Breaking the fast - Weekend Windsurfing at Island Krk (14.-15. June)

Finally weather conditions and my free time biorhythms matched and we went to island Krk for some Bora windsurfing :-)

There is a great spot for Bora (NE) conditions near town Punta. It is an idyllic bay called "Dunatsko more" with a small island with a Christian monastery in the middle.

  

Here is a link to spot at Windguru: http://www.windguru.cz/int/index.php?sc=328027&sty=m_spot

Last year when I was there it was a still a problem to get to the water. If you had a sporty car then it was no option. Access road or shall we say goat track was more suited for 4x4 vehicles and for those who didn’t care too much for their cars, but this year the owner of the land (at whose place we squatted) got organized, made a nice graveled road and charges your stay 100 HRK per day - locals get some discount. Obviously the word spread because the spot was packed with windsurfers ... and two kiters (it is really not friendly for them).

Saturday, June 14th

We have arrived in the afternoon at about 4:00 PM. We did not miss much since the wind really did not start sooner than 1:00 PM ... and it was not that strong either. I have set up the Fluido T3 7.8 with Fanatic Shark 121. I also went in with a seat-harness that I had borrowed from my colleague. It was nice intro to a windsurfing weekend ... Some strong pulls with some long lulls which I used for some swimming :) Punat is known for inconsistent wind (as Bora is in general). Seat-harness was great! For free-racing it is much better than waist-harness in my opinion. I can really put minimal strain on my arms. It needs some time to get used to though.

Problems?

Yes! I have recently sold my Mistral 43 cm freeride fin (a got a new one with the new shark) ... and I accidentally sold with it also a screw that matched my board. I only found that out when I tried to fit it on the board at the spot. No screw I had was long enough. So finally I screwed it on without any washers. It gripped only about 2 mm but it had to do. 

What I have learned from this?

You really need to check your gear before you leave home ... especially if the spot is 175 km away!

Next day was really something ... wind was well over 25 knots with even stronger gusts. And some more gear problems that could really be dangerous if the spot wasn't so safe ... coming soon :)

Challanger Sails Fluido T3 7,8m2 model 2014

This will be a short post. I have put together a short video of the new Challanger Sails Fluido T3 sail. Rigging is very easy. It would help if I had a NS PowerXT Extension or some other gadget for downhaul aid. As visible in the video it is really a nice sail. Nice and smooth shape.

Winter surfing on 17. january ...

17. January could very well be one of those moody days. It was Friday and forecast was cloudy with rain and temperatures around 10 degrees Celsius. But there was also a relatively promising wind forecast - SE wind 10-15 knots. So I decided to take a day off from the office and drove to the coast (spot Seca) with my friend Matjaž. Forecast was ideal for my new equipment - the 7,8 Fluido T3 sail from Challenger and the Fanatic Shark 120L board. 

We arrived at the spot at around 9.30 AM and at first it did not look good. Sea was too calm and wind was - well it was blowing but not nearly enough for the 7,8. Since that is quite common situation with the SE wind in Seca we decided to set up the equipment and go in anyway. 

My first time rigging the Fluido T3

I have never rigged a sail with cambers. My old neil pryde does not count since it rigs much the same as any other nocam sail, so I had my doubts about it. But I got some really simple instructions from Tine Slabe and following them step by step did the job. The sail was set up in minutes. First look at it - well it looks great :-) 

We put on the wet-suite set up the bard with 43 cm free ride hyfly fin and went in ...

First time on the Fanatic Shark

Fanatic Shark seemed to me much bigger than the Syncro so I was really surprised when I tried first beach start. I stepped on it as if it were a 160l board ... I soon realized that the volume is really much the same as the syncros so I turned on the light feet mode. I had to ride a good 100m to get to the windy area of the bay and then the fun began.

Shark went on plane really fast. The foot straps were in just the right place - I slipped in and went ... it accelerated and gained really good speed. This board is darn fast but really a lot brings the sail to this joy ...

The new combination that brought a smile on my face

I had some problems with the turns in the beginning because I was not yet familiar with the board. It has a bit different volume distribution than Syncro ... but got over that. After a few rounds the wind picked up and I had a blast. Board was pinned to the water and I could pull the sail all the way down so it almost touched the water surface. I never could do that before. I was flying. Sail goes through gusts and lulls incredibly well. You don't even know they are there and all the time the sail feels really light and balanced. I was really impressed and it was my first time using the gear. Unfortunately at 1:00 PM we had to wrap it up. Went out of the watter, put gear in and on the car and went home – this part is really not so interesting, but to sum this day up - we had a blast :-)

 

Seca channel - where the wind blows from

Gear waiting for the good guys (we were also the only guys :-)

Low tide in Marina Julia

I was visiting Marina Julia during the weekend. Marina Julia is a great windsurfing spot when NE wind is blowing and when there is water of course ... 

http://www.kitesurfingmap.com/spot/marina-julia-bay

Low tide in Marina Julia

Some windsurfing Mobile Apps I use ...

• Adriatic Wind Forecast for Android
• Marine Wind Calculator
• Windguru
• Windsurfing Calculator
• Windsurf - mobile version of the magazine

Internet is a great source of information

I never had windsurfing lessons of any kind. When I was a kid there was one older kid windsurfing in the camp on island Cres in Croatia. I was always looking at him with interest and once he let me try it for an hour or so. He never explained to me how it is done, not even how to uphaul. I don't remember if I even once managed to get the sail out of the water, but I know I liked it a lot. I had a chance to surf a few more times during summer vacations. And that was it ... 

... Until a few years ago when my good friend got me interested in it. He is a really good windsurfer and we do most of the surfing together and he can always help me with an advice if I need it. But really, most information that I found was on the Internet. There are some great movies on YouTube and Internet sites with contents to learn from.

Some recommendations:

• Beginner to winner DVD by Jem Hall
  This is a great DVD. Some short clips can also be found on the Internet. I have downloaded them to my smart phone and took them with me ... 
• http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~wprinz/windsurfing/windindex.html
  Generally on Windsurfing for those who preferre reading to watching movies
• Carve Gybe Tuition with Neilson
  Short but very well done movie - 4 step Carve Jibe Lesson
• James' Blog
  Great guy. Lots of interesting information. Check his windsurf equipment calculator.
• http://www.windguru.cz/int/
  Check if wind is blowing in your direction ... there is also a mobile app available

Just got the new Challenger Sails Fluido T3 7.8 (2014)

...  I literally put it in the car a few minutes ago. Now I need to find some time to rig and trim the sail. 

My previous sail, the NP V6  had only 2 mini cams and was easy to rig. This sails with 3+ cams are a different thing. Correct trim of the sail gives you much better results. CHS are really good sails. Great price/value relationship. Their web pages however don't have much info compared to larger brands like NS, NP, Ezzy, etc. There is no info on how to rig the sails.

I bought the sail from Tine Slabe who is a CHS representative for Slovenia and also a CHS Team member and he offered to show me how it is done properly. Well, that beats internet guidelines any time :)