Sunday, October 28, 2007

Resistance training


As I move closer to next month's World Championships- I decided to add some resistance training to my routine. With over 6 knots of ebb at the south tower of the Golden Gate Bridge, the accelerated current flow around the base of the tower sped the current up to where I could no longer make forward progress downwind - despite being lit on a 9.9 in a decent 15-knot breeze!Imagine a giant rug being pulling out from underneath you as you slide down the face of some early winter pacific swell. The long autumn sun- lower on the horizon each day- was shining through the golden gate with full force at 6pm when Shawn Davis captures these shots:
With the water as smooth as butter- it was a joy to sail today.
I did several runs out to the red nun- just west of the Potato Patch where I found the standing ebb swell. Its been peeling off for the last few days now with Thursday's full moon (the largest of 2007) pulling the tides even stronger.I decided after having sailed 5 days this week in Berkeley and under the Gate- doing a 100 gybes is way better than 100 sits ups per day. It's good to be back!

I also made some small discoveries with the new kashy fin this week after lining up with Mike Z and Ben Bamer on their L8's. The fin has a lot of power and grunt- especially at the low end but it was no match for the light wind performance of L8. The new board has superior speed and handling compared to this years Lab. Leave it up to a guy who sails 2x a week to come out and show you who's the man- Thanks Mike for schooling me yet again!
In other news- Bay area kiters have been ripping into new territory- check out Jeff Kafka charging Mavericks last week BayAreakiteboarding.com

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello Steve, thanks for making contact thru L-in. Great pics. Good luck on all the prep for Fortaleza, we'll be following up here.

PeconicPuffin said...

Has the oil spill put a hold on sailing? I've got to think that it's quite a mess.

Good luck to all Bay Area watermen/waterwomen/fish/crabs/etc.!

USA-4 Steve Bodner said...

Hey puffin-
Ive put off sailing and training in the Bay till the water quality gets better. Hopefully this week things will get better.
Steve