We were unexpectedly taken to task for something we wrote in our last post. It's not that we've never typed something we thought might land wide of the mark. But, we've always considered our posts much like singing in the shower when we are home alone. We sing loudly in an uncertain key, without regret and take our bows to the cheers and applause from our imaginary audience. But, then one day, Simon Cowell pulls the curtain back and says, "that was dreadful."

At that point, why our mind isn't on how Simon Cowell got in our bath but whether Randy Jackson will offer praise, we don't know. Nonetheless, the resulting discussion concluded with our admission that much of what appears on this website is sportist - a most pernicious sort of prejudice. Windsurfing receives preferential treatment vs. other sports such as dressage, curling, and buzkashi. Much to our chagrin, at least two of these sports will appear in future Olympics while windsurfing has been unceremoniously booted. But, if you haven't already, there's still time to Sign the petition to reverse that decision.

We'd also lack to expand upon another topic in our last post: squirrels windsurfing. We had mentioned that squirrels may well be the next exciting demographic in our sport. Well, things have progressed further than we thought. England, home of the Men's RS:X Silver Medal is at the forefront. Squirrel Sports is offering a complete Imperial College "Squirrel" windsurfing training kit which includes track suit, hoodie and more. Here, in the US, windsurfing barely budges the "whatever" meter. In England, they have squirrels on college windsurfing teams.

However, it seems that some squirrels love a windsurfer the same way a cannibal loves you. Apparently, someone found out that leaving one in the same garage as a Kona was a bad idea. The squirrel, like a member of the Donner Party, began dining on it.

In light of this new information, we would advise care and caution in any sketchy area inhabited by squirrels. Don't leave your boards (or sails, I've seen a luff sleeve similarly damaged) unattended. Try to rig in public places either in daylight or well-lit parking lots. Avoid shady spots especially close to large oak trees. If you see a squirrel munching on your deck pads, avoid confronting him as he may be rabid as well as hungry. Instead, dial 911 and ask for animal control as well as Homeland Security.

These guys are not hamsters. They do not drive a Kia.

Through surreptitious means, we were able to obtain some GPS data from a local windsurfer's session last spring. In the terms of technologically idiotic CSI, we created GUI interface using visual basic to track where he sailed in that session. Don't worry if you don't understand what that means as the writers of CSI didn't either. Anyways... we uploaded the data into some crackerjack program we designed specifically for this sort thing. We plotted, analyzed and replotted the data on a google map of Lake Lanier, specifically the area between Van Pugh Park and Aqualand Marina.

Going to Aqualand. Nope, back to Van Pugh. Aqualand. Van Pugh. Aqua... Bozo Island.

Through careful study of the GPS track we were able to surmise that:
- The wind was from the west that day
- The windsurfer launched from Van Pugh Park
- He (women are too smart) then sailed some 88 times across almost the identical section of the lake
- At some point, he drifted downwind to Bozo Island
- He walked/swam (based on speed readings) from Bozo Island back to the Van Pugh parking area

We showed this data to a squirrel we know from another windsurfing blog who simply took one look at the data and said,"What the$#!*? Is he going to cross the lake or not? Sheesh."

- Wanting to learn more why this summer has had a lot of good sea breezes, Da News Blog interviews a couple of really smart guys about it.

- Dimitris Savidis, our Greek correspondent, writes about spending some summer vacation in Paros and his new Thommen T1 RS59. He spent a lot of time totally lit. " The wind was 33-38 knots and Vag was already using a 4.2 sail." That sort of thing.

I noticed that he was wearing a long suit, even though the water is pretty warm and air toasty this time of year. He replied: