went to sherman wednesday and friday last week and totally scored. now confident hauling ass upwind in both directions. still can't jibe. my wingding buddies suggested i step down from the monstrous BSC 1060 to the svelt HPS 1050, as that's what they all learned to jibe on. late afternoon on friday on the second session, the wind had picked up a bunch and the tide had changed, so there was more swell in the water. swells really impacted how my foil was going through the water. also went out on my 3m and it was super twitchy.
got humbled yesterday. one buddy texted that he was going to davenport and i've been wanting to check it out so... i had to stop for gas on the way and while the tank was filling i checked the wind at 3rd in san mateo - blowing solid 20 but google maps said 1 hour and 20 minutes to get there. davenport was 25 minutes. spent time on the beach watching what was going on and talking to the guys about what to expect. rigged up and watched them get outside relatively easily but saw a bunch of falling. decided i'd give it go. holy sh!t!!! it's no joke trying to foil in waves. not even breaking waves, just the rollers outside wreak havoc on you. i made it outside only falling once. could not get out of my own way trying to come back in. even getting up on foil, when a roller would come from behind it gave me too much lift and i was out of control. decided to go back to the beach on my knees and thought i was staying upwind ok but ended up getting pushed toward where the left breaks. made it through the impact zone with no impact then my foil got hung in the kelp 20 yards from the beach. dicked around with that for a couple minutes and finally made it to the beach, unscathed, thank you god and no equipment damage. heartrate was about 250 and i was breathing about as hard as i can breathe. buddy walked over and took my wing back to the rigging area. the three guys i went out with were all saying that my session was about on par with their first few sessions there and they were actually surprised i made it out on foil. once they got outside they wanted to send me a smoke signal not to go out haha.
good experience though. i now know how much further i need to progress before trying that again. definitely a whole nother thing dealing with waves.
oh, and we were BSing with VB afterwards and Hdip's buddy Rob came up - that guy is a legit ripper.
got humbled yesterday. one buddy texted that he was going to davenport and i've been wanting to check it out so... i had to stop for gas on the way and while the tank was filling i checked the wind at 3rd in san mateo - blowing solid 20 but google maps said 1 hour and 20 minutes to get there. davenport was 25 minutes. spent time on the beach watching what was going on and talking to the guys about what to expect. rigged up and watched them get outside relatively easily but saw a bunch of falling. decided i'd give it go. holy sh!t!!! it's no joke trying to foil in waves. not even breaking waves, just the rollers outside wreak havoc on you. i made it outside only falling once. could not get out of my own way trying to come back in. even getting up on foil, when a roller would come from behind it gave me too much lift and i was out of control. decided to go back to the beach on my knees and thought i was staying upwind ok but ended up getting pushed toward where the left breaks. made it through the impact zone with no impact then my foil got hung in the kelp 20 yards from the beach. dicked around with that for a couple minutes and finally made it to the beach, unscathed, thank you god and no equipment damage. heartrate was about 250 and i was breathing about as hard as i can breathe. buddy walked over and took my wing back to the rigging area. the three guys i went out with were all saying that my session was about on par with their first few sessions there and they were actually surprised i made it out on foil. once they got outside they wanted to send me a smoke signal not to go out haha.
good experience though. i now know how much further i need to progress before trying that again. definitely a whole nother thing dealing with waves.
oh, and we were BSing with VB afterwards and Hdip's buddy Rob came up - that guy is a legit ripper.