Wave Jam, Take 2

So Monday ended up being extra windy SW!!  After scouring the whole island, we ended up at Old Lifeguard Beach.  The timing was such that everyone showed up exactly at high tide when everything got weird...  The waves were doubling/tripling up, hard to read, voodoo chop inside, voodoo chop outside, the North swell instantly faded as the new South swell tried to take over...  Tough conditions to make anything happen, to say the least...  But everyone tried their best and did a great job out there!

Luckily, once the tide switched around and started pulling back out, everything reorganized.  Just in time to rig down to a 4.2!!  Even then I got yanked over the front while trying to drive down the line on a few waves...  man that wind was punchy!  Anyway, the sunset sesh was sweet, to say the least!  I don't know that I've ever seen a bigger, redder, sun make contact with the dunes...  It was very distracting...

Bill posted up a bunch of great pictures on OBX Beach Life (Thanks for shooting, Keith and Martine).  Hint- if you click on a picture, a slideshow comes up, with captions.

While rigging, I snapped a few pics too:

Caleb, lining it up...

...And smacking it!  (or getting smacked?)

I also tied on the ol' boom cam.  I've had a bunch of requests for pictures of the GoPro Wide setup that I've been using, so here y'all go:

Put a safety knot in the straps (around the boom), and use the extra outhaul to tie a safety line around the camera itself.

Tie it up as snugly as possible, and angle the camera down towards the mast base for best results.  In the camera menu, set the record mode to "upd" (upside down) since the camera is hanging upside down from the boom.

And here's what I got for video from the early sesh, on a 5.0 with the weird high tide waves.  When am I going to learn to save the batteries for the real deal footage???  Oh well, something's better than nothing, right? :)  Enjoy!


Wave Jam '09 from Andy McKinney on Vimeo.

Wave Jam 2009!!

Wave Jam is scoring some super fun conditions!  It's not huge, it's not flat, it's not too much or too little wind.  It's just plain old fun sailing.  We've had two days straight of side/sideon winds in the 5.7-5.0 range, with waves in the waist to shoulder high range.  Basically, Perfect Clinic Conditions!

Friday was NNE so we sailed at Old Lifeguard Beach.  It was a blast.  Very little current, very fun waves, lots of juice for some great jumps and backside/frontside hits.  There were a ton of people out, and the energy level was way high.  Very good stuff.  Janice took A MILLION pictures (actually 1,583).  You can check out the cream of the crop here.

Here's Stuart, on a wave indicative of Friday's conditions

Sailworld hosted a wave sailing clinic on Friday night.  A solid bunch of people came out and listened to me wax poetic about the onshore-wind switch-stance clew-first bottom turn technique.  Luckily they had beer to amuse themselves with.

The Crowd

We ran a bunch of Heats for the "Beast Of The East" Wave Jam competition all day Saturday.  The wind had shifted to the East, so we ended up down at the Bathhouses in Frisco.  It was very similar to Friday's sesh, except the current was stronger, the wind was flukier, and the waves were warblier.  Regardless, it was super fun to head out for your heat and throw down whatever you could with what was available.  Just hanging out on the beach was rad, with all the energy and stoked sailors.  Everyone was looking to push their own personal limits, and the venue provided the perfect arena for wavesailing newbies and experts alike.

I'm sure Janice and George are tirelessly sorting through hundreds of photos as we speak.  Keep an eye on Live to Sail to check out the latest action photography.  Janice is a Superstar behind the lense, and George deserves some serious recognition for all the work he puts into his blog to promote windsurfing.  Go Check It Out!!!

I just want to give a quick thanks to Bill for putting this whole thing together, and a huge thanks to all of the sponsors who helped to make the Hatteras Wave Jam 2009 a massive success!!  Cheers, to a great weekend, and to future installments of the Hatteras Windsurfing Festival Series!!

Upcoming Fall Events

Wow, you guys have got it good!  There is a ton of stuff coming up this fall.  Check it out, and mark those calendars!!!

Friday, September 25th, 7PM:  FREE wavesailing clinic at Sailworld Hatteras!  This is part of the Hatteras Wave Jam, and is centered around getting newbies out into the surf.  Come one, come all!!

Friday, September 25th through Sunday the 29th:  Hatteras Wave Jam "Beast of the East" Wavesailing competition.  Event locations/times TBD (condition dependent), although there will be daily "Meet and Greets" at 9:45 am at Sailworld Hatteras.

Wednesday, October 7th, 7PM:  FREE windsurfing clinic with Andy Brandt at Sailworld Hatteras!

Wednesday, October 21st, 7PM:  FREE windsurfing clinic with Andy Brandt at Sailworld Hatteras!

Monday, October 19th through Friday the 23rd:  ABK Boardsports 5 Day Windsurfing Camp!!

Friday, October 30th through Sunday, November 1st:  ABK Boardsports 3 Day Windsurfing Camp!!

Wow, that has to be some sort of record!  This is going to be an EPIC FALL!!!  Get Here!!

