Does extensions matters?


Well, at least quality does. What absolutely is crucial is that the extension does not brake. A racesail require about 500 kg of downhaul, a different ballpark compared to a wavesail. As you can see, my extension bag is filled with extensions from various makes. I have tested a few. And I must say that the price has correlation with the quality. All of them works from the beginning but after 20-30 days the cheapest are worn out. Plastic parts cracks, the pins in the collar breaks etc. In general the RDM with often more simple collar construction are holding together better than the SDM´s. But RDM is also often more used to smaller sails with not so much load.

Not the best angle, the rope gets worn.
Much better angle, with the Nylon part.
Alu or Carbon? Well a more a matter of feeling than performance. Carbon does not corrodes though… 

Which one is the best? Well I have been quite happy with Chinook for some years, but right now I test Neil Pryde MXT Carbon. All good? Well there are problems with them too. This year NP have change the angle in the cleat. So when I used a standard rig-winch the rope got worn off immediately. I had to build a new winch with a different angle. Maybe not a problem for NP-riders, but for Naish and Loft Sails, that have the downhaul block in another angle it did not work. But my tips is, go for quality. A good extension last for many years, a cheap one a few months.

Baisse your speeding shape?


This time of the year on the northern hemisphere some people are walking around and saying ”Well I have not sailed one day yet with my speed gear this season yet”. Sometimes you wonder why are they telling you this? Well normally you hear this from amateurs in any sport a week or two before an event. But this is not unique for windsurfers, golfers are the same and they are many more. What they really are saying is maybe that they not have used the speed board yet, but done a lot wave- or slalom sailing.

I am in the same position this year. After the crashes last year I did not do any trips this winter and it has not been many windy days at home yet. Off course it is not optimal to jump on the board with new gear at the first event. Even if the new sails/boards are better than last year, you need to trim and tune and find the sweet spots in the gear. Normally that takes about 3-5 full days for each setup for me. I am pretty far from that right now. But this year I have been smart. I have kept the super tuned 2011-gear, and expect from the Racing Blade 7.8 (2011 is crashed), I will probably use 2011-gear in most event the coming months. But I must admit that I like the new stuff. Soon I will reveal the new graphic in full monty.