Sat. 9/21, Grants, 5.2-7.0, 86L-115L

[kenonstott]

I looked at the wind meter at 6:00 and it said it was already north but I realized the Meso system was down since 6:15pm. It was a leap of faith for all of us to go. What did we do before wind meters? John, Mike, Mike, and Gary showed up for the fun. John caught some good rides early but it stayed pretty up and down until after 10:00. Then it started ramping up and by 11:30 the 7.0 was a handful. Mike stayed at it until 1:00 working on the moves then everyone was gone and I took a nap. Sometime after 2:00 the gusts went into the 40’s(see Grantsville city meter) and I was off to the races. My board and sail had been lying on the beach with some rocks on the sail and the whole rig slid down the beach 5’ scratching my new board. That is the 1st time I have seen enough wind to do that. From 3:00 until 5:00 it was wild rides at the very ragged edge on the little iSonic 86L screamer. Tail walked a lot on the 40mph gusts and the dust clouds were flying. Had to stay a long way from the shore and the dike as the wind was controlling the board more than me. Most of the jibes by the dike were one handed as I couldn’t hang onto the back of the sail in that much wind. Got slammed down hard 3 times in the middle of jibes but made a ton of them I didn’t think were possible. Good company, wild wind, sweet day.