webguy wrote:

Front coming through Thursday. Action possible Wed through Saturday with Friday looking like another off the chains day.

Slight chance of a sneaker session today with a south wind. Euro says no, HRRR says yes. It'll be interesting to see who wins this one.

Last I checked the Gilmer web page was still down. However, the weather talker is still working. 770-532-4687

I hope to sail Friday afternoon.

webguy wrote:

. . . Euro says no, HRRR says yes. It'll be interesting to see who wins this one.

still getting a feel for these models - the new HRRR in particular. Any verdict regarding this past Monday battle? Any feelings overall on how it's performing with it's wind predictions?

(and....is it just me, or have the NOAA wind forecasts in general gotten more . . . "optimistic" in recent years (since incorporating HRRR?) ? I used to regard their wind forecasts as being on the conservative side. Seems a bit opposite now (to me).

PLUS.... ( holy cow. trying to remain calm so as not to jinx friday . . . . )

Planing on putting to the test the new futura and myself Thursday early afternoon at Vanns Tavern. Who's with me?

FWIW (if, by chance, anyone were contemplating Hartwell for Friday) . . . here's a glimpse of the launch and conditions at Singing Pines Rec Area (on the SC side, down by the dam) from late last week. Tomorrow's (Friday) forecast is shaping up to look almost identical to this day, and I expect there will be at least two of us fin surfers at this same location.

(let it blow, let it blow, let it blow . . . )

~ safe, happy windsporting - wherever folks end up!

16:20 leaving Vanns, because I have to go to work, but did have a good day. 12 to 25mph wind, somewhat unidirectional. The gear was the new 24 Starboard Futura 120, paired with a 7.8 Severne Mach 4. Tomorrow is a full day work, so today was a must!

Looking at 12:30/1pm arrival, for me, at van pugh. What's the water temperature, btw? My last sail was March 18th. Is it warm enough for a 3:2 and bare hands?

I didn't measure the water temp today, but I felt the need to cool off in it, the 5/3 I was wearing. I wouldn't go for a 3/2 yet. Its almost there, but no!

Who’s going today, Friday afternoon???

Update William & Stewart plan to sail. ETOA at VP about 2PM.

Old Fed 2:00

I went ahead and did the wind-shadow hula on my small board. The water temp. has stubbornly stayed at 54ºF, so swimming my gear out to the wind line was chilly. Once out on main body of the Lake, my 5.2m sail was a handful in gusts topping 40mph. I decided to avoid injury and cut my session short. I'd already started to de-rig when the wind shifted NW, eliminating the wind shadow along shore, and the speed dropped a few knots.

‘Twas tempting but looked SO gusty in town. I went to PDK airport to watch them try to land their planes. Saw a jet do a go-around ( blow off their landing approach due to a gusty cross-wind). You almost never see that.

Hoping for a late afternoon sesh Saturday.

Session report:

I was most definitely blown off the water while wing-foiling this past Friday April 12th, and I’m glad.

58L board
925cm2 foil/ 232cm2 stab
5.5m2 wing
5:4 wetsuit
wraparound sunglasses

I sailed from roughly 1:30pm to 2:45pm. Ironically, struggling to get on foil initially from the lee in front of Van Pugh, I thought that all the forecasts could’ve been wrong. Next thing I knew, I was flying along with steady 20-25kts and gusts above that. Lanier cooks-up a good squall - yeehaw! And, without any boat traffic, there were beautiful stacks of rolling waves in all of the predictable places. Zee? was on the water for 1-2 runs on his windsurfer. We had a wild ride!

The predictability of the waves and power in hand was great for practicing jumps. More complex than windsurfing, jumping waves on a foil requires careful coordination of the foil to achieve sufficient compression for lift-off without breaching. And, I’m starting to get it dialed Interestingly, while just learning to do this on foil, I’m only able to jump comfortably when riding regular-foot heel side, and when approaching waves at about 45 degrees instead of head on. Switch (or goofy-foot) heel side does not feel natural at all, and the waves are more head-on and daunting when I’m riding goofy on NW days; so I’ve got something to work on for sure. Although, I did try one regular-foot toe side jump into the same head-on waves and it felt pretty awesome. Who’d of thunk all this surf would come to Lanier!?

The wind was building and my wing was becoming jittery and unstable. There was so much energy in the wind and waves that I was able to surf and pump downwind without using the wing. Following advice for riding swell that I read on seabreeze, I tried to keep my foil close to the top of the rollers by pointing diagonally instead of straight down the face. I could see myself doing this for miles if I had a way to get home, although for a novice like myself, pumping was quite physically taxing.

Gradually, the wind built up to 30-35kts and I struggled to get home. My wing and foil being too big, I couldn’t find an angle of attack and sliver of wind that would keep me trudging along at a speed somewhere between stalling and catapulting. I missed the boat ramp, almost missed the beach, and resigned for the day. Now I know my limits ... at least until I get more gear

Good seeing the gang including the brave ones who similarly communed with Poseidon.
-Stuart

It helps to be able to see !

Smaller wing and smaller foil would be nice, but summer is coming ...