I'll just preface this by saying I play acoustic guitar.
Having an ocean blast this afternoon at Sawtell on my Superlightwind and 8.5mt I was making a jibe and on grabing the boom after flipping I missed and banged thumb into boom handle and thought - "crap, I hope I didn't break a nail"
Not whilst gybing but:
i once catapulted and managed to land mast between legs.
Its the only time in my life when i genuinely (and i truly mean genuinely) would have been happy for someone to put a gun to my head and finish me off.
it took me a full 20min just sitting in the water next to my board, to figure out i was going to survive, and a further 15 minutes to gather the strength to crawl back up onto my board and sail back to the beach.
Not whilst gybing but:
i once catapulted and managed to land mast between legs.
Its the only time in my life when i genuinely (and i truly mean genuinely) would have been happy for someone to put a gun to my head and finish me off.
it took me a full 20min just sitting in the water next to my board, to figure out i was going to survive, and a further 15 minutes to gather the strength to crawl back up onto my board and sail back to the beach.
oooooohhh. I've read you can't compare suffering but I think I know how you feel. Playing indoor cricket was off strike batter turned to face batter after bowler sent ball down only to have batter smashed a drive into gonads, no protector. I crawled home and into a bath and lay there groaning for hours. We had another girl 18 months later! :)
Stuffed a gybe and got whacked in the face and broke one of the front teeth- burst into tears- not from pain but from how much it was going to cost!
Was out the back at a popular wave sailing location in Perth when i saw a large, bronze shape in the water 2 swell lines ahead of me.
Evasive action, carve gybe.
Been making my gybes all day. I remember thinking - Of all your gybes Stu, this is the most important one.
Bam. crash the gybe, rigged flipped on the wrong side, 20-30 sec later (felt like 10 mins) i'm back on the board checking all my limbs are in place.
Was out the back at a popular wave sailing location in Perth when i saw a large, bronze shape in the water 2 swell lines ahead of me.
Evasive action, carve gybe.
Been making my gybes all day. I remember thinking - Of all your gybes Stu, this is the most important one.
Bam. crash the gybe, rigged flipped on the wrong side, 20-30 sec later (felt like 10 mins) i'm back on the board checking all my limbs are in place.
There's a great white shark in Lake Macquarie at the moment and I KNOW if I see it I'm going to fall off right on top of it..
Stuffed a gybe and got whacked in the face and broke a front tooth- burst into tears- not from pain but from how much it was going to cost!
Postnote- went for the cheap replacement option and had the dentist make up the rest of the tooth- the first attempt fell out. I went back and he said we can't round off the bottom to make it look pretty or it will fall out again..I now have a fang..
Last year I gybed on an outside swell lump and as all the pressure came of the mast base slide out of the track, I fell over backwards holding the boom and the board continued on down the wave. My thought was "this bit Im holding doesnt float" so I dropped that and tried to catch the board. The rig is still out there somewhere but it would have gone straight to the bottom.
Other one was Nanga near Shark Bay, where there were so many sea snakes they seemed to be everywhere on the white sandy bottom (waste deep). Coming into the gybe and seeing one just under where I was turning. You guessed it fluffed that one but I think one toe hit the bottom and I was back on the board and out of there. When the snakes started sticking their heads up out of the water and making eye contact when I went past I stopped and went up to Denham where the bottom is black and you couldnt see the snakes.
Not me Greg, but a sizable surfing mate new to windsurfing was heading out with me on Trial Bay. He was skidding along nicely heading towards the point and suddenly spots a hammerhead barely meters away. His thoughts were simple- don't fall off. And yep, right on queue he plummets like a dead parrot- right on top of it!
We worked out 90 kilos fiery surfer falling on 80 kilos of hammer = one frightened shark
He splashed around for a bit, up-hauled and we sailed the rest of the arvo
Not a unique thought by the looks but the one time I have seen a shark in the Swan River. Saw it thrashing around in about chest deep water. Not sure what it had. I sailed past about 30 meters upwind of it and on for 50m gybed and gave it another sail by, sure by this time what I was seeing as often the dolphins are in the shallows doing almost the same thing.
Sailed across the river and on the way back my eyes were peeled searching for any sign. As I got near the area had to gybe and with the thought that it was about here and no sign of it, my head was singing the mantra "don't fall in, DON"T FALL IN". Craved downwind nicely and as I went for the foot change front foot stuck in strap and in I went.
Have never scrambled back onto my board as quickly as that but the brief seconds I was in the water standing chest deep was complete horror.
Now I nearly always remember to loosen my feet in the straps before gybing.
Nearly.
"Arrr....Oh......not again......faa....rrrrk" followed by splashing sounds.
That's not original