No windsurfer left behind

 I was just thinking (Boy, do I do allot of thinking), I had a great time yesterday and the day before during the evening sessions, If we can coordinate a group of windsurfer formula sailors to stick together going in the water, on the water and out of the water.

 On East Winds

1. Start from Ovid's place 
2. Check your lines, mast track, etc.
3. Shoot upwind to Bear cut (close to channel marker). (10 min run)
4. One man leads the run.
5. Set a time, to make it to the first mark.(if you cant make it to the first mark on time, we take it as non-participant)
6. Keep a distance between sailors (15 feet) and don't over take your partners wind.
7. Straight down wind (10 min run)
8. Back upwind starboard side  (10 min run)
9. Repeat route

 

      

"Windsurfer Triangle"

        Of course this is all wind direction dependent, but on the ground prior to rigging we can take 5 min to plan out the course. After a few sessions, we would get the course and wind correlated in harmony. The whole idea is to run a triangular course, the course should be isometric. One person leads at each tack, then switch over to the next leader, everyone in the group gets a chance to lead. Very important: We wait on your sailing partners at all times. One sailor should carry an phone for emergency purposes. The key is to become more proficient with the basic skills (Early Plane, Speed, Gibes, Tacks, Fin cleaning). The competitive attitude should wait until the fun race events (Wednesday and Sunday), but during practice runs the attitude should be just for fun. I think this approach would benefit everyone, and we are able to reach more ground, water time, stamina and most important experience with proper group planning. Eventually, we can build enough stamina and proficiency to explore the entire bay as a group and even venture out to Stiltsville and beyond. Just my 2 cents.

The $100,000 backloop?

Here's a new way to get motivated to try a backloop: Apparently two guys attending the Pritchard wave camp bet each other $100,000 to stick their first backloop. Whomever of the two sails away from a backloop first wins.

Wow.

Details here:

http://blog.pritchardwindsurfing.com/blog-mainmenu-44/764-100000-up-for-grabs-in-baja.html

I wonder if anyone won the bet?

Out with the Old, In with the New...

As some of you know I finally got my new slalom board!!! So it 's time to part with my old one
(the one to the right), so here it goes, for sale:
Naish Pro Slalom 105, B+, 229cm X 65cm X 105L, 38cm fin, $299 OBO
Hawaii Proline Boom, 160-210 Alum, B+,$129 OBO
North Silver Boom, 180-230 Alum,B+,$129 OBO
For more details email: miami.windsurfer@gmail.com

No Kiteboarding signs are up!

For anyone who hasn't seen the new signs at Hobie beach and soon coming up on Windsurfer beach. Kiteboarding as well as other activities have been banned from the causeway.

Due to the posting, police now will be able to enforce rules by fining or arresting anyone not following basic courtesy.

If we don't patrol ourselves, government will do it for us.

FW racing in the bay (plan B)

Although all agreed it would be great to support Shake-A-Leg racing series, everyone also agreed that it doesn't work for us logistically, location and timing is just not practical to have a good FW race weekly. So, with that in mind, new plan emerged, we're going to pick one day midweek and one over the weekend(depending on wind forecast, etc.), race start 5:30 p.m. (midweek) and 2 p.m. (weekend),
location - causeway, starting marker - last beach buoy near the bridge, and using the channel marker by
the sandbar as a second buoy, will use it as a upwind or downwind marker depending on the wind direction, one or 2 laps. First try, this coming Sunday - see you at the beach!
Let me know who's in

Shake-A-Leg Wednesday night race series- part II

It's only the second time we had the race and already we have a big dilemma (welcome to Miami:))
First, organizers do spend money on the event (boat/gas/logistics/etc/ and a grill/food/beer),
by launching from the causeway we are not paying $10 they want us to donate per each race.
Second, race starts close to 7 p.m. just as the wind is starting to die...
And the last issue, they do prefer for us to use Shake-A-Leg as launch so they can coordinate things better.

Soliciting ideas on how we can find a solution here....

Race1-Shake-A-Leg Wednesday night race series

I arrived just after 5 p.m., Jim was the only one present from 'windsurfing group', but he decided to use some weird canoe/catamaran contraption and was assembling it. Alex showed up few minutes later. Due to perceived lighter winds few people bailed out on the race. As I was getting ready to launch, Fernando drove in and started to rig. It took me few minutes to get out out of the channel, Jim managed to capsize
and he and Alex saw a larger bull shark in the area, so Jim was pretty nervous about swimming while getting his vessel upright. By the time we got to judge's boat, participant's number increased,
Albert, Angel, couple of RSX, some guy on an old course Mikes Lab, Alex,Fernando and myself were the  windsurfing fleet, 3 kitesurfers showed up with boards that look like super short slalom boards with
multi fin configuration, I overheard that Kent said that his fins are 42cm! Winds actually were within perfect
formula range 12+ knots. From what I could see, Fernando just blew everyone away.
With his 12 m2 sail he was effortlessly blasting even through the 3rd race when the wind finally started to drop off. Overall it was great times! For $10  we got a to race plus a BBQ/beer/snacks waiting for us.
After race Alex was discussing with committee how to improve the course for next time, we had too many close calls with boats. Hope more people show up next time... See ya