Sport Today

by **JSNT** » Wed, 25 May 2005 13:55:09

WillV and others,

I went with the Madd 135 and after an introductory sesh today in 18-22 mph
winds and a waist high wave, I realize the decision was good.

Board felt great! Ran it with a 5.8 Search, the stock pointers and
footstraps in-board. It performed per the brochure and your testimonial.

At 135 liters it jumps great and understands english. It's wide body flies
right and lands smooth. The stupid amount of nose rocker makes it
stuff-proof and makes getting over the whitewater a snap. The deck pad rocks
and pushes the ergo coefficient above what I thought was possible for a
board in this class.

On the wave face the 135 was amazingly tight and turney and kept it's
speed/float even depowered. The stock pointers zigged and zagged like a
Singer. I've always been a less-is-more kinda guy, but the twinsers seem
perfect for this setup and our sailing conditions. Having that out-board
traction really locks together the attitudes of both board and rider. It
sassed back to lip smacks and the preacher and danced up-the-line like a
tequila charged urban cowgurl.

I was surprised by how quickly it planned and how responsive it was to
gusts. Despite its size, this board is a very quick accelerator and quite
stable in the voodoo. It pinched and screamed up and down.

So that's the poop in moderate winds. Looking forward to running it with my
new 7.0 Retro in lighter winds which will be the REAL test. The 5.8 felt
great on this board and I'm hoping the bigger motor will feel equally as
good.

Gurlie gets to try it this weekend. She's been learning our song on a older
GO 140 and has pretty much hit the ceiling. Last weekend she put it all
together on the GO for the first time and tripped the endorphin glands
fantastique during a 3 hour 'ah-hah' episode. I'm thinking this is gonna be
her ticket to Beyond Happy and the fast train around the curve. Stay tuned
for her report.

Hugh

by **Will** » Wed, 25 May 2005 22:47:04

Hugh,

I am soooo stoked that the MADD 135 is working as you wanted/expected per
our conversations....this is what rec.ws is really all about in my mind....
I can imagine your session in my mind so easily - just awesome description
below....

I experienced all the things you mentioned below for sure, even with the
MADD 165..... If you want more speed, try a pair of WD's ATX's or freeweeds
(if you have kelp or weeds to deal with)- they will really let you "lay into
them". I found the stock blades "draggy" - but maybe they will be just
fine for your sailing....

Looking forward to hearing if Girlie likes it too...

L8t,

-WillV-

Quote:

> WillV and others,

> I went with the Madd 135 and after an introductory sesh today in 18-22 mph
> winds and a waist high wave, I realize the decision was good.

> Board felt great! Ran it with a 5.8 Search, the stock pointers and
> footstraps in-board. It performed per the brochure and your testimonial.

> At 135 liters it jumps great and understands english. It's wide body flies
> right and lands smooth. The stupid amount of nose rocker makes it
> stuff-proof and makes getting over the whitewater a snap. The deck pad
> rocks
> and pushes the ergo coefficient above what I thought was possible for a
> board in this class.

> On the wave face the 135 was amazingly tight and turney and kept it's
> speed/float even depowered. The stock pointers zigged and zagged like a
> Singer. I've always been a less-is-more kinda guy, but the twinsers seem
> perfect for this setup and our sailing conditions. Having that out-board
> traction really locks together the attitudes of both board and rider. It
> sassed back to lip smacks and the preacher and danced up-the-line like a
> tequila charged urban cowgurl.

> I was surprised by how quickly it planned and how responsive it was to
> gusts. Despite its size, this board is a very quick accelerator and quite
> stable in the voodoo. It pinched and screamed up and down.

> So that's the poop in moderate winds. Looking forward to running it with
> my
> new 7.0 Retro in lighter winds which will be the REAL test. The 5.8 felt
> great on this board and I'm hoping the bigger motor will feel equally as
> good.

> Gurlie gets to try it this weekend. She's been learning our song on a
> older
> GO 140 and has pretty much hit the ceiling. Last weekend she put it all
> together on the GO for the first time and tripped the endorphin glands
> fantastique during a 3 hour 'ah-hah' episode. I'm thinking this is gonna
> be
> her ticket to Beyond Happy and the fast train around the curve. Stay tuned
> for her report.

> Hugh

by **nikit** » Sun, 12 Jun 2005 03:22:23

To avoid scraping your knees, get your ***on the board first when you
pull yourself out of the water. Then you can just step on the board
with your foot and avoid putting a knee to it. I used to have those
knee scrapes as well, but don't have the problem now. Interestingly,
I've learned to do that only recently, after I've learned to
waterstart. Waterstarting is not a savior anyway when you don't have
enough wind.

Nikita.

by **tenA** » Wed, 15 Jun 2005 12:01:44

thx nikita- did the ***thing and that works. on the water 2 days last
weekend -arlene brought some great winds! There was no reason to be
water starting last weekend! The gulf was churning, very powerful- i
shot a bunch of vid and dig pix oceanside, then saddled up bayside with
me new board

i spent one day doing all water starts -bf/teacher says i logged 10
really good ones, BUT using a life jacket and I feel like thats
cheating- any ideas on flying the sail without the life jacket -
probably just gonna take kicking like hec and finding the sweet spot
right away

next day did some "sailing" got beat up pretty bad, big winds and new
board spelled hiney whippin; couple of scares shook me up but post sesh
talk with the gang(local experienced sailers) at the launch site was a
big help to keep the bad sesh thing in perspective. windsurfing is
interesting in that sometimes its only "fun" in retrospect.

hope you're catching some wind your way
tenA

Quote:

> To avoid scraping your knees, get your ***on the board first when you
> pull yourself out of the water. Then you can just step on the board
> with your foot and avoid putting a knee to it. I used to have those
> knee scrapes as well, but don't have the problem now. Interestingly,
> I've learned to do that only recently, after I've learned to
> waterstart. Waterstarting is not a savior anyway when you don't have
> enough wind.

