Meeting the moment

Carbon Footprint 'Meeting the Moment' with the Clif Bar environmental protection promotion / photo competition of the same name. Like her picture or add your own, and Clif Bar will donate to your choice of one of five environmental not for profit organisations. I am sure there is a veritable plethora of awesome actions shots loitering on your hard drives, fair readers. Not quite sure what the general sporting population will make of foiling, the best thing is that it comes under the category of 'Awesomeness', nice! Vist: http://www.meetthemoment.com.

Be careful what you wish for

Someone once said "Be careful what you wish for" 

I say, "Too right, they might come true, so make them good!"

What more could a girl wish for on her birthday than to go foiling with not one, but two America's Cup helmsmen? I had my wish granted when Chris Draper with his shiny new Mach 2 joined Nathen, Troy, Nico, Adam and myself for a fun foiling session in Seaplane Lagoon yesterday. With the breeze up and some new boats and sailors on the water we stayed close to shore, ensuring the action and the wipe outs stayed close to the camera!

                              

 

 

Foiling oppie: The making of...

Behind the scenes of the making of the foiling Oppie. The picture diary of her transformation from tender to foiler.

Foiling Oppie

“Impossible is not a declaration, it’s a dare”

An Oppie… on foils…many people have said it is impossible, (or at least those that saw me launching her into a cold and blustery December morning did). But this is a story of faith and belief.

Despite the doubters, I believed; believed that plugging my Moth hydrofoils into an Oppie would make her fly; believed that once the rowlocks had been removed an old wooden Oppie that was destined for life as a tender would be the vessel to achieve this feat; believed that somehow she would push her aerodynamic bath-tub form through the water to a sufficient speed for take off.

Was my faith misplaced? Well after a faltering start with a few moments of foil assist but not take off,  a big gust hit… she accelerated… she started to lift…the bow was out…  

the rudder lifted… that was it, she was out of the water…I was foiling!!! In an Oppie!!!...

She popped out… There was lots of spray…

but she’d done it… A foiling Oppie!

I started with a quote on the impossible by John Maxwell, but I think Walt Disney may have captured my feelings more accurately:

“It’s kind of fun to do the impossible”

Unfortunately the moment of glory eluded the ties of modern digital imagery and we only got a picture of the landing, but rest assured she flew and with a bit of additional lift on the rudder she will be flying again soon.