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

training-testing-training

The race to the Novembers Formula World Championship in Fortaleza has begun...well it actually began last year when I decided to stop the Olympic class windsurfing and focus on one class- the Formula. With this season having gone quite well and finishing strong at the US Nationals - I committed early and decided to go to Brazil mid season.
Earlier in the season I wasnt too sure about my fin quiver- or lack there of. With only 1 kashy 70cm I thought I would be really pushing the limit of its range. So far so good though as I was really able to utilize the one kashy 70 xs in light to moderate breeze to even wound up 9.0 formula sailing in SF voodoo chop. I think part of that is due to the double chicken strap on the mikes lab formula board. By going inboard sooner downwind on a 70 cm fin you can stay powered up longer- rather than going down to a smaller fin sooner as it gets windier. The increased tail width on this years Lab also helped take advantage of a bigger fin.
The worlds should be windy but after getting my ass kicked in Holland I decided to go for something with a bit more bottom end grunt. I ordered a second kashy fin - this one 73 cm cut down to 70 cm. The extra tip length and increased chord at the bottom should generate more lift and have better bottom end.
Also after having got back to SF last week I began testing out some new finworks formula fins with David Wells. If you havnt seen them yet- its a combination carbon core and G-10 leading and training edge. Dave has gotten down quite a precision with his CNC router. First impression was that they are very slippery. Dave Lasiila is on to something good here and has been steadily improving his product. Im anxious to find out the range in the next month ahead.
Word is theres another fin development in addition to Mike Z's custom fins as well. C-Rad and some other Bay area formula racers got a hold of Boogies old C3 molds and are making something similar to the E series of a few years back. As most recall Boogie's fins were very stiff.
Almost too stiff. Ben Bamer sailed with a softer copy of that in this years nationals until he broke the fin at the base. So far that was it for Doug Michna's creations.
I also got a chance to sail the new Mikes Lab formula board for next season. A few changes here and there but overall a really good impression the first time out. A looser feeling, wider in the tail, shallower cut outs and a chamfered rails in the first 1/2 of the board. Enjoy the photos...

Playing armchair quaterback

Its autumn - for some the sailing season has ended- but for other- its the final step in a 4-8 year campaign to represent the US at the 2008 Summer Olympics. For me its a chance to play armchair quarterback from Europe as I watch the US Olympic Trails unfold in southern California.
Despite my love hate relationship with the olympic board and sailing every trials since '96- most of you know I decided to sit the Olympic trials out and pursue other outlets this time around.

Nonetheless it looks like its going to be a real fight at the US Olympic trials with Gebi, Ben Barger and Bob Willis in the mens fleet and Farrah Hall and Nancy Rios in the women's fleet.


With only 7 men and 6 women competing, the question that begs to be asked is: What are we doing wrong as a country to not have generated more interest and success in the Olympic windsurfing class- your comments are welcome and appreciated!

The actioned started before the first starting signal even went off with Ben and Gebi protesting each other's boards at measurement. Gebi's 1st board filed to comply with the rocker line measurement the class specifies.

You'd think you wouldn't have to worry about something like that with one manufacture producing identical boards form the same mold- but then again they're not dealing with the precision of Zajicek's hands. We're talking Cobra and NP quality here!
Gebi was down to his 2nd choice hull and 2 protest and appeals later- Ben got to use his 1st choice hull.

Meanwhile once the first race started- Bob Willis- took the first bullet with Gebi in 2nd and Ben retiring (I know that strategy well enough to say - good luck making no other mistakes the rest of the regatta.) In the womens fleet- underdog Lisa Kramer took the first bullet with favorites Nancy Rois and Farrah Hall finishing 2-4.

Side note- the 2004 trials started the same way with underdog Phil Mueller taking the first bullet of the series with Barger and Wells cat fighting in the corner of the course.

By the 2nd race- the wind was up to the low teens and the favorites set the pace with Bager and Hall taking bullets in race 2.
With not much room for any mistakes- the favorites now have their work set out for them the rest of the regattas. It should be interesting to see how it unfolds over the next week of racing.
For results- cheek here
US Sailing Olympic Trials web site with photos.
Ill try to add some additional reports as the trials continue and even get some insight from the leaders.
Day 2 report- As I sit here a world away from the Olympic trials I have plenty of opportunities to ponder the the RSX as the Olympic board. While it may not be the fastest or do anything the best- it does do it all in most conditions. You cant say that about many boards at all. And while windsurfing in sub-planning conditions may not be my cup of tea- it does represent a lot of windsurfing conditions around the world. So to say its not representative of the sport isnt exactly fair as much as saying wave sailing or freestyle represents the sport.
And if you were going to have windsurfing in the Olympics- you would want it to be a real physical test of athletic ability and endurance- and tactics- just what the RSX is proving to be Too bad you need to fit in a 10lb window to be competitive.

