​The previous day was a real eye-opener into how difficult the transition to a sinker really was, so I made sure to scour the internet for any guides which could help me in my waterstarting quest.
I found that there were a lot of guides for very low volume sinkers, but a real lack of content for the more marginal sinkers, so my research was a little underwhelming; still I'd done everything I could and was keen to try again.
The forecast was a little stronger today; gusty as usual on the lake, but a bit more wind to make it a little easier.

My initial attempts were trying to duplicate what i'd seen on the internet, and had little success; I tried mounting the board from the rear, which was easy and stable, but making progress from there took me back to square one.
After several attempts of trying different things, I returned to what I had success with previously.
The technique was basically having the board and wing downwind of me, reaching over the board to the wing carry handle and then to the nearest strut handle under the water, and using this to pull me onto the board in a sideways kneeling position.
From here I progressed to move my both hands onto the strut handles, pulling them down into the water to give stability. From here, with a bit of luck and and balance I could pull the wing out of the waterand get it airborne, and once the board started moving stability was resumed.

The knees positioned sideways didnt work well once the was moving so I progressively rotated them to face along the length of the board, from here with power in the wing, standing up on the board and foiling was trivial.
The big difference from the previous day, was once I was up I stayed there, performing several runs across the wind with gybes in between before it was bathtime again.
My longer runs on the board meant I didnt get to practice waterstarting as much, but I felt I was progressing a little with every try.

After a few more attempts, with some of my attempts seeming easier than others I wondered if there was a simpler solution again, after a bit of experimentation, I altered my technique, so that instead of reaching over the board and pulling the wing into the water; I lifted the wing up with the front hand to get wind under it and pulling it down into the water with the rear for stability.
This stability allowed me to get my knees onto the board, but this time the wing was already half-flying, and all that was needed to get it fully airborne was to raise the front hand and to balance the board with my knees.
This technique proved to be super effective; with a reasonable with i could be on the board anf flying in less than a minute (if all went well).
This meant I comfortably ride the 65L provided the wind was reasonable and was a real breakthrough; I spent the rest of the day foiling and practicing my new waterstart technique.

I'll hopefully put together a video brining detail on how to do this, as its a method I've not seen described before :)

I felt it was time to try and take my winging up a level, to drop down to a lower volume board and got hold of a lovely 5'4" AK Phazer at 65 Litres.
My previous board was 110L so would comfortably float at all times, so a drop of 45 litres was pretty sizeable.
I had casually watched a few guides on waterstarting sinkers, but failed to really understand how significant a leap it was before hitting the water.
I weigh a little over 80Kg, so there is probably a 20-25L bouyancy defecit once the weight of the board, wetsuit and accessories are included.

I was super keen to try my new board out, so aimed for flatwater at a local lake, at the expense of pretty gusty winds.
Wind was probably varying between 5 and 15 knots, so opted for my Shinn 6m wing, and 2000 AK surf foil.

When I first took to the water, I made the rookie mistake of not going deep enough, as the wind was onshore; after going out a little deeper I started trying to waterstart in earnest.
I tried a load of things, but actually balancing on the board was incredibly difficult - it would tip one way, and I counter that, but this would result in it going further the other, and before long I was deposited into the drink.
I tried this and variations over and over but couldnt get stable in any way. I then started to make use of the wing to aid stability, and pushing it down into the water was a real help. 
I was also struggling a fair bit due to my front strap being precisely where I wanted to put my front knee; so I had to put it further forward than I would have liked.
Pushing the wing down allowed me to get to a stable position, but the next phase totally undid that - trying to pick the wing up lost my stability immediately and it was bathtime over and over again.

My next strategy was to try to pull the wing down into the water from underneath; and this actually showed real promise - I could gain the stability of pushing teh wing down, but my hands were also in a much better place to pick the wing up afterwards.
Its fair to say it was still a real struggle to get balance on the board, and I was becoming tired pretty quickly, but from having both hands on the handles under the wing, pulling it down gave me the stability to allow me to move my rear hand to a further handle, and then to attempt to get the wing airborne.
AFter a couple of failed attempts, I finally managed to get the board moving and to reach some stability on my knees; at this point the rest was easy, just raise to my feet and pump onto the foil - which was a piece of cake from here, as its something I'd done many times before.
Once up and foiling everything became easy again; it was great to be cranking along on a small board which has a surprising difference to the overall feel. When it came time to gybe, unfortunately I fluffed it, which meant starting the whole process again. 
The wind had really dropped too and I could hardly get the wing out of the water, I had to concede that the marginal gusty conditions were far from ideal for trying this, so I swapped back to the 110L and had some fun for an hour or so, before I had to leave the water.