Thursday...

[Slappy]

On the water from 11:00-3:00 with a broad range of conditions.

Started with the 5m SB in gusty 30 knots. Some good waves to be had but I had trouble getting in to them with the gusts and lulls. Then things picked up to 35-40 knots which made the 5m a little more capable but still lots of up and down so not too much time on the wave. It seemed like everyone else went in when it was 40 knots with driving rain. It was a bit painful and so loud I had to block my upwind ear with my hand.

Then things backed off to 25-30 knots and I switched to the 7m + TT for some sky high boosting.

Then things backed off more so I got back on the SB until it dropped to about 10 knots. Came in and kept the kite in the air on the beach for 5 minutes then slogged around underpowered for the rest of the day.

Launched a guy as I was leaving at 3:30.

[Alton]

Waited in Tsawwassen McDonald's since 7:30am for the easterly to clock SE. Chatted with windsurfers at Centennial (Dave W, Bryan L and Jay B) and watched kiters ride the easterly (Cash, Jerry, George ...).

10:30 shift change - SE arrived with a vengeance. Kiters at 3rd Ave rushed into safety and switched to 5m kites. I went out with my 7m (high wind setting) with Cash (7.5m), Slappy (5m), Rich (7m) and Jerry (5.5m). SSE 30-40+ was accompanied by big smooth breaking waves. What a threat but riding overpowered meant taking it slow to drop down those awesome waves. After half an hour, got nervous with zero margin for error so I came in. Most kiters like Cash and Jerry left the wild wind by noon.

12:30 shift change - Wind finally backed off to a civilized SSE 30. Slappy (7m), George (6m), Rich (7m) and I (7m) returned to the water joined by Dave B and several others. Nice deep chest high waves perfect for starboard jumps quickly became disorganized towards 2pm when tanked to SSE 15-20.

Boundary_Bay_Thu_Dec_10.gif (22.83 KiB) Viewed 15209 times

[C36]

Switched back. Arrived to catch the tail end of the fireworks and rip one run out lit (4.5/92) with multiple jumps to gybe on the outside just as the wind shifted SW and backed. A long wallowing push down to the point ensued. Walked back to the parking lot hoping the wind was only temporarily shut down by the passing rain cell. Decided to rig big gear (5.3/115) to try and get out again to catch a few more of those sweet waves. As I left the beach one mean looking gust came rolling down and almost had me 'chicken gybe' for the beach. Some jumps and short backside rides were worked out of the puffy south wind. Gradually it filled in and swung back SE Babymama and then Chuck joined in the evening twilight fun as JB lingered to cheer us on from shore! Saw Chuck bang off at least six forwards and flash a big satisfied smile as he left the water in the warm wind. Even got to switch back to the 4.5/92 before the session was done.

Gallery (better for mobile devices)
Slideshow

[Chuck]

Lured down to Centennial by the syren's call of Downtown Jay Brown's OSR.
The dulcet tones of his voice relaying fables of 200lb+ men feathering sub 4.0 sails proved irresistible...even in my weakened state, images of high-tide breaking waves drew me to Centennial beach like a moth to a flame.
Arrived with three weeks of Hate to dispel, trying to kick this nagging flu/sinus infection that had the minivan riding through the tunnel on rivers of phlegm
Arrived right at the point on the graph where, at 2 pm, fo' shizzle, the fizzle
Even had the 4.7 half-way rigged before I realized the folly of my ways! Watched a few kiters do the slow walk of shame back up to 3rd after getting caught out in the dying wind, with only images of tacos in Mexico to keep their feet trudging onward.

C36 was like a beacon of light with his positivity, rigging up his larger gear in a flash and was back out getting rides, enough to make me rig up the 'big' stuff, 5.2 amd started to feel a bit of optimism creeping back in...Maryam/Babymama 2.0 provided point/counterpoint with her forgoing her 3.0m sail for her 5.2...
And there we were! Team 5.2 hit the water with all three of us on same size sail I don't know if that speaks to Babymama's Herculean strength or just my plain emasculation
All in all a fun session for about an hour, definitely a session saver and fun to sail with Team 5.2

[Michael]

Glad to hear the three of you stuck it out and got a session. I was watching the sensor climb back up and was hoping you were still there!

[Richi]

Thanks for that post Chuck It was so funny, it took the sting out of missing the festivities today.

[babymama]

Don't mess with baby mammmma!

[Michael]

It looks like I damaged my SD card

Fixed it and sure enough just before the video cuts out.....splat! The second one was closer to landing. I guess the SD moved on impact. Went on the internet and sure enough some guy has a video on how to fix your corrupt files. Just eject the SD card and then put it back in place and press record again. Worked!

[Jaybrown]

Wow! What a fantastic day. I haven't rigged my 3.7 since the day I bought it 07' and I likely won't rig it again until 2020!

It was great to end to my day watching team 5.2 (C36, Chuck and Babymamma) tear it up in the wind and waves after the SE came back up. Kudos to Babymamma for charging on the same size sail as big man Chuck!

Chuck that was some fine writing in your last post...I truly enjoyed the read!

[Slappy]

Oh yeah, one thing I forgot to mention. I took a wipeout on a bigger wave when the wind was ripping smoke across the water and the wave just ate my board. No sign of it anywhere even with boosting up out of the water. I knew it had to be somewhere downwind though so I just kept going. Finally got sight of it about 500m downwind of where I bailed.