Well the racing continued on day 2 with the lead going back and forth in marginal to light wind racing. According to Farrah the race " had about 4 knots of wind with a current running 90 degrees to the wind direction." Like anything in life- you've got to take the good with the bad.
Farrah looks like shes got better boat speed than most of the girls (according to her blog)but is still making some mistakes to take herself out of the game. If she can keep it together- it looks like it is hers to win or lose. The real gains it looks are coming off the breeze where she is out muscling most of the girls through better pumping.
Lisa Kramer seems to be the big surprise of the event- still leading on Day 2 despite making some moves that make you wonder.
"While she was holding onto the stern of the committee boat her sailboard kept banging against the swim step, putting five holes in her hull."- from the Rich Roberts of the Press Telegram.

Meanwhile in the men's fleet Gebi and Ben split it up with each of them taking a 1-2. Bob Willis stumbled some with a 5-3 today but still sits in 2nd. Bob could be the real wildcard in the series if he manages to get some points in between Ben and Gebi- exactly what Ben needs with a RAF on Day 1.
If reading anything on the news site at US Sailing micro site its that challenging conditions bring the best athletes to the top. It seems the whole SoCal coast is plagued with shifty, holy conditions on the first 2 days of the trials. Ahh the fun!

Day 3 and 4 report - the news is a bit slow leaking out from SoCal but it looks like Gebi and Ben are still duking it out to make it a real race. With 7 races under their belts- Ben finally got his throw out and moved into 1st- tied with Gebi on points In the breeze on Tuesday Bob Willis finally found his rhythm with a solid 1-2 finish. Ben had to settle for a 3-2 with Gebi posting a 1-3.
Meanwhile in the womens fleet, Farrah got back into the game with some consistent results on Tuesday posting 2 bullets. That puts her in 1st while Kramer and Rios are tight for 2nd and 3rd.

The conditions coming out of Long Beach have been varying- to say the least: several days of light pumpathons to Tuesday's 20k+ breeze. Apparently the trash and weeds have been playing a big part as well with everyone forced to clear the foils several times a race and thus affecting the lead.
Side note: Gebi's silver place in the 1992 Olympic was only due to his catching a plastic bag on the last race of the series.
More about the environmental impact of plastic bags here.

Final Day report: sometimes you can only do as much as you can and still thats not enough. It was a a really tough day for Farrah Im sure with emotions up and down. On the last day of the trials she won both races and finished 1 point in front of Nancy in the overall score. But things beyond her control were about to take place. Nancy who got in a collision with another competitor tore her sail in the last race and applied for redress. Ultimately the jury decided that she probably would have finished 2nd if it were not for the collision and Nancy got a 2nd instead of a 4th- giving her a 1 point advantage of Farrah at the end of the regatta. An unbelievable turn of events of both girls Im sure thinking that thry've won then lost.
In the mens fleet it was Ben who decided his own fate by taking the 2 final bullets on the last day to seal the deal. It almost didnt happed for Ben as on Friday Ben and Bob got into a collision and rendering Bens board almost useless. Eric Rathenbuller who had been finishing at the end of the fleet fo the whole regatta gave Ben the use of his board for the remaining 2 days. Now that is sportsmanship! Good on you Eric. and Congratulations to Ben Barger and Nancy Rios who will representing the US at the 2008 Olympic Games.

* After having discussed the Rios VS Hall case with a few other people and reading the post on other forums- windsuringmag & sailing anarchy it looks, in my opinion, that the jury made a significant error when deciding to give Nancy redress. Heres why I think so:
A similar case happened at the RSX worlds last year and the jury denied redress to the competitor with a ripped sail!
The decision to give Rios redress due to her ripped sail is somewhat noteworthy. The impact of a 8 inch hole can be analytically calculated easily.
If you know the total sail area, one can compute the amount of pressure lost by the 8 inch hole by subtracting the hole from the total area of the sail.

Once the new total area is computed, that can be compared to the original area to compute the degradation in performance due to the hole.
This is a simple calculation since the sail is the 'engine' of a windsurfer and one can focus solely on it and get an accurate estimate of the impact on speed.

For a rip with similar area to 8 inches by 1 inch, the net loss in area is 0.06%. If a windsurfer can go upwind at 15 mph, this net loss in area could result in a net reduction of speed to
14.991.

(Please keep in mind that this is an OVERESTIMATE on the significance since the structure of the RS:X sail is composed of 8 separate panels divided by 7 rigid full length battens.

