I
am so stoked to have competed in this years Inlet to Inlet race. In
retrospect I don't think I prepared myself adequately for the long
upwind grind. It's quite a bit more difficult than any downwinder I
have done, but also more interesting.My recap goes a little like this. At the start I was a little dissapointed with myself for not bringing a watch, and for staying out way to late the night before. But I digress. I decided to stay near Ron since he was the official "start boat." When he sheeted in, so did I and we were off. I was able to take an early lead, only about 100 yards at most over Ron. Couldn't really see anybody else. Things felt as good as they should have for the first half of the beat...and I was able to stay just ahead. I will admit that he looked mighty comfortable back there....like a lion playing with its prey before delivering the death blow.
For this section of the race I was able to hold an angle parallel to the shore that was a few degrees below my highest upwind angle. Later on I would learn that Ron considered this his reaching angle....ouch! About 75% of the way up the beat two things started making my life much harder....the wind seemed to shift a smidge to the left (or the coast bent to the right?) and I started running into a lot of seaweed. The shift in breeze meant I could no longer comfortably sail parallel to the shoreline, and the seaweed meant every now and again I would either stop or go tomahawking off my board. Short version of the story, Ron passed me and I never caught him.
By the upwind mark, Dave Diggity Kashy had also pulled ahead of me. Ron was still in sight, and Dave appeared to be struggling, so I figured I would drop the hammer and show the boys what downwind speed was all about. Dave took a line close to shore and started going slow...I think he actually exploded a couple times, I'm not totally sure. I was closing in on Ron and imagining how cool it would be to blow by him when I hit the first mystery object. It must have been more weed, but at 25+ knots, it might as well be a rock. All I remember about that fall was that for a brief second I was like Pinnochio....all strung up in my lines hurling downwind without my board. About a minute later I was back up and moving again, Ron back to his original lead ahead and pulling away. I tried again to throttle down and found a nice rythem that seemed sustainable. Another weed visit and another explosion threw me over the handlebars again. Now frustration was taking hold and started cursing my board designer, my fin maker, my kite company....the forecaster from the weather channel, the seaweed that was out to get me...you know, the usual series of logical thoughts.
And the bottom of the downwind I opted to skip the final mark and head to the beach. It was more of a comfort thing than anything else....sailing that far offshore in a shiping channel with no chase boats just freaks me out, so I made a deal with myself to kite another day. I hit the beach about 10 minutes before Ron, and got to watch him and the rest of the windsurfers try to land those massive boards in a shorebreak....brutal. You guys need to start kiting.
Awesome time, learned a ton. Getting a new board in a couple weeks....and got to try some Kashy fins on the kiteboard....and all I gotta say to Ron is this, enjoy the taste of victory while you can....;-)
-Patrick