Saturday, November 22, 2008

Chilly Wave Sailing...

A bit of a chill has set over Hatteras Island the last few days! Not to worry though, it looks like mid 60s again by Monday afternoon... A little cold snap has never kept me from having fun, though, so it's been a heck of a few days!! Thursday was decision day, the question being between windsurfing perfect 5.7 slick conditions, or surfing super clean head high groundswell... Considering how much windsurfing we've been doing, the surf conditions won the battle for my limited amount of free time... Man, it felt good to paddle around for a bit! There's nothing quite like laying into a bottom turn in silky smooth water! Sorry, no pictures, but it was very pretty out there!

The wind kicked back in, NW all day Friday and this morning. I broke out the thick suit and DaKine mittens again to fend off the chill. Oh, and the portable hot tub, too : ) The puddles were frozen this morning, and the thermometers were reading 33 Fahrenheit... Perfect windsurfing weather! Anne came out to Ramp 34 with me, mostly I think to make sure I didn't kill myself... She's the voice of reason balancing out my inner windsurfing demon : )

It ended up being a killer session (but short, about 30 minutes before the wind backed off). The waves were perfect, peeling left at waist to shoulder high, and super easy to read. If we had conditions like this during Wavefest, but 30 degrees warmer, everyone would have gone pro by the end of the festival! Every pass offered up a great ramp on the way out, and a 3 to 4 bottom turn wave on the way in. I got in one of my best port tack forwards yet, virtually planed out of the thing with a totally dry landing! The very next run out, a perfect backloop ramp popped up in front of me, and I took it for all it was worth! Before I left the house this morning, I was looking at Jonas Cebalos' page. He just posted up a huge backloop sequence, where he apexes, and then floats down and at the very last second completes the rotation and noses in. Lately, I've been trying to rotate at the apex, and usually over-rotate on the way down, so this morning I tried to change it up a bit, Jonas Style! What a difference! I nosed in and landed standing, but couldn't hold onto the boom with my cold hands! Stoked on the progress!

Anyway, Anne snapped off a few pictures before her fingers got too cold to hold the camera! Thanks for keeping an eye on me!!

She thought my pre-game get up was humourous, mainly the socks...

Powered up right off the beach

Long shoulder high waves... FUN!

Well, if you've read this far, you deserve to know that we're jumpstarting the Black Friday Thanksgiving Sale at Sailworld! Killer prices are available on anything left in the shop, starting today! Availability is very limited, so if you're looking for anything, give us a call or swing on by! Actually, the Thanksgiving week forecast looks incredible right now, with 20+ knot winds every day starting Monday, and ending... well, never... So jump in the car and come on down!! : )

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

get it, ride it, Love it.
good one Andy
12kite.com

Catapulting Aaron said...

Has it unshrunk yet?

Anonymous said...

I love being one of the few that can enjoy a cold (and private)beach. And paying your dues makes those warm shorts-only sessions all the more magical.

I'll be there Wednesday afternoon through the weekend. NOAA doesn't look too good so I hope your weather source is right!

Ken K