A hole in one panel would have virtually NO effect on the other 7 panels. Thus it's more accurate to compute the net loss in pressure as 1/8th of 0.06%.
Suffice to say that 0.06% is NOT SIGNIFICANT thus the actual impact being less is evenLESS SIGNIFICANT.)

The fact that Rios planned away from the incident proves it was probably not significant. As most windsurfers know- once planning- a smaller sail is more efficient.

This is where having a knowledgeable- windsurfing jury may have helped.


The US Sailing jury was probably more familiar with the RRS for sailboats and not aware of dynamic differences between sailboats and planning windsurfers.

Yes Hall did make a bad decision by not making herself available and knowledgeable of the redress earlier and not applying for redress herself but the fact still remains- the jury at the trials went against a previous decision made at the Worlds in a similar case and also over-judged the significance of a tear in Rios's sail.

Regardless of the situation- Dennis Parris had some good words of advice on her blog:
One of many challenges of competition is knowing how to win and how to lose. As stated in the Olympic creed, it is not only triumph that defines your life, but how you choose to handle disappointments and failure. The real challenge in life is to handle both success and failure with grace and to respect each as part of the journey

WIND- or at least some dutch wind

After 2 weeks of being in Holland without much wind- I was beginning to wonder if I was cursed. Maybe just blessed form living in SF for the past 6 years but with no racing this w-end I finally found the "inner joy" of windsurfing again.
The wind was up- from 14-18k in Almere so I took out my 11.0 for a little bit of punishment-no not the self torture of trying to finesse a 11.0 in 8k but the grunt of holding down a 11.0 in gust up to 18k. This was the sailing I was used to. Ok the swell wasn't exactly there but I was enjoying the sunshine, the wind and the fun of exploring a new sailing venue!
With no other formula sailors around I had the lake- or 'gooimeer' to myself- well at least to share with the hordes of other dutch classic wooden sailboats making their way up channel on the lake.
Its hard to explain whats what as the dutch have actually surrounded their country with a dyke and are constantly filling in to create new land for the population to grow in. Almere is such a place of reclaimed land- so is the other side of the lake. If you look on the map- it does eventually connect to the North Seas- in a round about way. Click here for more info on the dutch wonders of the zuiderzee
Sailing a formula board is a great way to really explore an area. I was out earlier this week slalom sailing in marginal conditions when I found the bottom- real quick. Apparently the far side is a lot shallower than I thought. Better to have found that out on a production slalom fin vs a custom carbon fin.
Sailing alone can get a little dry after a hour or so so I had to keep my concentration up- working on tacks and gybes through the chop of passing boats. Practice makes perfect ...err perfect practice makes perfect. Anyways I was enjoying it all today and finally found my groove again. Cant wait to get back on the course again in some breeze.
I did remember some sailing drills from way back in the junior sailing days when the coach would blow his whistle every 15 seconds where you would need to tack or gybe.
Keep this up for a few minutes, break and then repeat for a good workout.

Day 3 and 4 Dutch Championship

More of the same conditions as we saw in day 1 and 2- this time with significant drops in the wind between 1-4pm. Winds were 7-9k with some gust up to 12-13k in the late morning and early evening with 10-20 degree shifts around the course. Timing the oscliating shifts was more important than getting the geographical shift off the shoreline, but as always in the light air- its always important to stay in the pressure!
There just wasn't enough breeze to get my set up to work efficiently so I felt out of the race in most of the last 2 days of racing. Without an 12.0 to keep up, my speed and angle was severely off and every small battle on the course was a loosing one. Just a few tactical cards I could play but I did learn some important lessons in the light air racing:
More and more the fleet was starting on port to get the first shift right shift of the land. In a fleet of 30 boards with 20 starting on port- just a few would get a good start. In the light air- it might have been better to start on starboard with better chances of getting clear air off the line. I tried this approach a few times- knowing I lacked any power w/ my 11.0.
Below are some shots from Alex @ the beach and race deck:


Finding out what went wrong: by process of elimination- its either the board, the fin, the rig, or the rider- or a combination of all of the above.
ML7- while the board is great when its lit up on a 9 and 10, it lacks some drive in the light stuff.
(might be lacking power due to 11.0 rig)
Fin- kashy xs 70 cm should be the wining ticket - but again without 12.0 there was no angle or speed.
Rig- 11.0 north warp- found out this sail does not have the low end of a 11.9. It worked better when I put more batten pressure on, tightened the tack strap to get a pocket in the foot of the sail, downhauled it a little less than I would have (2 cm),and finally moved the mast base back on he board to 70% back in the track. Also moving the booms up lighten up the board- but as a result needed to move my harness lines further back.
Rider- @ 175lbs I think it was necessary to have a 12.0 to be able to make most tactical decisions on the race course-. Not having any options, speed or angle left me back in the fleet.
Saturday- Alex came down and took some more photos:

A video from some of the day 4s racing from a big Dutch speeedsailor- Roger van Tongeren as well as days 3's racing.

