You can’t judge a boom by its cover.

RRD - Freestyle Wave from RRD International on Vimeo.

I have not been sailing as much this winter as I normally do. Just as I felt my body was starting to heal from years of over-use, punctuated by a trauma injury; I was getting to the point that a few Tylenol was all I needed to get through a sailing session. Not bad for a guy who had lost 30 pounds of muscle and was taking Vicodin by the handful just to get through the day.

Then Sandy happened.

I was no longer training; exercising my muscles in short bursts, then letting them rest so I could rebuild my 50 year old body. After Sandy, I was working. Cutting down trees with an axe and hand saw; shoveling sand from places it should never be; demolishing with a crowbar, the waterlogged first floor of homes lucky to still be standing. Everything you are not supposed to do when coming back from an injury.

Then there was the water; polluted, and filled with debris...

So when I did start sailing at the end of February, it was pretty apparent that my most used wave gear was not up to the task. I was patching rail cracks on my 111 ltr freestyle wave board after every session, getting carbon fiber splinters from my boom, and my most used sail; a 6.3 wave sail was looking pretty rough.

I was going to try to limp by another season, even as my wife tried to show me the error of my ways. “you sail that combo in the ocean, in overhead waves, a half a mile offshore, right?”. “ Yea, but...” “ yea but what?” she said “ you use that combo 50 or more days a year out there, in the Ocean. Just get it. I don’t want any calls from the coast guard!” She made sense. But I resisted.

After a few phone calls to my “local” shop in Wisconsin, I replaced my board. Just my board. Well, I figured I could re-grip my booms and I still have some X-Ply tape.

Then a few weeks ago my Brother came down from Boston to visit the 9/11 memorial with his family on Patriots Day...

I think I got the message this time. I love the way my new boom feel in my hands. I just used it, and my new 6.3, in side off overhead waves.

So how am I feeling? About 60%. 

But maybe this is my new 100%. And I did get to sail overhead, down the line conditions. Who knows if I’ll ever get to do that again?