Arnold inspired me to customize his cockpit better. And so I did. I used foam to make the backrest more fluent without the rim pressing my tail-bone anymore. And for my knees I made some foamblocks as kneegrips and attached them with doublesided tape.
Today, the 29th of march, I had to choose between Hans' coldwater-workshop and playing in surf with Chris and Anoushka from the club. As it was rather late yesterday-evening and because Arnold did not go for the workshop, I chose for surfing. Anyway I did not subscribe for the workshop last monday.
The sea was perfect for paddling the Silhouette and to experience if the customizing makes a difference. And yes, it does!
At first we paddled north for 45minutes between two sandbanks.This was due to the angling competition on the beach which was planned to end at 12.00h. So we kept outside of their lines and ugly hooks.
At out left side, on the outerbank, there were towering, intimidating waves up to 2 meters and to our rigth the surging of steep breaking waves. As the tide was going down the waves were hungry, steep beasts looking for a lonely paddler to eat.
Between the banks the waves were rather irregular and I noticed that the Silhouette was more manouevrable thanks to the kneegrips.
I think it makes a difference what the size of your upperlegs is. As mine are not too thick I need kneegrips to prevent my knees to slip away at the moment you need grip.
The waves between the two banks were also handy for learning to trust the secundairy stability as back-up for the low initial stability. After a while this worked out very well: just relax and grip the kneegrips only when needed. Still the Silhouette is not a very stable platform. But I guess she was not ment to be so by her designer ;-)
When the anglers were gone we started surfing. Because of the speed of the Silhouette I could easily pickup a wave before it starts cresting. I had some very nice rides and managed even to carve them in a semicircle.
The low primary stability made it sometimes necessary to make a very quick low brace in the soup after passing a steep, cresting wave.
When the waves were so steep that I ended up in a bongoslide, it was pleasing that the Silhouette is so easily edged into the waves with a high brace. The new kneebraces were also helpfull there.
The backrest was also much better and did not hurt anymore. The only issue was a numb feeling near my tail-bone. It's just that the shape of the backrest and foam must fit exactly against your back. When sitting with my back a bit rounded the backrest fits much better. But that's not the way I paddle. This indicates however that more improvement is still possible.