After a week of cold overcast crappy weather here in Melbourne today we have a perfect weather forcast for a perfect down-winder..

35 knots of warm North wind.. Blue sky and sunshine.. Waa-Hoo!. .. We're doing a down-wind run from St Kilda to Sandy.

We're starting about 10.30-11am if anyone's interested.. We should go through the gates of hell at Sandy about 1pm.. [}:)][}:)][}:)]

You are welcome to join us.. and even have a go on the new 14' Naish weapon..

DJ

Forecast for Friday until midnight
Winds: Northerly 15 to 25 knots increasing to 25 to 30 knots during the morning
then increasing to 30 to 35 knots around midday then tending north to
northwesterly 20 to 30 knots by early evening. Seas: 0.5 to 1.5 metres
increasing up to 3 metres during the morning then decreasing to 1.5 metres
later in the evening.

It... Was... Mega!!!

Gusts to 50 knots.. and fun, fun, fun.

Here's just a few pictures.

BTW.. That new 14' Naish is just ridiculous..

DJ

We had the wind gusting between 35-45 knots.



That's sand racing across the beach stinging your feet and making it very hard to even stand.



I was soon catching runners without even trying and even had time to pull out the camera, turn it on and click some pictures mid runner.



The waves started getting big.. really big.



And they got bigger.



I had a few falls but it sure was fun.

DJ

hi DJ great report...any more down-winder in shedule for sat 12 or sunday 13sept...?i will love to try one!thanks Moonez

moonez said...

hi DJ great report...any more down-winder in shedule for sat 12 or sunday 13sept...?i will love to try one!thanks Moonez

Yeah.. It's on again for tomorrow..

Naish really hit the bulls-eye with this board (the 14' Glide).

DJ

Forecast for Saturday
Winds: North to northwesterly easing to 10 to 20 knots early morning then
becoming northwesterly and increasing to 25 to 35 knots around midday. Winds
tending westerly at 20 to 30 knots later in the evening. Seas: Up to 3 metres
decreasing to 1 metre later in the evening. The chance of thunderstorms during
the evening.

Good to hear DJ,sounds like the 14ft glide came through with the goods ,you didn't seem so sure of it before today.
Can't get there tomorrow but keen to get out on the bay real soon on the 12 gun,
Cheers,
Camo.

.............I was in front of DJ at one point (yeah, he was taking pictures!) and all of a sudden I heard this weird sound.........It was his 14'er planing right on by. It seriously sounded like a small boat coming through it was moving so much water.

It was so windy that at one point I was just holding my paddle out with the blade to the right which somewhat kept me pointing towards shore. The paddle acted like a small sail and I was catching little runners without even paddling. It was fun and a bit crazy.

Yes, I will be investing in one of those pfd's when I get back from holidays.

Thanks for today guys!

Oh yeah, I told you someone would mention that wettie Johnathon!--Ronnie

Todays forcast of 25-35 knots was a little off because we had a constant wind between 35-45 knots with a peak gust about 50.

Four of us headed off on the down-winder today.. There was Jonathan and Ronnie with their 12'6" Starboards and Alan and me with Naish Glides.

Alan with the 12'er and me with my new 14'er.

For those who think the 14' Glide is just a bigger version on the 12' Glide they are like chalk and cheese.. Here's a few pictures showing the differences.







We got ready to start from opposite St Kilda breakwater.. It was going to be my first real test of my new board.



I saw Ronnie doing something over near the stone wall and said 'What are you up to Ronnie' and then thought.. Oh.. I see..... and took this pic.



A 40 knot gust hit me while carrying my board to the water.. I had to put it down and sit on it till the gust passed.





All ready to do it.





Another gust hit and you almost couldn't even stand.



We're off.



We were hit with another gust that had us planing without even being on a runner.





We then had to go under St Kilda Pier.





I was off and catching runner after runner.. The 14'er did feel a little tippy at first because it is a few inches more narrow than the 12'er.



I was soon well ahead of Alan who was doing his first down-winder with us so I stopped and waited for him to catch up.







We were off again and the waves were getting bigger.



I soon found myself past and well ahead again so I stopped again and took a couple of pics.



Here Alan is just dropping off the back of a wave and about to sneak in behind it.



and he's off on it.. The waves were getting bigger the further we headed south. (it was a north wind blowing dead off shore)



and within seconds he's disappearing in the distance.. Time to catch up again.









I soon caught Alan and explained that the wind had swung from the north to the nor east and we were heading for Tassie.. He had trouble surfing across the runners to the left and kept heading the wrong way so I had to insist that he kneel down and start paddling towards shore because we couldn't afford to miss Green Point in the distance.. So I paddled with him for a while on our knees.



