Jumping onto a Plane

Yesterday, in early July 2017, the wind was light - was supposed to be 20-40 kph, but ... As it was light, but hopefully better than 20 kph, I did NOT bring my Mistral Equipe 2 XR longboard. Instead I brought the JP SLW92, but with the HSM SpeedFreak 8.5 and not the TR-4 10-oh. There were times that I managed to plane, but only when there were decent gusts. There were three(3) people that stood out. I saw benwindy give three or four short pumps, jump onto a plane and fly towards me waving and with a smile. There was a fellow with a pony tail who seemed to be constantly planing. He planed past me when I felt I had no chance of planing. As Helmut said, " Once you get going, you can keep going!" I followed the pony tail to see what was his trick. He was not planing in the lighter stuff and when he saw the opportunity, he too pumped to try and plane.
On another occasion skiguy blasted past me when I was nowhere near planing - just waiting for that puff.
All this goes to show a few things. These folks were not all on light wind gear and yet doing fine - better than this old tanker. They also had to squeeze that extra flotation out by doing a few pumps. We are not talking about Olympic racing pumps either.
My whole kit did not feel spot on and I was wondering whether I have been spending too much time on the longboard.
Other issues were, the wind was onshore, water deeper than usual, windshadow closer to shore making beach starting difficult and the kiters took over an important section of the beach.
All in all , it still was a great day out and I chatted with many friends (old and new) !!

That day I pushed myself to NOT bring the longboard. Was a little disappointed in the JP, but still feel something was amiss.  I could have put a longer fin and I definitely felt the boom was not set high enough. Had moved the mast track forward at one point, but perhaps it needed to go back a bit ?? This is all part of the fun of windsurfing. Even those lightweights with 6.6 sails and a 71 cm wide RRD had fun :-)

There are videos and other discussions on the web, but i just wanted to start the subject for now.
and NON, no footstraps since the wind was - well - light n gusty - as usual :-)

Just Pump It ...



and this is what benwindy had to say ... vous parlez francais n'est-ce pas ?? :-)

"Ouais il m'arrive de pomper !

Quand c'est limite, cad, quand on planerait avec le vent réel, mais il en faut un peu plus pour nous faire décoller.

Pour un même volume, une planche plus courte a plus besoin de ce coup de pompe.

Même pour une 160 litres!

J'ai 2 façons.

1- Décroché du harnais, les pieds devant les straps, je place la planche au largue, je rapproche les mains et tire légèrement sur le wish tout en poussant sur la planche, j'augmente progressivement le mouvement.

Si ça part pas après 5 coups, je réfléchis à la beauté du sport et continue de schlogger!

Si ça part, je place le pied avant dans la strap et continue de larguer. 

Puis le pied arrière, c'est là que je reprend du travers.

2- je fais aussi je pumping des freestyleux

Accroché au harnais, les pieds devant les straps, je zigone la voile entre main gauche et main droite.

Je fais cela pour espérer passer un trou de vent, quand je suis au planning.

Quand c'est rafaleux et que je ne plane pas, je remonte toujours le vent tout en schloggant,

Pour me mettre de l'argent en banque, argent que je vais dépenser quand une rafale arrive,

C'esr à dire pouvoir pomper en largant !"

and here is an eight page discussion on iwindsurf (am sure there will be MORE pages coming)

http://www.iwindsurf.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=32572&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0&sid=9e160cf686b2de278a25ac05503928e2

On seabreeze forum FrenchToast mentions that he pumps to get going with his Falcon LightWind:

I sail in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. 1h north of Milwaukee; 2:30h north of Chicago. You might be right regarding how little wind there was. Maybe 9-10 knots? I cannot imagine getting this kit on a plane in less than that. I had similar session 2 days ago and it took me at least 8-10 pump to get the board up and going. Once it is on a plane tho, the kit is going through lulls fantastically well. I really tok the wind to die down for the board to come off. 

More impressions:
About a week ago, I went out in 13-14 knots it seemed. The V8 was set to release plenty at the top with medium+ outhaul. Even overpowered in gusts, the sail was balanced; it was tiring but manageable. The board was flying over the chop and swell. I think the Falcon can easily be rigged with a 8 or 8.5 in stronger wind and still provide a controlled ride. The boom length being this short, I even managed to waterstart after a failed jibe (the luff sleeve wasn't yet full of water though). I used a 57cm slalom fin (stock is 50cm). Doesn't seem to make a difference upwind and I haven't had enough TOW to see if it provides more early planing lift compared to the 50cm. I managed to spin out a couple of time upwind with the 57cm though. Maybe putting too much foot pressure... don't know. Fully powered, the Falcon Lightwind is fast but doesn't seem to be as fast as my 124L AtomIQ. I need a gps tracker to verify. Regardless, I've been on the water planing with a smile in conditions I wouldn't have bothered heading out to the beach. The kit is doing exactly what I was hopping for. The 9.4 V8 is delivering substantially more power than my 8.5 Lion3 obviously. 

Next winter, I have to try foiling on rental gear and if conclusive, I might put a foil on the falcon for new lightwind experiments! If anyone has done this on a JP, Fanatic or RRD lightwind, let me know how it went.