Monday 11th of June

Another excellent day here. I started well powered on 4.2m for a jump session in the south bay. Jumping has never been my thing really, but when there is that much wind it is fun to be up there with the wind under the board keeping you floating in the air, using the rig as a wing.

Soon well powered became over-powered and the small waves turned into nasty low tide chop, so I took a rest, had some lunch, and rigged the 3.7m. Back out again and straight up to the harbour wall. The wind was a bit iffy - some very strong gusts (40 knots ?) and then lulls, but the waves got better and better. Again, it's not my favourite wind strength to be riding waves but the tiny sail does feel very nice once you are on one that's big enough to block the actual wind and leave you running on apparent wind.

Nikki managed to get one pic of me (I didn't actually know she was there in fact) ...

This head high wave was about average size - a few of the set waves got up to about logo high, but it was probably big enough to trigger my 'play it safe' button (don't actually remember the top turn). I'm working on trying to do what I can do on small (< head high) waves on the big ones (logo). I'm gradually losing my fear of doing that and pushing a bit harder each time, and also actively going searching for the biggest wave of a set.

Here in this pic of my bottom turn I can see how I haven't really committed as hard as I do on smaller waves. The back hand should be a lot further down the boom, sheeted in harder, leaning further forward, ready to open the sail and carve harder to come back at the lip more vertical.

In my defence, I'd just say that the waves at the wall are apparently fairly technical to ride. I have this on good authority from better wave-sailors than me, who are more used to cross or cross-off conditions.