Sunday, June 25, 2017

Windsurfing Sherman Island

It's been a long time since I windsurfed at Sherman Island in Rio Vista, so I was excited to re-discover my old windsurfing spot (when I lived in Sacramento).


The iwindsurf.com predicted 20+ knot winds on Saturday and Sunday, so I tried it out. Lately, I have been chiefly sailing at Coyote Point - since it's the closest location to my work and home.

After playing a tennis practice match from 10:30 - 12:00 at Los Gatos Swim and Racquet Club, I headed directly to Rio Vista (a 90-minute drive). I arrived right around 2:10 pm at Delta Windsurf's shack (to see what's changed), then straight to the Power Lines launching spot.

Many cars were already there, and plenty of windsurfers and kiters were on the water. Some had relatively small sails - 4.5m and even 3.7m. Since the windsurf reported 20 knots, I rigged the Ezzy Elite 5,0m with my Mistral Ecstacy 84-liter board. This was the right call, as I sailed for the next 3 hours, ideally powered up.

I recorded a high-def GoPro video of the sailing here:


I had a fabulous session and enjoyed the Sacramento River's warm (though brackish) water.

On Sunday, I decided to return to Rio Vista for another session. This time, I arrived much earlier (no tennis game) and was on the water by 10:00am. This time, the wind was absolutely howling at 25+ knots. Although I rigged a tiny 4.5m sail, I was getting significantly overpowered.

I recorded another GoPro session of my fantastic windsurfing day, though a smaller sail would have gone better.



I had a fantastic weekend of sailing, and now I am sore. I can't wait to return for more.




Tuesday, June 13, 2017

Review: "Beethoven" at TheatreWorks (Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts)

Today, we saw a TheatreWorks production of Hershey Felder's Beethoven.

The production primarily focuses on reminiscences of a Beethoven acquaintance while playing pieces of some of his most famous compositions, such as Moonlight Sonata, Pathetique, parts from Choral Symphony No. 9, and, of course, Fur Elise. 


We enjoyed the concert, and Hershey Felder beautifully played Beethoven's famous works. However, without any other actors, this is a one-man show; something was missing, perhaps more drama. The play felt like a documentary based on Beethoven's letters - with some anecdotes thrown in.

Sunday, June 11, 2017

Return to Mountain Biking at Quicksilver Almaden County Park

Once the rains in San Jose finally stopped, I returned to mountain biking at Almaden Quicksilver Park and surrounding trails. However, I noticed that my rear tire was constantly losing pressure.



At first, I took my 2011 Specialized FSR Stumpjumper S-Works FSR Carbon to Trail Head Cyclery. The mechanic there redid the rear tire. However, one week later, the rear wheel was flat again. I returned to Trail Head Cyclery two more times, and finally, the air in the rear tire was holding. However, the mechanic there told me my wheels needed to be trued as they did not spin evenly.

I decided to try another shop - Got Bikes - to true my wheels. James Ozaki, the owner of Got Bikes, looked at my bike for about two weeks. When he tried to hit the front wheel, he ran into problems with the nipples breaking off. I realize the bike's 26 wheels needed to be replaced, but these 26 wheels were no longer available. Most mountain bikes have moved on to 29' and 27.5' wheels. Without a successful resolution from James Omazaki, I decided to try another bicycle shop.

I contacted Silva Cycles - a shop famous for wheelwork - and dropped off my bike there with Jerod. After looking at the wheels, Jerod explained that he could build high-quality 26' wheels from scratch and that there were no quality pre-built wheels to buy.

Jerod came up with the following parts list:
rear hub DT Swiss 350 6-Bolt 135mm QR  Silva Cycles 1 $239.00
front hub DT Swiss 350 100mm QR  Silva Cycles 1 $69.00
rims DT Swiss EX471 Silva Cycles 2 $127.90
spokes DT Swiss Competition, Black  Silva Cycles 64 $1.20
valve set orange seal valve set Silva Cycles 1 $15.99
sealant orange seal sealant Silva Cycles 1 $14.99
rim tape DT swiss rim tape Silva Cycles 2 $10.00
front disc rotor Shimano XT RT86  180mm Silva Cycles 1 $59.99
rear disc rotor Shimano XT RT86 160mm Silva Cycles 1 $56.99
chainring Shimano 22t XTR chainring Silva Cycles 1 $24.99

rear derailleur housing and cable Silva Cycles 1 $13.00
labor wheel assembly Silva Cycles 2 $75.00
Although it was costly, I saw no other acceptable solution (other than buying a brand-new mountain bike. Since most other parts on my bike were in excellent working order, I decided to move forward with the wheel build. It took about 3 weeks to build both wheels and install them.

On Saturday, June 11, I rode my Specialized FSR with the new wheels. The bike felt great, and the wheels were very smooth. The disk brakes were also very soft.

I look forward to riding more trails on my fixed-up bike.

The results from my Quicksilver Ride-on Mapmywalk are as follows:


TIME
START9:59 a.m.
ACTIVE1:28:59
TOTAL1:28:59
ELEVATION
GAIN1758 ft
START483 ft
MAX1650 ft

SPEEDCADENCE
AVG 7.5 mph0.0 rpm
MIN--0.0 rpm
MAX23.9 mph0.0 rpm






Map data ©2017 Google
1 km 
0.1 mi
0.5 mi
1 mi
5 mi
10 mi
DISTANCESPEEDELAPSED TIME
1.0 mi4.7 mph00:12:42
2.0 mi9.5 mph00:06:18
3.0 mi8.4 mph00:07:09
4.0 mi7.7 mph00:07:47
5.0 mi11.0 mph00:05:27
6.0 mi6.6 mph00:09:04
7.0 mi4.7 mph00:12:39
8.0 mi5.6 mph00:10:46
9.0 mi13.5 mph00:04:25
10.0 mi7.5 mph00:08:00
11.0 mi16.8 mph00:03:33
11.2 mi11.2 mph00:00:55
MAP OPTIONS
Go Fullscreen
Play
Open
MAPPED 06/10/2017 BY BORIS LITINSKY
00:00:0000:08:2000:16:4000:25:0000:33:2000:41:4000:50:0000:58:2001:06:4001:15:0001:23:200 ft820 ft1,640 ft0 mph0 mph11 mph22 mph

ELEVATION

SPEED