Longboards!

ok, i will nibble ...

there is/was a site called http://lbwindsurfing.com that was dedicated to longboard windsurfing
however, i say is/was because the site sometimes disappears or like currently lies VERY dormant
there are NO forum entries from 2016 and some of the latest 2015 entries are from me ...

getting back to starting point or getting through wind shadows and zero wind issues are not just affecting longboard users
obviously pumping has to be part of the equation
personally find that even 2 knot winds are so much better than trying to pump in zero winds
if one has zero wind and there are also waves and/or current to contend with
rather than explaining the pumping, will put a link ...
howtowindsurf101.com/windsurfing-pumping/ & howtowindsurf101.com/how-to-get-back-if-the-wind-drops/

if I am heading back and have wind / equipment or fatigue issues, I will swim to shore (if less than 1 km)
this is not so much an option when going out, but i have seen videos in Hawaii where they do just that ...

sometimes i wonder if we don't need a really tiny waterproof electric motor at the back to just gently urge the board forward in no wind situations

i wish i was olympic material!

LBWS came from an idea I had which was taken up by Pat and Rob, who did the vast majority of the work and kept it up after Pat and I had become busy running WODs and Raceboards in Oz. At the time we launched it the longboard scene was almost dead, with the Kona still to arrive and the WOD the only longboard still in production. After a while it became obvious that longboarding would survive and that LBWS may have done its bit in keeping the ideal alive. Now maybe we could revive it now that WINDSups etc are back in.

Re pumping; pumping upwind in a calm is actually easier than going upwind in very light winds (a couple of knots or so) while pumping. In fact when racing upwind in dead light airs it can be better to sail for the completely dead patches rather than for the puffs of wind.

The key (IMHO) is to visualise what is happening to the air flow over the rig. Pumping in a breeze relies partly on hysterisis, which is the tendency of the "attached flow" of wind to stay attached temporarily, even if the sail is over-sheeted for a second or two. But pumping in lighter winds seems to create vortices; in really light stuff we are actually using the sail almost as a paddle, reaching forward with the head, "grabbing" a bit of air, and then pulling the head back as if we were pulling a paddle or oar.

However, what seems to happen when the board and air are still is that we can flail away, pumping hard but getting nowhere. I think what is happening is that we are essentially stirring the air close to the rig into a mess of vortices, but not actually moving the bulk of air backwards. The key seems to be to use massive forward rig lean, as if we are moving the tip of the rig away from the mess of churned-up air and into the "clean" air in front of the rig. Therefore the rig must be sheeted in, directly in line with the centreline of the board, so that it enters the "clean" air without disturbing it - only when the mast is tipped as far forward as possible can we open up the angle, and then only a little bit - or else we are essentially pushing the boom out against the turbulent air further aft, and therefore pushing ourselves backwards. Once we pull that chunk of clean air aft, under Newton's law we must move the board forward. And once we start moving forward, we escape the bubble of churned-up air we have created and we can once generate apparent wind.

The keys seem to be 1- sometimes stop pumping for 3-5 seconds, to allow the air immediately around the rig to settle down, partly so that the rig can be moved easily.
2- Use as much forward lean on the mast as possible, to get into clean air and get some leverage, while ensuring that the rig is directly in line with the board centreline so that it slices through the air and does not mess up airflow or push the board backwards;
3- Initially, when sheeting on (ie giving the rig a bit of angle away from the board centreline) do it by pulling the front (mast) hand around and aft, rather than by pushing the back (boom) hand forward, since if there is no apparent wind pushing the boom will actually push us backwards;
4- End up with the rig dramatically across the board; it's like when we are pumping downwind in very light airs on the WOD, where you reach forward with the rig directly along the board centreline and pull back to 90 degrees and even beyond;
5- Pump slowly at first;
6- As boardspeed picks up and the apparent wind picks up, increase the pumping tempo;
7- start pumping like you do when going downwind in very light winds, ie with a lot of rig movement fore-and-aft and the boom end and mast swinging through 180 degree arcs.

Sorry for the long winded reply, but due to a lack of natural talent I have to think this sort of thing through. It all seems to work, though, as in the WODs we do a fair bit of this stuff and I was quick in the dead light pumping duels.

HEADS UP !!

Mistral One Design on ebay. With rig. Three days to go, current bid $2.25. Sylvania Waters, Sydney.


http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Wind-surfer-Mistral-one-design-7-4-/172166194664?&_trksid=p2056016.l4276



Note: I know nothing about it, I'm not connected in any way, I just saw the listing and am sharing.

D2 vs Raceboard on a dead downwinder. D2 running square and Raceboard tacking downwind.

How does this game normally play out in a mixed fleet? Who gets there first?

I ask because we were kind of playing this game a bit today. (One 3nm run, but we each took opposite sides of the bay.) There was not quite enough wind for the Raceboard to plane all the time, not so much wind that the D2 was at risk of falling (Well you know, not more risk that usual!) . 12 knots or so.

Nice third post, well done to you


Edit: looks like the post I was referring to has been deleted. Noice!

Cool! Thanks Clarence. Let us know any more comparisons you manage.

help please with Mistral board

Looking at a Mistral Equipe.
Can't work out which model it is;
Dimensions are

380cm x 70cm
250lt
says Equipe LCS on the board, white to yellow fade.

so which model is it, 1.5 or 2. It definitely doesn't have the 1 step tail.

I would like to buy this to go to the raceboard worlds with this board



, is there likely to be a class??

So I've just scored a Crit 600 long board complete except for the bottom of the mast base - the unit joint and the part that goes into the board are currently missing. The previous owner is going to have a look through the shed for it, but if it can't be found is there something else which can be used in its place?

Were these boards any good? It has foot straps which our old Dufour Wing didn't have. I'm assuming I can use a later mast and newer sails providing a complete mast base is found.

I forgot how much these old boards weight. Lifting this thing back onto the car having sailed is going to be a challenge.

Well don with locating a EQ2.
We need one over here in the west for AUS65, if you come across another.
Other wise he will just have to keep on with his beat up OD.