Should I/ Shouldn't I?

You all know the feeling, when you have had a hard weeks work and the wind looks a bit fickle, or not quite the right direction etc.

Friday was like this for me, I did not have my biggest board and the wind was barely giving any white horses through the line of boat moorings about 200m from the shore. This is the usual guide for my 111l/69cm board and 8m sail. Dark patches of water and no white indicates I need my bigger board.

Then the thought went through my head, if I do not go out then I will end up doing 40mins on the turbo trainer, and the rest of my exercises anyway. So I rigged and went out. It was brilliant! I was grinning all evening due to it.

Today was a little similar, but the other end of the beaufort scale in terms of wind. I woke to the view of waves and spray just over the top of Chesil Beach, with 35knots average shown on the harbour wall. This was west too, 35 knots west in the winter is about as appealing as the dentist at times. In fact a visit to the dentist is needed after due to the tooth rattling chop unless it is high water.

I went regardless, took safe kit, bigger boards (65cm and 59cm) and a small sail. One thing I noticed was my fins. While I was of larger build I noticed I was spinning out more often, I blamed the fin of course, being old and very well used. My go to fin for my 100l board is the 35cm Type S Black Project, it did not spin out once today, and held amazingly well in the varied conditions, as did the 32cm in my smaller board. Both took me to just under 34knots in low tide very choppy conditions, with the 35 giving me a 26+ knot nautical mile in tricky conditions.

Good speeds and winds

The Bus