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Friday afternoon I got out for the first session of the year (yeah, groan), from Seneca State Park. Scott and Art were there on their new foils, I brought the Mega Cat and iSonic. With the 7.5 Speed Freak on the Mega Cat, I don’t really think Scott and Art had any advantage on me. Of course, they’re still learning so I expect they’ll get faster. But the 25 year old Mega Cat was going great. Later in the day, the wind picked up (Art had left and then Scott did) and I had some blasting on the iSonic. Choppy ride, but got some speed.
On Saturday, with the Fx for a SE wind, I went to Long Point SP up in Aurora (east shore of Cayuga). Had a nice long session starting on the iSonic / 7.5 (was wicked overpowered) and then as it got more up-and-down I shifted to the Mega Cat again. Had great rides, beating upwind in the straps as well as broad reaches. Seneca has a large light green area of water that is warm and was somewhat flat, and there is a darker and much cooler area about 2/3 of the way to the western shore that was much choppier. One thing I like about the Mega Cat is that is slices through chop in a really soft ride. [Note to others: on a SE, Long Point on Cayuga is a pretty good spot as it lines up with the wind and is a long enough valley to smooth out the gusts – very good spot on a SE/SSE.]
Then today, I hadn’t been expecting much until last night when I looked at the Fx, and they were calling S winds mid-morning until late afternoon, after the front went through. I expected it might shut off, but had many chores this AM before I could go. Arriving at about 1 PM, Suan was there and in for a brief stop (he got there at about noon). Said he was on his 4.0 (he’s a good bit smaller than I). But at the wall it was blowing 20-25 when I came in the park entrance. I rigged a 5.8 pretty flat and was hoping to just let out on outhaul to add power as the wind died down (Super Freaks are really easy to adjust, outhaul only). Found that there was plenty of power outside, so I could venture down to the inside to ride some waves. The wind direction was a little bit SSW, so the waves were aligned nicely for backside riding on port (my favored side). Had some really great wave rides over about 2 hours, gradually adding shape to my sail. After a while, we saw some sails and kites emerging from the Chamber. A few kites from the swimming area at the part. As it got lighter and flukier, I headed back over to the east side where it was still really strong, and Suan and I had another good hour and a half of more B&F riding. I tried some trick jibes but didn’t make much…am pretty rusty on all my jibes, actually. A brief season last year, and then a very late start to this year has my timing out of whack.
But for sure, it was a great weekend to get back in the harness. And today was really precious – 5.0 for a long time, nice swells to ride with pretty smooth faces, warm water and air, blue partly cloudy skies, no boat traffic at all today so it was just the boarders and kiters out on the water. Dang. It doesn’t get much better than that, especially not in the middle of July.
Great weekend of sailing.
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Hey Geoff, great to see you out on the water again… totally agree that some surreal summer sessions were served up by Seneca on Saturday and Sunday…outstanding in every way! The grins of the the riders were surpassed only by the even bigger grins on the faces of the hundreds of spectators who enjoyed watching a truly special July FLX wind and water spectacle this weekend.
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