Tabou Rocket 125

Quick update for y'all:

We're back to the NE winds again!  It's not really cranking, but there's plenty of wind to sail.  I've gotta tell you guys about my lesson with Greg.  He's been tooling around his local pond for a month and a half, and has caught the windsurfing bug pretty bad, so he decided to come to Hatteras on a whim.  He's a natural- I got him beach starting, into the harness, and fully lit up over the course of just one hour!  He was going so fast that I couldn't keep up on my freestyle rig!!  Needless to say, his smile was pretty big...  And I have a feeling he'll be back to good ol' Cape Hatteras...  He's gonna have to feed the addiction... haha

After the lesson I ran down to the Lighthouse and sailed with Keith for a while.  It was pretty fun, although I was mostly schlogging.  The waves were about head high, and they were lined up for a few good hits.  Fun spot; we're lucky to be getting loads of days there so far this fall!

Last night I ran down to the Hole and rigged up some freeride gear for a change-  Tabou Rocket 125 and a 6.1.  Man it was fun to just go fast and lay into some jibes!  That board is so smooth and fast, it's ridiculous.  It's in the demo fleet at Sailworld, so you can try it out the next time you're in town.  Check out the short vid:


Sailing the Rocket 125 from Andy McKinney on Vimeo.

Argiope Aurantia

After our 11 day streak of Northerlies, we just made it through a few days of virtually zero wind.  Luckily, there has been some swell, so we've been surfing it up, dawn and dusk.  Got out on the SUP, too, and had a blast the other night.  Check out the vid:


Evening Surf from Andy McKinney on Vimeo.


Fun stuff!  Wendy and Roland were out last weekend, also, and just sent me a few pics.  Killin' it!!  Check 'em out:

Roland on the outer bar in Avon

Wooohaaa!!!

And then down in Frisco 

 Look at that smile!! 

Wendy and her dolphin friends!  

 

 Anne and I have a hibiscus plant on our porch.  I've noticed that some of the leaves were looking chewed up lately.  This morning, I found the culprit:

 

And then I noticed this guy:

See it?? 

And then I went to get my board and almost walked straight into this little lady:

 

Eeeek!  That thing is the size of a tennis ball!!  Huge, and freaking scary.  So I looked it up, and it's called an Argiope Aurantia- eeek!  Sounds scary, eh?  Then I got to the common name:  Yellow Garden Spider.   Not even remotely poisonous or lethal or territorial or anything.  Sheesh, what a letdown...  Stained the old underoos for nothing!

Can we please just go ahead and call it Fall already??

I just checked the iWindsurf archives, and it's been blowing out of the North since Monday, August 31st. 11 days straight, with cooler temps, and punchy wind. I think we can go ahead and just say that we've moved on from summer... And right into one of my favorite times of year!! Yeehaw!

Tuesday, September 10th, iWindsurf meters

Donny Bowers at the Hole

Anne, 3.7 and 75 combo


Jim Krenzel

Anne, Mach 2 Jibe...

...Attempt :)

Don't forget to smile!

It felt too windy to do much more than loop and hero jibe!

After the big winds, it faded and went west... with a leftover northeast swell... which equals insane surf conditions! Again, the sacrifices were many- buckled and broken boards, and a bit of slice and dice action on some legs. Coulda been much much worse, but Stuart ended up with 11 stitches! Again!! More on that later...

That's way bigger than it looks...

Oh yeah- more insane sunsets, to boot!


Wave Jam is fast approaching! If you don't have your travel plans, you'd best get on it!! Free in-store wave sailing clinic on Friday, September 25th, 7 PM. And the competition is scheduled for that Friday, Saturday, and Sunday... Cross the fingers for waves and wind!!

More North Wind!

Well, I can't believe it, but the North wind has held on... We've been sailing everyday!! It's starting to feel a little chilly- I had to put on an insulated rash guard yesterday... Oh, the terror! hahaha

The wavesailing has had it's ups and downs, so Stuart and I have reverted to the ol' Freestyle to have some guaranteed fun. Last night we ended up running an impromptu SuperCross race against each other. I can't tell you how much fun it was to chase a buddy: he loops, you loop, he spocks, you spock, he duck jibes, you duck jibe... All at top speed, trying to get in front... Fun fun fun!!

Sorry, I've been slacking on the photo/video documentation, but I'll make up for it. Check out this footage from the Reunion Wave Classic. It's a pretty sweet idea for a competition- Invite a handful of pros to a spot with guaranteed insane conditions, team them up with other pros and a handful of local hotshots, and peer judge the whole thing. The PWA has been doing a really good job lately of running some great comps, but they're a little tied down by their sponsors. These grassroots comps don't have the $$ to throw around but they're more free to move around to score the best conditions... so the images that come out of them are almost always just fantastic... But hey, judge for yourself:

Reunion Wave Classic 09_Teaser 2 from Open Ocean Media on Vimeo.

Wo! Pretty sweet, eh?

Tropical Storm??

