84L Board... Got stuck out in the water

[ghost1]

I took my 84L board out for the first time yesterday. Had an amazing time in winds of 25kts. So this is what windsurfing is actually supposed to be like!! It was actually a lot easier than I thought, I could even slog around when the wind dropped. But then...

I noticed the wind dropping and thought I'd go for one more rip. Half way back to my launch the wind dropped to probably 10kts or less and I fell over. The old "I've fallen and I can't get up" issue. I couldn't waterstart my board and uphauling I couldn't get steady on the board and kept tipping over.

Luckily I just drifted back to my lauch, took about 15-20mins. I was thinking this might happen so I positioned myself correctly.

My question is what am I supposed to do in this scenario. Should I take my board out in light winds and practice slogging and uphauling? Also practice light wind water starts?

Where I sail is gusty and the wind can be blowing hard 25-30kts and then shuts off quickly with little warning. I don't want to find myself in this scenario in a less than ideal location. Because now I'm dying to get on that 84L board again!

[ghost1]

I just found this. Is this what most people do?

https://thewavehobbit.wordpress.com/windsurfing/wave-riding-the-bottom-turn/sinker-up-haul-and-tack/

[swchandler]

Some folks do well in balancing acts in little wind, but you have to ask yourself how well that guy would do in rough water that goes hand in hand with higher wind conditions and sinkers. When the wind totally shuts off for any time at all in rough water, you're in the water swimming. Always keep in mind the thought that you never want to sail out any farther than you're willing to swim in.

[gvogelsang]

If it were me, when I noticed the wind dropping, I would come in for a bigger board.

Burlington, Ontario. Not unlike Buffalo, NY. A nice front came through yesterday, but the predictions were for the wind to moderate later in the afternoon.

So you had a great time on your sinker in the best of the conditions; but perhaps it would have been smarter to come in and size up as the wind abated.

Good luck on practicing up hauling a sinker.

[dllee]

Depends what you weigh and how good is your balance.
Kevin Kan, at 175 lbs., can deep water uphaul his 85 liter boards.
Me, at 150 lbs., can barely stand on my 84 liter JP Slalom, but the 84 liter FSW is easy to uphaul.
I can waterstart in around 6 knots, or 8mph gusts, holding the bottom of my mast and the foot of the sail.
Sloggin without falling is possible down to 3 mph breezes, a bare ripple in the water.
Gusty winds, stay near shore. What's the big deal in a 15 minute swim?
You can always break down your rig, boom towed, mast inside the front straps, uni across the back strap, lay atop the sail and paddle in. Surfer's paddle for 3 hours non stop sometimes, you can do half.

[isobars]

You asked for it, so here goes.

You've encountered the downside of sinkers. The dilemma they present -- enhanced fun with enhanced risk of hassle -- is very real, and the decision when and where to sail them is highly personal and venue-specific. For me, for over 20 years, they’re so much damned fun that 29 of my 30 boards are sinkers … or were until I dropped back to my high school weight of 175 last season. Now my biggest sinkers -- mid 90Ls -- are bobbers (their decks are awash when not moving). My one floater, at 115 L, gets wet a few days per year when all else fails (the water and thus my enthusiasm are flat then). I’ve sailed small sinkers in lakes all over the U.S. plus the Gulf of Mexico, the Gorge, the OR coast, and Maui. I must have something like 10,000 hours on them … for a reason. Here are my opinions regarding your questions.

Yes, work on your light air waterstarts. When it’s too light to waterstart even in the lingering gusts, I prefer to just swim. However, that’s in large part due to my lousy balance; I couldn’t uphaul a longboard now.

Also work on what I call buttsailing: slogging in a broad reach in the waterstart position. It saves SO much energy, it lets you pop to your feet and maybe plane when a gust hits, and with planning (i.e., stay upwind if you don’t trust the wind or if the penalty of coming in downwind of your launch is big) it will take you back to your launch or to an easy walk of … no, not shame .. of TRYING … of expanding your skills.

Consider any current in your planning. Your “I was thinking this might happen so I positioned myself correctly” was spot on. I know countless very good Gorge WSers who still haven’t figured that out.

And learn to sail sitting down. In some venues it is highly practical (and easy) to park our butts on the deck with our feet straddling the mast, sit bolt upright, hold the boom, and run before the wind (sail directly downwind) for miles. You have two steering wheels: the rig for aerodynamic steering and your hipbones for roll steering (butt-steering as opposed to foot-steering). Is this an advanced skill, difficult to learn? NIMO; it worked for me the first time I tried it when the wind backed way off in the spring runoff current at Rufus. I had three choices: go ashore way downriver and hope the wind comes back, stand up and exhaust every muscle in my body trying in vain to slog downwind against the strong current, or just sit there using only my forearm/grip muscles that would have gotten tired anyway.

