Large light-air wave board and sail quiver questions

[dllee]

In SB, most guys are using the same size boards and sails as SC.
In LA, you start seeing 100 liter wave boards and 5.7-6.6 sized sails.
There are few wave sailing spots around Monterey/Carmel, although people do sail Asilomar, and FortOrd beaches.
But I see your point. Turning performance much more inportant than speed.

[mthompson156]

[xander.arch]

Light wind wave sailing is not about planning in light wind, it is about getting out on clean waves and surfing. This means you need to learn the art of surf and slog if you are truly getting into wavesailing in light winds. I'm just a little heavier than you at 165 and my ideal surf and slogger is about 83l with my bread and butter board at around 74l. You could go as large as 90 if it helps you comfortably float around, but its not about the planning threshold for lightwind wavesailing at all. Most important, look at the board widths. At your size anything more than about 58.5 wide will get bouncey and hard to turn.

[jingebritsen]

slogging thru impact zones in an onshore condition can be down right exhausting. if one has to get worked constantly in conditions like that just to turn a bit easier, what's the use?

the amount of side shore to side off days with either point breaks or reefs with channels is unobtainium for lots of folks around the world. to state that one has to go really small with wave sailing kits does not apply for large parts of the world. wonder why windsurfing has seen such a collapse in participation? why is it regaining ground after a fresh crowd from the SUP world? a lack of snobbery of long boards?

[outcast]

jinge and i don't agree often, but i agree that shlogging in onshore stuff is no fun. Power and planning there are huge.

that having been said, i'm the first one to shlog for sideshore waves. i don't regard cali coast as onshore

i have the classic Cross 117, and the Chango 109. I would grab the Cross for onshore, and the Chango for better waves. At 200# i can uphaul either easily.

The Chango sounds like a good choice for the OP question, and then it just comes to different fins in terms of B&J bay vs ocean. It pops to plane pretty quick....the rocker allows it nicely, but it's more old school longer profile....so if you can pump a couple of times to get her up, it's key.
The Cross will come onto a plane without a pump maybe a bit easier, but not as loose. Top end quivalent and more dependant on sailor/fin and sail.

the 109 handles a 6.4 easily....i could get away with a 7.5 on the cross if i had one

[isobars]

Re question #2 about the 5.0 to 6.2 gap itself .... For many years I had 5.2, 5.7, and 6.8 sails, and very seldom sailed the 5.7 because going from 5.2 to 6.8 and vice versa was usually fine. The 5.x's were RAFs emphasizing low end power and maneuverability, the 6.8 was a twin-cam slalom. The past 15 years that part of my quiver has been 5.2, 5.7, and 6.2, all with a high foot, and again the 5.7 has been usually superfluous. I catch the rising AM winds with the 6.2, and by the time I really need to rig down everyone else my size is on 5.2s or 4.7s (Gorge sailing). I'm maneuvering a lot, but my terrain at that sail size is only 2 to 4 feet high and not as steep as ocean waves. Only on rare days perfectly suited to a 5.7 have I bothered rigging it, but I do appreciate its lighter feel (all my sails are similar camless wave/B&J). My usual weight then ran 185 to 190 pounds.

My boards are all wave boards, and I find that 6.2s work very well with 85-95 liters. If our winds require a 6.2 due to holes, a big inside shadow, or just marginal averages, I'll lean towards the 95L range, but in those conditions my bumps are under waist high. That's high enough to require a high foot in jibes, but the foot seldom catches in lesser maneuvers. YMMobviouslyV in ocean waves even with no wind.

Mike \m/

[xander.arch]

[jingebritsen]

how about this for an eye opener. most people that have sailed waves with the dogma of "slog and wave ride" that move to most anywhere else in the world practically quit windsurfing or actually do. to state that one MUST learn to slog and wave ride in order for the best experience might be considered a sad cultural trap to those that have seen that mindset doom a sport that ought to be enjoyed by lots as in what it was like in the 80's?

living in one of those many places with "lighter winds" that truly means far crappier conditions, i don't feel as though i'm on a high horse at all. seen people drink the kool aid with tiny stuff, trimmed wrong, and applied in unsuitable conditions far too often.

just recently, a guy pulled out a exo-wave 105 that had a slotted fin in it. guess where he was from? the santa barbara area. he had the fin all the way back in the box. does everyone know what that does to a board? hmmm, slotted fin all the way back...... impedes acceleration and top end like one is driving a car with one foot on the brake and the gas. he said he rarely used his. mine's quite haggard looking by compare. and, i might use it only 30% of my surf sessions.

why did i bring this SB guy into the discussion? he's had so much wind that his 105 got little use? came from a sailing community that thinks a slotted fin adjusted all the way back is good for "light winds." evidently there's about 3million% more power in pacific winds?

to state that one must suffer the slings and arrows of the impact zone to get some sort of superior wave ride on a tiny kit may work in spots with point breaks or reefs with channels, but in any given beach break that just gets one frustrated and looking for anything else to do.

so call me an asshole for giving anyone else in the world fair warning to folks that tiny gear is only the "be all and end all" in wave sailing. that strategy may only work in a very select few sets of conditions.

[GURGLETROUSERS]

Well said Jingebritsen.

Most of us who are not world class surf sailors fell into that - tiny board - light wind - superior surfing performance on the wave - impact zone agony- trap, and thought it was our fault that we spent half our time under water, trashing our gear. Most of our surf beaches do NOT have easy ways out, when the 'surfs up', and the wind is unreliable.

My old Exocet 118 with a 6.0 sail is usable IF the wind mainly adequate to water start quickly. Uphauling is never easy or speedy enough in messy close spaced tumbling onshore conditions. But in lighter winds, a bigger board is always now the choice. Never mind the slightly less optimal wave riding - you first have to get out there.

After all, if people like Patrice (Exocet) can put many tiny board folk to shame with his off the lips, and cut backs in big surf, on a high volume longboard, who is going to tell him he doesn't know what he's missing? (Or doing!)

[swchandler]

"just recently, a guy pulled out a exo-wave 105 that had a slotted fin in it. guess where he was from? the santa barbara area."


What do you know about the Santa Barbara area? Probably nothing, but you just wanted to crap on somebody or something from the west coast. Sometimes your poorly contrived illusions about other places and the people that live in them says more about you and your prejudices.