I wasn't able to attend the ABK clinic at Tiana last weekend (various personal obligations) but I stopped by Friday morning to say Hi and to sail the eastern breeze. Just being near the clinic pushed me to think about my technique, and as I sailed I thought about all the things I was doing in that 90 minute session that I'd either learned or improved in ABK clinics (I've done at least 17 of them over the years, and I ain't done yet.) On this fine morning the list included:
Carrying the gear to, into and out of the water. 
Uphauling, beach starts, waterstarts, clew first waterstarts.
Hooking in, getting into the footstraps, and sailing fast.
Planing through lulls, planing upwind underpowered.
Fast tacks, helitacks, push tacks, nose spin hoss tack (good for clearing weeds from the fin!)
Pivot jibe, step jibe, duck jibe, backwinded jibe.
Carve 360, upwind 360.
Nose spin to fin-first sailing.
The improvised save. 
(My morning on a 6.2 and the 109.)
It was great to see OG Puffin Steve, Radar Tom, Buddha Mike, Brendan, Jill, Pete, George, Eric, my new madman friend John from White Plains et set ah rah. ABK Camraderie…what could be better?
(Hanging on Saturday when the wind died…thanks Buddha Mike for the beer!)
Leave a Reply