Finally, some clean, windless surf!!

Well, the wind finally died. The final count was 16 sessions in 12 straight days! What a solid batch of NE wind! The last session took place in the Cove, as the wind backed off and started to veer more East. It was super light out there. I had to throw my gear over the shore break and swim out past the inside section. A sketchy uphaul feet from the impact zone got me moving and out past the break. Once out there it was pretty easy to position myself for the sets. Stuart was the only other guy to make it out. We both caught a few waves and called it a day as the tide filled in.

All that wind left us with one heck of a swell! It finally started to clean up after two days of light wind. Drew, Kevin, George and I surfed down in Frisco Saturday evening. There were some macking sets rolling through, doubling up and exploding on the bar. It was tricky, to say the least, and my confidence wasn't very high after a seemingly endless 20 minute paddle out. But the sunset was awesome, the water was glassy, and the waves were firing so it was a great session.

All photos by Anne:

Old Lighthouse Beach Overwash

The 20 minute, 30 yard paddle out...


Perfect Sunset

And last night, Sunday, we all went and surfed up north in Rodanthe with the light SW wind being offshore up there. It was one heck of a session, with these huge sneaker sets rolling through. One set in particular, we were all grouped up, saw it on the horizon and started scratching for the outside. The first one wasn't excessively huge, so we all made it under just fine. The next one, though, was just this huge macker! The lip started to fire off just to the left of me, and as I duck dove, the whole thing just exploded on my heel. I was far enough under to get pulled through to the outside just fine, though. Drew, on the other hand, had the lip land basically square on his back. He lost hold of his board while getting thrashed around under water, and there was so much tension that it ripped his leash right off his ankle! I've never seen that happen before... To say the least, his eyes were HUGE when he finally surfaced! All's well that ends well, though...

Feeling Worked!

15 windsurfing sessions in 11 straight days has me just about worn out!! We've seen everything from 5.7m wave schlogs to holding on for dear life on a 4.2m at the Hole. Cloudless sunshine, to dumping rain with lightning and thunder. We've seen clear roads turn to rivers of saltwater and sand gushing across the Route 12 lifeline. At the moment, we're stranded by overwash at Pea Island, and high winds have shut the ferries down. The only way off the island is to windsurf across the Pamlico Sound to Stumpy Point : )

Here's a few pictures from the other day, down on the South side. George took a few minutes out of the action to snap 'em off! Thanks, George! For more complete, day by day reports of the Hatteras Wave Fest action, check out George's blog, live2sail.

I'm driving down the line

Under the lip

Stuart smacking one

and sneaking out past a meaty one!

Ken on a nice one!

Gouge!

Stuart lining up on a nice one!

More action to come, I'm sure! There's more wind in the forecast (although it's not the most trustworthy direction). If we can get to the Cove, and if the East wind materializes, we'll have unreal conditions to run the Wave Fest contest!! But that's a lot of "ifs"........

Hatteras Wave Fest Perfection!

The whole idea of the Hatteras Wave Fest is to get newbies out into the Atlantic Ocean, pushing their windsurfing limits. The last few days have provided perfect conditions for these guys and gals. We've been sailing down on the south side, in moderate side-offshore winds, and clean, crumbly, long wrap around swell. The better waves have been about shoulder or head high, and peeling left down the beach, providing two or three good sections for a few turns. They've been really crumbly off the top, making for a good confidence boosting experience.

Long, Crumbly Lines (Anne Photo)

Wave Fest participants Anne, Bill, George, Keith, and Ken have been taking advantage of the prime conditions the last few days. We've all been sailing our butts off, so I don't have too many pictures to share. Anne snapped off a few photos yesterday morning. Enjoy!

Ken lining one up!

I'm dropping in...

and cutting back!


Bill on a nice one!

Some of them linked up all the way in to the shorebreak. Don't forget to kick out!

George has a great report, with more pics and some video here.

I'm also happy to report that the Wave Fest Clinic, hosted by Sailworld Cape Hatteras went very well on Saturday night. We had a decent turnout, with over 20 attendees. I'm very grateful to Bill, Keith, and Donny for all their input during the clinic! You guys made my life a lot easier! And everyone was stoked for the swag from our sponsors: Dakine, Maui Sails, Quatro, and Go-Pro! Gooood stuff!!

Looking ahead, our forecast is OFF THE CHARTS!! It'll either be insanely epic conditions, or completely un-sailable. Take your pick, based on your own sense of rational thought... I will say that if you want to be here, you better come now, because the road will probably get washed out in a few days!! Good thing I don't have to go anywhere : )

Solid Northerlies are Barraging the Beach!!!

Wave Fest is HERE!!! And we are scoring some awesome conditions! Today is the 4th day in a row of solid Northerlies. 5.0 every day, maybe 4.2 for this evening's session!

The wind direction makes a huge difference around here. The first three days of the blow were basically due North, which is side/side off on the East facing beaches, and straight offshore on the South beaches. With no tropical swell affecting us at the moment, the ocean remained relatively flat. Which is great for the beginner wave sailors that Wave Fest was designed for!

The East Point Scene (photo Anne)

We all sailed at East Point on Thursday afternoon. It was solid 4.5 to 5.0 conditions, with about a waist high windswell to contend with. For as much wind as there was, this was about as easy as it gets around here! Perfect for the Newbies! There was a bit of current to contend with, but nothing terrible. Keith did a great job making sure everyone knew what to look out for, and we all worked together to get everyone in the water ripping. It was a great session that produced a lot of very happy windsurfers!! Good confidence booster for everyone.

George put up a bunch of great pictures of this session here!!

Keith gives a few pointers to Dale and Ken

Straight from 1st Grade to the Beach!! Anne gets ready to rig up!

The East Point session was Anne's first real ocean sailing experience, which is the whole point of Wave Fest. She did great out there, sailed with confidence, and got completely worked by the one big set of the whole day! But she came up smiling, didn't break anything, and made it back to the beach in one piece! Nice job!! Other Wave Fest sailors included Keith, Bill, George, Ken, Dale, Donny, Martine, Dave, and me. You can learn who all these people are here.

Today, on the other hand, has switched just touch more NE. Suddenly, the East beaches are huge and out of control, which means that it's time for the South side! Aww yeah! NE is about off-side-offshore down at Isabel's. The waves were wrapping around from the East beaches, with a very defined swell, about chest to head high on the good ones. Very fun swell size! It was classic Isabel's, with virtually no wind on the inside, a bit of current to contend with, and the reward being 3, 4, 5 bottom turn reeling left handers. Frisco George, Live2Sail George, and Ken K met me down there and rigged up for a fairly challenging session. I'm happy to report that everyone made it out (eventually) and back in to the beach in one piece and without breaking anything, which is just about all you can ask for in those conditions! Great stuff, and smiles all around, again!!

Regular Hatteras visitor John Reid came out to the beach this morning and shot off a few pictures of me sailing Isabel's. Thanks so much John!!

It wasn't all peaches and cream...

But sometimes it was : )

Fun fun fun!

Throwing some spray, only a little bit out of control!!

Right now, most everyone headed down to Ocracoke for the afternoon to catch the mellower wave rides the North end provides. I'm sure they're having the time of their lives, in what could be considered some halfway epic conditions!! Suuhweeet!

There's still time to sign up for Wave Fest, if you've been procrastinating. The forecast looks unreal, with 20 to 30+ mph NE winds forecasted for the next 7 days!!! Unreal!! The clinic is tomorrow night (Saturday), 7PM, at Sailworld Hatteras. Come on down and join us!!