Great sailing Sunday

The wind was out of the SSE and it was mostly cloudy. I arrived at the causeway at noon and there was a lot of sailors on the water. It sounded like the wind was trending upward and people were getting overpowered on their 6.0's, so I rigged a 5.0 on an F2 axxis 258. I pounded my way out to the House of Refuge and sailed for 2 1/2 hours. It seemed like the best water was just north of the spoil island. When you were heading west and crossing the channel the wind was really filled in and the water was real flat as you came into the shallows and it made for some real nice jibes. Dino and Austin headed out as I was coming in and Brandon showed up a short time later. I went out again briefly around 4 and the wind was even stronger.

video from 1/16/10

Alex bustin' some moves

Great weekend for windsurfing

Saturday the wind was steady out of the SE with heavy cloud cover. I rigged a 6.0 on the wave board and was on the water for the afternoon. There was a lot of sailors launching from both islands of the causeway. Art logged 85 miles on the gps with a top speed of 29 plus mph. Late in the afternoon when everyone was packing up James, Dino, Ron and I were racing each other back and forth across the river, it was a hoot.
Sunday the wind was out of the SW and it took a while to build. Once it came up it was a typical west wind with some holes. I rigged a 7.0 on the 118L board and was kind of dissapointed with all the holes. But the wind kept building till I had to rig a 6.0. By this time a lot of windsurfers and some kiteboarders were on the water. The wind was crazy, the gusts would come in like a freight train and I was wishing I had a smaller sail. Then it would go slack and you would do your best to coast to the next windline.

photo album from 1/18/10

2010_01_17

If you can't windsurf, write about it.

Austin's English teacher asked the class to write a poem, so while pondering what to write about he overheard the teacher tell another studend to write about something he loves to do. That's all he needed to hear.

Windy Days
Out on the water is where I love to be,
My board and my sail, it's just me and the sea,
Gliding on the water at a fast moving pace,
It's my dream, like an astronaut's of going to space,
I'm strapped to the board and I'm hooked to the sail,
I am one with my gear, that I hope will not fail,
I catch the strong winds with all of my might,
But I make sure the causeway is still in my sight,
When I'm on dry land and I see the trees blow,
My heart starts a thumping and my blood starts to flow,
So I call up the wind line to see if it's blowing,
And then I call on my dad to see if we are going,
The boards are strapped down and then we load up the gear,
And then there's that sound that’s always good to hear,
The sound of a text from Ron or maybe Dave,
They give us the information that we truly crave,
Dave says it is windy, about fifteen to twenty,
He rigged his 7.5 and said it was plenty,
We check we have everything and hop in the car,
It's not a long wait the causeway isn't that far,
We get to the causeway and see all the smiling faces,
I know I'd rather be here out of any other places,
We take down the boards and unload our things,
But no one knows the happiness that windsurfing truly brings,
I slide the mast in the sail and clamp the boom on,
When I get it all together and you look……
I'll be gone.

video from 1/2/10

Warmer temps are coming

Geez, its been a week since I was out on the water. Last Tuesday the wind was out of the NW with a lot of holes. Art and "Cape Cod" Dave were on the water. I rigged a 6.0 and went out on the 92L Synchro. The wind was backing off and the holes were getting bigger so I grabbed the 118L Techno 2 and headed back out. It was better for a while but the wind continued to back off.
Saturday another front was coming through so I planned on going out on Sunday. Sunday the wind was cranking and the sun was shinning but the temperture hit a high of 45 degrees and I stayed home.
This Saturday is looking to be good with winds out of the SE 20-28 mph with the high in the upper 70's.....count me in.
I edited a video I shot on New Years weekend. The camera was mounted right above the clew of the sail which gives an interesting perspective. I learned about this from reading James Douglasses blog. The video is posted above.

By the numbers

Dick, Art and Dave

I was searching through my photos for a picture of Art and I could only find one of him on dry ground and here's why. For the year of 2009 he windsurfed 250 times and logged a total of 8200 miles.

Photo album 1/2/10

2010_01_02

The New Year starts out with bang!

New Years day I was waiting for that front to pass through so I made it down to the causeway around 3:30, quite a few sailors on the water. I rigged my biggest sail, 7.0 and put on a big fin because the wind hadn't really filled in. I sailed with Dino, Ron and Austin. David was finishing up and there were some freestylers sailing in close to the island and Alex was amongst them. Dino broke his universal and Ron was able to take another one out to him. Which was good because he was almost up to Joes Point. I was having a pretty decent sail, wind was out of the NNW and this long dark line of clouds came over the Jensen causeway, so dark in fact the lights were on. As the clouds got closer I thought the wind might fade out so I was heading back in. Then the wind came in like a freight train, it was a struggle to get back to the island.
Saturday I was on 6.0 and was out for a little over an hour. It was 53 degrees sunny and the wind was still NNW. I finished up around 1:30 when everyone else was just getting started. So I took some pictures