When I began seriously windsurfing, I began to keep a journal, notes in a little spiral bound notebook. It was quite helpful. I logged my sessions and noted sail trim settings - downhaul, outhaul, etc.
I ran across it the other day when cleaning out the garage and ran across this entry:

That was twenty three years ago. I'd had a good day windsurfing and then got in the car and turned on the radio.

I would have written that differently had I known that it would be posted for public consumption. Nirvana was a big deal as we transitioned from the synth New Wave and hair metal of the 80s to the grunge of the 90s and Kurt Cobain was, arguably, its biggest voice.

As is typical for me, the self-discipline petered out after a few more entries. That's probably for the best as a few of the other entries were horribly arrogant for a newbie. I'm not very good now, two decades later, so to read my self-assessment then is a bit cringey. Ah, the folly of youth.

Oh, and Amy is one my wife's good friends from med school. Just in case anybody was thinking, "What?"

Report on New RRD Firemove 122

If you’re like me, you love days when whitecaps cover area lakes. Steady, strong wind makes sailing easy. But light and gusty conditions are far more common. Rather than complain about the lack of good wind, I recently upgraded to a new board that turns many marginal days into fun days on the water.

The board is the RRD Firemove 122 liter. The Firemove captures the excitement of short-board sailing in lower winds than I previously thought possible. It works great with both my 8.5 and 7.0 meter Ezzy sails. In Bonaire I rented this RRD board and thought it was also a good match with a 6.5 meter sail. The 122 liter Firemove handles a wide wind range and smooths out chop. A big advantage of the design is that it stays on a plane, coasting through lulls, without sacrificing turning ability. This board is extremely easy to jibe and effortlessly turns to ride small waves.

I have to credit Alain Ciclet for introducing me to the Firemove. He’s an experienced windsurfer who learned on the south coast of France where Mistral winds create epic conditions. He wanted a board that preserved the excitement and feel of short-board sailing in lower winds. Alain brought his new Firemove to Nags Head where I saw him sail in a variety of conditions.

The Firemove is made in a range of sizes between 100 - 135 liters focusing on all-around freeride performance. The new 120 liter and last year’s 122 liter board come with a quality 42 cm Powerbox fin. JP makes a similar line called “Magic Ride" of wide, short, thin boards. An extra-wide Formula, or Super lightwind board will plane in even lower wind, but can’t match the sheer fun and turning ability of RRD’s new design. This was the most popular board in the rental fleet at Jibe City in Bonaire. I’ve found it’s equally at home on Lake Lanier or the Outer Banks.

We may be offline a bit this weekend. Webguy sprung for some more memory for the server and, since he's pretty much useless otherwise, he's asked me to pop it in for him.

Since I lack opposable thumbs, it may take me a few minutes. But, not to worry, I can grasp Vise-Grips and a mallet with my tail. We'll get those buggers in, one way or another.

While webguy hasn't been pulling his weight and slacked off on the new article production, I, Maurice, your loyal web monkey, have been busy with a number of updates and upgrades behind the scene. In webguy's defense, he's had to focus on some things elsewhere over the last few months but he promises to write more.

First, our apologies for some recent outages. We've been wired up to Comcast Business Class which was pretty solid for a long time but recently has gotten flaky. We hope that settles down. We are sporting some faster drives on the web server so when your modem connects, you should be seeing the page load pretty quickly.

We've done a lot of software updates around here, too. So far nothing has blown up which is always the risk since we have four different content packages working together through the magic of binary duct tape and chewing gum.

The biggest news is that you can now log in to the web site with several different "social media" accounts. You'll have a different account and registering still requires replying to an email but you may find it easier. Or not. Your account on this website will still work, too, if you prefer keeping your old nom de plume. Presently, you can use Facebook, Twitter and Google. If we are missing a major one, let us know.