New Downwind Board Gets Wet Tonight

I blew off work an hour early hoping to catch something before the wind shut down. I found fog thick as pea soup at Fort Fisher. Less than 200 yards visibility. Just up the road at the condos we sometimes launch from, almost clear skies. So I launched there and ended up with a very short run to the house. The wind felt very off shore once on the water. Wind gusts were definitely WSW and very few of them. The wind went from 15, maybe 20, but only brief blasts. Nothing sustained that was worth a hoot. 10 minutes into the run it turned into a leisure run waiting on a miracle return of the wind that never happened.

I was able to confirm in my own mind, the new shape is what I was looking for. Improvements in the function of the nose, just the way I envisioned it when I shaped it. Stability is good. Weight is not. I'm used to lighter boards. I'll be hitting the shaping room this weekend to knock out 2 more identical to this one, minus a few pounds and without the windsurf insert. I have stocked up on the high end light carbon needed to get these right.

Below is the speed data from tonights run. The other charts are some runs from this past summer. The new board has some good speed, even though it felt like I was pulling a truck with the board not being 22 lbs.