From November to mid March I find it very difficult to get on a slalom or speed board over here in Guernsey. When it's 8 degrees air temp or less the thought of sailing up and down the coast on big slalom kit doesn't do much for me. Even the odd good speed day in those temps isn't great.
Wave sailing definitely takes over when its that cold. Wave sailing in 8 degrees for a couple of hours is no problem.
The weather is changing however and it was time to unload the wave kit, put it on standby for any exceptional conditions and tune up the slalom kit.
I have finned up my PD 110 with a Black Project Fins 37.7 for big sails. Usually I like the BPF 35 in this board but my new Evo 6's should be here soon and I have gone big this year, right up to 9.5 sq m. My PD speed 53 has been finned up with a BPF RS 28. More for 7 and 7.8 sailing in tight conditions. With the first speed contest of the year at the Mondial du Vent is just around the corner I have a feeling I will be using this fin / board combo a lot.
Speed contests are a different beast to free sailing or record attempts. You have to sail as many runs as possible so that you don't miss the best conditions, this means sailing back up wind needs to be quick and easy. That's when the RS will come into it's own compared to a asymmetric record fin.
Sails ready to come out of storage and into the van.
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