What I remember...
I have been checking out different fins lately trying to find a board that goes very well upwind, but that won't kill you off the wind. I ended up using 2 back fins that we about 1 inch longer than what I use in the 60 down wind race. It was obvious right from the start that the board had tons more power, but not as much top end and was far more taxing on my legs. The nose seemed to ride a bit lower with the larger fins and when I moved my weight to the front leg, my speed suffered far more.
Jordan, Damien, and I were well in front after the first mile with Jordan being about 1/4 of a mile in front of Damien and myself. Damien and I rode basically overlapped for the first mile and then I seemed to push ahead by a bit. It took me until about mile 4 to catch Jordan and it happened when he took a spill. At this point I rode in the front by about 1/4 of a mile with Damien and Jordan battling it out just behind. I held my lead until about mile 21 when my legs started to leave me. Big Damien put on the after burners when the winds picked up a bit and caught me about 22nd street on Miami Beach. Briefly we went turbo off the wind, only riding about 6 feet apart. I caught a little chop and went over the bars ending with a wrapped kite with Damien! I quickly removed my leash just in case things went bad, but Damien had some quick thinking that helped the situation. We were up and riding again after less than a minute.
Damien pulled away by about 100 yards as I continued to struggle just before Government Cut. I took a few more falls and Damien looked solid and rode though the Cut. After the cut, he held a lead of about 2 minutes all the way through the finish. Jordan finished behind me by about the same distance.
In short, I felt that Damo's and my speed was very similar for the first 19-20 miles, but Damo's tree trunks took over when my rubber bands failed!
Good job Damien and thanks Neil for letting us launch at Tiki Beach!
Kent
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