Conditions, although gusty, were supreme from 4:00 pm to 5:30. When I arrived, the local consensus was to rig in the 4.5 to 5.0 range. Given the limited amount of time that I generally have to sail, I never risk being underpowered, so I chose my 5.9 Loft Lip (wave) sail and hit the water with my 102 ltr. Mistral Screamer. (Right now Tighe is silently shedding a tear, thinking back to the old days.) Anyhoo, the first three attempts to beach start found the sail being violently ripped from my hands, and I thought, "hmmm, maybe I should have listened to the 40 or 50 collective years' worth of knowledge sitting back on the beach." But alas, I couldn't stomach the thought of re-rigging so quickly, so I perservered. Turns out, I only forgot how to water/beach start in overpowering conditions.
Soon, I was ripping across WBL at break-neck speed. Ok, that was me hooting and hollering out there.
I admit it. I feel no shame. I was clearly overpowered at times, and scholgging at others, but mostly was just about right. I was really happy that I didn't rig any smaller, or I would have been schlogging during the frequent, but short-lived holes. I did have to come off the water after about 15 minutes or so - for my helmet. 
If ever there were a day for a helmet, yesterday was it. Lots of sailors wearing helmets yesterday. As for me, I did take one in the noggin and was sure glad I had the helmet on.90 minutes after hitting the water, I dragged my sorry heiney back to the beach and broke down my gear. Moments later, the wind died.
I felt really bad for the guys and gals that were just rigging - been there myself a few (hundred) times. Sure glad I took a couple of hours off work yesterday. I can't tell you how much I needed that session. It was the perfect session to get me stoked for my first Gorge trip coming at the end of July. 