Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Downwindas/Surfrider's Stance

Sorry to leave ya hangin' there for a few days, folks. We've had some great surf, and wind to boot for the last 3 or 4 days now. Gotta love it, just wish that warm water would push itself in already!! Not that 50 degrees is all that bad, just gotta put on the boots and hood, that's all.

Sea Surface temperature, courtesy of the marine.rutgers.edu website. That 70 degree water is SO CLOSE!!

Stuart, Brian and I took a nice long downwinder yesterday, from Askin's Creek to the Lighthouse (about 4 miles). The buoy was reading 7 ft at 12 seconds which produced the occasional logo high set, but it was mostly about head high, and kind junky but fun in the sideshore wind. The wind actually backed off quite a bit while we were out there, to the point where Stuart and I were schlogging probably 60% of the time. But every now and then a puff would roll through, and set you up for some awesome action!

My only moment of glory was caught on one of those puffs, where I was barely able to eak onto a plane. I was headed out, while there was a big set looming and Brian was coming in on the biggest one. There was definitely the moment of decision: To Chicken Jibe, or Charge? Well, you know me, of course I decided to charge it. Pumping my butt off, I was able to pick up speed as this logo high wall was starting to pitch in front of me. Brian let out a hoot as I whizzed past him about 10 feet upwind. Man, did I launch into a huge backloop! There's nothing quite like hitting a 10 or 12 foot vertical face going just as fast as you possibly can!! I swear, I ended up flying higher than Brian's kite! Hahaha! Of course, I botched the landing, but it was still plenty of fun...

So again, I got to test the range of today's gear... 4.5 and 85 liter board in 15mph gusting to 25, average 20. Planing at least 60% of the time, maybe more. Could I have used my 5.7? Yeah. Could I have used my 5.0? Yeah. Could I have used a 3.7? Probably not planing, but yeah. Get the point, folks? Don't stress the choice of sails so hard!! Just pick one and go, for crying out loud!

It's windy again today... Stuart and I have plans to try and snap off some photos for y'all, I know I've been slacking on 'em... Oh, and check out this Sunday's forecast!! Could be time to load up the car and take that first road trip of the Spring, folks!

Also- Surfrider Foundation has composed a pretty reasonable petition concerning Off Road Vehicle access on Cape Hatteras. Read their overview here (and check out that picture of the Cove GOING OFF!!). If you agree with their stance, sign the petition here.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Have you ever done an SUP downwinder at Hatteras?

Andy said...

Yes! Super fun! Last spring, it had been SO freaking windy for SO long... We got a few days of 8 gusting to 30 or so... and had no interest in dealing with the gustiness after sailing so much... so we ditched the windsurf gear and grabbed SUPs. We paddled our first downwinders in the sound. It was super fun and super easy.

Then we moved over to the ocean side, where we paddled a few hundred yards out into the middle of the ocean with these monster open water swells rolling by. Paddled I think about 3 miles downwind? Anyway, it was super fun, challenging, and a great learning experience to be out in the ocean in big conditions like that.


HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!!!

Keith said...

hey andy.. can you psot the link to the water temp data page that you got the image from? thanks, K

Andy said...

Here ya go Keith:

http://marine.rutgers.edu/mrs/sat_data/?nothumbs=0&product=sst&region=capehat

This is also a link in the right hand column, near the top of the blog, entitled "sea surface temperatures." The only bummer is that clouds mess up the pictures, so you only get a clear shot on sunny days...

George Markopoulos said...

Just reading your description of hitting that pitching face gets my heart pumping!!