Walk of shame

A question for the seabreeze brains trust

After a good sail yesterday ,albeit a bit of shut down with the breeze a few of of us had various distances to swim back or walk up the beach to return to our launch spot at safetybay.
The question has now reared its head into what is the distance to get back to the start before its classed "The Walk Of Shame " ?

Depends how many people there are on the beach that don't understand how a windsurfer works giving you that look that says why is he carrying that so far. If there's none of them any landing where you only have to walk not swim is a good one.

seems a bit harsh to call it walk of shame if it is because wind dies out totally or something goes wrong, i always thought walk of shame was because kookness led you to land way downwind of start, in which case i'd say 100 meters

I think it ended up being about 3/4 of a mile. The wind was very up and down, and I was overrigged almost the entire time. It was my first time catching waves so big (about 4 ft).

Ended up getting pushed far downwind from the combination of wind and rip current after catching some waves and getting some rides.

Since I rarely see enough wind for my smaller sails to plane on, I was also on a board I rarely use, my 102JP FSW, which is actually easy to sail. However, since then, a very famous instructor has shown how poor my posture and some other adjustments were, which kept me from getting good upwind performance. So I'm just a kook.

Getting upwind on my Blast 145 or my foils is pretty brainless. I'm sure there's even more to tap with better posture there. But my smaller boards require me to focus more on my technique.

The other guys that went out that day were not having a problem. In this case at this location, I'm frequently the least experienced guy there, having only been planing for a little over a year now and only been even attempting waves for a year? Something like that. But it's very seasonal/storm based. Usually it's flat water foiling for me here.

For me windsurfing it was usually a walk of exhaustion, too tired to get back upwind, and if anyone had said something to me I would of said, "you try doing this!" But with foiling it has only happened once or twice due to no wind or a radical change in wind direction combined with light wind, and walking a short distance was easier than pumping the sail.

No such thing as a walk of shame, think of it as a walk of reminiscing and discovery, you see a lot more moving slower

Even after a day of personal bests and 126km you still get laughed at by your mates as you walk back up the road. (you know who you are)

Sometimes it's the walk of common sense..I've floated in at Budgy when it kicks in too much and I figure I'd get trashed trying to sail. Once in I tie the gear to a tree ( usually the get in point is in a wind tunnel) walk back , get the van and drive to get the gear.

All I can say at least you made it back ....GGF.

I broke a mast sailing up a beach ..it broke 100 metres out to sea and 3-4 klms up the road ..my mate wondered where i was ....after he sailed back
he drove up the road in the van .looking for me ....i didn't get to walk back . but did walk up the beach to put my gear in the van for the ride home .
But my worst was a brand new moulded Tabou fin broke off level on my board 4 klms out to sea ..I sailed it back with no fin
not fun and i was spent when i had to swim the last 100 metres of wind shadow ..but i am glad i made it back ..A walk along the beach
is bliss ..just smile and wave ..

Walk of shame? I'd say don't do one.

The way to avoid this is to learn how to sail your board upwind when slogging.
- Look where you want to go. Bury the windward rail for more sideways resistance. You don't need a big fin. Sail back to your launch spot, however slowly.

The way to minimise the distance actually sailed is also about knowing which way the local water currents are flowing. And you take a course where the current either helps you, or else where the adverse current is minimised.

When you end up downwind that should not be because the wind died - it only need happen if the current took you there, when the wind died. If you are blaming the wind, then you need to learn to sail upwind. Just saying.

Come back to me on this, if you disagree.