Palo Alto Mud Sailing

Some of the Palo Alto "Mud dogs" are working on sailing through the mud to extend their sailing time. The one thing you DO NOT WANT to do is fall into the middle of the mud as it can take an hour to walk out.  Video and screen capture shots below.

Mike at youtube reports:

Small fin, soft slippery mud and enough wind and it's possible to sail right across the mud flats at the Palo Alto CA sailing site.

On Sept. 20, Jack reported on iWindsurf:

Three of use (Royce, David and I) had a great session from 3-5 PM today on 6.0 and 5.7 with 100L freestyle boards. Because of the ebb the water was flat, flatter and flattest.

The mud was even flatter. I installed my 15cm custom cut mud fin and tried some “Mikey Mud Sailing” (where were you Mike?). What a blast! As you enter the mud/water slurry zone it’s like being on ball bearings. You actually accelerate but have much less fin bite in the mud. You stay on a “mud” plane very easily with the board going a bit sideways. It’s a very weird feeling.

I performed a duck jibe on my most brazen run into the mud. David will vouch for it as he was slogging out thru the mud/water slurry as I jibed in front of him. As I hit the mud everything turned to slow motion just like I was in a dream, it was really bizarre. I intended to do a donkey jibe but thought better as I didn’t want to crash in the slurry (negotiating a sail and body 360 seemed a bit beyond my expertise at the time). Luckily I had a lot of slow motion time to think about it. This was the slowest and strangest full planning duck jibe I’ve ever done. I’m sure I’ll be dreaming about it tonight.

Coming in to the dock at 5pm I went thru 40 yards of pure mud accelerating thru it then slowing down to a slog as I entered the channel.

A couple of things to keep in mind.

• You need a really short fin. 15cm is 5.9" inches.
• You want to make sure you can sail in the water with these short fins before you attempt mud sailing with them
• Make sure the hose works at the cleaning station so you can wash yourself off should you fall into the mud.

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Click Stills for larger images:

GPS for Windsurfing

February 23, 2013 Update:  I bought the Garmin 310XT last year and have used it over 100 times and love it.  I highly recommend it.

Here is an example of what the 310XT uploads to the cloud using a wireless dongle in a USB port.

Note, in my excitement to sail the first time in 2013, I forgot to put on my heart rate monitor strap so there is no heart rate data.  Here is a session from last year with HR data.

September 8, 2011 update:  Despite being advertised as "rugged waterproof design" the Forerunner 301 is only moderately water resistant.  If you don't keep it in a dry bag, it will eventually leak and fail.  If you tell Garmin if failed while windsurfing, they won't honor the 1-year warranty!  I told them Amazon.com advertise these for winsurfing and they advertise them for "triathletes" which implies swimmers and they volunteered to repair or replace it for me for $34.   I will probably use a dry bag and eventually upgrade to the Waterproof 310XT that they recommend for swimmers and windsurfers.


 

 

It is really nice to know how fast I am going while sailing by glancing at my wrist and I really liked knowing how many miles I sailed and top speed reached.

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Original Article:

I used my Garmin Forerunner 301 GPS Personal Training Device for the first time yesterday windsurfing and loved it!

It was so easy to set up and use.

It is water proof and you wear it on your wrist like a watch.  I set up the custom view to show my current speed in big type so I can easily see it with a glance while sailing.  I found I was also able to see the smaller text I set for max speed and total distance.

This is the bike handlebar mount I bought so I can use it for biking.

At the end of my first "workout" windsurfing for 1hr and 35 minutes on a 6.5 sail in flood tide at Coyote pt yesterday the heart monitor said I burned 1718 calories in 22.85 miles with pk speed of 24.4MPH.   I was not able to get upwind enough to let loose on a downwind run to try and break 30MPH.

I am not sure how the heart monitor does calories since I have not entered weight yet. Avg HR was 135 BPM - easy training session.  After only a single use where I have not had time to read the instructions yet, I am very pleased and recommend it to all.