Equipment failures

Today's the first time I spent so many hours at ECP after getting back from HK a few months back. 

I was the first person to head out to sea (that's a first), and I did so much (more) surfing than I usually do (really proud of myself for that), but it didn't quite turn out to be my day. Last week's and today's surfing made me realize that I'm quite the magnet for equipment failures.

1st instance: 

picture from here

This is what we would usually call a universal joint (or u-joint in short) in windsurfing, it's used to join the mast (sail) to the board so that the two parts are linked together and therefore can work to allow windsurfing to take place. The middle part with the little black rubber band around it is known as the tendon and it is made of rubber to allow flexing of the u-joint when we manoeuvre by moving the mast around while on the board.

To cut a long story short, the tendon of my u-joint snapped into 2 last Sunday (due to wear and tear over a very long period) while I was somewhere out at sea and not very near to the shore. My sail couldn't be up-hauled any longer since it's no longer linked to the board and all I could do was sit on my board trying to get help from the power boats around as I drifted further and further away from PA (one of the NSC boatmen walkied Zai and he came to my rescue not long after).

Pathetic!

2nd instance:

This happened today and it had something to do with the u-joint again; it wasn't tightened tightly enough as I rigged up my board and sail, and the whole freaking u-joint got disconnected from my board (well, NTU's actually). At a distance of 400-500 metres away from shore with legs suspending in goodness-knows-how-deep water, I panicked like a mad-dog due to fear of losing the mast and sail altogether (it will sink if I did not hold onto it). I waved frantically to other passing windsurfers on my board for help and *I-must-have-done-something-right-in-my-previous-life* because this kind uncle spotted me, made a detour and came to help me put things back. 

My gratitude to him cannot be expressed in words, I can only wish he'd felt it.

Cursed myself for not checking my equipment more thoroughly before heading out to sea, especially after last week's incident of equipment failure.

3rd instance:

It also happened today and this really takes the cake.

After a really great run (i.e. down-wind sailing), I tried to make my way back up-wind and back to shore. One slip and I ended up losing my footing; I lost control of the sail and was overpowered terribly. In the next few seconds, I got flung to the front (with my harness still hooked on), and heard a loud "crack" when my boom-head landed on the tip of the board. My body-weight (stupid harness, stupid me!) was really what broke the board.

If this did not happen today, I wouldn't have even considered the possibility that windsurf boards are destructible.

I made a desperate (pathetic even; I wasn't thinking straight at this point in time) attempt to get back on shore with the tip of the board flapping against the waters; I don't know if it was merely a psychological effect but the board became super wobbly without its front part. Landed in the following bay and did a walk of shame back to PA with the broken board resting on my head (this really nice guy brought my sail back for me); I combed the bay but the front part couldn't be found.

board that is now at Uncle Richard's workshop

The guys couldn't contain their laughter when they saw me with the board and they went "Wah! You kena shark-attack ah!" and "It's time to lose weight!" It would seriously have been funnier if I was not the butt of their jokes argh. They said all sorts of things but the shark-attack thing resonated best with most of them basically - Chubby said that was the 3rd time he's ever seen a board break throughout his windsurfing years; the nice guy who brought my sail back for me tried to make me feel better about it by saying it's happened twice to his board too, one uncle suggested bringing home the different parts (e.g. foot-straps, fin, etc) of the board as souvenir and someone else said "thanks to you, now I know what the inside of a windsurf board looks like".

I wanted to dig a hole in the ground and die. 

Okay just kidding.

But seriously, why the fuck do I keep fucking up? 

I don't want to admit it but if (someone puts a gun to my head and) I really have to answer that question, the problem obviously lies with me since I did not do thorough equipment checks prior to heading out to sea. I'm starting to detest myself for that and I suppose the best thing I can do next is to make sure everything's working fine before jumping into the waters so excitedly. 

Murphy was right - anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. Took me such a long time to figure this out. Noob!

Anyway, dinner with the long-boarders at Bedok Point tonight and bubble-tea after. It was all good and I came back home to this:

Honghong-cuddling! I love Mumsy!

I'm badly burnt from today's surfing and I sense a headache coming up really soon from last night's lack of sleep (had the awesomest impromptu bbq and mahjong session with ktowy at ZL's place). 

Time to hit the sack.