I saw this guy on Sunday at Broadbeach, maybe somebody knows him, a European guy using an old North sail. His sail was the EXACT same flouro yellow/green colour and very similar size and model to mine, which no doubt confused the onlookers...

Anyway, this guy was a decent sailor, I never saw him fall off and there was some pretty decent wind and a few big sets coming in. When I saw him on the beach, his gear made me do a double-take:

The board - it was one of those oldschool waveboards that look like a modified surfboard, and the fin had a HOLE in it! A cutout fin! Unreal! And every piece of gear, looked like it was from a museum. I wanted to ask if it was a 1-piece or a 2-piece mast, but I didn't want to seem rude!!

Most amazing of all - he rigged his sail on a too-long mast, but instead of having all the extra length sticking out the top of the sail, he had half poking out the top and the other half out the bottom, raising his sail way up off the deck, WITH ZERO POSITIVE DOWNHAUL!! The leech was 100% tight, not a floppy bit in sight! And the wind was pretty damn gusty that day. I started to talk about downhaul but it seemed like he didn't know what I was talking about, so I let it go. He said he'd been sailing for 15 years, so I wasn't really in a position to lecture him.

I guess this guy is an example of sticking with your gear and figuring out how to make it work for you...

Just wanted to share...

I saw "Jaws" when I was little and it scarred me for life...