Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Cold Snap!

Sheeesh, you know you're getting spoiled when 55 degrees feels absolutely frigid! All of the Canadians have been walking around in shorts and T-Shirts, meanwhile I busted out my big puffy down jacket last night! Anyway, this cold air is rushing down in the form of heaps of North wind... So we've been hitting the Lighthouse...

I took a solo mission on Monday morning. It was freezing cold, spitting rain, gusting up to over 40 mph, with waves about logo high on the inner bar, if not bigger... It was a "full concentration" session, one of those days where you couldn't let your guard down for one second, as there were rogue waves breaking just about anywhere and everywhere, without much rhyme or reason. Pretty much classic Lighthouse! Anyway, I put the helmet cam on my noggin so that you guys could come along for the ride. Bear in the mind, the waves look tiny, but I assure you, they were not! Enjoy:

Solo Survival Sesh from Andy McKinney on Vimeo.


One of the interesting things that comes out of wearing the cam- I know for a fact that I only windsurfed for 5 minutes and 20 seconds yesterday morning! And I'll tell ya, that was plenty to satiate me for the rest of the day! Here are a few freeze frames from that movie:

"don't fall don't fall don't fall don't fall....."

"don't fall don't fall don't fall don't fall......"

Anyway, Stuart and I grabbed a sunset sesh at the Hole last night, freestylin' it up on the 4.2 and 100 combo. It was just about the complete opposite of my morning sesh- all fun, little fear! I tried a few clew first vulcans, but to little effect... gotta work on those, for sure! Here's the sunset:


How does that saying go? "Red sky at night, ..."

Olaf, Stuart, Brad and I sailed again this morning, at the Lighthouse. 4.2 again, lit up pretty well in the gusts, and comfortably planing most of the time. It was another "concentration" session... dodging heaps of whitewater... Kinda fun after the fact, kinda scary during!

Word is the Southside got really good late this morning as the tide started to push back in, with side off wind and nice clean faces... I happened to check the Frisco Cam on Surfline.com and noticed someone out sailing! That's gotta be the first time that's ever happened?! I don't even know where the cam is...



I think I'll go try to find it after work!! : )

4 comments:

Jim said...

Looks like you got that water start in the nick of time!

rdm said...

The gopro does tend to slow things down and flatten the water.

Question for the experienced wave riders- What conditions would I want for my first time in the ocean? I know summer is fast approaching and the winds will slacken so I may get bolder...

Andy said...

Seriously, Jim! Sketchy.....

Hey Ralph- Summertime SW is a great time to get your feet wet! Side off on the east facing beaches, usually with a pretty small, easy swell. We'll get you out there, man... You just have to have your waterstarts dialed in!

George Markopoulos said...

Nice Andy. Is that the old gopro, or the wide angle?