Saturday, April 12, 2008

Chapin, landboarded / West Dennis, windsurfed. Solo, mostly light winds, temp 50

Chapin Mist


Loop Dreams- I took the winter off from loop shenanigans. I didn't want to be constantly crashing into ice water. But the mercury is climbing, the grass is thinking about turning green, and I decided it was time to renew my loftier windsurfing ambitions. So all week I watched loop videos during my nightly exercising. I visualized forward loops and practised holding onto an invisible boom while throwing my head and shoulders around in a graceful imaginary loop. I fell asleep thinking about the body mechanics of the loop and picturing myself completing them in slow motion.

The result? Light winds all weekend. Well, there was some wind. Like when I was driving to the beach. Or when I had left one beach and was driving to another. I had a short land board session at Chapin, on the sandbar at low tide, bouncing across the ripples. Then the wind came up and I left for Harding's where the wind turned out to be light again.

It didn't stop me though. I did light wind loop practise on the 5.2/carve123, in the pond at West Dennis. And I found that all the visualizing and studying helped. I was doing a better job of throwing my head back and twisting my shoulders around than usual. It helped me come around further, often keeping my head dry.

I had 1 very brief session, on the oceanside at West Dennis, when I got planing on the 5.2/ RW85 during a rain squall. It wasn't quite enough to go for a planing loop but it was fun to be moving.

Who knows when I'll get the right conditions to go for the real thing. I probably can't sail next weekend. We have busy family plans, friends wedding, etc. But I'm going to try to keep visualizing to keep my resolve alive. I have this foolishly optimistic feeling that I'm going to complete one eventually.

Bottom Pic- letting my landboard loose on miles of washboard sand at Chapin.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Did you get out this past weekend? West Dennis was pretty nice on Sunday

http://photos.masskite.com/albums/userpics/10014/DSCN8006.JPG

scooper said...

No I didn't get out. I had a friends wedding, my son's race, Seder. I'm glad you had a good one!