Grantsville (Josh's Bathtub?) Thur, 8/14, 6.0, 85L

[kenonstott]

Agonizing Wed. night over Sulphur or Grantsville. Long reach with chop and threatening clouds or short reach, smooth water and get it in early before the rain hits. When I got up for work at 5:30, Grantsville was already 25 gusting to 31. That told me real quick where I was going and that work was getting shifted to evening shift. It was the right decision as by 9:00 I was already wolfing down some Ibuprofen. Arrived at Grantsville res to the 7:30 15mph lull and Kenny saying what happened to the wind. I rigged the 6.0 even though it looked more like 8.5. Kenny went out while I was getting my wet suit on. He suddenly got flattened by a huge, 40mph wind line and disappeared in a cloud of dust. The kite didn’t even resemble a kite as it inverted and then crashed. I was a little scared for Kenny but he finally body dragged back to shore spooked but ok. The wind settled down to sweet +20-25mph with some pretty high gusts. The 6.0 was rigged as flat as it would go and was still a handful. But I was fresh and pumped. The harder it blew the more jibes I could fly out of on a plane. The little 85L Sonic at only 12 lb was able to scream through the puffs, only tailwalking a little in the middle of the lake. At the Gorge I probably would have been on a 4.7 in the +25mph winds but at Grantsville you need that extra punch to stay on a plane as much as possible. Finally, close to 10:00, I decided to at least try the 5.3 before my arms fell off. But it started getting holey so I made 5 more runs on the Sonic and quit. Alvin showed up and went out on a 6.1. After about 20 min. of schlogging, he started catching a few windlines so I went out again and I milked those on the 135L board until noon. I was glad to see Alvin get some rides. As soon as I got back to Stansbury I could hear the lightening cracks on the radio and it was raining by the time I got to work.