Sanity Savers, AKA...

...SUPs. They turn mediocre conditions into really fun days on the water!!

That Starboard Drive 10'5" has been treating me REALLY well the last few days! We've had beautiful days with light winds and about waist high surf, and that board has kept a huge smile on my face! Stuart and I went sailing on the SUPs the other night in a sideshore wind, about 5 gusting to 12 or 14. We each caught about a thousand waves, and got crushed a few times, too! Those things keep you honest, for sure! Still, there's no other style of board that would have worked better for the conditions, so I'm stoked that I've got it at my disposal... Swing on by the shop and try it out some time, I guarantee you'll have fun!

Friday saw some good Southwest wind. There were a whole bunch of people out at the Hole on anything from 4.2 up to 6.0, as it was pretty gusty. I split the difference and had a good time on 5.0 and the 100. No complaints!

Last night was really fun. The swell dropped out to pretty much nothing, and the wind was super light, so we loaded up the truck with SUPs, some charcoal, a grill (thanks Tim!!), and a cooler full of beer meat and veggies and headed out to the beach. It ended up being a beautiful night for a paddle, with crystal clear bluish green water and a nice clear sky. Drew, Ralph and I had some fun paddling around and watching the schools of spanish mackeral swim under the boards. Wish I had brought a fishing pole to go trolling! Oh well, maybe next time...





Drew, Laura, Banana, Anne, Moi, Leah, Ralph (L-R)

It's SW at about 20 right now... and the forecast actually looks halfway decent for the next week or so... So come on out and join us for some fun!!

Anne's B-Day Toast!

It was Anne's birthday on Wednesday! Woohoo!! Happy Birthday Anne! Not too much wind to celebrate with, but lots of fun surf! Drew put together a little post on The Pursuit of Paradise that I got a chuckle out of... We had a party, and I decided to give a toast- Check it out!

Anne's Birthday Toast from Andy McKinney on Vimeo.

: ) Oh yeah, it's true!! Wooohoooo!! : )

Summer's Here!

What a beautiful weekend we just had here on Hatteras Island! I traded in the windsurfing gear for surfboards and SUPs as the wind lightened up quite a bit, although there were some brief moments of plane-able breeze if you knew where to look. It's been so freaking windy lately, though, that I was happy to just go surf it up in the knee to chest high waves. We've got a magic little bar here in Avon that seems to be picking up just about any little bit of swell... But I'm not giving up any secrets so don't bother asking! hahaha, just kidding... The more the merrier, as far as I'm concerned :)

I decided to put the Starboard Drive 10'5" SUP into demo for a some of the W.E.T. group who wanted to try it out... And boy am I glad I did (because that means that I get to ride it now, too)! Man that board is sweet! It's nice and surfy, fast, and very well balanced, which makes it super easy to ride. I definitely surfed out of a few completely ridiculous situations/positions that I never would've pulled off on any other board I've ever ridden... Period. 'Nuff said. Come try it out for yourself!

Starboard Drive 10'5" SUP

The Dims and Responsible Parties

Perks

I can't wait for a tiny bit of breeze so that I can toss a sail on the thing and see how she does... I can only imagine that it'll rip, based on it's paddle performance!! Anyway, it was fun sharing a few waves with everyone (Anne, Tim, Stuart, Kevin, Dan, Wendy, Mac, Wendy and Roland, Drew, the guy from Montreal with the Imagine Eco-Surfboards, among others)... Hopefully that little swell will keep doing it's thing...

Looks like potential for a little SW build Thursday and Friday... Keep your eyes on it!

Tetralogy

First: Happy Birthday to my Mom!!!

Second: Anne took the ABK Clinic a few weekends ago. She's always been fun to watch sail, but now she's officially REALLY fun to watch because she blows up on almost every reach trying something new! Suddenly, though, I've reallized that she's more bad-ass than I am, and that she's showing me up out on the water. Thanks a lot, ABK. Sheeesh. I was filming with the GoPro helmet cam the other day when it was blowing 30 plus out of the North. Anne's out there killin' it on her 3.7 and 75, and all of a sudden, she busts this out of her bag of tricks:

Anne Shuvs-It!!

"????????? Where the heck did that come from ????????"

Dangit! Time to play catch-up.... Just goes to show how valuable an ABK Clinic is though, doesn't it?

Here are a few more image grabs:

Any guesses?

Any guesses?

Third: Drew is awesome! Check this out!!

Fourth: Looks like light wind over the weekend, and plenty of fun sized surf to play in. Surfing, light wind freestyle, SUPs, and cruising on the Serenity will be the name of the game. Colin knows how much fun the Serenity is. Do you?


Have a GREAT weekend, everyone! Get out there and get wet, even if the wind doesn't blow!!