far too tired to get my wave board out but I hear that there were some fun sized waves up the coast.

Tom on his 7.3m! Ever so slightly different to Fred's wing!

Me 6.0m... trying a new board, I am sure that I can go much faster!

It is rather shallow, so watch out for the coral heads.

KP enjoying the better than normal summer waves at Ho'okipa. Missed it, why do two things have to come along at once?

60 Days of Summer Update:

Sailing Record: 84% (42/50)
On Water Record: 88% (44/50)

More to follow…

New GoPro Mount, waves and new challenges - 60 Days of Summer Day 24

I woke up this morning and could not believe that it was August already, the time is flying. I also realised that my foot was rather sore; I had cut it on my fin yesterday. The forecast of 20 knots and 7 ft wind waves looked promising and I had arranged to go sailing with my buddy Marc at Sprecks.

Plenty of duck tape later my foot was ready to hit the water. It was such a joy to be on super light kit today after two weeks of being maxed out on big heavy sails. There were some fun waves on the Camp One reef and while my 4.5m Bolt was a little small for jumping it was great fun to be in some swells and getting some backside rides.

The sun was shining, the wind blowing and the waves somewhat peeling but one problem, my right foot! The cut on my right foot was rubbing too much and it was super painful to do anything particularly when in the front strap. I tried to loosen the strap but that didn’t seem to change anything, I was OKish riding with it in the back but I knew what the real solution was and it wasn’t long before I limped back to shore and packed my gear. It was only then that I realised just how painful my foot was and I was rather angry at myself because I should have known better and sat out for the day, the waves have just been too tempting! Tomorrow I will have to stay off the water and likely avoid running or walking much too. Maybe I’ll hit some golf balls but I want to be super careful in the hope that I can get back on the water after just one missed day. GUTTED!

Before I went on the water I tried out a new mount on Marc’s gear and on review I am really pleased with the new angle and when I am back sailing and we have some conditions it will hopefully produce some good shots. I do need to solve the water droplets issue and will try the RainX solution.

I used a mix of bits from the bike seat post and roll bar mounts. It attached to the mast about 6 inches about the boom and facing towards the sailor in a portrait orientation. We had the camera at a slight angle, you really need to try to think about the sailor, sail and board positions while sailing to ensure that you get the shot you want. We realised later that we should have rotated it into landscape for the video footage.

This will be a great angle and I look forward to trying it!

I really like landing shots with tons of spray. Can't wait to get this to Ho'okipa. Thanks Marc for your camera work today.

With the racing finished and the wind blowing hard one of my next challenges will be too see if I can break 40 knots on a windsurf board. Last year I had one day on a slalom board (the same one I used for the racing) and a 6.0 and managed 33 something. This year I have a F2 Missile to fix and I know that can go REALLY fast in the right hands. The board does have a few issues but nothing a grinder and some resin cannot fix. While 40 knots does not seem fast by modern day speed sailing terms we do not have a proper speed course here, we just have the inside of the Camp One reef and you sometimes get a flattish section between the waves so getting fast times is really hard (and scary!). There are some MauiVMAX days in the pipeline for August so that should help. I will be spending a lot more time in the waves too and I cannot wait to get back into my normal habitat.

66 litres of pure speed! I think that the smaller size will really help me becuase with my lack of weight I find it hard to keep the board on the water when it gets super over powered.

Sailing record (for now) 100% (23/23 days)


More to follow…

Run Rabbit Run, HAM Challenge & Molokai Crossing - 60 Days of Summer Day 17

Ever watched that little rabbit being chased in a greyhound race by the pack of angry dogs? Well if the answer is YES then you’ll know how I felt today at times during my training. A mark had again been laid again but today we had up to 7 guys all challenging for places. The basic set up goes something like this; all race out to sea from the beach, the leading sailor gybes and the rest follow, the leaders(s) stall to let the others get close before accelerating and racing full tilt towards the mark, round the buoy and then race back out to sea. In a bar pool type winner stays on manner the leading sailor then decides when to turn and the next drag race is started. The racers included Peter John (super fast and infamous Kiwi), Gregg Thomas (the oldest PWA slalom sailor), Tomohiko Komai J202, J???? (not sure his number or name but he is on JP/NP) & HI5 (earlier in the day HI34 was also racing). I am starting to get to know some of these guys and it is really motivating to get some input into my challenge.

