Lost gear and self rescue thoughts

Hey - first off, yes I know it's been a long long time that I last posted. But it's not for anything bad. Actually all is pretty great. We're back on Maui and I got a completely healed and good to go report from my doctor and surgeon over the summer. Also some early season decent waves are coming soon. Maybe more on that later.

My inspiration for suddenly writing came from a story a friend of ours just posted about her experience losing her windsurfing gear the other day at Kanaha.  So first read her whole story here!

I was going to add a super long comment to Karen's post, but instead of taking up way too much space there, I thought it would be a good idea to post it here instead.  So this is that comment, which all about getting back to your gear after a wipe out...

Hey Karen, great story! And nice to see you came out all good and got your gear back more or less intact.
I've had three long swims myself in the past few years, all on big wave days where I got taken out and my gear was washed far away. The first time a kiter towed me back to my wayward kit. (Thank you very much again!)  I'm pretty sure I never would have caught up to it on my own. The 2nd and 3rd times happened last year and Julia found and held onto my gear each time and eventually I did catch up. But it took some hard and very exhausting swimming to get there. Also two days ago, again in no waves, Julia and I found a guy swimming with just his rig at Uppers, pretty far out. His board (actually the euro pin base) had separated. We helped him de-rig and took turns sailing the pieces back while Jasek towed him in. Really not a hard process but if we hadn't found him I think he was in for a bad time.

More thoughts on this (and BTW this isn't specific to Karen's story, just general advice)...

1) when possible sail with a friend or partner or at least in close proximity to other folks. Also if you're with someone try to let them know if you decide to head back to shore for some reason (Julia and I use the head pat signal for heading in). If headed to a different location (uppers instead of lowers) we usually get our wing man's attention and point in that direction so they know we're going (and the wing man should follow). It's great knowing that someone is around "just in case".

2) It's a good idea to carry extra line/ rope. This makes it much easier to tow back gear or do on the water MacGyver repairs, etc.  I've been toying with the idea of carrying a survival bracelet which allows you to carry 14 ft on your wrist. In theory you can make your own such bracelets - anyone ever tried to do that?

3) Do not hesitate to signal to people or lifeguards if assistance is required.  For instance that time I got towed by a kiter - I was waving pretty frantically and the tow took only a few minutes. If I had waited longer it would have just been a longer tow and I would have been that much more tired. The only time I got a tow from a lifeguard (broken uni on a big wave day) he told me that I should sit on my board and wave my hands continuously. They were already out rescuing people in on this day, and by making yourself obvious it takes some pressure off them deciding if you are in fact in trouble (plus it's easy to get the rescue before you get carried back into the impact zone).  But don't signal unless you're in a situation where you know you  won't be able to get in by yourself (in my broken uni case I was drifting back out on the tide/channel, the wind was dying, it was late in the day, and the waves were BIG!). Also keep in mind that the lifeguards leave around 4pm and plan accordingly.

4)  I don't like to sail way far out past the surf zone, particularly way past where most folks tend to hang, and most particularly on a big wave day. If something freaky happens, like you blow a duck jibe way outside and your gear sails on without you down a swell (which has happened to me but I was fortunately able to catch up, though it was amazing and scary how far away it had traveled), it's likely you would not be spotted by anyone and could have a long and painful swim to shore.  Plus I try to stay closer to the zone because it's easier to spot and catch the incoming swell.

5) Swimming lessons and/or swimming laps are definitely a good idea.  We tend to take it for granted that we can be far from shore when windsurfing. In theory we should be able to swim back from wherever we are just in case.  In practice I'm pretty sure most of us would not always be comfortable doing so. If you can swim a mile without getting exhausted you're probably OK. Also when it comes to catching your gear, swimming a quick sprint can make the difference between catching it or waving goodbye. So I would mix sprints with distance. Of course I really never do this (but I really should).  Julia was a college competitive swimmer (Notre Dame) and I'm always amazed how much faster she is than me when I (rarely) swim in a pool. Also don't make the mistake that if you surf and paddle - even long paddles like at Lowers - that means you can swim OK. It's very different.

6) And being able to swim fast in particular helps. Consider.. your gear is moving away from you at a certain speed, depending on the current and the wind. Maybe 2 mph. So if you can only swim at 2 mph you will never ever catch your gear, no matter how long you can swim, even if your stuff is only 10 feet away! If you can swim at 2.5 mph and your gear is 1/16 mile (100 yards) away then it's going to take you 7.5 minutes to catch it. If you can swim at 3 mph you reduce this to 3.75 minutes. At 3.5 mph (a fast sprint) you get to it in 150 seconds. So I'm thinking if I can swim fairly fast for 3 minutes or so, I should catch my gear even if it's pretty far away (an entire football field) and moving away at a good clip. Anyway that's the theory, I still need to swim the laps first.

