How was the smoke @Cannon?

Share stores of your big days, soul rejuvenation experiences; moments that defy time.

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Dave Z
Posts: 1130
Joined: Wed Dec 04, 2002 12:13 pm
Location: White Bear Lake, MN, USA
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How was the smoke @Cannon?

Post by Dave Z »

Incredible. It's 7pm and Owatonna is reading SSW43 G 55. Got some 3.5 action at Ramsey before the lightening showed up so I'm thankful I got in a few rides.
dave t
Posts: 276
Joined: Wed Nov 27, 2002 12:23 pm
Location: apple valley

Post by dave t »

OH MY GOD!!
Survival would be the word i would use.
Some said they were over powered on 3.0s.
I really wish I had a 3.0.
The waves were like what I've seen on Pepin.
I've has my ass kicked that bad before but it was when I was new and went out in ANYTHING on my 5.4. Today I was lofted on my 3.5 so high that my feet hurt when I came down. It was WAY higher than I ever jumped before and I was really just planing when I hit the ramp.
Glad I went out and REALLY glad I lived to tell.
Randy
Posts: 660
Joined: Thu Nov 28, 2002 10:01 am
Location: Forest Lake
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A Soakin' Wind

Post by Randy »

Dave, you asked for it… I couldn’t help myself.


A Soakin’ Wind….The Stuff Dreams are Made Of

Saturday night visions of ramps and rolling waves filled my dream state. At one point dreamt I launched only to hit a gust and elevator to several hundred feet. I woke up glad to know I was still alive…just feeding my hunger to sail again. As some of you know, Maui was pretty sparse this year from Feb.-March, and Albert Lea flat water was great, but the thirst for terrain has been continuously building like those long spells without intimate relations… And then our heads fill with expectations when we see the pressure gradients lining up so perfect…and will those conditions ever meet those visionary expectations? Yesterday they far exceeded them.
We hit the Cannon parking lot at 11am and it was empty except for a few locals enjoying some weed and watching the wind. Davin, Ryan and I rigged our 4.5M and served as wind dummies for the onslaught of sailors to arrive within the next hour, as the wind fluctuated 4-5M for the first couple hours before completely filling in 4M and eventually going beyond 3.5M. Brian rigged 4M on an 89l board, I rigged 4.5M on a 75l board and we pretty much balanced out. While it felt great to cool down in waterstart position during the lulls, I finally conceded and came in and went up to my 89l board. Isn’t it amazing how much better it feels to go down in size rather than up?
Ryan, with a wonderful sense of ‘enough-ness’ and simplicity, committed to staying with his 90l Mistral Heat and 4.5M setup through the day. The wind filled in and it was again time for the little board…it built further and it was time for 4M. I rigged down, everything was perfect and after two runs…bang…my sail looked different, but I couldn’t tell what gave…sailing to shore the bottom half of the mast had fractured. Damn…the wind’s building more…just rigging and de-rigging was an aerobic experience. I put my 3.7M on a 400cm mast and soon discovered how much I missed the 370cm mast that just snapped. Having a foot of sail sticking out of the sail head made the rig at least 30% less efficient…I think I had more control with the 4M, or maybe it was my body just saying it couldn’t continue meeting its contract with my mind. This is when trees were snapping and structures were starting to fly through the air. Liquid smoke on the water and beautiful ramps to launch…the stuff our dreams are made of. The stoke in the parking lot was ear-to-ear smile and gratitude for an outrageous day. After hitting a few floaters with solid lifting wind I got caught near shore, pounded by incoming waves. At first I thought this felt good, but the more I struggled the more it felt like I was being pounded in the surf zone in Maui…too weird. It was now after 4pm and I think my body said ‘enough already’. I limped to shore and saw Scott C. rigging down to 3M and I envied the fresh energy he had after arriving late in the day. Just then Bill S. announces tornadoes heading our way from the SW as the clarity in the sky changes. We pass the word and as I’m standing on the dock telling Brian I starting thinking it may not be such a good idea to be standing on this aluminum structure. Brian says once you hit I35 just put it in neutral. The ‘lil Hombre probably got its best gas mileage ever. We felt a type of rigamortous setting in throughout the drive as the sky and air quality electrified. Pulling into Ryan’s driveway, we slowly rolled our aching bodies out of the car as the tornado sirens started going off.
Looking back on the day…catching simultaneous air with Davin and Ryan, the awesome stoke at the site that you only find in Minnesota, sitting on shore with my head close to the ground pretending it was Hookipa, getting thrashed in the shoreline whitewater…about the only thing that felt appropriate was a deep sense of gratitude for the honor of engaging these conditions, for the occasional opportunity to push the limits of extreme weather with friends and family…At the end of the day I took in a deep breath screaming “YES”, and let it out with a loud “THANK YOU”!!!
A (sense of wonder) LO (eternal essence) HA (breath of life) As the rain fell through the night I knew just how the parched plants felt…
Ride...just be it!
www.just-be-it.com
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