> Nikita.

by **nikit** » Wed, 15 Jun 2005 21:23:50

When flying the sail, I just grab the mast 2-3ft away from the boom and
try to lift it up (mast across the wind or close). This usually makes
me go under. If there is enough wind, the sail will come up within 10
seconds or so and I get to breathe. If the sail doesn't want to come
up, I can still get it out if I "kick like hec" and swim into the wind,
but in my experience this kind of wind is often not enough for me to
waterstart anyway, so I usually give up and uphaul. By the way, this is
what I do with my 7.5 and 8.5 sails (8.5 is my most used sail) and I
am 155lbs. When I get to use the 6.6 or 5.5, I don't have to go under.
I just pull it up and into the wind and it comes up easy. However, it's
not that easy (at least for me) with the 8.5 - marginal winds, big
boom, heavy sail. I also try to put the board under the foot of the
sail before trying to fly the sail, so that it doesn't sink the boom as
soon as the mast comes up.
If anybody has an easier way of dealing with bigger sails, I would be
happy to know.

Nikita.

by **Craig Goudi** » Thu, 16 Jun 2005 00:31:06

I only have experience with 8.5 sails (so far, but a 9.5 is coming this
summer).
One thing you can do is lay the mast along the midline of the board with the
tip towards the tail.
this should float the mast out enough to keep it close to the surface of the
water. Then you can
swim the entire rig around until the sail is positioned correctly for the
wind (the board will be in the wrong position),
but once the sail is flying, it's easy to reposition the board under it.

Swiming the sail into a position where it's near the surface, is really
pretty easy though. If you just grab the mast near the boom
and swim towards the wind direction (with the sail close to or in the
water), the clew should come up close to the surface and the sail
should be nearly planer to it. If there's current, you need to swim the
mast towards the current also.

Trying to yank a huge sail out the the water for a waterstart, just isn't
going to work, you need to get air under it, and just lifting the mast
with the clew burried deep in the water isn't going to work.

Good luck,

-Craig

Quote:

> When flying the sail, I just grab the mast 2-3ft away from the boom and
> try to lift it up (mast across the wind or close). This usually makes
> me go under. If there is enough wind, the sail will come up within 10
> seconds or so and I get to breathe. If the sail doesn't want to come
> up, I can still get it out if I "kick like hec" and swim into the wind,
> but in my experience this kind of wind is often not enough for me to
> waterstart anyway, so I usually give up and uphaul. By the way, this is
> what I do with my 7.5 and 8.5 sails (8.5 is my most used sail) and I
> am 155lbs. When I get to use the 6.6 or 5.5, I don't have to go under.
> I just pull it up and into the wind and it comes up easy. However, it's
> not that easy (at least for me) with the 8.5 - marginal winds, big
> boom, heavy sail. I also try to put the board under the foot of the
> sail before trying to fly the sail, so that it doesn't sink the boom as
> soon as the mast comes up.
> If anybody has an easier way of dealing with bigger sails, I would be
> happy to know.

> Nikita.

by **Tom Whittemor** » Thu, 16 Jun 2005 02:41:19

Note on fins

I've been using 2 11-1/2" weedspeed fins on my madd135 with my 8.0 retro.
this combo lets me pump the board up on plane easily. I have used twin
10-1/2" weedspeeds for higher winds with the 8.0 and 6.5.

Still need to do more testing with the 5.5 sail but I'm thinking
about twin 24 cm reapers.

by **Dan Weis** » Fri, 17 Jun 2005 05:11:31

Big sails lift off the water best when de-rotated. That is, flop the cams
into the "down" or reverse position with respect to your sailing direction.
Doing this frees the top of the sail more easily from the booms. The sail
size makes flying the sail easy enough; Just pop the cams right before
stepping up with a sharp pump.

-Dan

Quote:

> When flying the sail, I just grab the mast 2-3ft away from the boom and
> try to lift it up (mast across the wind or close). This usually makes
> me go under. If there is enough wind, the sail will come up within 10
> seconds or so and I get to breathe. If the sail doesn't want to come
> up, I can still get it out if I "kick like hec" and swim into the wind,
> but in my experience this kind of wind is often not enough for me to
> waterstart anyway, so I usually give up and uphaul. By the way, this is
> what I do with my 7.5 and 8.5 sails (8.5 is my most used sail) and I
> am 155lbs. When I get to use the 6.6 or 5.5, I don't have to go under.
> I just pull it up and into the wind and it comes up easy. However, it's
> not that easy (at least for me) with the 8.5 - marginal winds, big
> boom, heavy sail. I also try to put the board under the foot of the
> sail before trying to fly the sail, so that it doesn't sink the boom as
> soon as the mast comes up.
> If anybody has an easier way of dealing with bigger sails, I would be
> happy to know.

> Nikita.

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