10/25, Grants, 86L,7.0/6.0/5.2/4.7

[kenonstott]

John’s last time before surgery and he was already flying around on his 6.5 when I got there, with enough wind to be coming out of jibes fully planning. I started with the 7.0 so I could make use of every inch of the reach. It was only about a half hour before it was all we could do to pull off jibes. We finally rigged down after a half hour of that, got a few really wild rides on the 6.0 and it lulled. John headed home having got “fun” the portion of the wind. From there on it was plain survival mode with wild gusts and still sailable lulls. Ended up with an hour on the 6.0, an hour on the 5.2, and a few reaches on the 4.7. By then it was 34g37 with clouds of dust and I decided to quit to survive. Gusts on both sides were so wild that I had to let go of the back hand to try and get the board around 1st (carpal tunnel jibe?). I even came out of one jibe by the dike with both feet in the front footstraps and on a full plane, and still managed a save. I was so asleep when I headed out I had failed to put in the 4.2/3.7 or high wind board. They were predicting wild, big-rig-flipping wind for the west desert and no exaggeration. Not sure how many more we have left.