Windy spring training

With no short supply of breeze, the last 3 weeks have been windier than any spring I can remember. Blame it on global warming if you will , but the unusual weather patterns this year - with a lack of winter and spring storms - have pushed the thermals in earlier this year. Almost every day for the past 2 weeks has been solid slalom conditions at crissy field. On the few days Ive gone out on the formula board to train, I was so lit up, I came in a rigged down to slalom gear!
The new 07 equipment has been slow to arrive but Ive been dialing some newer equipment. First up was a north warp 7.3 from last year. It really has a lot of range and at the bottom end and can handle up to 18-20knots before becoming too much. The biggest difference this year has been the addition of a new wide compact slalom board into the quiver. The f2 sx slalom 105l board is more like a small slalom board at 70cm wide. It really shows its potential in light to medium conditions and doesn't give up too much in the breeze. Although it doesn't gybe as tightly as the smaller skinner slalom board, it does get you out of the transition quicker in lighter conditions.Most of the racers this year are putting together a slalom program for the upcoming nationals in San Francisco in August. As always Billy Weir is showing solid speed early on with David Wells, Soheil, Jean, and Royce all getting some early time on the water this spring on the city front.

I couldn't resist posting the following sequence of Seth on his freestyle gear. Shawn Davis captured the essence of a perfect catapault. Now thats a good huck! The rest of the sequence as well as 300+ photos of spring time San Francisco windsurfing can be found at Shawn Davis' smugmug photo-site.
I just found a good video posted on myhuck.com of David Well's session at fort point on Saturday April 13- some great swell coming in the gate and decent wave riding by David- check out the video here