Owner:
justal
Administrator
Member#: 1 Location: Registered: 21-07-2002 Diary Entries: 2989
Mood: Just Chillin Dude
|
24th November 2009
Windsurfing: Ynyslas Wind Direction: SW Wind Stength: 25-35 knots Surf / Sea State: Huge! Air Temperature: 13ºC Sea Temperature: 12ºC Weather: Cloudy Max Speed: Distance Covered:
Woohoo, what a session. Went out with my big wave board and 4.5m sail and
soon realised that it was a lot bigger out there than it looked from the
beach!
The first run wasn't too bad, some nice big jumps and then managed to sail
out the back and have a good blast over the swell before gybing and sailing
back in amongst some pretty big lumps of water. But then it just seemed to
get bigger and bigger. I'm not sure why, but it was dead on high tide so
that may have had something to do with it.
On about my 5th run out it was easily the biggest I've ever sailed in, way
over mast high and not only were they huge but they had become snarling
monsters that seemed intent on punishing me. At one point I had been
sailing out, well powered for ages but still wasn't out beyond the breaking
waves. I was at least half a mile out to sea and still surrounded by big
waves and walls of whitewater with nowhere to run to and nowhere to
hide.
Then I thought it was all over as a huge waved reared up in front of me,
pitched and exploded into a wall of white-water. I had no option but to hit
it flat out and try to sail up and over it despite the fact that it was
mast high. I hit the whitewater head on, sailed vertically up it and
managed to pop out onto the top. By this staged I'd lost some momentum and
it had me. I was travelling backwards on top of the white-water in its
grip, pumping frantically to try to get going and not get sucked backwards
over the falls. Somehow I made it, but there was another wave in front of
me.
Still in the straps I pumped as hard as I could, pushed with my front foot
and tried to get going again, back on the plane and the next wave was
jacking up. Thankfully it hadn't broken yet and I managed to sail up its
face (I've never sailed so far uphill before) and just about managed to
punch out over the top of it as the lip pitched forwards behind me. There
were still more waves beyond it so once again it was back onto the plane
and keep sailing out until eventually there was a break in the waves and I
could gybe and head back to the beach.
By now I was miles out to sea and down towards the estuary. It was about
now that I decided that maybe enough was (more than) enough. If I came off
here and got parted from my kit or broke something then it was going to
take me hours to get home. I was out on my own with no-one else around so
maybe the sensible option was to sail back to the beach and call it a
day.
I did of course ride some of the waves on the way back in just to show them
that they may have beaten me into submission today but they hadn't
completely beaten me.
Only a short session, but a full on, scary, adenalin rush of a session!
|
Toys Used:
Statsbar:
About MY Statsbar
|