ABK at the Hole, Survival Sesh at the Lighthouse!

More great days here on Hatteras....

Monday was insane-o windy! And you know you're getting spoiled when 60 degrees feels cold... It was certainly a stormy day, with periods of heavy downpours, but the winds were cranking, so I don't think anyone really cared. You're getting wet anyway, right? I took an extended lunch break and caught a pretty sweet freestyle sesh at the Canadian Hole with a bunch of people out, including ABK Boardsports staff members Brendan, Tom, and Andy Brandt! It's fun sailing with people who actually know what they're doing! I'm gonna have to schedule a clinic one of these days, so that Andy can straighten up my Grubbys... Check out the vid to catch some of the action:

ABK at the Canadian Hole from Andy McKinney on Vimeo.

After work, I decided to run down to the Lighthouse to grab an ocean session. Stuart, Bill, Keith, Olaf, and Graham Ezzy had sailed there earlier and said it was pretty fun (read Bill's report here). So I pulled into the Lot and there was no-one there anymore. Solo sesh... I knew it was pretty windy so rigged up my 4.2 and put on my nasty, wet, cold wetsuit (hardest part of the whole sport). First tack out I made it through the impact zone, no problem. The waves on the inner bar didn't seem all that meaty, probably about head high. As I got away from shore, I could feel some insane power in my sail, so I was kind of on damage control, just trying to keep everything in one piece. Approaching the outer bar, I could see that things were a little different out there... Monster rolling swell was starting to jack up and break out in the middle of the ocean... I decided to jibe on the first one, just to keep it close to shore in case anything were to happen. This did not seem like the type of day to go whale watching, if you catch my drift...

So I'm halfway through my jibe, surfing down the face of this outer bar wave, completely in the lee. I go to jibe the sail, drop my back hand, and the sail just goes nuts on me as a gust comes ripping over and down the wave that I'm coasting along on. It's completely flagged out and the thing is violently shaking the way my old rusted out Toyota used to do when I would push it up to 70 mph!! Everything solidified as soon as I sheeted in on the opposite tack... I picked up one of the nuggets that sucks up right off the jetty and got one good bottom and top turn, and headed right back to the beach.

After a few seconds of a breather, I tried my luck again and had a pretty similar experience, so I decided to call it a day, happily, as everything (gear and body) was still in one piece! I know for a fact that I was in survival mode out there, as evidenced by my hair, which stayed completely dry. It was a "No-Fall-Zone" kind of day out there... Check out the Avon Pier iWindsurf graph- I was out from about 5:30-6 PM...

iWindsurf.com Avon Pier, Monday May 11th

Yikes! I love this place. : )