Here are the top 10 results:

1-Dennis Little NED-13
2-Adriaan van Rijselberghe NED-2
3- Adri Keet NED 34
4-Dirk Doppenberg NED-51
5-Markus Bouman NED-6
6-Sean O’Brien AUS-120
7-Roy van Koolwijk NED-97
8-Klaas Jissink NED-315
9-Pieter Eliens NED-538
10/1e Jeugd-Teade de Jong NED-777

www.wedstrijdsurfen.nl

Some other race reports:
Markus Boumann - NED 6
Sean O'Brien- AUS 120

and additional photos from Tom Vos

Overall the dutch had an impressive racing scene with an up and coming junior fleet and several top world contenders. Im looking forward to my 11.9 arriving in a few weeks and actually racing with them!

getting schooled in dutch

The European conditions continued today with a 10-13 north westerly breeze. Racing started promply @ 11 and 5 races were run with plenty of time between races on the beach. Although the wind did puff occasionally into the low teens, no one was holding out for slalom. At most times the wind was shifting regularly and the shoreline provided a geographical lift for most playing the right side.
I tried changing gears today to get some more low end out of my 11.0 with additional batten tension,a tighter tack strap and a touch less downhaul. Although that did give me some extra juice, the board really loosened up when I bought the mast back to 60-70% back in the track.
Still I was unable to find decent angle and speed upwind. Might try standing the rig up more tomorrow or even trying the 520 mast to see whats up. At this point it's a bit frustrating not to be able to play the game upwind. I have been constantly loosing my lane up wind. Im not sure if its the 11.0, the board or some combination of rigging.
By the last race, the wind was in the mid teens and I finally got a decent start after a general recall and the black flag. I was powered upwind and holding angle until it lightened up and my angle suffered. A few times I was in the middle pack but just haven't found the groove yet.
2 more days and chances to improve...well at least figure out what the hell is going on!
Some photos of the event here from local Tom Vos

Taking a beating in Holland

While some people pay for this type of service behind closed doors in the red light district in Amsterdam, I am taking my public flogging openly at the first day of the Dutch championship.
No excuses needed- I just couldn't put together a good race after 5 tries in marginal conditions. There is something fundamentally different about sailing overpowered compared to sailing underpowered!
While my set up was starting to feel alive when the puffs hit 12k, I was getting worked off the starting line and upwind with an 11.0. Most of the fleet was on 11.9's and some 150-lb-er's on a 11.0
Choosing the wrong side upwind 4 out 5 times doesn't help either. Nor does not being prepared.
Sometimes having all the comforts of home (like a toolbox, cell phone, supplies and a car) makes it easier to cope with the small breakdowns and trials of a regatta. But coping- nonetheless- is something everyone has to do and those that do it the best- come out on top!
Being out of my usual element really put on the pressure: How to understand whats going on at the skippers meeting. Getting the start count down in dutch!
With almost 15 years of racing experience you'd think having the fundamentals down would be something I would have gotten down in maybe say the first 5 or 10 years. Still learning after all these years- that's what makes the game so interesting and fun to play. A bit frustrating sometimes but at the end of the day- fun!
If it isn't- you've got to ask yourself why are you doing it.
Below is quick debriefing on my attempts to get around the course of day 1 of the Dutch formula and slalom championship:
After a 2-3 hour wait for the wind to build- the RC sent the fleet out around 2pm for a double windward leeward course in 8-10k. Most choose their big 12 m2 sails. I choose my biggest I had at the moment- my 11.0. Something wasn't quite right upwind- I wasn't getting any angle and getting killed off the line. By race 3 I had figured out my bottom batten was broken and preventing any chance of getting upwind efficiently. After a quick scramble to get a replacement- (thanks you Tom and Adri) I got back on the water for the lat 2 races after missing race 4.
Still no luck getting off the line with speed and power as I was being a bit conservative with the one minute flag up at most starts. As most of you know- the race is pretty much won or lost at the start. Going up wind in bad air on the first beat pretty much sucks and puts you in a bad mood for the rest of the race. Overcoming this was one of the main problems I faced today.
I wasnt too sure what was going on in the front of the fleet as I was having my own difficulties finding my way around the course. Needless the say, the dutch have a strong fleet. Looking forward to the next 3 days of racing in Almere.

This video puts the light wind sailing into perspective- at last weeks "The Mission 2007" event, 300+ participants with very light wind. But that didn't stop them from having fun on the tow in ramp! (wait for crashes at the end)
A few pros doing lightwind slalom with formula gear and 11.9's