Fanatic!

After the demise of Mistral in the US I went searching for the next perfect board. It was hard to find to say the least. Along the way I've sailed boards that were lots of fun and others that only a mother could love. (you know who you are) For 2010 I couldn't find a brand that had it all, so I ended up with both JP and F2. I recently was able to try a few of the 2010 Fanatics. Not just the skate but also a sampling of the wave range. The skate was very nice with good pop, nice sliding and decent carving abilities. The wind cranked up a notch and I was able to give the 85 ltr New Wave Twin a shot. That thing has more traction than anything I'v ever sailed, and I could actually picture myself starting to wave sail again with one of these. So with a great all around range I've decided to go with Fanatic for 2011. Not to mention they look sexier than any board I can remember in recent history. I'll be sure and post up my findings of the new boards when they come in. For now I have on order a 2011 skate 90 and 100.

2011 North Sails Ice review

I know, I know. Everyone says the new sails just keep getting better and better. Well, everyone is right. The 2011s are very similar in feel to the 2010s. I've had the 2011s for about a month of testing now. I finally managed to get out on the 4.2 and 3.7 recently and I've been out on the 4.7 and 5.3 a ton.

As always, North is a very high quality sail with the 5 year warranty to back it up. There is an attention to detail in the norths not found in most other manufacturers. It's still the easiest sail to rig on the market. Just set the downhaul to the sail markings and outhaul to the numbers on the luff sleeve by the boom cutout that are dead on. The Ice HD is back again this year in a full X-ply construction. I opted again for the monofilm versions for ultimate handling and easy viewing of the next wave I'm about to slash, or boat about to run me over.

The handling of the 2011 sails is a bit lighter feeling in the hands than last year, and that's saying a lot, because one of the online mags stated after testing a boatload of sails that the 2010 Ice was the lightest handling sail in the group. Now the 2011 is even lighter feeling! The low end of the Ice increased for 2010 and but couldn't tell a difference this year. Still lots of smooth power and I'm still always the first one planing. What I did notice however was the ability of the 2011s to stay even more locked in when overpowered. The center of effort just stays right where the harness line markings on the sail are. Another noticeable improvement for those that are up for some freestyle trickery is that the 2011 is much more controlled in all the duck moves. It goes neutral really easy and just lays into the perfect position for a duck tack, funnel, kono or culo. The improvement of handling was most notable in the 5.3 size. It's very close in feel to the 4.7 now.

All in all, the 2011 ice is as good as or better at everything than the 2010. Little improvements here and there are really adding up. Although you might not notice too much of a difference going from a 2010 to a 2011 if you haven't been sailing the 2010 all year, I recently sailed a 2008 5.3 Ice and the difference compared to a 2011 very noticeable.

For more info on the Northsails Ice go to the NORTHSAILS WEBSITE

Here are a few pics of the 3.7 in action in winds gusting over 40!




And one of the 4.7 in action at Heckscher along side it's older brother (2009).

SEPTEMBER: a month in 800 words or less

So this summer didn't deal up the usual epic conditions we're used to at Heckscher. Don't get me wrong, we had plenty of wind with a bunch of 5.3 and 5.9 days. It even was pretty good in August which along with September are the two least windy months of the year. This September has been very different. Very, VERY different. today was day 13 that I sailed this month and it looks like we're going out with a bang. I've also been swamped with work, so I've missed a good bit of wind too. we've got to be on day 17 or 18 of sailable days for Sept. The first week in Sept. we had a streak of 7 windy days of which I grabbed 6. Right now we're into day 4 of which I've nailed 3 and it looks to stay windy right through the weekend.

Not only have we had lots of wind, but we're still getting some summertime temperatures. I managed to get not 1 but 2 of the best low tide, full power freestyle West Meadow sessions this month. Not only were they incredible, but they were also in board shorts. I don't think board shorts and West Meadow have ever been mentioned in the same sentence before. We've also grabbed a few perfect sessions at the training grounds, a little freestyle spot we found this past winter. So far so good for the "fall" season.

GEAR:

New gear has also been arriving. The 2011 North Ices and Dukes are even better than ever. I've had them for a few weeks now. North has just keeps making little tweaks the past few years. This year they're more locked down when they get really powered than last year and so the upper range has increased even more. They're also even lighter while tossing them around and maybe ever so slightly more springy in feel. Anyway, I've been making moves easier than ever. I'll be posting up a full review when I finally manage to grab some pictures. For now we'll just say that they rock!

NoLimits shipped out my 2011 masts today. They've got few tricks up their sleeves with the 2011 design. Rumors are that they redesigned the bend curve ever so slightly for the new generation of sails. So if you want to try a mast that just might work better than your sail manufacturer's mast at 1/2 the price, give the new NoLimitz a shot. I'll post up a review on the new masts after I've had a few sessions on different sails with them.

Chinook is also redesigning their carbon wave booms. no word on exactly when they will be ready, but I've heard rumors of some 1-offs already floating around some shops to see what they think, so it should be shortly.

Maybe some BIG news in the board dept. for me. We'll see if things come through.

That's it for now. I feel like I'm on Chachi's schedule. Work, sail, eat, sleep, repeat.

Earl Schmearl

September has come and the wind is back in a big way! We've had more sailing days than not in the past couple weeks. Actually today was officially day 7 in a row of sailable conditions on LI. Hurricane Earl promised us some 50 knot + winds. The only problem is that Earl took a more Easterly path than originally thought and the only people that got to sail were all the way out on the tip of Long Island at Napeague. I eagerly awaited another session at the Training Grounds in all of Earl's glory but ended up getting skunked with gusts up to 12 knots along with everyone else on the North Shore.

But I should be the last to complain. I've sailed more days than not so far in the month of September and it looks like we'll get yet another good day tomorrow. The day following the windless Hurricane was my best day of the season. It was probably the first time I sailed West Meadow without a wetsuit. We arrived at high tide with some great ramps for the perfect loopfest and stayed until the tide went out where I was hitting trick after trick in the perfect flat water behind the sand bars. I had to cut that day short to go shoot a wedding, which turned out to be a great party! Win, win!

Then it was back to summer-like conditions at Heckscher for the next few days. Tuesday was incredible. Fully, fully powered on a 4.7 with gusts over 30 towards the end. There were a bunch of people out and Ryan, Rob and Joe were also on the scene going for loops, flakas, shuvit's and landing vulcans. Chris Goodwin, who is definitely someone to keep your eyes on, was overpowered on his 5.8 (his smallest sail) so he decided to stop and take some pics. here are a few of my favorites.