Uitdam – Pampus attempt 1

I tried to go to Pampus from Uitdam, it is actually a short route, check the video and story:

Story
This morning my girlfriend pushed me out of bed to go windsurfing for the third time in a row, AND finally I went. I have been preparing for months and today I overcome my fear (stepping out my comfort zone). My fear was related to larger crossings and the many things that can go wrong offshore (being helpless, having to ride back by public transport barefoot in my neoprene).
I arrived at the beach and it was beautiful (dutch) weather, actually the first time for me on this spot. According to windfinder it should have been Northwesterly direction and 15kn-20kn. On the water the wind was between 9-18kn, pretty good to sail. From start it was a bit broader than crosswind, PERFECT! I had one tiny weedproblem, however nothing big (this spot has not much weed).

I thought it was more westerly, this was not true!! I was totally disoriented, I am not yet used to my new toy and I was being stubborn (knowing it better than suunto and windfinder). I changed my original plan (Lelystad) and aimed for Pampus. About halfway I realized this was not the right angle anymore,  at the start it seemed to be easy to reach, halfway I realised the winddirection at the beach is influenced by thermal effects.
At one point I decided to return (Pampus was not easy to reach). At that point of time I realized I just did 6.5km downwind sailing… Going back the same path was upwind to the max.

On my way back, again halfway I had a new challenge. My front footstrap let go… Going upwind over the chop and me forcing my frontfoot to let the board ride at high angle was to much. I learned here that checking footstraps is a good thing to do (another one for the checklist). Surfing on my backfoot I made it back and I was very excited, eventhough the speed was not really high and I didn’t even make it to Pampus.

Lessons learned
I learned a lot of new stuff and next time I will make it (faster) :). I will trust Suunto next time and decide on true winddirection (not local).

My equipment
For this session I took: a watertight bag, floating vest, harnass, spare sonntag fin and screws, swiss knive multifunctional, spare harnassline, water, first aid kit, suunto and windsurfstuff.

And slippers (I am not going back barefoot).

A screwdriver for footstraps will be added to the standard list 😉

Movescount session
ejloots’s 0:48 h Windsurfing/Surfing Move #SuuntoSurf #Suunto #Ambit3Peak