(machine translated in 2023) Severe weather slalom training
A lot of wind was predicted, many surfers went speed surfing, but I preferred to put my slalom set in order on open water for strong winds. Marco and Orion were there again.

On arrival the wind was there, but clearly gusty. Chosen to start with 6.3, if that was too small I could always add 7.0. Nice moment to sail my RAM F10 6.3 for the first time.

S-Type 104, RAM F10 6.3 with C3 Venom 34cm
In the beginning it was only good in the gusts, in between it was really bobbing. But the wind increased to enough and the bobbing was quickly over. Control was great again. Just pressure on my back foot. Mast foot forward, boom slightly down, and that helped well. When the wind was stronger, the Venom 32cm was caught.

S-Type 104, RAM F10 6.3 with C3 Venom 32cm
With the 32cm the control and speed was clearly better, only height walking, especially between the gusts was clearly worse. Even in the gusts I had to do my best to sail half wind. But wide races went super well. Time to try the S07 31cm.

S-Type 104, RAM F10 6.3 with Select S07 31cm
With the S07 it went up a lot easily, wind also seemed to increase slightly. Control was not much less, but it was noticeable in the roughest chop. Wind kept increasing until I really couldn't keep my 6.3 closed anymore! Very, very hard gusts. Gyben really didn't go anymore. I sail a rak with Marco to a buoy, he is just in front of me, we get a very hard flag. I expected Marco to go gybing, but soon saw that he threw his sail open a bit and went straight. I wait 2 seconds, buoy 10 meters past and then the strongest wind was thrown away and around. But now it was starting to get crazy, time for a sip and to set up the 5.4.

S-Type 104, Warp F2004 5.4 with C3 Venom 30cm
2nd time I rigged the Warp 5.4, first time I took the Venom 30cm. This is what I came for today. Test my Warp 5.4 with Venom 30cm. Do I still have to look for a 28cm or is the 30cm small enough? After rigging quickly onto the water, wind seemed / appeared to have subsided slightly. I was just freeriding, this was nice and easy. Could remember from last time that even when the Warp 5.4 with S-Type 104 worked really well, now again. What a calm and control. Even in the gusts. Marco still had his 6.3 on it. Where Marco sometimes had to throw his his his life all the way up in the gusts and had to hit the brakes, I could go full throttle. Super! Outside the gusts it was impossible to walk height and even in the gusts I could not get a lot of height, but downwind went great. By 5 o'clock the wind increased even further and I sailed on max, straights no problem, but gyben was really waiting for a wind hole, didn't go anymore. I obviously need to train more on that.

Perfect day, this is what I had hoped for, not cold and a lot of wind. Nice to be able to sail my RAM F10 6.3 for the first time and test the Warp 5.4 with the Venom 30cm. In the end we even had a clear blue sky for most of the afternoon and therefore a nice sun.
I have my equipment in pretty good order for hard weather, just have to trian a lot on gyben with this kind of wind in strong chop. Always difficult, but went pretty badly today.

Schotsman Surfspot

Present: Marco, Orion (osluis)

12:30 1 hour Wind: S/SW 18/30 kts
Board: Starboard S-Type 104 - C3 Venom v2 34cm
Sail: North RAM F10 6.3 - North Platinum 430 - Neil Pryde X9 180-230
  (machine translated in 2023) Set ran nicely, in the hard gusts and high chop the fin was slightly large but not much. Outside the gusts bobbed and I couldn't walk a height.
13:45 0.5 hour Wind: S/SW 18/30 kts
Board: Starboard S-Type 104 - C3 Venom 32cm
Sail: North RAM F10 6.3 - North Platinum 430 - Neil Pryde X9 180-230
  (machine translated in 2023) In the gusts perfect, height running was not great, but against that the control was perfect. Only when the wind was less could I hardly sail half wind.
14:30 0.75 hour Wind: SW 18/34 kts
Board: Starboard S-Type 104 - Select S07 31cm
Sail: North RAM F10 6.3 - North Platinum 430 - Neil Pryde X9 180-230
  TODO
15:45 1 hour Wind: SW 20/35 kts
Board: Starboard S-Type 104 - C3 Venom 30cm
Sail: North Warp F2004 5.4 - North Gold(a) 400cm - Neil Pryde X9 180-230
  (machine translated in 2023) Kite, what a pleasure, seemed like a freeride set, it sailed so easily. Even in the loudest gusts, I could just bang the chop while many people had to throw open the sail or even go flat. Only gyben in the gusts did not want to. More practice!