Xmas school holidays Cootharaba???

Janet and I are planning to get up there tomorrow. Hope it's not going to be a problem to get the van down to the beachside with the big crowds.

Always room

Few leaving this morning. My mate Steve from Bribie arrived this morning and got a spot on the beach

After last nights winds may be a few more vacancies close to the water

Hoping to come up with tent tomorrow also,

don't use all the wind today...

Heading up for a day trip tomorrow, looking forward to meeting a few people and having good sail, forecast looks awesome

Wow fantastic wind today!! Janet and I headed up to Elanda Point to meet up with Jeff, Pete and the hard core camping windsurfing gang. But they wouldn’t let us leave the van inside the park near the beach for the day, so we decided to go over to Boreen Point.

Being long term Elanda Point campers we had mixed feelings, but Boreen (the park to the north of the main sailing area) turned out to be a great spot. It was nice and deep right off the shore, so there was no need for the long walk out like at Elanda. Also, the park and the beach was completely sheltered from the wind which was very pleasant! And there was quite a big group of sailors, most of whom seemed highly skilled (we’re not included in that category!). It was great to watch perfect carve gybes and even duck gybes just offshore.

The wind was just picking up big when we got there. Janet got out with our new Naish Force 5.0 and was pretty much overpowered. When she later came in we gave it a lot more downhaul which made it a lot more manageable … nevertheless by 3pm or so, it was a handful for her. She sailed and sailed and sailed … I can’t believe how much strength and endurance she has for windsurfing since we got back into it. When I get tired and go in, she just keeps going. She really worked on the gybes today and pulled off quite a few, but we both have a huge amount to learn. She got the Metal Rock (still her choice) around albeit slowly, whereas I only managed 2 successful gybes in total, and they certainly don’t deserve the adjective “carve” associated with them.

The wind although big had plenty of ups and downs. I used the Severne Blade 5.7 all day and at times was way out of control, and sometimes having to jump forward as the wind dropped out. Sometimes I was trying to water start and the sail (or me and the sail) got thrown repeatedly over the front, and other times there wasn’t enough to water start. One of the guy said that if you sail right across to the other side (east side) there’s a big long sandbar coming off a point, which they call the “Ladies Lounge” and that the wind is about 5 knots stronger and much more consistent over there. But there’s no way I was game to sail that far.

Initially I rode the Mistral Flow 105, which was nice and smooth - no complaints at all, but I’m still trying to re-learn things. For example, I can tell that I’m re-learning simple skills like getting on the board in lots of wind without getting pulled forward. It was 2nd nature 20+ years ago, but this morning I was having lots of trouble … by this arvo, in stronger wind, I wasn’t even thinking about it any more.

After lunch I switched to the Mistral Explosion 120L, and instantly felt heaps more comfortable - I was surprised. Man, I felt fast! But that’s the only thing I could do … go fast in a straight line! My gybes usually ended in the dissipation of lots of energy in a small explosion, and even a small jump or bearing away to a broad reach ended in pain. Oh well, still lots to learn! But it was a pretty massive wind day, so I think we did OK just staying up a lot.

Thanks to the guys at Boreen that gave us lots of good advice today … Mark, Russell, Bart and others. It was a top day and I tried to look at all the different gear and ask questions … particularly about the characteristics of the short wide boards, as compared to the old school shapes we sail. One guy mentioned “ … but they’re REALLY hard to gybe”, and another guy said “ … and they’re so much EASIER to do perfect gybes”! Both of these guys were great sailors who did lovely gybes, so I dunno

Such a great report AVB! Thanks. Congrats to all. Looks like a whole week of these southerlies to come.

Just to add to the new vs old debate. A couple weeks back on the broadwater, with very steady wind, I took out my Kode 102(2009, 235 x 66) and was having a heap of fun and I was thinking how well it gybed, how comfy I was in the chop, etc. Then I swapped the sail onto my dads old Wind Action(mid to late 90's, 282 x 56) to compare and I was having just as much fun(except the pads were slippery and the footstraps kept twisting), and thinking how well it gybed and comfy it was in the chop. When I got home that night I checked the gps results from both boards and there was only 0.2 of a knot difference in my 2 sec top speed and almost identical 500m alphas. Infact all the stats were almost the same for the two boards from about 15 km of sailing each. I think it was just as fast as I could handle the chop and as fast as I could gybe that was the limiting factor. Both boards felt awesome it is just me holding them back. Needless to say I'm going to replace the pads on my dad's old board and ride it some more.

Great photos

Made it back up last night! Very friendly session in Morgs 'beer garden'. Regailed with stories of everybody getting PBs and how epic wind has been.

All the beginners are making progress

Wind is blowing - where is everybody

Be up there soon to add to the collection of boards on the beach and put them to good use. Looking forward to joining the fun.

Will try to get some video footage up, that may take some time.

Wellll what can I say....

back home after four day and five nights at Elanda
Arrived at Elanda Monday still, hot, no wind.

Rigged the tent with the help of Richard on a still, hot, steamy afternoon.

BLOODY HELLthat night the wind came in and it was tap tap on the tent pegs all night
.
wromg choice you think??????? Sheeeet
sailed with a dubious collection of sailors and evening drinkers and liars.... You know who yho you are..........

My mate Steve (yes, I have mates) arrived with his big flash caravan the next day so with the help of Jane, Xena and Crystal ( sorry if I buggered up your spelling) we all moved my tent behind Steve's big flash caravan out of the wind.

"How was the sailing you ask?"

well, I can tell you it was pretty damn fine!

5.2 on a Naish 140 for most days except for a couple of sessions on the Ezzy 7.0

I have no videos or GPS bit I have the bragging rights of someone who overtook someone who is reading this

loving the Elanda experience with all my friends and may I take this opportunity to wish you a weed free, crab pot free, flukey wind free, and fully mojo 2016 (xxx for the ladies)

nice work for an old bloke.
you have to explain how u change boards so quickly
see you same place next year if not sooner.

ps if ever u get sick of the xantos I know someone who would give it a good home.

Great pictures and videos. Still here heading home tomorrow. The wind has been non existent for a week but looks like it is going to kick in today.

Was really nice to meet you guys and look forward to next time

Cheers
Morgan