Kneeling down we were able to paddle across the swells and towards the shore.. Once we were closer I left Alan to catch a few before we got to Green Point.






This is around the corner at Green Point.. and sheltered from the wind.



We soon headed off for the final stretch.. and past the windsurfers.



Once at the end of our down-winder and in the protection of Sandy marina I swapped boards with Jonathan so he could have a quick paddle of the Naish.



The 14' Glide is amazing.. It catches even the slightest runners and surfs the big ones like a steamtrain... Naish did a great job with this one.

DJ

Hi Oliver,

I've pretty much decided that in anything over 20 knots the 12'6 Starboard absolutely canes the Penetrator in its ability to catch and ride waves. For a stock standard all round board the 12'6 is really excellent in bay down-winders. I'm guessing that in the wind today I was actually surfing something like 60% of the time and because the waves were a reasonable size once I got going on the wave and right back on the board it was easy to surf left and make up all the ground I needed to keep close to the beach despite the off-shore wind. In fact it was really odd today because I was paddling on both sides pretty evenly but just making up the ground surfing - there is just so much to doing down-winders, I'm sure the more you do and the more you understand how to "milk" it the easier it becomes.

Below 15 to 20 knots the Penetrator comes into it's own, still pretty tippy because at my weight I don't sink it down much so I'm guessing I only have 22 or maybe 23 inches of curvy surface in the water. I still use it heaps, had a great flat water paddle in the bay yesterday and a fast run up the Yarra last weekend.

The other factor for the bay in high wind down-winders is that it's not usually that clean - in fact usually bloody choppy! The narrow boards like the Penetrator (and maybe the 14' Glide) IMO make it unnecessarily difficult for no real advantage in the wild bay water state. If I was designing something specifically for the bay I'd keep it at 30" wide

It was kinda crazy today because I guess that at times the other guys were something like a kilometre further out than I was and yet I was really doing it easy because of riding the waves upwind - in fact it really highlighted just how easily it can all go wrong. I came into Green Point very nervous about how everyone was going to make it back, DJ stayed with Ronnie and Alan and I had this long scary wait wondering if they would make it - they were absolutely fine but it must have been very very hard work. It got to the point that they were so far out i thought the best thing to do was head in so that I could organise help if I had to, wasn't much point us all being out there.

We are going to have to work out a set of rules for ourselves to deal with situations like this in the future. I didn't intend to leave them but probably after the first ten minutes of paddling after going under the pier at St Kilda I looked around and realized that they were at least 200m further off shore than I was. What do you do then? Paddle back downwind to keep them company or keep on course and hope they realise where they should be? Of course I would have gone out if DJ hadn't been there. Certainly highlights the life jacket and phones in waterproof housings thing on these crazy windy days. Also made me realise how important it is to have a couple of people in the group that have 10 or 20 down-winders under their belts.

So another fantastic down-winder but right now I'm feeling a little wiser and very relieved it all turned out fine. But hey guys don't let me put you off - it's an absolute blast!

JonathanC said...



The other factor for the bay in high wind down-winders is that it's not usually that clean - in fact usually bloody choppy! The narrow boards like the Penetrator (and maybe the 14' Glide) IMO make it unnecessarily difficult for no real advantage in the wild bay water state. If I was designing something specifically for the bay I'd keep it at 30" wide

i had a richmond downwinder made at 16'6 long and 29.5" wide, as i do most of my downwinders on my own in real choppy gusty conditions stability was important. sometimes my brother on a starboard point comes along and we end up cutting it short as he struggles to stand. maybe if i was a top paddler narrow would be faster but if all you do is fall its no fun.

Gday, Alan here, the fella in the old wettie.

I've been training all winter waiting for a chance to do a downwinder. Just happened to have friday off and saw DJ's invitation and I was in. Slightly less extreme conditions would have made things a bit easier but you live and learn. DJ made it clear at the start that we'd regroup at Green Point before making the final run to Sandy. The first half of the paddle was great fun trying to catch runners. It was amazing once you got on a nice wave and manage to stay with it. As Green Point got closer no matter how much paddling I did on the right I always ended up pointing straight downwind and thats when DJ insisted I get down on my knees. This made it a lot easier to get diagonal with the waves and start heading towards shore and eventually regroup at Green Point. From there it was a comfortable (standing again) cruise to the entrance of the marina where the backwash off the breakwater creates a great rodeo riding effect. Looking forward to the next one.

Thanks again DJ, Ronnie and Jonathan.

Make PFD's mandatory for all downwinders.

That wetties bound to become fashionable again in the next decade.