Sunday, May 10, 2009

Hatteras has a few visitors!

Happy Mother's Day!! I was in charge of mailing out the cards for Anne's mom and mine... and totally messed up... Sorrrrryyyyy!! You'll get your cards really soon, I promise! (What a jerk! it must've been windy the day I was supposed to send them out...haha) Here's some of the fam around Christmastime a few years ago:

Clockwise: Mom, me, Jim, Pauline

I got bombarded with so many phone calls and text messages yesterday that I just couldn't take it anymore and closed the shop to take a lunch break session. Well, my allotted hour quickly turned into 3!! Whoops! It was simply too beautiful outside to go back to the shop and sit around inside all afternoon... Sunshine, warm air and water (I sailed in trunks!!), 4.2 wind, and fun little waves made for a great afternoon on the water.

Lots of people out on the water, including (among others) Keith, Olaf, Rick, Chad, Charlie, Stuart (eventually), and...... PWA sailor Graham Ezzy!! The stress of studying for his upcoming final exams got to him, so he bolted to Hatteras for the weekend to get some sailing in and decompress a little bit. Nothing like a little windsurfing to set your mind straight; I'm sure he'll do much better on his tests now!

Anyway, everyone was sailing great out there, but Graham was KILLIN' it! He was fun to watch. Where someone would get a 3 or 4 foot jump, Graham would chuck a 10 foot stalled forward loop or perfect push loop. And where someone would straighten out and head for the beach, Graham would take one more turn and throw a taka off the lip. It was pretty inspiring, and he definitely made me want to up my game a bit!

I would've loved to get some pictures...

but Anne had my camera........

...... at the ABK Clinic she's taking this weekend!! I'm so jealous, it's ridiculous. She and about 15 other attendees scored a day of serious wind (3.7) and sunshine! Anne claims to have dialed in her planing jibes, duck jibes, chop hops, and learned to jump jibe!! And apparently, Andy taught her something else really cool, too, but she won't tell me what. I think she wants to wait for the perfect moment to chuck it in my face and surprise me! She must've been trying something cool out there because she came home with skinned knees and a smile on her face! Can't wait to see it!

I feel bad for you guys, with no pics or anything, so here's a little video from some footage I shot a few weeks ago. It's Stuart and I, sailing up at Ramp 34, in some pretty strong SW winds. It's pretty indicative of the type of conditions we've had for the last few weeks- Lots of SW wind, and small, weird waves. Anyway, Enjoy!


Ramp 34 "wave" sailing from Andy McKinney on Vimeo.

4 comments:

vikingsail said...

When I headed out on Saturday I stopped by HISS and visited with Andy and Tom. My soul wanted to sail but my arms and legs wanted to go home (after 8 days in a row). Saw Anne as I was leaving, she seemed psyched to learn something new. Sounds like Andy met the challenge. Thanx to all you in the Hatteras shops who keep us on the water and smiling.

Bill said...

Nice Andy!!

Bummed I missed the Sat Lifeguard Beach sesh! I was watching the long blue IWS meter lines on my phone through the day on Sat in N Va...it was pretty painful.

Great that Graham made it down, and the forecast did not fizzle. Keith called and gave me the report and it sounded like a great time with a bunch of people out having fun. Great to see PWA caliber mixing it up with everyone, especially on the OBX! As you said, its inspirational to push everyone's game, even us local crew!

Well, after four missed weekends out of the past six (and every one of them was windy!), I am not going anywhere for a while!

Next weekend is the LoopOff..., hopefully we get a repeat of Sat's wind conditions?! : )

Ken K said...

Awesome video. It really shows your loops well.

The music is like a Shultz Peanuts special, something like "You're no looper Charlie Brown!"

But you ARE a looper Andy M!

Anonymous said...

Awesome video, Andy!