2011 by the numbers- a windsurfing junkies recap of useless data

By Steve Bodner, USA-4
www.stevebodner.blogspot.com

I’ve had better years with close to 200 days on the water but this year was good in all respects.
84 formula and 47 slalom session this season at 4 locations using 7 sails & 4 boards at 14 regattas.

I recorded all my windsurfing sessions this season via twitter @usa4 and then at the end of the season organized all the data via daytum
In some respects, it’s a lot of useless data, but depending on how you look at it, interesting patterns seem to emerge.

Out of 131 total sessions, I sailed formula 84 times and slalom 47 times despite spending even more money on slalom equipment than formula gear.

The best value seems to be with Formula with 64% of my total sessions. Granted, I try to sail year round but looking at the numbers a bit closer you can see Spring and Summer being the months with the most number of sessions recorded.

April & May had the most sessions with 38 for 2 months- averaging a session every 1.5 days.
In contrast, when looking at the 1st 2 months and last 2 months of the year- I only got 19 days out of a possible 120- averaging 1 session every 6.3 days. Bummer man!

When I break down the sail usage, I see I use my 9.5 in almost 38% off all sessions and giving the best value per $ spent.

Throughout the season, I used a total of 7 sails and 4 boards.
While I didn’t track what slalom board I was riding each slalom session, I  rode 5 boards in total this season:
ML10 Formula- 82 out of a possible 84 formula sessions or 97% of all formula sessions;
JP 101 slalom; ML slalom; & ML freeride.

Racing took up only 18% of the total time I spend sailing this season with 24 total days spend on the water with 3 or more races per day.

All in all, I competed in 14 regattas this year in 3 different locations- keeping traveling to minimum and racing 64% of all my races at the St. Francis Yacht Club. My performance peaked early in the season, party due keeping fit in the off seaon but almost came to abrupt stall after a period of racing 2 intense back to back regattas mid season. Note to self- pace yourself next season!

Despite seeming like its been an awfully windless fall,  there were 4 periods of time where there were 10 or more days between sessions with the longest being between 8/31 to 9/18 with 17 consecutive days off the water.

It’s It’s not how much data you have, but what you do with the data!

Until next season….
Steve Bodner
USA 4
www.stevebodner.blogspot.com