Looking to those people around the 95kg mark who arent shy about it. What is the smallest board volume you can sucessfully and constantly uphaul?
Not sure what volume my board is but it sinks to about my ankels, its 9'3x23 in old measure. But I can uphaul it!
i'm about 90 kg but my boards are 100L and 99L so I can't uphaul either.
Up hauling is too tiring anyway just learn to waterstart.
I,m just under your weight (just!) and can easily uphaul my 125 Mistral Radar, but struggle with my Carve 99. It's more a snatch and grab and try again with the Carve
Am 93kg. Am able to uphaul and tack my quatro FSW 85L. Uphauling on this board is tiring though, and a balancing act (sinking to knees), but it comes in super handy when I cant water start due to gusty or dying wind or when the water is spooky.
Just purchased a new waveboard at 93L so should be much easier.
Tinho Dornellas of Florida and calema.com writes in his forum that it is somewhat risky to sail a board that you cannot uphaul. If winds die and/or one gets stuck in a wind shadow, then what ??
He is Florida and i am in Montreal. We both have fairly lite and gusty winds.
So far with 97 kilos, I can uphaul an 8.5 on my 124 liter Fanatic Bee LTD.
Anything smaller and i too would sink to the knees !!!
Then again - as said - our bigger winds are in spring n fall. My most used sail is 8.5 and the longboard is probably the most used as well.
Interesting to see heavyweights are using under 100 liter boards !! and uphauling them when needed !!
joewindsurfer.com
I am 82kg and I can up haul my JP 92L with 7.6m sail on...
but only because I have been mastering uphouling in all conditions for many years, waves, storms etc
been retarded a bit in water starting...
Luckily I haven't been forced to use this hated line in last two years as my back will not stand the strain anymore...
I hope to forget both now (uphaul and water starts) since my gybes are getting better all the time.
At 93kg I could just uphaul a 116L board, and my 135L was easy.
I spent an afternoon uphauling a 99L board, but it was a juggling act and once any wind dropped off, I would fall in again.
I'm 100 kegs and can uphaul my 95(sink to my knees)if I need to, but why I would want to is beyond me. If the wind dies to the point where I can't waterstart I won't be sailing any where on my 95 even if I do uphaul. My 112 I can uphaul with the board sinking to my shins and my 120 I barely get my feet wet. Uphauling is way to much effort, if you have not sorted your waterstart spend a day on it and you'll crack it and won't need to worry about it any longer. I don't even have an uphaul rope on my boom for my wave sails as I've never used it, if the wind dies I just wait or start swimming, I've only ever been stuck once with no wind but you'll be in the same position if you break something, so learning to swim home with your kit in an efficient manner is not a bad thing.
Trust me when I say im not a fan of uphauling. No probs with my water starts its just for when the wind drops of a bit, which happens a bit down my end of the bay. Its just more of a safety thing for me as im looking at getting a new board so trying to get an idea of what sizes I should be looking at. At least with this info I now know that I should be looking at 110L-130L.
See if you can try a board first. Board volumes tend to vary a lot from the stated volume, and if you try around the 110L volume it will be marginal.
At 120 to 130L you will be much better off as far as buoyancy goes, which is what you want in light/flukey winds.
So possibly
+30L to be on safer side for beginners/intermediate
+ 20L and you should be able possibly uphaul anything anywhere
+10 L you need some, good skills since you will be sinking at first ( if there is any wind at all you could stil sail )
-O l or less ok you still can uphaul but hardly you can sail if there is not much wind at all (you will sink to your knees or more)
-10 l if you could up haul and sail out then possible the wind is strong to water start anyway ( swim to bank or wait) - I will go on 20kn+ only on such board
110kgs, can easily uphaul a 6.5 on a 135. Have uphauled a 6.5 on my 109lt, but as mentioned above, had to concentrate on technique & was knee-deep before I got the sail up.
if i get stuck out deep, wavesailing and the wind goes i can usually uphaul my wave board, sinks to my harness but gets there
78kg and I'll uphaul my 72.. The trick is to ditch those silly ropes and grab the mast, slice it into the remaining wind like a waterstart, and staying low. A lot of times I crash the rig but I'm still standing on the board. So I uphaul all the time.