Gregg in action at the last event. This pic was taken by Jimmy Hepp and you should check out his website and Facebook page, he is becoming Maui's businest photographer, keep up the good work, you are great!

More of the rabbit, well to get experience leading and chasing you can choose to gybe at different times and naturally if you are behind you tend to become the leader at the start of the next race, not to say I was always in last place but it did get a fair few opportunities to lead out the pack and having Peter John’s massive frame maxed out chasing you and more often than not hammering past you, is quite a sight. The set up meant that by the time get got to the inside mark there would often be 4 guys all trying to negotiate the choppy turn and this was really the best part of the session, being that close at the mark to some really fast guys was great fun and really challenging. I spent a lot of time checking out what lines they took and trying to follow and react. It was so hard to keep a smooth line and maintain speed with all this confusion. It was again reinforced how important it is to stay on your feet, a few times I managed to sneak inside a fallen rider and make up some great ground, at other times I fell from the #1 spot and came out half a leg behind EVERYONE. A great day of practice and I say a big thank you to the guys for their help, I look forward to some more sparring over the coming days. I was on my 6.6m again and that was great but later in the session the gusts became too much and my crash percentage rose, you can see from thart below that it was gusting 35 mph at times. My session finished as I took a massive fall on what would be my final gybe of the day, not sure what happened but one second I was at full speed coming into the mark, I had just unhooked (luckily) and coming over some chop, the next thing I remember was being under my gear in a heap, my shorts hap ripped off and my timer had started itself! I seem to have got away with just a stiff neck so nothing that a few Advil and some ice can’t sort out.

Advil - keeping windsurfers on the water when they should be resting in bed! I can't count the number of times I have trashed my ankle or something but loaded up on ibruprofen to reduce the swelling an numb the pain so that I could go out an wreck some more!

Click to enlarge this and take a look at the highlighted area, you can clearly see that the exists from my turns were rather messy today and they got worse as it got windier.

I was on the water between about 2:30 and 4:15 pm today, the big gusts around 4pm were getting tough for me to control and a 6.0m would have been fater round a course.  

I have been invited to take part in the HAM (HawaiiAmerican) Speed Challenge this is a GPS speed event where a team from Hawaii competes against a team from The Gorge and one from New England. There are 3 scores that count; best 100m, best nautical mile and best Alpha 500 (this is a leg and a gybe in the middle). I set out today to set a respectable nautical mile and estimated that it would take me 2 minutes (at 30 knots) so I set my timer and set off for a massive downwinder which was so much fun. When I got my tracks back on the laptop I was pleased with my speeds during the main part of the run but my overall speed was hindered by my acceleration time at the start and because I didn’t go far enough and my gybe out to sea counted. Next time I will run for 2min 45 seconds so that I can be at as close to max for the entire 1852m (= 1 nautical mile).

Click to enlarge, you can clearly see my nautical mile attempt in green. My avergae was 25.39 knots but most f the time I was running in the 27 to 29 range. If I can get a full fun anywhere close to 30 knots I would be thrilled.

Over the next few days I will try to set a decent 100m speed, I need something in the 35 knot range (my current PB is 33 something – on choppy water) and good Alpha 500 for that I need to set myself up on a one mark downwind slalom course, this is a really good concept and one which would be very interesting to the racer because it is not just about your top end and is a better measure of how you would fair in a slalom race.

All in all a good day and one during which I had a lot of FUN and after all that is the moto for the 60 Days of Summer Project.

Today's pic of the day: This pic was taken with the GoPro mast mount and captures the moment I landed an over rotated forward, you can see that I let go on impact to try and save my board! I think the result is pretty cool and I hope you agree.

One of the aims of the 60 days is to encourage others to be inspired, so the question is simple "What would you do with 60 days?" If you have read this far please take a few minutes to leave your comments below and share with the me and all the readers what you would do. I have found that by voicing your thoughts they are more likely to become a reality so by leaving your little note below you will be one step closer to your goal.

Whats up next? It is time that I registered for the race event next weekend, I will try to get that sorted tomorrow and in 3 weeks time there is a Maui to Molokai crossing so I need to find out some more info and look into the logistics; that would be a great experience, the channel is super rough and really dangerous. I am a little sore from a few days of having the pedal to the metal and really think that my wave board needs some attention so taking a day off racing tomorrow and will go in search of waves, jumps and tricks, maybe a good day to get working on those freestyle moves, that is sure to be a funny thing for people to watch!

More to follow...