May Loooong weekend @ Nitnat

[Bobson Dood]

Okay, where to start...it all a little blurry but here goes. Get up there at 5pm on Friday and it's blowin 12-14kts, so I decide to set up camp. Good idea as the wind went soft. It drizzled Fri night but woke up to a cloudy quiet morning. What I remember from Saturday was the thunder and rain. I sailed a couple hours in the morning 12-15 kts, then it started to thunder and I ran scared for shelter. It was blowing about 20 kts but between the thunder and pelting rain only a couple of brave souls ventured out. I won't ever call BWD soft as he was out doing his spinny things while this hellish weather came through. We sail a bit more Sat afternoon but still a bit cloudy. Came off the water and had dinner and sat around a great campfire with John/Karen/Billy+1/The Kat. We played games around the fire and ate 'The mix' until 1:30am then packed it in to get some sleep hoping for good winds on Sunday as fircast.

Well, it came....and came and came!! Sunday was fan-flippin-tastic. I got early 7am to beautiful blue sky and a warm outflow. I said goodbye to Kasey Letters - KC7777(doooood, I owe you $10). Made coffee and decided to go and take some pictures of the beautiful sunrise. The outflow stopped and it was calm for 5 mins before the inflow started, you could see the wind line coming down the lake. It arrived gently at first so I decided to drive up to the store and get some eggs for breaky and water to drink. When I arrived back at camp it was sunny, warm and blowing 15 kts already and it was only 10am. So it began, BWD was sitting on the logs as I got into my wetsuit(didn't want to make the others feel soft if I went out in just my shorts again) anyways Dave said the 6.9 was too small and as I got out I thought he might be right. Just then, my new GO 150 jumped onto a plane and started to fly....and my oh my how it flew. It blew 16-24 kts from 10:30 and I came off the water at 4pm to get a drink and take some pictures. Went back on the water at 4:30pm and sailed until 7pm. Yes, sports fans that's 8 hours of sailing on Sunday. My hands were raw and belly was growling. Crazy thing was that it was still sunny and blowing 17 kts. What a fantastic day. As I came off the water at 7pm, Russian-dude was there to say...HEY DUDE, why don't you go out on your little board..?? I said NO(smartest thing I had done all weekend) as I was too tired(yes, even the great BOBSON get tired) and the little board could wait for tomorrow. It decided to blow until about 8:00pm when finally it had the sense to stop and save some for the next day. Well, save some it did. WoW...just wait.

I ate some 4 bavarian smokies, a ham sangy, apple, orange, banana and about a dozen chocolate chip cookies from Thriftys. Yes, they do put some addictive chemical in them as everyone up there can vouch for. We sat around a fire at my campsite with the Russian-dude, BWD, Shark-bait, Cabrinha-guy, digger, other dog, Darwin, Skin(aka Granny) and a couple that no one ever introduced(bad manners kiter-dudes). We didn't play any games but we did get lots of good Russian stories about the army, navy and what life is like in the Motherland(USSR) and ate a bag of Fudge-O's. We all packed it in by Midnight, trying to get enough sleep to get up and do it all over again.

Good morning, woke up at 8pm, had coffee with John(yes, another kiter..but don't worry, I'm not changing teams) and went for a walk in the campsite to get the muscles working again as they were pretty sore from the day before. I found the eggs I had bought the day before still in the back of my car and proceeded to throw then in the garbage as they spent a sunny day inside the car. oh, well...a breakfast bar and banana should do the trick. It was blowing 12-15 kts by 10am so I took out the 9.0 for a morning warmup for an hour with only 2 kites on the lake, then at 11 it picked up to 15-17kts and a few other were coming out of their caves. I came in and changed down to the 6.9 Ezzy and sailed till Noon when it picked up again to about 20kts. I came in and put the GO away and put my fear in my ear and borrowed a 36cm fin from W247, mounted it on my Bic Vivace(did I mention this speed needle is only 86 litres) and rigged my Ezzy 6.9 on it. Russian dude offered a deviator but it didn't fit on my fin so I threw into the trees. Thanks Russian-doood!. Chris(a real jedi-master) said 'Have fun' and smiled a crocked smile, BWD asked if I could pick him up some treats from the store on my way back on the walk of shame back up the beach and the Russian-dood said, don't hook in right away, just feel it. I took in all the pre-sail lessons and decided to venture out.....what will happen...??

