Dear gang,
just an update on my Triton adventure.
It is preaching to the choir here, I know, but it’s getting so fun I can’t restrain myself from writing it down
After two painfully flat and unwindy months (ouch), yesterday I finally had the chance to ride it in very big (for our local/my standars) waves.
We had “fully developed” couple of meters waves, that is, they would get vertical and then break, which is unusual here, as they can get taller then that but then they lose height before collapsing, so we tend to ride steep “hills” rather than wave faces.
Well, yesterday we had actual walls, scary ones
I can only say: my first drop off the face of a large wave had me yell like kids on a out of control merry go round!
I was as scared as when I first approached waves in my foiling adventure, and I was exhilarated, giggling like a lunatic all the time, and then silencing only to regain some concentration remembering I could hurt myself!
I would drop off the waves chasing the bottoms left by previous ones, accelerating like crazy (it was frantic, so at times I forgot to remove pull from the kite so focuses I was on not exploding on the T1!!!), and enjoyed every instant of it. Nothing like trying to control the pitch of the T1 in toeside going too fast down from a too-big-for-my-abilities wave!
That was glorius.
I was so scared of coming down waves with it that I almost relegated my other fear – overcoming them! – to the back of my mind.
Until I was faced with the beast with its top leap ready to lash at me
Well: the T1 shocked me again. Simply shifting the weight has it pop upwards like a rocket. Yes, the dreaded pitch instability was finally useful, yay!
I needn’t use any force, I just needed to be quick enough in compensating not to have it jump out of the water, and the T1 would get almost vertical in an instant, and climb.
And then, when finally the time came that one wave was too steep, and I did not have the time to track it on its back downwards and so I breached for an instant, i did not catapult: the T1 exited the surface, felt like it “bounced” flat on the water (no joking) and then ripped through the water again, leaving me in disbelief as I was contemplating a magnificent crash which did not come!
Amazing feelings. Amazing.
The T1 is growing on me so much so that my previous “surf foil” stays home.
It turns so tight that it can bend my knees, or it can glide in large turns and be pleasantly relaxing.
It makes footswitches devastatingly difficult when tired, but it allows to recover almost every mistake once you understand how key the back foot is and learn not the scared of the instability. I do feel like I am trying to balance on a single stilt when I botch the footswitch by I still manage to put the back foot in the proper place, and almost always I can recover the mistake despite the T1 oscillating along all the axes!
It goes fast, it goes so slow it sinks, it rips waves.
Yes: it tomawahks like crazy jumping out of the water looking for your head.
Yes, each and every time I botch a tack my heart rate skyrockets in fear... (but then I am forced to improve).
But... Wow.
Yes, I have preached to the choir here.
Some people do ridiculous stuff on it, they don't need this comment, and in light of their abilities what I just recounted is nothing but a lower intensity, almost relaxing blip on their usual riding experience map – something which truly fuels my modesty through comparison, by the way.
But… had to write it. The epiphany was real, as was the fun to me!
And also, wished to write it as encouragement too.
I was almost a quitter: after getting the T1 on my head and also on my face, and hurting myself during botched tacks, and fighting (rather than espousing) its instability, I grew tired, weary, scared, and had decided enough was enough.
I think this can happen to users: there’s a lot to re-learn, and punishment can be severe. It’s not really more difficult than a normal foil, just different enough that without an understanding of what goes on, it will be a painful ride for very little additional fun.
Once I understood that it may
look like a foil, and it may behave (partially) like one, but it is special, and calls for special riding, the T1 stopped tormenting me, and became the greatest fun I get on the water!
So: for prospective buyers, I'd wish to say get ready for the adventure, yes also the possibility of some harsh re-learning, but be confident: it is
absolutely worth it.
For prospective quitters, like I was: if you can ride it, you are
almost there already,
don’t quit. Focus on few fundamentals (i.e. the backfoot is essential, and 95% of the riding in my view), and one day there’ll come a breakthrough, and things will begin to feel natural, you’ll be hooked to it and forget the pain, disappointments, and even rage you might have felt at the beast. I did!
So, prospectives, beginners, experts, you all have fun with the Beast!