7)  I've been surfing with these swimming/surf gloves and they do make you a faster paddler and you can catch more waves (my surf board is only 8 ft BTW). They should also make you a faster swimmer - though I suggest swimming laps first with these in a pool to get used to them. I'm considering stuffing these down my shorty in case a quick swim to my gear (see above) is needed.

8) Even better would be some kind of mini flippers that could be carried on your back or attached to the back of a harness. Something that would be out of the way until needed, really easy to put on, and light.  Flippers really increase your swimming power and endurance. I've done some searching and found these that might do the trick.  Has anyone tried anything like this before?

9) One last final thought. Last year on both of my long lost gear swims, I was wearing neoprene shorts (impact protection from loops), board shorts (looks cool, pocket for keys), a rash guard (comfort), a harness (required), a Gath surf helmet (concussions are not cool), and at the time an impact vest (still recovering from chest surgery). And it occurs to me that none of that helps you swim faster. Put all that on in a pool and I'm sure you won't be breaking any speed or endurance records. So I decided to ditch much of this in favor of one light weight shorty. That and the harness and helmet, but now I have a smaller, lighter, and generally more comfortable harness, so that should help. The idea is less is more, as in swim more faster. I hope!

On Da Rock (It's a good thing)

I'm writing this from our little Ohana up country Maui. We've been on island about ten days. The sun is rising into a clear blue sky, the birds are doing their usual morning song and dance (and fortunately without any roosters involved in the process) and there is a new 15 ft swell arriving on our north shores today. The American Windsurfing Tour is also gearing up for an exciting week of windsurfing competition and parties. I can't do any competing but I can do parties, so I got that going for me (which is nice).

It's been 5 1/2 weeks since my little medical procedure. The whole experience already feels like a dream, or some story I read on someone else's blog. Did it really happen? I have to look down at my already fading scar to remind myself that yes, it really did. I've also seen some medical bills going back and forth to further remind me. Want to know what open heart surgery in the US might cost? Hint, around $150K. Nice to have health insurance even though we have a high deductible so we're not getting off entirely free. But what would have happened if we were without - like so many others? I find it hard to imagine (good bye life savings). I'm also guessing I might have entered that special place called "uninsurable", meaning past medical procedures or illnesses rule out future private health insurance, if I ever need any. The funny thing is I'm probably much less likely to have any medical issues now, but whatever. Such is life on the US health insurance wheel of fortune - I'll avoid further rants and just be happy that we are good for now.

Speaking of good, I really feel it. I'll admit the the packing and travel totally wore me out, and the first day or so here I mostly napped. But lately I've been hanging at Kanaha while Julia's board testing for Windsurfing Magazine's annual review, and I've been riding my beater Maui trail bike back and forth between Kanaha and Paia - about a ten mile round trip with some heavy head wind to make it interesting.  I'm not feeling any pain and all the bike riding so far has been problem free. My plan is to slowly step up the effort and soon add yoga, light jogging and light swimming to the mix.  The basic info I have on the recovery process is it takes 6-8 weeks for the sternum to heal sufficiently to allow more vigorous exercise - I'm counting on being good in 6 (just a few days away).  I've also been told to wait at least 6 months before any activities that could involve sudden impact - which is why I'm thinking no (except maybe extremely light) windsurfing until then.  But perhaps a little surfing before might be possible?  I'm in unknown waters here, but I'm pretty confident that I'm healing about as quickly as possible. If any of my readers are cardiologists or have medical expertise in this area, please feel free to leave me some comments about my expectations!

Quick rant. Why couldn't they extend the bike path from Kanaha by the private Maui golf course / country club (which resembles a retirement home in terms of the clientele) to the Baldwin beach trail which runs to Paia? Did the golf course and private McMansions along the side of it have to take up all the space between the ocean and the highway?  Really?  We need Bill Muarry to blow up some golfers, I mean gophers, and clear us some space for our bike path.  Who's with me!  One good thing about the country club though - it has one really huge kick ass Banyan tree (actually several trees all connected) right in the middle of their parking lot. Possible the biggest on the north shore. Standing under it, staring at the vines swaying down 100 ft from the canopy reminds me of a something out of Avatar. Check it out...

