Here goes:
Veteran's Day: Obviously: Thanks to anyone who has ever selflessly served this country!! After thanking our "Silent Heroes," you all must thank Anne and me for sacrificing to the wind gods. We spent the day on Ocracoke being tourists. We brought beach chairs, bicycles, books, and booze. We did not bring windsurfing gear... So of course, the sunny part of the forecast came true, but the windless part did not...
Riding bikes around the village
They have trees in Ocracoke!!
But they don't make such a big deal about the Lighthouse...
Congratulations! You are 88.5 miles away from anything!
The fishing boats were out in force
The beach is firm enough to ride a beach cruiser!Even though we missed a solidly good 5.5 day, we definitely had some fun. It was good to get off hectic Hatteras Island for a day, get a change of pace, yada yada yada... Looking at my logs, that was my first, true, full day off from the shop since September 7th! That's over two months straight! How's that for being a dedicated employee? In any case, I can think of no way better to spend the day than hanging out with my lady.
Wednesday was a bit lighter for wind, but still sailable. I got stuck in the shop, catching up on everything from the day before... And with the super short days this time of year, the sun was pretty much gone by the time I got out of work. Not to worry, though, with the full moon and some parking lot lights, Drew and I snagged a sweet skate sesh. What a great option for these lighter wind or shorter day sessions! Drew learned how to sail clew first, and dialed in his duck jibes and heli-tacks, while I worked out some kinks in the spocks and grubbys.
Speedy gonzales, aka Drew
Full Moon, helping us out in the visibility departmentAnd yesterday, Thursday, was just plain old wicked!! It was pretty stormy all day, with gusty SE winds and rain squalls pushing through. By early afternoon, we couldn't take it anymore and headed to the Cove. Stuart, Keith, Chad, Rick, Mike Burns and his NY crew, and Lane, Jay, and a few others hit it up, despite the inclement "coastal" weather. It was perfect 5.0 with chest to overhead set waves, slightly onshore conditions. It was pretty much impossible to not go huge on the jumps. Almost landed a few back loops... but not quite there yet... I just can't stick the darned landings...
Thursday, November 13th, Frisco Pier Meter (courtesy iWindsurf.com)There was one squall that blew through, that actually had me a bit nervous for a minute. The wind went from 22-27 mph (perfect 5.0), to 27 gusting to 40 mph almost instantly, with basically no warning... Tailwalking, barely under control, I got completely worked by one of the outside bombs. Man, I've never held on to my boom so tightly! No way was I letting go of my kit, way outside, in such a strong squall with building seas (The buoy jumped from 7 feet to 13 feet over the course of a few hours)! Once I surfaced, the gusts were so intense, I could only clear my sail during the lulls, try to waterstart, and basically get immediately ragdolled... Eventually, I scored a lull long enough to get my feet in the straps and the harness on, and then I was finally able to make it back to shore, tailwalking and avoiding waves the whole way in... I was stoked to touch dry land, that's for sure!
After the squall, Stuart and Keith relaunched.
And the sun appeared as the wind crapped out!Overall, it was a killer session in the Cove! Stuart and I were commenting that this Fall has seen quite a few sailable days out in the Cove/Hook area... Pretty unusual, but we're certainly not going to complain about that!
And a final piece of visual entertainment for ya:
I finally got around to editing some footage that Ace took out at the Reef, from about a month ago... There's some slightly bouncy helmet cam footage in there, but I think it came out pretty well overall! Enjoy!
7 comments:
Sick backloop by Stu! Mad props to him! Good to see you guys riding hard and enjoying life!
those reef conditions look pretty sweet. Alot better than our sesh out there back in sept.
did you rent, or bring your own bikes to Ocracoke?
Andy (& Ace), Great video. I've never been to the reef for some odd reason...always plan to but then never do it. I still plan to get out there one of these days. I think you're the only person who has made any video of sailing at the reef (that I know of).
The video made the reef look great. What were the conditions that day in terms of wind strength and direction?
Hey hey,
Dudes, you've GOT to go out there! Super fun (and forgiving) place to sail in "waves." It's kind of like sailing in big lake swell, on-side-on type waves. Good stuff! Just remember to bring friends: at least 3 people to be safe.
That particular day was October 19th. Looking at the iWindsurf graphs, it was due north, at 30-40 mph while we were out there. If there were a touch more west in the wind, the waves would have been much bigger. NW to NNW are ideal for bigger conditions. N to NE work but get progressively lamer...
Stu is definitely ripping these days, Aaron! We were super jacked for power out there, at the limits of control for moves like backloops. No way was I gonna try one, that's for sure! It's tough to tell in the video, but he was only like 10 feet in front of me! Crazy action, right in my face! Awesome stuff!
re: Ocracoke bikes: we brought our own. But mine had a flat so I stole one of Drew's bikes (thanks Drew). There were about a million bikes available for rental down there, though, if you don't have your own.
Very cool Reef video Andy! Really showcases that place in awesome form and highlights the high wind fun factor out there!
The Reef, is that way out in the sound? Like your blog a lot, and the helmet cam really works well.
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