Utah Windriders Association

Manny and I arrived to crazy strong wind, first hour op on the 3.6. It backed down and was much more comfortable. After another hour it died. Came back up pretty late stay on 5.8 until sunset very op again. One of the windier days on Utah Lake

Got about an hour of 3.5 before it died off. Super nice swell.
Did'nt stick around for the late sesh.
[Melinda was on her 2.8*]

Yeah quite amazing. It started downright scary when Mike and I went out first then ease up a little to finally completely die. Had the 3.7 rigged as flat as I could and was still getting handled.
What a day. HUGE swells!
9 windsurfers on the beach at one point in what looked like a Gorge outing. Very cool.

I missed the first 2 hours of 3.7, then arrived in time to see everyone come in at once. After that folks' expectations were high and anything less than 4.7 was interpreted as waterskiing conditions. After a spell Manny was not to be denied, put up a very civilized 6.2, and proceeded to make it look very reasonable as the wind machine inhaled, the cloud cover backed up towards the north, and Ma Nature got ready for another round. This precipitated a division among the ranks with two camps of sailors, those who had seen 3.7 and were therefore unwilling to consider rigging anything above 4.7, and those willing to do what it took to get wet. I fell in line with the latter and rigged the trusty 7.2 only to go out for a 30 minute rodeo in what was, through the eye of the recto-specto-scope, more realistically back up again to a genuine blow, particularly out 300-400 yards from shore where the wind was having another honker with itself.

There was enough time, with the days so long, and enough folks, with Jim and Mike still out, (6.1, 5. to justify rigging 5.5 on account of a good 5.5 sesh can be such great fun. And there you have it: I rigged 5.5, put a smaller fin on the 94, and went out, noting almost immediately that my 4.7 and gorge board would have been more than enough. Also I noted that Jim was far offshore, in the enthusiastically renewed north push, doing a helluva a job alligator wrestling his 6.1 into water start position for some time. I plotted a rough line to make sure nothing was busted way the F out there in overpowered 5.5 wind. Thank the lord herself he is such a good sailor that while I came into the vicinity he was able to spill enough air off his 6 m2 plus to stand up and make a slow, sheeted out, no fancy shit, don't screw-up run for land. The gross integrity of his gear established, I was happily able to jibe and head back without going any farther offshore, putzing along as best as was possible so as not to run off and swiveling my head to watch his rock steady progress in the rearview.

After that the rest of the sesh was pretty much wound up to over wound 5.5 near the beach with swell riding, finally getting a teensy bit comfortable with port ramps, and some rusty but ripping jibes at both ends. Again, 4.7 would probably have been fine but the 5.5 was a real good time. Sorry to Rob and Ted who did all the right things; both deserved better.