Back to the AWT and parties.  Last night was the kick off at Kanaha Kai (Hot Sails).  Jeff Henderson and co had a nice little throw down and it was great seeing the windsurfing tribe mostly gathered in one space.  If conditions can rally later this week it's going to be an epic competition and I promise to be there with camera in hand for all the action.  I might not be able to sail at the moment, but I sure can click, click, click!

One last thing....  when this whole heart surgery - I might die or be hugely damaged - thing was going down, I couldn't help but think about our upcoming trip to Maui and our plan to pick up some shiny new windsurfing gear to play in the waves.  At that time the whole trip - if not my life - seemed potentially on the rocks.  So I am very pleased to report that not only are we here, but we got all our new gear!  Below is the new 2012 Goya 78 quad that we picked up along with a quiver of 2012 Guru sails. Suffice to say this is the most awesome-ness windsurfing kit on the planet.  For now Julia gets to play on it, but I'm pretty sure my time will come soon enough...

A Univeral Solution

I just noticed that Rebecca found the perfect use for a broken universal. Love it!

OK, so after breaking my Chinook tendon on "Big Tuesday", I decided to search for a better system.  Below are some options I researched. On the right is my "all broke up" tendon.  On the bottom is a new Streamlined tendon with some mods (as explained later), on the left an hourglass with a separate two bolt plate, and on top is the remaining not quite broken but suspiciously crooked Chinook tendon.

A bunch of universals...

These all use the US cup which has a large metal clip with two buttons that protrude from the cup and connect to the extension.  The alternative system is the single pin "euro pin" base.  The euro pin base provides a more solid feeling connection and is much easier attaching and so on.  But I have some reservations about the euro (and not just the economy).

Over the past years I have witnessed some unintentional on the water disconnects involving the euro base (see picture of the Chinook euro base to the right).  If you look inside the euro extension you find a small metal clip.  This clip has a slot which is pushed against the groove in the pin by a spring hidden inside the extension.  All that really holds your rig onto the universal and therefore your board is a fairly small area of this thin clip - just the part that fits into about half of the groove in the pin.  I say half because in all the systems I've seen the metal clip is sprung from one side and therefore takes up only half of the groove in the pin.  I imagine it's just a few square millimeters of metal keeping your very expensive rig from Davey Jones's locker (my great uncle).  So a bit of wear and tear in this area and sudden disconnect syndrome can occur.

There are other potential failure points.  Should the internal spring ever break, lose its tension or get jammed then there is nothing keeping the clip attached to the pin.  This spring is contained inside the extension and on my admittedly quick examination I did not notice an easy means to access (to check it out) or replace this spring (not saying it's impossible, just hard to see).  Of course you could always purchase a new extension fairly often to ensure the spring and clip are all good, but these extensions are not cheap.  Also exposing your extension to sand or dirt could potentially jam either the clip or the spring.  And I believe this leads to the most common cause of premature euro pin ejection, at least in Maui.  You think you have a solid base connection, but a bit of grit keeps the clip from fully extending into the pin, so one big crash later and you are no longer at one with your board.  The scary thing is the connection probably feels solid right up to that point.

There's also a slight oops factor - the euro extension has a large easily accessible button which you push to quickly and efficiently disconnect the extension from the plate.  This is normally a good thing.  But I heard a rumor that some guy hit this by mistake while grabbing his rig after a wave take down.  New sails should cover the button but he had an older sail.  Possible?  Maybe.  OTOH - if you want to disconnect your rig on the water this makes it so much easier.

Having said all that I know many sailors who totally love the euro base and have used it for many years with no problems.  If you race then the euro system is the only respectable choice due to the solid and efficient connection.  But for sailing waves and rigging near sandy beaches it might not be the best option, especially if you don't replace your extensions very often (what, you're not sponsored?).

Hey, let's take a quick break and visit Little Beach courtesy of Moon Over Haleakala

Yet another very interesting little part of Maui...

So is the US base a perfect system?  No way Jose!  It's more like an old reliable car that somehow never breaks down even though it feels like it could at any moment.  I'm not aware of any disconnects that involved just the buttons and the cup itself, assuming both buttons were engaged all the way to begin with.  The most common pilot error with these is not fully attaching the extension to the base such that one or both buttons don't totally pop out.  You don't get the same solid "click" as with the euro pin, instead you must inspect both buttons and make sure they are really and truly sticking out, and do this every damn time you attach the rig.  But if they are out there then you should be good.  And it's very easy to inspect everything as nothing is hidden.

