Holy Grail

[decrep]

Well for me anyway.
Wind on glass.
All you hear is the sound of your spray landing on the water behind you.
It's really addictive, and I'm suffering withdrawal symptoms!
Nothing but chop here now.
That weed in the foreground, is the magic stuff, sunlight on it produces some sort of oil that spreads over the lake surface. Trouble is the weed comes and goes, all ours has disappeared. With any luck it will be back next spring.

 

[MG Clive]

Magical.

 

[boyfrom64]

View attachment 44834

Well for me anyway.
Wind on glass.
All you hear is the sound of your spray landing on the water behind you.
It's really addictive, and I'm suffering withdrawal symptoms!
Nothing but chop here now.
That weed in the foreground, is the magic stuff, sunlight on it produces some sort of oil that spreads over the lake surface. Trouble is the weed comes and goes, all ours has disappeared. With any luck it will be back next spring.

I've never tried windsurfing but I can relate to your feelings, in terms of when I am out riding my bike, once I have climbed a hill you get the rush of your achievement and then you also know that you have the joy of going downhill

 

[siteguru]

Holly Grail

Is she a big name in windsurfing?

 

[emmrecs]

Is she a big name in windsurfing?

Big or rather prickly???

 

[Rolfe]

I feel the same up in the hills on a pony.

I suspect the obsession with getting a more powerful e-bike is a way of getting a pony-substitute.

 

[decrep]

I feel the same up in the hills on a pony.

I guess the call of nature affects us in different ways, for some it's the forests, for some it's the mountains, and for some it's water. Or we can have all 3 or more.

 

[T1 Terry]

Holy Grails:
1)Tucked down behind the instruments on a big bore touring bike, long straight road as far as the eye can see, and wide open throttle, had that one a few times

2) on my Norton 750 Commando, scraping the header pipes either side through windy mountain roads as they cut through the valleys ..... had that one every day going to work up Macquire Pass from Wollongong to Mossvale going to work at a milk factory, 5 days a week for 3 mths I think

3) In a 10ft 6" hydroplane bath tube derby sized boat, 20hp Mercury outboard stripped to the absolute bare minimum to reduce weight, double cupped bronze prop and revving to the absolute max the poor 2 stoke could scream to, skimming across a glass flat lake with nothing but the cav plate on the outboard in the water and the last 1" or so of the twin hulls just skipping on the water every so often ...... only achieved that one once, but the feeling will be with me forever

T1 Terry

 

[Archev]

Holy Grails:
1)Tucked down behind the instruments on a big bore touring bike, long straight road as far as the eye can see, and wide open throttle, had that one a few times

2) on my Norton 750 Commando, scraping the header pipes either side through windy mountain roads as they cut through the valleys ..... had that one every day going to work up Macquire Pass from Wollongong to Mossvale going to work at a milk factory, 5 days a week for 3 mths I think

3) In a 10ft 6" hydroplane bath tube derby sized boat, 20hp Mercury outboard stripped to the absolute bare minimum to reduce weight, double cupped bronze prop and revving to the absolute max the poor 2 stoke could scream to, skimming across a glass flat lake with nothing but the cav plate on the outboard in the water and the last 1" or so of the twin hulls just skipping on the water every so often ...... only achieved that one once, but the feeling will be with me forever

T1 Terry

Ahh the Norton - brought a whole new perspective on the saying “going commando”

 

[decrep]

Holy Grails:
skimming across a glass flat lake with nothing but the cav plate on the outboard in the water and the last 1" or so of the twin hulls just skipping on the water every so often ...... only achieved that one once, but the feeling will be with me forever

T1 Terry

Very similar to mine, but I don't have the noise.
I once did a 30kt nautical mile on glass like the pic. That run will stay with me forever.

 

[T1 Terry]

Very similar to mine, but I don't have the noise.
I once did a 30kt nautical mile on glass like the pic. That run will stay with me forever.

That is great going while standing on a board holding onto the sail like grim death, for a whole nautical miles.
I think I travelled maybe 3kms, from one side of a bay to the other on Lake Conjola on the NSW South Coast, far too commercialised now to get away with it

T1 Terry

 

[MG Clive]

Holy Grails:

2) on my Norton 750 Commando

This one takes me back, I have an old photograph somewhere of my dad sat on his Commando, with me stood beside him when I was about 7 or 8 years old.

 

[T1 Terry]

This one takes me back, I have an old photograph somewhere of my dad sat on his Commando, with me stood beside him when I was about 7 or 8 years old.

I think you should have put this in the "Things that make you feel old" thread, I was 18 when I bought my first one Wish I'd never parted with that one of the one after it, nothing like it on the market these days, probably never will be again either ......

T1 Terry

 

[Archev]

I think you should have put this in the "Things that make you feel old" thread, I was 18 when I bought my first one Wish I'd never parted with that one of the one after it, nothing like it on the market these days, probably never will be again either ......

T1 Terry

Aye they were almost as good as my BSA

 

[Ian Key]

My mate had a Commando and rode it to Africa and back in the 80s. He now has a 998cc 1957 Vincent Rapide

 

[decrep]

That is great going while standing on a board holding onto the sail like grim death, for a whole nautical miles.

T1 Terry

Nah, virtually effortless, harness takes all the weight, very little drag from board or sail, just relax and enjoy. It starts getting hairy once chop happens.
Not all that far from you Terry, Lake George at Beachport.
Looks like I only just made the NM.

 

[T1 Terry]

Nah, virtually effortless, harness takes all the weight, very little drag from board or sail, just relax and enjoy. It starts getting hairy once chop happens.
Not all that far from you Terry, Lake George at Beachport.
Looks like I only just made the NM.
View attachment 44875

I've been to Lake Alexandrina and camped at the Nurrang Ferry campground, it was so windy it blew the spots of a Dalmatian, if you could have hung on across the lake then, you would have seen some big speeds ..... much like the little racing hydroplane, when you come off at those speeds, it hurts ....

If the hydroplane got a rocking action going, you had a split second to shut it down before it made a 90* turn, one way or the other, I'd skip across the water like I'd been catapulted, until the water went under the helmet and the lifejacket, it was near an instant stop because they both acted like a parachute, the safety clip would shut the motor down and you had to swim back to the boat and try to get back in .... very sedately head back to shore and someone else had a turn while you recovered Oh to be young and have that recovery rate these days

T1 Terry

 

[boyfrom64]

Holy Grails:
1)Tucked down behind the instruments on a big bore touring bike, long straight road as far as the eye can see, and wide open throttle, had that one a few times

2) on my Norton 750 Commando, scraping the header pipes either side through windy mountain roads as they cut through the valleys ..... had that one every day going to work up Macquire Pass from Wollongong to Mossvale going to work at a milk factory, 5 days a week for 3 mths I think

3) In a 10ft 6" hydroplane bath tube derby sized boat, 20hp Mercury outboard stripped to the absolute bare minimum to reduce weight, double cupped bronze prop and revving to the absolute max the poor 2 stoke could scream to, skimming across a glass flat lake with nothing but the cav plate on the outboard in the water and the last 1" or so of the twin hulls just skipping on the water every so often ...... only achieved that one once, but the feeling will be with me forever

T1 Terry

My daughter works for Norton, well the new Norton business, which is developing a whole new range of bikes.
Up to last year, you could still buy a Commando in the UK, but they have all gone now.