A typical day with Foehn wind at Dervio, on Lake Como, really gusty, first, and then more constant from 14:30 to 15:00, when it became photonic ......

 

Windsurf, session report: Dervio (Como Lake), Foehn at 40 knots

Technical session data: 

Wind: Foehn wind, with North East prevailing direction, at 30-40 kts.

Water surface: messy chop of about 1 meter, steep, and breaking sometime, only seldom more regular.

Sail: Ezzy Elite 4,7 2015 and Tiger 4,2 2014

Board: Tabou 3s 106 LTD 2013, and Fanatic Triwave TE 86 2013 with a single fin set up (wave fin of 21,5 cm)

Rider's weight: 70 kgs

Clothing: long wetsuit 4/3, surf shoes, bare feet and head.

Comment

Wonderful sunny day, with pleasant temperatures at about 20 °C degrees, and finally a blue sky after the grey of the last week's mornings. Usual magnificent mountains landscape around Como lake, already in autumn suit.

The wind in the early part of the morning had already begun to blow over the spot, but it was rather unstable. However, late in the morning the wind intensity increased, and allowed us to enter into the water with sails of about 4.5 to 5 meters (me with 4.7 and 106 board). The first part of the session was easy, but only occasionally good, since while riding on each tack was difficult to find a stable stance. After a lunch break with a sandwich, the wind in the early afternoon began to give signs of a steep increase, and the first impressive gusts came in, which in Dervio made the lake water atomize. At 14.30, the wind started blowing more consistently, and less intermittently, while remaining irregular

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I decided to go back into the water with 4.2, and after some doubt, I also decided to chang board and to pass to the 86-liter wave board to have something more light and smaller under my feet. They were good choices, though under 40 kts gusts, a 3.7 sail would have been proper. When the situation was really serious, Mario went out with a 3.3 sail, worth of Pozo Izquierdo, with whom I saw him plan for a long time.

Above all, approaching the west lake shore, the wind got event stronger, and the chop bigger. On a jump, in conjunction with a gust of those that sprayed the lake water, I felt, for the first time, the feeling of being suspended in the air, rather high, with the sail acting as a wing. Very interesting...

 

I came out of the water at about 16.15, because of some family commitments. But I did not leave, without taking a bit of photos, given the very particular conditions (even as far as day light concerned). If conditions seemed somewhat seriuos to me, two riders, including a very young boy named Niccolò, were there to show me how to tack, jibe, close some vulcan, and even occasionally place some speed loops, with good fluidity and elegance, which made me realize, once again, that windsurfing can be almost an art. Looking Niccolò, I got a detail in the passage of hands in the tack (rear hand that takes the mast, without making the boom to boom passage - see video), which seemed to me very interesting.

Hang Loose. Fabio

 

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The video of the session