The main complaint with the US system is the looser extension to base connection.  It's never as solid as the euro system, even when everything is brand spanking new. And over time this play will gradually increase.  But again disconnects from the US base seem rare, perhaps because most people reasonably take any increased looseness as an obvious sign that it's time to replace all or part of the universal, which by itself isn't very expensive. And you can easily replace either the internal clips or the cup itself if you want.  The extension is a passive player in the US connection game, so you can keep it forever or until it breaks (hopefully not).  Usually I replace the whole universal once the cup feels too loose, and I see this as perhaps an unintentional advantage.  The euro universal is rock solid until the moment it completely fails, while the US universal just gradually becomes looser until it becomes obvious it needs replacing.

I've been using the US system since at least the early 90's (how long has this system been around anyway?).  Some of our extensions are at least ten years old (since we went skinny), and plan to keep using them forever.  Which is of course another reason not to switch - the "it ain't broken" rule plus replacing them all would be a huge pain. And very expensive (where's that sponsorship anyway?).  BTW - I'm not the only person who came to this conclusion. GP mentioned his preference for the two button US system in this post from almost two years ago.

But we did make a change which more or less led to our universal failure (which sounds so bad).  The picture to the left shows a Chinook hourglass with a two bolt plate.  We used this in the Gorge for years without problems.  I replaced these whenever the unis seemed loose and almost never replaced the plates.  But when we got our shiny new and oh so great Goya boards this fall, many folks suggested going with a single screw plate because: 1) cheaper (no need to buy a plate per board) 2) the two bolt plate to uni connection becomes loose over time, so the single bolt system should be stronger and tighter 3) the single bolt takes up less space in the mast track so more adjustments are possible.  4) Chinook tendons often only come with a single bolt plate around here for some reason.

The only disadvantage is the single bolt might not hold as strong as two bolts, and the single bolt puts more force in one spot on the mast track.  But since most of the pro sailors seem to be using the single bolt system I assume that modern mast tracks and construction are strong enough to handle the load.  There's also a slight inconvenience with screwing on a base instead if clicking into the two bolt plate, but NBD IMO.

The other change was going with a tendon over the hour glass.  Again many opinions on that.  I've never personally had an hourglass uni break before I proactively replaced it, but I know many folks who have experienced such frequent failures with hourglasses that they refuse to use them.  A lot of these guys sail here so I assumed that wave sailing puts more force on the uni and therefore exposes a flaw in the hourglasses design.  Therefore I switched to the Chinook temdon with a single bolt .  Now if I had read GP's earlier post a bit sooner I might have gone with the Streamlined base right away.  But I have been using various Chinook products for so long with no problems I had no reason to doubt the performance of the Chinook tendon.

What's odd about Chinook's US tendon base is the construction is so different from their euro pin version.  I know the US base must have been designed earlier, so I'm guessing when the euro base came along they decided to improve a few things - such as the euro tendon has metal caps instead of plastic and uses line for the safety instead if nylon straps.  If they went back and updated the US version all would be well but so far they haven't.  I guess they prefer to leave the older base as is, perhaps assuming most folks would go with the better designed (and more expensive) euro version instead.

There's also the problem that their tendon broke so soon - we only had it about three months, and the other unbroken tendon now has an obvious tilt such that I assume its days are well numbered.  Now in reality it's not so bad if a tendon or hourglass breaks, assuming this was the result of a large wave landing on the rig.  It's much better to break a base than something way more expensive like an extension. Plus you can sail back with a broken base, assuming - and this is important - that the safety lines hold.  And as you can see from my broken base, instead of safety lines it has have nylon straps and one immediately sheared off.  It was because only one marginal looking strap was left on my base that I ended up swimming (until GP came along that is).

So what's the solution?  Take a look at the Streamlined universal.  It's a US cup with a single bolt base, has metal caps over the tendon with strong  bolts, and most importantly it uses lines for the safety.  Also GP showed me a trick if you get this universal.  Replace the line it comes with with a stronger spectra line (down haul line).  I also added some extra knots to this line as you can see in the picture.  I'm not sure if this line is likely to break as is, but without the extra knots a cut in any section would have taken the entire line out.  So I added the knots as an extra safety - think of it as redundancy.  The knots mean each section of rope by itself can hold the base together.  And the cost and time to do this is trivial, especially when compared to the cost of your rig. Also, because I had them, I replaced the internal clip/buttons with the Chinook version as this will be connecting to Chinook extensions and their clip looked a bit stronger.

Before finishing this dissertation, since the subject is on things that might have broken, I thought it appropriate to link to our friend Olaf's story about one of his more interesting trips to Baja

So be safe out there everyone. And get yourself a universal solution if you don't already have one.