Windsurfing seems to have involved...
a lot of swimming for me lately.
by Kube    5/31/07

   In the last few weeks I broke........I BROKE EVERYTHING!!!!!

   So I headed up to the precious Delta last Sunday to meet up with Casey, who was there teaching a clinic with Jason Voss, and who had graciously offered (in response to my HA Hotline request for sail purchase advice) to let me try out his Maui Sails Switch 6.0. and even though heavy marine layer in SF promised some sweet helta-delta action, I of course waited till waaay too late in the afternoon to start hauling my lazy @ss up there. plus I totally spaced while driving and was halfway to Sacramento on hwy 80 before realizing I forgot to turn off. so now 45 minutes out of my way and in a virtual rigging frenzy, I embarked on a crazed 2-lane highway run through migrant worker farmland back down towards Rio Vista, where I almost had yet another incident with an oncoming combine.

   I finally reached the Sherman Island levy road around 5pm, only to be stopped dead in gridlocked traffic of news vans and bumper to bumper tourists hoping get a glimpse of the whales, who had just made their way through about a half-hour before. (not sure if this made national news or not, so you guys may have no idea what I am talking about. Casey actually has a pretty funny whale encounter story. and no, I’m not referring to that chick he’s been hooking up with at Davis.)

   By this time, I decided to shine trying to find Casey and just parked at powerlines. It was still blowing pretty well with a slight ebb, so I rigged the 5.4 Search and headed out the NSM 268 Wave. but not before no less than 3 separate people had to Shoji me with the “you should have been here an hour ago…it’s dropping now” line. sonzabitches. I wanted to kick every single one of them square in the nuts.....but forgot all about it once I dropped into the water (stepped into liquid, if you will) and started HAULING @@@@@@@SS!!! I absolutely LLLOOOOOVE the combo of my 5.4 Search w/ NSM 268 Wave. Love it. Love it. Love it. feel sooooo dialed on that set up.

   Maybe a little too dialed. I had worked my way well enough upwind, so decided to start going for some jumps. I was doing pretty well with little fin clearing chop hops when, while heading back in and traveling at a high rate of speed, a ramp of F%CK IT proportion presented itself directly in my path. so of course I said "F%CK IT" and hit the godd@mm thing full-on. in retrospect I made the sorry @ss mistake of looking down to see how high I had gotten. not good.

   In the midst of the explosion that ensued I heard a distinct “snap”, but at the time couldn’t tell whether it had come from carbon fiber, mylar, or the cartilage of my Xiphoid process. after untangling myself from the wreckage and taking inventory of the yard sale, I was suprised find mast, sail, and rib cage all intact. sweet!!! so I cleared the sail, attempted to waterstart, and quickly found that the only thing holding one side of my fairly new Fiberspar Posi-Grip carbon boom somewhat intact.....was the foam from the hand grip. sonuvabeatch sheared completely, straight through. I was close enough to shore this time that a leasurely 20-minute equipment dragging swim got me back to the launch.

   The Search thankfully survived with just a fairly sizable indented nubbie from the harness, and I have this sweet welt across my entire abdomen. Nice!!!

   Caught up with Casey later and broke out the Old Monk (hey now) rum. Never did get to try out his 6.0 Switch, but that's OK because I had already ordered another sail that morning anyway. but that's another story.......

Shaka brahs!!!!!!!
Kube