I tried jumping onto the board a few times and everytime it either flipped or bucked my off. This bull was going to take some work, I thought to myself. I ventured into some deeper water hoping for some better wind. Waterstart, flip! Waterstart, buck! Just then I got up and submarined for about 20 feet with the water up to my thighs. I thought to myself...is this short boarding..?? I ended up at the day use beach and did the walk of shame but forgot Dave's treats. Walked upwind a bit and decided to try again. A few people on the beach were smiling and I thought I had better turn into Super-Bobson so I went out again, got up...submarined for what seemed like eternity and turned downwind and started schlogging...YES, I was doing it!! Oooops, fell in. A couple more schlogs and I was planing across the lake.....I screamed out YAHOOO, scared a few kids and fell in. Up again, schloggin, planing, got back to the beach and asked Johnny how to get into the straps as they were too far back on the board. My 220 pounds was sinking the tail everytime I tried. He said, go fast and just stick them in. I said Ok with the biggest SH*& eating grin on my face and ventured back out. Now it's probably blowing 20+ and I got up on a plane and headed downwind and stepped toward the back of the board and the tail wasn't sinking, I was bouncing around like a pair of 40 year old biggins, so I hung on the boom and stuck the front foot into it's strap....YES....then without blinking and in the next millisecond put the back foot in.....YES!!! It worked, hiked out in the harness and straightened my legs and WAHOO, I was the bat going oughta hell on fire!!! THIS WAS HEAVEN!!!


So, to rap it up.....this was the best windsurfing weekend in my long 2 years as windsurf-wannabee!! I have made it into the world of shortboarding!!! I look forward to seeing you all in the water!!

Thanks to BWD/Russian-dude/Jedi-master/Johnny for helping my through my first short board session. I LOVE IT!

[KC7777]

Bobson,
I want some credit for sacrificing for all and heading out at 7:00 am on Sunday am.

[wind_dummy]

i guess this means we'll be seeing more of Bobson dood at Tuggwell

[bwd]

Hey Bobson:

Am I to understand that you had a good weekend? You did amazingly well on that little board - you rip big guy! It is great to hear how stoked you are (in the forum and on the water WOOHOOOOOO!!).

Hey and I don't think you look like your avatar picture - you are way more tanned!
dave

[JL]

Yo! Dooooooooood! Awesome report......Way to get in those straps and use the force......Start saving for a wave board for I-view this fall & Tugwell!!! Maintain that stoke...I nominate you for Nitinat weekend correspondent! Jim...Coastguard free since Christmas eve 2003!

[winddoctor]

Niiiice, Bobson doooode!

Great to see you ripping on the little Vivace! You'll be the fastest guy on the water in no time.

Those kids you scared are having nitemares now. Nothing a bit of counselling shouldn't cure! All in the name of fun!

Ripitup!

[more force 4]

Bobson, great story and the weekend pics looked fantastic. Wish I could have been there. How did jybing go on the teensy board? Stay dry on any? I've been reading old wreck dot threads and it sounds as if that board is super fast but not very forgiving of small errors in the turns. And waterstarts? How hard were they? I am plucking up courage to try a real sinker again - I remember that submarine feeling the last time I tried one but I never got it going - kudos to you big guy!! That was a couple of years ago now and I'm a much better sailor now, its time to move to a smaller board! Last time at Nitinat I found my 105 l board handled the 7.5 sail no problem, which means it will now become my light air board (dunno why I didn't try it earlier, didn't want to swim in I guess, just chicken). Maybe if it is blowing not too hard, I could try trading small boards with you - you could try the Adagio in 18 kts, probably just right for your weight.


What about next weekend for Nitinat? Weather doesn't look great at this point, but....