An Interesting Day

After yesterday's extreme exhaustion, sunstroke, whatever, I was pretty cautious in my expectations. Arrived at the Angulo station with Beth having gone up the beach instead of the road, which was much nicer - some of the hotels and compounds are like little stone villages, very quiet, peaceful, they would be a great place to stay sometime. Not many people were out and those that were didn't seem to be doing much planing. Gen was keen to get out, so she set up a big board and sail and hammered off, later to be seen doing duck gybes. Beth rented a big board and was seen sailing briefly in her newly-found bikini bottoms, before putting on her wetsuit for reasons of cold.

I just hung around, talking, feeling a bit under the weather, no rush to get out, not really looking forward to the possibility of cold and yesterday's exhaustion being repeated. Hey, aversion therapy works right? Adam eventually decided he was going out, and things seemed to have picked up, so I also reckoned I should give it a go, with the aim of trying some duck gybes as a change from the usual half-hearted crap, and maybe as an antidote to my lethargy and non-desire to windsurf.

At the station, checked out a Synchro 104 and they also had a 5.9, which seemed a bit much, but what the hey. Auspiciously, I didn't fall off on the way out, and windmaiden Rika also selected a 104 Synchro, unusually slack for her! It wasn't too hard to get going, and I zoomed upwind pretty easily, away from the mainstream of Ocean Groovers ploughing in and out. Coming back in it flattened off, and the wind stayed up, so time for a Duck Gybe... And I almost succeeded the first time! Managed eventually to clock two at least, and quite an enjoyable experience it was too. Big up to J. I also did one near carve gybe where things went very well,but I slipped off the board just as the sail came round, but flipping the rig earlier certainly helped, along with continuing to bear away rather than coming upwind too quickly. Started to feel a bit cold and tired, so came in for some drink and a banana. This was a good plan, and I should do this more often - stop earlier on a high, instead of continuing until I'm on a low.

Went out again, without my hat to see what it was like - too cold! Too much sun too, and I like the shade on my face I realise. In fact, feeling a bit over-cooked this evening writing this :-( hope it's not too serious. I don't know how people can handle it without, maybe no hair is more of a problem or a difference than I realise. Just did a couple of runs then came in, still very tired. Spent the rest of the afternoon asleep and relaxing - very very pleasant, with no feelings of guilt after the duck gybe successes.

I also noticed an article by Peter Hart in the Dec 08 Windsurf mag, suggesting that carving in footstraps is great for getting one's weight in the right place, with full commitment. I'm going to try this tomorrow!! I realise that this is very much a problem, too much of a commitment to the rig's force, I need to surf the board and boss the rig about a lot more, rather than hang on to it as my only source of stability. How to change this? Mental attitude to start with, and using opposition more perhaps. Treat it like an addition, not everything!

Had a couple of beers on the way home at the bar by the pier, watching football and talking windsurf bollocks with Marco, Frederika, Julian (nice French guy) and Gen and Adam. Beth had gone to buy some trinkets for her girls. Very pleasant, although the beer had a big effect, I feel quite lethargic and hot now, too much sun and a good job I put on the long-sleeved shirt today. I also took some potentially interesting photos of people on the pier etc as the sun started to set. On the last stretch stopped to talk to Adam's cigarette guy, and managed to get talked into 800ESC worth of crappy bracelets and necklaces - ah well. He said he was going off to eat directly after, so maybe someone is benefiting! And tonight is dinner in the Cultural Cafe, providing they're open on a Sunday - hard to remember what day of the week it is, which is a good sign, right?