Grantsville 6-5 7am

[Josh Shirley]

I arrived at the lake a little before 7 to meet Rick H, and then John Freed pulled in. Rick and I rigged 5.2 m and John rigged 5.7 m. We all sailed boards less then 100 liters. George Ward and Mike Egan showed up around 8 or so.
Lots of fun, but very up and down. Around 9.30am it started backing off. So we watched Rick try some speed runs on one of Jason Morton's speed boards. Thanks Jason. Rick was right at home on the super skinny 8'6" board. In Rick's words "I am ready to have some affairs with this board." He loved it and said being on an old style slalom board was like being right back at home. Meanwhile I had a rough time on it. I think I need more sail and a couple of hours of practice. Then I should post some blistering times.
He hit 38.2 MPH on one run, but the jury's out until we get the motion based download back.
By the way I think the general consensus is the garmin foretrex 101 and 201 aren't very accurate. All the other products seem to download consistent numbers and the 101 and 201 seem to be all over the place.

[jason morton]

Josh- Which products post more accurate times? I am holding out on buying one until I find the best one. Can you buy the GT-11 in the US now? I guess that is the one to buy. Are there any others which are better than the Garmin foretrex 101 and 201?

[Sarah Ranes]

This is a very nice little gps unit. If anyone would like to see it, let me know. I contacted Craig Bergh cbergh@iw.net who helps run the Mid West Speed challenge. He Imported 10 or so of these units, and was willing to sell me one, along with a aquapac and extra SD mem card. Contact him if you are interested. Super nice guy, who was very helpful.
He verified that the GT-11 is a lot more accurate, and would be their main goto gps for their speed runs.

[RickHeninger]

Great Session...

Holy cow! Jason, thanks man... That board was soo much fun... It was a challenge to jibe but, it was getting me around on almost every one... With a very light touch on that downwind rail it was a smoothe ride! With what seemed to be 18 to 20 inches of width at the max, it was FAST and STRAIGHT! Once I adjusted the footstraps a bit, I knew it was all over... 40MPH is going to be hit this year on that thing! I know you want to do it now Jason! Get your speed on!

I'm going to be getting that GPS unit that Sarah is talking about... From what they've said, and from the reports I've heard, it is more accurate than the Foretrexes (Fortrii) and Forerunners... I haven't had time to fix it yet... But I think that I'm going to take it back to REI...

But yeah, the GPS read 38.2 and then went fritzy and couldn't be turned back on... I didn't tighten my pouch all the way and it got wet... I'll say this, I'm not worried about whether this speed is official or not, because this baby is going to do it again... I can't believe that once I got on that board, I didn't want to get off until the wind turned off to the point of schloggation...

[jason morton]

Rick- I'm glad you guys had fun on that thing. I am going to officially donate that to the UWA so all you guys can ride it and get over the 40 mph mark. I hope you can verify that speed so it'll go on the books.

[Josh Shirley]

Hopefully, I will be able to get out on the board with a larger sail. The board to me felt like it wants a lot of power, to the point of being in danger of a super face melting, bone breaking catapult.

So I think next time we get a 25 plus wind day, I will head out with that board, put a 6.5 on it and waterstart with both feet in the straps. After getting on a plane, rake the sail back, lock my front leg in straight to push the nose down wind and run with it. That should be the combination to get some fast speeds.