Golden Beach - the unremarkable adventures of two talentless bogans.

Thursday arvo’s strong wind got us excited about getting back into sailing after the winter break. I ploughed through work at night to get Friday freed up and was up early to pack the gear. As we were about to leave our disabled daughter’s day centre called to say she’d had a bad fall and they’d called the ambulance. Great. Sailing plans were dropped as we went to check the situation out. More than an hour later the ambulance hadn’t turned up (hopeless!), but we all decided that she looked perfectly OK, so life went back to normal and despite the big delay, we decided to head off anyway.

We haven’t sailed at Golden Beach since we were on our sailboarding L plates about 30 years ago. We parked at the spot about 150m south of the white navigation tower and had a look. It was also our first sail on our new Naish GT boards, so we were a bit apprehensive. But it was no worries. The locals (Ian, Rebecca) gave us good advice on what to do. The tide was going out, so if you spend long in the channel directly in front of the park, you’ll get swept down current and down wind to the north. So you walk a bit to the south, and sail straight over to the sandbank at the other side (fortunately neither of us fell in on this bit!) and then walk 100m or so along the edge of the sandbank to the SE, which puts you on a reach into a wider bay area with less current.

The new boards were a success. Since coming back into windsurfing last year, we’ve been sticking with old-school gear (Bic Metal Rock, Astro Rock) because we feel comfortable on it. But I’ve been succumbing to all the guys nagging me to to move on to new style boards. Simon from Board Crazy guided us towards the Naish GT’s because they are a good compromise between the dated long boards and the very radical weird wide boards. On her first go yesterday Janet got going straight away, and me too. I have been a bit doubtful about all the raving about how the newer shaped boards are better than the old stuff, but I am convinced now. Yes, it’s going to take a while to adapt to the different stance but straight away I could tell that the board got on the plane fast, was really stable, much more locked in once the feet are in the straps.

When I caught up with Janet on the white sandbank under the brilliant blue sky (doesn’t get much better than this) she’d been sailing for 45 mins or so, and I asked her for her first impressions … she had the usual minor grumbles about loose boom and fin spinout etc, then her face lit up and she said “oh, but I have to say about GYBING – all I can say is man, have we been doing it TOUGH with the old boards!” I was so surprised at her strong feedback that I had to check again! But she’s dead right. We’re certainly not proficient at gybing, but compared to our old Bics, it’s like you only have to think about it and these new boards carve such a nice smooth arc!! I still have to work on the sail transition etc so I don’t just stall and stop, but the beautiful smooth carve is a big improvement!

Janet got tired and cold and hungry and headed in, then before long I had to come in when my rubber Uni joint broke! It’s so good that these modern assemblies have a strong cord also holding the 2 sides together – I was able to sail back carefully. Anyway we both had a bite to eat and a cuppa, and we got colder. We bought 1mm wetsuits primarily as stinger suits, and I expected that they’d keep us warmer too – I don’t think they do. They’re like wearing wet clothing! They’re cold in the breeze.

A guy turned up and started unwrapping a completely new board on the picnic table! Nathan had just picked up a new Carve 131 and was keen to try it – a nice step down from his Gecko 156+. He’s keen – we had a good chat.

After the break, the wind picked up a bit. It was nice with the current going slack, and the sailing was good. I have to learn how to get these new boards on the plane fast … I know the board wants to do it, but I think I’m doing it all wrong. I had a couple of episodes of fin spinout and had real trouble getting it to lock back in without having to almost stop the board. I’d be interested to hear how you recover from spinout?

All through the day I had regular, massive catapult crashes. To be honest, I don’t know why I’m doing that, or how to prevent it. I sorta guessed that I need to hang my weight back further to be ready to counteract it, but I dunno. I got flung over when starting, when on a run, when initiating gybes … basically at any random time. I’m sure everyone is familiar with the feeling but it’s pretty scary when you are being catapulted at great force into the rig, not knowing how this one is going to end up! I’ve been complaining about how many injuries I get riding my dirt bike, but yesterday’s experience on the board makes dirt biking look less risky! I really smashed myself onto my wrist on the mast, so hard I thought I could have broken it; sprained a foot wrenching it in a footstrap, sandpapered the top of my foot on the deck, painfully bent up my already sprained thumb, whipped my head back so hard on one fall that I thought I could have broken my neck, plus the usual bruises and scrapes to shoulders, arms, shins.

The conditions around 3pm were perfect. The wind was consistent, and a few guys were gybing beautifully and sailing sizzling fast. There was a whole bunch of kites further down off Pelican Waters, and several sailing between us too. So good. But I got tired from being powered up with a 6.6, and was crashing a lot. With the sun getting low, it wasn’t possible to see the sandbanks under the water (they’re as clear as a bell in the middle of the day) so not being familiar with the area, I was a bit scared of running into a sandbar at full tilt. Meanwhile Janet had taken a long time to warm up after her first session, so she was only getting back out when I was heading in. I knew she’d be overpowered with the 5.8 and wanted to tell her to forget it and go back in, but didn’t. I watched for a bit, and she seemed to be having fun (she definitely wasn’t! Hopelessly overpowered, loosening boom) and I left her to it. The current had now turned and was running in, which under other circumstances should have been fun for doing fast broad reaches and big gybes, with the current bringing you back into the wind. I unrigged, chatted to the guys in the park, and generally wasted time.

After 45mins or so I was on the phone telling Jeff how good it was, when Janet came running up along the park in a panic – “you’ll have to come and help – the rig’s jammed under the jetty!” She was in a bit of a state, as people tend to be after several near-death experiences. The boom-mast connection, which had been gradually loosening all day (and needed an on-land repair) had finally got so loose it couldn’t stay on the RDM rubber adaptor, and the combination of being very tired, over-powered, and with a semi-non-functional boom meant she wasn’t willing to sail the rig back in and risk any more potentially lethal catapults. So she lay in the water and floated the sail in the wind to get back close to the beach. But then the sail dropped in the water a few metres from the beach, the current pulled it under and before she could get it in the wind again she realized the current was going to take her under the jetty. When we’d run the 300m down there the mast was bending across a jetty pylon, under enormous force from the current running like a river, with the board under the jetty. I jumped in, in my nice dry shorts and jocks – Janet still in her wetsuit and booties - and cut my hands and feet on jetty barnacles trying to free the board from the mast base – it was totally jammed. Finally I managed to shuffle the mast along the pylon and the board and rig came free and we swam it to the beach, with various cuts and stretches to this brand new sail on its first day out. Oh well. When we got back and told Nathan, he said that the same thing had happened to him one day, and his sail tore out completely.

A bit scary. So it was a day with a few dramas, but we returned home with that deep inner warmth from knowing that you’ve done something good.