I normally downwind here in boarshorts with a waist bag (money, torx, 300 mil water).
Today I was aiming for a longer downwinder and got the life vest, 2 l of water gopro, phone, and energybars…
After 5 min of downwinding I was having so much trouble with the fatigue on the legs…
What a shocker, even pop up with the heavy life vest, tourniquet, everything was super heavy making me unbalanced for the pop up and hard to foil once up…
I think what is really needed is the lightest shirt, tourniquet, Apple Watch, money and a tool, and maybe a Garmin inreach mini (they are soooo small and light)…
For a long paddle, I just take my cellphone on it’s waterproof case and some cash in there, the Torx tool and the 2L hydration on the same vaikobi vest. I haven’t figured out the best way to pack the torniquete, having a backpack and a vest it’s just too heavy and uncomfortable and also you get so hot on your back.
I don’t do energy bars either, just take the 2L with electrolytes and carbs in the same powder (I buy a product on Amazon called Tri-fuel for ironman runners) clothing’s and additional stuff… Just make sure to land on your destination and someone on land it’s driving your car and can get the location live. I use Garmin Live track which delivers my exact position very accurately thru the phone. I don’t have iphone so no apple watch, I find better this Garmin/phone solution, it tracks better.
What is a long downwind run? For me it’s 20km, water and food are unnecessary. Adding 3-4Kg of wet wing and pack on my back makes a big difference.
If you’re talking about something like this;
There’s no way around a heavy pack. At 9:00 he talks about the contents of his pack.
He must be pretty light using the Code 770R in some conditions I’d need the 1075R.
I generally pack more than necessary for shorter runs so that when i do a longer run it isn’t unsettling. This has worked pretty well. I don’t notice the water+nutrition+safety now, but did notice it the first time.
If there is a good chance you’ll be on the water 2hr+ then water+nutrition is good idea just to keep the energy up.
Remember you’ll do 20km/h pretty effortlessly on foil and 4km/h paddling with high output so think duration and intensity rather than distance.
I vary what I take but with the PFD+water anything else is pretty incidental in additional weight
y’all should probably call me crazy, not sure if this will work for you. I almost never bring water along for short trips, and for trips longer than an hour bring just a little water (not just down-winding, surf-foiling, but long hikes, runs, bike rides). I did a three hour downwinder with a half liter of water and that worked out fine for me. I think people really overdo it with bringing so much water in a backpack.
I have found that if I really work to hydrate in the approximately 24hrs prior (and more importantly the 8 hrs prior), my body doesn’t really need water during the event. And reality is that the human body can’t really absorb water as fast as it can sweat it out anyway. My body performs better if water is already stored throughout rather than repeatedly adding water into my belly that has to be absorbed.
Bringing just a tiny bit of water is wonderful. My mouth gets a little dry after an hour or so, especially with salt-water activities and just a tiny bit of water to swish around in the mouth tastes wonderful and gives a mental boost.
Think like a boxer - those fellows don’t really want anything in the stomach and are exerting maximum effort sometimes for as much as an hour. They are usually hydrating continuously from weigh-in to a bit before the fight.
Do as you wish, but maybe give it a try sometime - you won’t die of thirst on a three hour trip if you get it wrong.
Good information that you may be better off pre-hydrating. Liquids are undoubtedly the heaviest thing you’ll bring along. That’s going to be dependent on your climate I guess and a full wetsuit should reduce evaporation. Yesterday I did a deflate DW and ultimately fell in 5X before getting up. The fully compressed 3.5 in my pack ended up weighing over 10 pounds. (4.4 with pack dry). That’s more than 3/4 gallon of water weight and I couldn’t even drink it:joy:
Most of my runs are in the SF Bay - but I also ride in the Gorge and Maui. Most cases I am doing a car shuttle, and rarely will I do a wing upwind (12 miles up, 4.5 miles back). So what I carry on the water is sometimes for the time spent riding (watch, maybe some water), but equally considers the time to minimize headaches for my fellow riders or shuttler (e.g. flip flops, Torx wrench).
Early on, nice to haves like water or a GoPro just invited more headaches than anything else in terms of managing it all after every fall. Similarly, I used to always ride with a full suit, but these days can ride in just a shorty in the coldest sites as I might do a 15 mile run without a full submersion, and want to stay comfortable and cool.
My base kit is a cell phone, multi-tool, and a GPS watch. Sometimes I bring booties or sandals, and lanyard style sunnies depending on how much glare might come. For any run under 5 miles I skip the water. For runs 5-15 miles I chug water before and bring a capri sun in a fanny pack to give me a boost above the 1 hr mark. I only bring a camel back in a PFD if I expect an epic, or where there are multiple laps. I always bring the VHF if I have to cross a shipping channel, but might not bring it even on a long shore-runner.
For me an epic isn’t as clear as “really big run for my ability” - but just fewer things likely to go right. Shoulder season? Second lap? Wind shifting onshore where lots of quartering is needed? Not enough depth that could have me slogging through mud? I once had a run with a friend where I had forgotten my wetsuit so was in <60F water in board shorts for 10+ miles. The first 8 miles were flawless, but the final 2 miles were in 18" of very cold water, post holing in wet sand up to my knees. All that activity had my legs seizing up pretty quickly … not sure water would have helped, but the dissolved energy mix in that water would have been such a godsend for that final 30 min.
Long story short, if I expect more than 5 miles of suffering, I bring the bladder!
