Fan-Flippin-Tastic trip #6
Posted: Wed Aug 18, 2004 11:52 am
Okay, this is slightly longwinded but lots of stuff happened! I left home Sat. morning at 7am, arrived at Nitnat at 10:30am after a breaky stop in Duncan. It was still quiet in the campground which was quite full. It was calm, said hey to Casey Sevens and a couple other and rigged up the Sailworks 9.0m thinking I'd be able to try out the Formula 175. As I was rigging up, the wind picked up and I'd say within 15 mins it was blowing 10-15 kts. I put the 9.0 in behind some logs for use later. Started rigging the Ezzy 6.9m and within another 15 mins it was blowing 20 kts.....aghh!! This was going to be a bad luck day...I just knew it. Anyways...finished rigging the 6.9 and went out on the hyperdemonic which by the way is much better behaved these days and now that I've got to know what she(yes, it's definitely a chick) - (no offense to anyone I hope) likes and dislikes. It was Noon-ish sunny and blowing 20 kts, just right for the 6.9 but a liitle lumpy. I had a about 3 good runs when someone decided to take it up a notch and it was blowing 25-30...came in(sheeted way out) and rigged up the Ezzy 5.8m and tried that with the hyperdemonic....she said NO, I don't like it so I came in and grabbed the Xantox out of the bag and went out again, after one run it was dying and down to 10-15 then maybe down to under 10, so came in(slowly) and waited to see what was going to happen. Well, 15 mins later it was blowing 20 again so by now Gman was there and he and Casey and I decided to make a run up to the island, so we did and by the time we got up there it was blowing 25-30 again and now we had to come home. Well, after taking 10 mins in the wind-shadow of the island got up and got worked on the way home.....I'm not good in OP'd conditions. Anyways, made it back and told stories of huge wipeouts on the way back back on the beach. Had some food and went back out. It was pretty much up and down all day. At 5:30pm I was BF'ing and saw a comotion on the beach, so I thought I'd come in to see what was up. Well, it was Gman sitting on the beach with 5 people around him looking at a gape'ing 
wound just under his knee cap. He went over the front of his board and landed on both knee's on the nose of his board....how...I don't know but he did! So the nurse on the beach came over and put a dressing on it and the doctor(heart surgeon I think) said go to the hospital dude(he didn't really say dude, but it sounded good) so Casey and some others packed up Gman's gear and we figured Casey would drive him in his truck and I would drive my car to the Hospital in Port Alberni, get it sewed up and get him on the last ferry to the mainland(where he lives) and I would drive Casey back to Nitnat in my vehicle and we'd be back in time for dinner. Well, not so much. After 1 hour out and 2 hours at the hospital(which looks like a school on the map) it was 9:30pm and we didn't think he would make it on the ferry so Casey drove him in his truck back and I drove my car back. We arrived back at 10:30pm and the campsite was asleep except for 3 people huddled around a teelite on the beach and three drunks walking down the beach looking for a party. Not so much! We made diner and went to sleep under the stars(shooting stars and lighting)...very nice!! Woke up to a cloudy morning. Got up at 7am, made coffee and Oatmeal and sat on the beach and talked about the day before and how weird it was. KSD came out of his cave and we all sat and chatted and watched the rest of the campground wake up. It was 10am and it was still cloudy but starting to break up and the inflow was 5-6 kts. At 10:30 it picked up to almost 10 kts so I took the Formula 175 out of the bag and put the fin on and asked Casey and the Knome Man(CC) how to sail the formula. I took it jumped on and the boom was about 1 foot above my head. Oh, dear! jumped off, fixed the boom and almost instantly I was on a plane....HOLY CRAP! THIS IS COOL. I pumped maybe once and all of a sudden I was ripping! I was blowing 10-12kts and remember yesterday it was blowing 25-30 in 20 mins so I headed off across the lake to try and get what I could in....well went upwind then downwind then broad reach across the lake in 10-14 kts of wind......used the adjustable outhaul a few times when the wind picked up a bit and it was amazing!! I didn't want to go too far away just in case the wind came up like yesterday...then PHDewd came out on his Formula 156 and Sailworks 8.5 Retro. We went off up the lake and I figured as long as skinny PHD was with me I couldn't get into too much trouble being 220lbs I would be able to hold the 9.0m down. We got up the corner of the lake where it turns left and the wind started to die so we decided to head back. He headed almost straight downwind and I did too, all of a sudden the wind picked up and he kept going and I had to learn quickly how to sail this bohemeth off the wind. Well, now it's blowing almost 20 kts and I'm hanging on for my life heading downwind standing as far out and back as I could manage and going Mach 3 and wanting to slow down but didn't know how! After 3 or 4 huge wipeouts I stood on the rear of the board and ploughed my way back towards the beach. It let up a little to 15 kts-ish and I did a few more runs across the lake really just hanging on and found I was one tack from the beach and just sheeted out and went so fast across the lake I'm pretty sure I soiled myself, but with the biggest smile on my face and looking like I knew what was going on made it back to the beach and stood up and dismounted my new steed with grace and flair!! I AM HOOKED 
!!It was 1pm and after I parked this mamouth back in her board bag I was so happy(and tired from hanging on during my treacherous sail home)that I had to take a break and tell everyone that even came close to me how much fun that was. Thanks to the KNOME family for taking some fantastic pictures of my first adventure on the formula. WOW!! The rest of the day was fantastic typical 5.0 Nitnat stuff. Sunny and hot and windy. I went back out on the hyperdemonic and 5.8m and practiced some more jibing and playing and yelling YAHOO!! at everyone that even came close to me out on the water! I'm sure I scared a few people and they thought I was messed up but I was just the happiest guy on the lake that day. WOW! The last event happened at approx. 3pm, I was sailing Starboard tack back into the beach to take a break and a fella sailing up wind up me started to carve in front of me, I was lit up on the hyperdemonic and didn't have chance to turn, I stood up on the back of my board and the nose of my board came up and went up his sail into his boom. I thought it would go right through his sail and impale him with my board. Well, it didn't, no damage to anyone's gear or bodies.....flippin' amazing that no one was hurt but it was a good wake up call that when I'm going that fast I need to keep clear of others out on the lake. It was a busy day with over 50 other sailers out there but going home after hurting someone would have ruined the weekend and possibly longer. I will definitely be more careful when it's busy on the lake. I don't think the accident was my fault but if we all prepare for what could happen it will be a much safer place as no one wants a serious injury to happen especially if it could have been prevented! Anyways, I had enough and came in at 3:30pm and decided to pack up. Got away at 4:30 and drove to Mill Bay ferry at full speed trying to make the 6:30pm ferry. Arrived at 6:15pm and the boat was just leaving for it's 5:20 trip so parked in the line and sat with two women and ate the rest of my food and lent them some cups so they could drink their Mike's Lemonade as we had another hour before the boat would be back for it's last trip of the day. WOW! A fantastic weekend(not counting the knee incident)and so much fun in 2 hours of sailing the Formula that I am definitely hooked BIG-TIME 
!! If anyone wants to sail big gear here in Victoria, post on the forum or email me directly(). Maybe we can get a bunch of formula guys/gals out, everything is always more fun with more people(except eating a bag of chocolate chip cookies). HA! Played with PHDewd,MF4,KSD,Tempy,Casey Sevens, Gman, W247,Sandra and their little one, Chris the Knome, Steph the Goddess, Vic, the nurse, the doctor, the two ladies who's husbands don't sail(??), Heather, and I'm sure many more that I have forgotten until my next trip which won't be long now that I'm hooked on Formula - DOODS!!!!! 
... comes in handy!