Wait until you get the catapults at 30+knots. Recently had one where I ended up under the sail still hooked in upside down. Another had me contemplating the damage mid flight before I had even hit the water and resulted in a boom and a panel of the sail needing replacement. Speedsailing gotta love it.
I amsure Elmo can give some style pointers.

I cant see the 'GO' getting to 30+ knots so I will have to perfect my technique at lower speeds lol. Besides I think I need to get a helmet before I try anything too creative

Welcome to the club!

Take your mast, and move it so that it's touching the nose of your board. Where the board meets mast is where you need to pad. I prefer padding the mast, 'cos then you can see when damage occurs, unlike putting foam on your board and the first you know of any damage is when your board starts putting on weight

I saw a bloke recently that looked like he strapped a mattress to the nose of his board. Looked silly but after snapping my nose from a spekky catapult maybe a mattress is not so dumb. Perhaps someone can come up with an airbag system that inflates on impact.

OB64, they only get more spectacular, and just like Lao Shi indicated, you start contemplating mid flight "gawd, what sorta damage I gunna do this time"
Great to see another has the bug (wanna go more fast)
Try to limit damage to gear and not you, and yep get a helmet, I did, but a tad too late to save a few $'s

Look out for those empty plastic bread bags. Catch one of those on your fin when you're going full tilt, and you'll think you hit a brick wall! (And will have a most spectacular catapult)

Next time OB64, just sheet in hard with your back hand and your mast will miss the nose.

Harrow said...

Look out for those empty plastic bread bags. Catch one of those on your fin when you're going full tilt, and you'll think you hit a brick wall! (And will have a most spectacular catapult)

Is that really all it takes to stop a windsurf board? I would have thought (having seen some of the fin-gash photos floating around on the 'net) that the fin would just shred the bag!

Put the right fin and rig on a GO board ,move the straps outboard and it IS capable of 30+ knots.The hull is almost the same as the formula boards starboard make , it's just a little heavier.

mrbonk said...

knot board said...

It's physics Mr Bonk, if a fin hits your leg at thirty knots, your leg has a a lot of inert mass and is going to try and absorb the kinetic energy of the fin. A plastic bag is just going to wrap around the fin and provide a massive and instantaneous increase in drag.

Damn....that's gotta suck! Does the same thing happen with seaweed etc?

It can, though when riding in weed prone areas windsurfers tend to use a specialised fin with a high degree of rake angle on the leading edge.
It's not a huge problem, plastic bags and seaweed caught on your fin are more likely to result in spin out than a massive catapult.

This week on Botany Bay, a guy had a big catapult after hitting a shoe!!

Ha, with the tide running out, you never know what's gonna come out of the Cook River!!!

Years ago, a mate and some of his friends were windsurfing at Poona. One of the guys broke a fin, so came in and put another one in. Broke that one too in almost the same place on the water, so they went out to see what it was. IIRC it turned out to be some sort of large, submerged wooden frame that was anchored to the bottom. No buoy or marker of any sign over it

Who's hit what...
I hit a submerged old wooden rowboat at Viccy Pt sailing into the arvo sun, sh_t it gave me a fright, thought I'd hit a brick wall!! Did slow me down!!

Wifes old man hit a filing cabinet sailing at Port Kenny on west coast a few years back.....

Apparently at goolwa theres many obsticals that we never knew about until the water got so low:

- Straight out infront of the aquacaff theres a huge piece of metal, thought to be a old paddle steamer engine or something.

- Around near the barrage there is a sleeper pointing diagonally out of the sand, sometimes comes completely out of the water.

- Apparently around by the marina opening there is a old channel post which was broken or cut off or something which sits not very deep under the water.

- I have heard roumers years ago of a under water fence like the one at boggy lake running very close to the island.

- Also millions of glass bottles, which are mainly broken, scattered everywhere over the lake so watch out for them to, not so great for the feet.

Bubs