Years ago my friend Steve had some experiences getting wiped out in the impact zone. He later dubbed the generic experience of being tumbled, bounced, thrashed, and subsequently thrown on the beach “the twelve-hundred dollar wheel” which was his ballparking of the likely cost of equipment destroyed (any combination of sail, boom, mast, board damage, shredded drysuit etc.) while tumbling end over end. When I started sailing in waves my guide Jonathan Ford told me “you don’t want to be in the water in the impact zone.” I knew what he was referring to: the twelve hundred dollar wheel. The plan to avoid the wheel is to:
1. Don't screw up and fall in front of (or get creamed by) a wave in the first place, and:
2. If you do, don't let your gear go hurtling out of control towards reef and beach.
The thing is, I’ve tried going over the falls whilst holding on to my gear…I failed (or rather, I chose to avoid getting smashed and stabbed by my stuff, and so let go.) Once the wave is past and I’m reunited with air and I’ve spotted my gear twixt me and the beach, I’ve learned to swim like a lunatic (sprint) after board and rig with the goal of, if not actually waterstarting and returning to the outside, at least guiding it all into more reasonable water or doing a controlled drag up onto the beach.
The key to increasing success, I’ve found, is to go all-out immediately. Unreasonable effort. There’s no time to gather one’s thoughts or even to swim gracefully, at least not for me. An all-out blast of effort is the ticket. If a second wave gets to the gear before I do, then I’m really out of luck (though the one time I let this happen at Iron Pier, I got out of it for a measly $100 in carbon base extension.) I think it’s also a good strategy for any time you’re separated from your board (don’t let the wind blow your gear away when you’re a half mile from shore) but in the waves, most definitely.
Otherwise you might be looking at the twelve hundred dollar wheel.
(Today, July 1 has been designated "blog about swimming day" by Tugster and Bowsprite, members of the loose affiliation of New York City area waterbloggers knows as "a loose affiliation of New York City waterbloggers" or ALAONYCW.)
This is one of the most terrifying posts I have ever read. You windsurfers don't do know how to do anything gently.
Yours in awe
adam
Posted by: Turinas | July 01, 2009 at 05:21 PM
Adam me droog...I nearly get eaten by a shark but you find having to swim after gear in the waves scary? What if one of you sailboat guys falls off the boat while sailing solo? The boat sails off into the sunset (or the shipping lanes)! If I sailed a sailboat I'd be shackled to the thing. Windsurfing is easy.
Hey we're past due for a beer, or maybe even a blogfest...
Posted by: michael | July 01, 2009 at 05:30 PM
Prepare by swimming laps :) it helps
Although i get funny looks when i show up at the Y in my wetsuit...
Posted by: JS | July 01, 2009 at 05:34 PM
EEK — I swim to relax, not to save my life or life's savings!!! This site is definitely scary.
Posted by: bowsprite | July 01, 2009 at 06:19 PM
so I'm not the only one, huh? here's my story about gear problems from Tuesday, the day of great wind. I went out early on my Exocet Pacer hybrid board with 7.5 early in the day, non-planing tacking and jibing practice. Then the wind starting coming up, and just as I was about to start fully planing, a screw pulled out of sailworks adjustable harness lines. got back to beach, put in new screw. wind is now too much for that combo. was so excited to be able to get back out in 20 knot winds after appendectomy (finally) that I rigged 5.5 and went out on rrd fsw 102 c/k. yeah, the really light, really cool love of my windsurfing life. well, so excited was I that I discoverd after sailing for a while that I had left the vent screw out. immediately brought board into beach, turned upside down. walked 3/4 mile to 1 mile back to van to get vent screw, walked back to board, put in screw, continued sailing until too tired. (had biked 20 miles that morning trying to get back into shape a bit) brought sail and board up to derigging area. detached sail from board, turned around to take off booties and a gust blew bottom of board against mast base - and you guessed it, ding in bottom of board that I know have to fix. at least in a white area. so to review, at least 3 gear problems, probably all self-inflicted due to being away from wsing for too long.
to recap my entire year - in the fall missed almost all of it from ABK camp on because had to take care of my mom (alzheimer's) while my dad was in hospital and rehab for spinal stenosis. bright spot - 35th high school reunion. then, I had a scare with possibility of thyroid cancer for about a month until tests proved negative. but, now on thyroid medication. bright spot- after christmas starting getting together with nice (or so I thought see later) woman that I had a crush on since like 2nd grade that I saw again at reunion. another bright spot - bonaire then appendicitis - emergency appendectomy on Mother's day - no windsurfing until this past monday. then tuesday's events highlighted above, although nice to get back wsing and planing again. then, the nice woman all of a sudden is not answering or returning my phone calls for the past couple of weeks for no reason. cooked her lobster on memorial day, sent her sick dog a gift, what the heck? you'd think at age 53 and both of us single she could at least tell me why, right?
anyway, the point of all this is that I can totally relate. no sympathy desired or needed, just facts. I hope things get better soon. did have a pretty good school year, though.
Posted by: Dennis | July 02, 2009 at 10:47 AM
oh yeah, not to bore everyone, but somehow on Tuesday I ended up with a nice big scrape/gash in my side from rear of fin when thrashing about in the water after yet another jibe attempt (just got an email from woman mentioned above, call tonite, we'll see)
what a year!
Posted by: Dennis | July 02, 2009 at 02:58 PM