6 months on...

It is six months since I had a stroke on Christmas day and although most of the feeling has returned to my right side I still have the occasional "bad day". Most bad days are compounded by having to work in man made environments in front of a pc. After six months of tests the probable cause appears to be a hole in my heart that showed up in an echo. This hole allows small clots to short cut a path to the brain rather than being filtered by the lungs. I will be on asprin daily for the rest of my life. The best therapy I find is time outside with my wife and 2 year old and of course windsurfing.

My hope for the next six months is for my health to keep on improving and my level of strength and fitness to increase. I am currently 110kg(which is great for speed sailing) and hope to get down to 105kg which will suit my new focus of slalom and marathon racing. There are 5 events in the pipeline for this summer and since we will be losing a lot of our speed locations in the lower lakes(flow restricters will be utilised to raise the lower lakes to pre-drought levels) I am really excited about the buzz of racing and the burn of marathons. It is less a case of the lucky gust and more a case of best man wins! I still love speed sailing but I dont want it to headline my sailing menu as much as it has in the past, I want to taste a few more dishes!

Light Wind Cruiser - JP Slalom IV 134

I had a light wind cruise on the JP Slalom IV 134 at Goolwa on Monday(8/6/09) in about 10-15 knots. Man I love this board, it is just so much fun in light breeze and is the only floater I have. The other great thing is that I could be out on the 7.8 with either the 92 or 104 with the wind dropping out - whack in this baby and you are going again in a few minutes, no 15+ minutes to rig another sail. Also gybes like a smaller board with relatively thin rails and stays or hovers above the water if it does pick up again.
I also tried the new Select Proslam 47 for the first time, and although I wasn't powered it showed nice speed off of the wind(~30) and still held a reasonable angle heading back upwind. I look forward to more time on this big gear with some slalom & marathon events that are in the pipeline.



I also caught a bit of footage tailing Carl & Joe. At least the water is flat when it is this light...
I looked at the camera after the run and noticed condensation inside the housing and thought the video would not turn out at all. In the end it is slightly blurred but still shows the action.