hi all
a friend and i went for a sail over to our local beach today. well there was no wind so we decided to motor over. the trip there
was uneventful and loud. we pulled up at the beach and had a beer and watched the beautiful girls go by. it was a nice way to
waste a day.
we pulled up and left after about two hours of this.
not wanting the long boring ride back home, my friend went for a swim. we were not getting anywhere fast this way. i took one
of my spinnaker sheets and tied it onto one of my 7 foot dagger boards. i passed it to him and opened up the poor little 2.5 hp. he
surfer along behind the boat for a little while and had fun. when it was my turn i hopped in and we got going. getting dragged along
was fine, but i decided to try something else. my board has a cut out in the center to save a bit of weight. i spun the board around
so as the line was pulling on the front instead of on the top.
with a twist of the wrist the leading edge was pointing down and i dove down to about 30 feet in the blink of an eye. with another
twist i shot back to the surface. what a rush! it is almost the most fun i have ever had on my boat!
if you guys get the chance to try this, give it a go. just be sure that the water is deep enough.
HI, BC!
Sounds like you've discovered a very exciting ride. A word of caution tho...
Scuba divers will confirm this: Shooting down 30 ft and back in "a blink of an eye" is a great recipe for a ruptured eardrum. The inrush of cold water creates instant, strongly disorienting vertigo (dizzyness and total lack of orientation to vertical). Being 30ft down, dizzy, disoriented, clinging to a hydrofoil while being dragged through the briny by a motorboat sounds a little too real. (Unknowingly roll to inverted, attempt to surface in a panic, crush head on bottom.)
Other airbound cavities in the human body also react poorly to rapid descent/ascent. Good news: don't worry about the bends; 30 ft is a "no-decompression depth, even if you were down long enough, which is pretty tough w/out canned air.
Suggest you take it slow on the ups and downs.
I'm just posting that subject line to get your attention. But once you read the AMAZING story below, you'll be amazed as to what the human body can withstand! Check this out! Pipin Ferreras World Record Free Dive
thanx for the warning. 30 feet is just a ballpark.
man it was a rush.
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