Oh yes, a female MacGyver does FreeWing and that’s a good thing! Do you remember watching the MacGyver series in the mid 1980″s? MacGyver was shown to possess a genius-level intellect, proficiency in multiple languages, superb engineering skills, excellent knowledge of applied physics, military training in bomb disposal techniques, and a preference for non-lethal resolutions to conflicts. But this past Sunday, I was the MacGyver and it’s a dran good thing that I was or I would Have missed my last opportunity to zoom around Elk Lake with my Starboard AIR FreeWing V2.
Here’s the situation. In a few days I will be getting a knee replacement. My 74 year old left knee is toast. In order to keep playing hard on and off the water it needs to be replaced! I looked at the Wind App and realized that the only day between Sunday and my surgery that there would be any substantial wind at a local lake was – SUNDAY at Elk Lake.
I packed my gear and headed on up there with a picnic lunch, a sweet beach chair and lots of excitement. A “last day” for anything holds much expectation. Once I got my new knee and rehabbed, it would be winter here in Oregon. So this special day was IT! And beautiful Elk Lake did not disappoint!
By 2:00 the wind had filled in as perfectly as possible, so I got ready to inflate my 5M FreeWing AIR v2. That is when I noticed that the nozzle that I needed for inflation had fallen off (again) from the wing pump. I was left with a notched nozzle that does not fit into the inflation part of the wing. I am now at a sparsely populated beach an hour from my home with no way to inflate my wing.
Telling myself to THINK – I looked around at what I had. And then I saw it. The best waterproof sunscreen EVER comes in a cardboard (not plastic) tube. My AVASOL sunscreen tube fit perfectly over the female inflation part of the wing. The pump’s hose now needed a 1/2″ nozzle to insert for inflation. There was none.
The valve and nozzle I needed is shown above the pump hose I had at the lake. My “MacGyvered” solution is the AVASOL cardboard tube duct-taped to the pump hose. And blissfully the setup worked well enough to fill my wing. Not to ideal inflation, but enough for a couple of great hours zooming around on the lake!
You know, when summer is ending and surgery is looming and you are looking at your 75th birthday, it’s time to grab all the gusto and make the best of every day on the water.
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Even though Avasol has been my face sunscreen of choice since Zane Schweitzer introduced me to it half a decade ago, I am an even greater fan now! The environmentally friendly cardboard tube saved an amazing winging day!
Elder SUP 