Hey hey- Hope y'all had a great weekend! First off- Thanks to everyone who took advantage of the Labor Day Sale!! I truly appreciate your business!! And if you're still thinking about something, just give me a call, I'll get you hooked up with the goods!!

Secondly- we scored some seriously beautiful sunsets for about 4 evenings straight! Check 'em out:

2nd night

4th night. Big file, grab yourself a new desktop!

Third- I think we're in the midst of a tropical storm! It feels like it, at least. We had huge thunderstorms last night, an insane amount of rain, the road is completely flooded in Avon, there was some solid wind damage in Buxton this morning, and the (cranking) wind started East, veered NE, to Due North, and is supposed to finish off at NW this evening. Looking at the radar, there was definitely something that looked like a center of rotation, slowly floating by just offshore... Hmmmmm.....

Anyway, Stuart, Jim, Jim and I chased Keith down to the Southside but were too late to catch it. Stuart and I tried, but the wind had gone extremely straight offshore, and was super fluky and gusty inside the impact zone. We'll just say that it was a whole heck of a lot of work... But we each caught a wave, so whatever, it's always worth it. Here's Keith while the wind was still about 10 degrees off of straight offshore:

Go Keith GO!!

Pretty lines...

So now I'm going to go grab Anne from school, and we're gonna hit the Hole for the sunset NW sesh!! Woohoo!!

Labor Day Sale!!

Hey Folks! Just wanted to announce a sale for this weekend at Sailworld Hatteras! We're slashing prices on almost everything in the store, for Saturday, Sunday, and Monday ONLY! So come on down to the beach and check out the goods, or feel free to give me a call at (252) 995-5441 or shoot me an email. I'd be happy to help you out with anything you need, all you need to do is ask!

Shipping is available, or we can hold an item for pickup.

Some of the stuff ON SALE:




Sweeeeeeet......

If you do come down this weekend, you can expect a pretty hearty helping of NE winds... Should be a fun one! Hope to see y'all!

Lighthouse Video

Well the Lighthouse was working pretty well the last few days! When the wind stays more North than NE the swell never really pushes in the right direction to wrap around to the southside, so side/side on at the Lighthouse is pretty much the only option... Not that I'm complaining! The Lighthouse is pretty darned fun when it all lines up... The waves are a lot heavier than they look, and a little tricky to be in the right spot, so you do have to plan ahead a bit (especially with the whole current + light wind inside thing), but when it all lines up it's pretty sweet, with long down the line rides and sometimes some absolutely huge jumps...

I caught a little bit of footage with the GoPro camera. Of course, the half hour when the wind bumped up to the "lit" level was after the batteries died... Never fails... haha! But there's still some cool stuff in there... Check it out!

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse from Andy McKinney on Vimeo.

I caught a few pictures of Keith, too, before I went out last night (my trigger finger wasn't timing it right, Keith was making some sweet turns right before and after these shots):

The scene at The Jetty



Next up?? Keeping an eye on Erika...

First NE of the Fall!

I love this time of year... It seems like we always get the first good batch of Northeast wind sometime in late August or early September, and this year is not letting us down!

So, we all love that consistent summer SW wind... but the NE... is so comfortably cool and crisp feeling! I mean, it's still 80 degrees out, and the water's warm, but the humidity is all but gone. It's a welcome change...

It started to hit Monday evening, so Stuart, Dave, Dale and I caught a late sesh at the Hole, 5.5 and freestyle board, lovin' life (but sailing like poop). Same thing Tuesday morning, but I sailed much better. Here are a few pics from the GoPro boom cam:




Yup, sailing like poop! haha But hey, if you're not falling you're not trying hard enough, right??


Later in the afternoon, the waves started to bump up a notch, so Keith, Donny, Dave, Jim K, Stuart, and I went to the Lighthouse. We shared the water with a few kiters, surfers, boogie boarders, skimboarders, and swimmers... Etiquette was high on the priority list all the way around. Cheers!

Here are a few pics of Keith that I shot within 45 seconds of getting to the beach:



Needless to say, I rigged up pretty quickly thereafter... 5.0 and the Pocket 80. It was a bit light in the current on the inside, but overall it was a pretty sweet setup. Got some great jumps off, and a few really fun waves... Multiple turns, frontside and back... The Lighthouse is such a FUN place to sail!! So fun, that I couldn't be bothered to stop, for about 3 hours straight! I was starting to feel fatigued, when I heard a *pop* and looked down to see that my harness spreader bar had broken! Well, if I was tired before, that last reach back to the beach without a harness really took it out of me... Cramped forearms, biceps seizing up, the whole nine yards... But it was definitely all worth it, as the sailing was top notch fun!!

So, I stretched out and took pictures of Stuart in the fading sun. Check out the Stuart Show:

Loopin' off the first ramp... Good Man!







I love this picture!!

Big File if you want a new desktop

Another Big File

Yeah, loving the NE!! More today, hopefully tomorrow, and maybe even Friday too!! Yeah.... Fall in Hatteras!!!!!!!!! Woohooooo!!!!!!