DUH!

Not only might you plane down some swell sitting down, but this also lets you pop to your feet and plane in the gusts, so you aren’t wasting any planing opportunities, and especially not giving up on the wind. A single gust has VERY often transformed an hour swim or an agonizing 20-minute slogswim into a planing broad reach right to my launch.

And learn how to ooch, pump, or hop your way onto a plane. (HOP refers to using your footstraps to manually jerk the entire board off the water to release it from the water’s grip, then set it down planing. It worked on longboards, and it helps on sinkers, too.)

YES … work on some skills.

And on your equipment. Learn to use bigger sails for more power (power adds immensely to upwind planing ability). Ditto bigger fins than stock; I almost always bump up my fin sizes by an inch or so ... 22 cm is for freestylers who WANT to spin out (they call it sliding so it sounds more like fun), but with an 80L board I prefer more like 9 or even 10 inches, especially now that I often plane straight downwind for a mile at a time (and climb the stairs back upwind in 3-4 reaches) simply because it’s FUN.

You VEEL also learn to assess the wind mo bettah. When the sun has set and I even THINK the wind has dropped from too much power to merely enough, I shag my butt back to shore. I miss a few runs, but it has saved me from many long, dark swimslogs. When I get to shore, pick up my cell phone, verify with iW that I just dodged a bullet, then look at the river where the more stubborn guys are slogging in at 2 mph from a kilometer away and/or swimming across a 200-300 meter wind shadow, I dance a jig of joy that I’m not still out there milking dying wind. You’ll be highly motivated to figger out your home turf very quickly on that issue.

It also helps to rig BIG in the late evening. I gladly sacrifice a bit of control in the evening gusts when it lets me FLY home from a mile away while the much bigger guys on much smaller sails are working their ASSES off to slog and/or swim back home. Better yet, it often lets me stay out and play long after everyone else has no choice but to pick up their balls and go home. And, of course, sailing sinkers overpowered (by most guys’ standards) teaches one a valuable lesson: how to sail sinkers overpowered. I’m now completely comfortable, as in I ENJOY, sailing a 5.7 when bigger guys are on 4.2s and 4.7s because the gusts are big. Hell, that’s all but required for my long planing downwind riffs, whether just for fun or for trying out some new real estate or chasing someone else’s runaway board, if I expect to get back upwind easily. STEADY 4.7? Give me a 4.7 or a 5.2. Gusty 4.7? Give me a 5.7.

Should you go out just to work on light wind skills? Well, folks who do that progress faster, but I hate slogging on sinkers too much for that. I get PLENTY of practice on them in the deeper lulls as it is. Much depends on your venue, your “pain” tolerance, your urgency, your penalty of drifting downwind, etc. Personally, I’d compromise. I’d study the techniques online, practice them deliberately until I saw some major improvements (like for an hour or two), then back off and put the FUN back into my sailing. I’d also start ramping up my skills in rigging bigger. Holy CRAP but that makes WSing in gusty winds so much easier, safer, and more versatile. I do my best to rig to plane in the lulls, and find the rewards immense. It just frees me of SO many of the confines and constraints of rigging “right” (i.e., like everybody else including much bigger guys) with only very rare downsides. I prefer the HELL out of being truly overpowered for 47 seconds in a 3-hour session vs being unable to plane or being forced to mow the lawn to plane for 20 or 90 minutes, and I can almost ALWAYS plane high or dead downwind to regain full control when broad reaching is virtually impossible for a minute or three.

Then there are the guys like Dale and Bruce who rig much bigger than I, for all the same reasons plus racing.

Hey ... you asked.

[isobars]

[cgoudie1]

Greetings Mr ghost1,

I'm a little like Mike in that I find smaller boards more fun. I've learned
to slog my sinkers a foot under water. 10 Knots is more than enough
to waterstart my 180 lb butt out of the water. I've learned to uphaul, even
if I'm waist deep(but I don't carry an uphaul rope on anything except
my 6.7 rig anymore). If the wind has fallen to like 5MPH,, and I fall in, I
can butt sail in, and if it goes to 2 or 3, then I'll swim in. But, the single
most useful thing to prevent a long swim, is to know your launch and wind
well. You said it yourself, you knew the wind was falling off, but the fire
caught hold, and you took the risk on that last ride. It's your risk to take,
and it might pay off (or be worth a swim).

Anyway, all that stuff is learnable, if you want to take the time. Your
best safety precaution is to dress for the swim.

Good luck,

-Craig

[LUCARO]

Another option

http://www.roynbartholdi.com/windsurfing/tutorial/starts/light-wind-water-start

[westender]

You can't get performance out of a bigger board?? I suggest packing some swim fins.