Utah Windriders Association

sailed the DM effect: get there late, wait for Dimo to de rig, then it picks back up and you ride the gusts as he pulls out out to leave. fun puffs. kinda like getting shot from a rocket once in a while. makes me feel like a human cannonball, and then you hope to glide to the next puff of juice. repeat.

Sublime to Windiculous -

Just before I go under the knife Wednesday for stitching of my mildly tattered right rotator cuff, which will officially end my sailing for this year, one of my last visions will be this morning. Not what happened later, but what happened first.

I was pulled by my eager 5.2, and skipping across the hard little chop in the semi-darkness on the way back to the beach one tack, when I saw the morning light on the top of the Stansburys. Pink to gold, moving down the faces as I raced across our precious little pond. A few more reaches later I was still nicely wound, leaning back admiring it all. Then the sun brushed down onto the beach, the water, and lit up my yellow sail like a giant sunflower. Laughing out loud glorious. Great to be alive.

Ken showed up a bit later and completely coincidentally, it started to drop. My planes came less often, then finally not at all. Even his 6.0 wasn't enough and we stood around wondering what jiggle in the earth's rotation or flapping of many seagulls on the GSL crashed our party. (Ken: "It's gonna blow hard, Grasshopper".)

Nearly an hour of sad schlogging with an occasional zip. We were joined by area newcomer Sam (U of U student from Virginia) who also got some rides on his 5.5. Ken switched to a 7.0 but even that didn't quite cut it in the shifty weird wind. Clearly we had some dues to pay this morning. But at 9:00 it did kick in, just after I had carried my gear up hill since I'd gotten my two hours in. Back to the water where Carl made his appearance, along with Rick Mc. We got some pounding good rides as the wind turned on big time. Flattened the 5.2 again and still watched Carl fly by on the reaches (the Carl effect).

What happened later? Oh, I left about 10:30, and Carl and the crew got more rides. Now I'm up to two 6-packs.

DimitriMilovich wrote:Sublime to Windiculous -
I was pulled by my eager 5.2, and skipping across the hard little chop in the semi-darkness on the way back to the beach one tack, when I saw the morning light on the top of the Stansburys. Pink to gold, moving down the faces as I raced across our precious little pond. A few more reaches later I was still nicely wound, leaning back admiring it all. Then the sun brushed down onto the beach, the water, at lit up my yellow sail like a giant sunflower. Laughing out loud glorious. Great to be alive.

This place and its background IS magic.

Yeah, that was a fun morning. It felt good to finally start hitting some gybes, though as the morning wore on, and the breeze got puffier, I started to lose it. I just don't have enough confidence (or practice) with my gybe to really lean in and crank the turn in strong winds. Dimitri- thanks for all the pointers, and advice on other sailing spots. I'm looking forward to doing some exploring, and checking out other spots, and it's nice to have some local knowledge to go on. Carl- thanks for all the jibing tips. I started to get a little more confident in the big wind towards the end there. I'm also definitely going to heed your advice on a new wetsuit. As you said, the one I've got now acts more like a refrigeration unit, keeping me wet at all times, while not offering much insulation. Thanks again for all your help

If you want to learn to jibe then Grantsville is the place. Nothing like making 200 hundred turns to build muscle memory.