Solo SideOff Seshes

Saturday. Fun South Packery session that re-reminded me that the Packery wave can be so much better than Port A. Julie took some video so I threw a quick clip together:

 

We celebrated a great day at ScuttleButts (Half price sushi and $2.75 beers) followed by cake. Cheers Brian and Laura.

4:30am Sunday morning Olivier called "There is no wind at Boca Chica. It's a waste of time driving down there". Bear in mind Olivier is the Texas windsurfing guru and he is always right. 15 minutes later we were in the truck and heading south. And guess what? No wind!! Nice waves though. I caught a few small ones up near the jetty. The good waves were a little further downwind but I couldn't get out on account of me floating around up to my waist. This was the best I got:

Windsurfing South Texas in the Early 90's

Found this on youtube recently and thought it was cool. Looks like a fun "waveslalom" session at North Beach, Corpus.

 

Icaraizinho

The traffic light turned orange and he didn't ease up. It switched to red. Oh...shoot...!!! We blasted through the red light, cars honking from all sides. I turned to look in the back seat. The kids asleep, Julie in the middle with a look of horror uttered "I have died a thousand times already".

Welcome to Brazil!

Once safely at our destination we stayed at Casa Zulu. A beautifully maintained and conceived tropical oasis with great hosts.


Casa Zulu - our digs for the week



Jack - relaxing!

Equipment was decent courtesy of Vela/ClubVentos. I settled into a daily routine:

• Adjust the footstraps so that I could fit more than my little toe in there
• Increase the harness line length at least 3 to 4 inches
• Move the front lines back so they are not a foot apart
• Then move the lines back another couple of inches!
• Slack off the outhaul at least an inch

How was the sailing? Pretty high on the fun scale actually, with just a handful of others out. The first 4 days were 5.6 but still fun with little stunt ramps, best at mid-tide. The last two days were solid 4.5/4.7. Exactly the conditions I had hoped for. Here is a mini-movie taken the last day:

I rode JP freestyle waves (101L down to 84L) most of the week, choosing the thruster set up when available. I really struggled to stay with the wave off the top turn in the small waves and blamed it on the waves not having enough power but the last day I took the JP 83 Single Thruster and what a difference! It worked great.

F IN YEA. Q was fun today!

I plagiarized the title off facebook!! Wednesday evening, 4.8, 84 twin, cute side off waves.

Forearm Cramps

I didn't get forearm cramps yesterday at Port A (side-off fun 5.2, 84L twin and small waves, getting a little bigger towards lunch). Thankfully the water is warm and I'm still in my summer short arm suit. Go Texas!

I have however been thinking about the best solution to the problem. Should I cut off my winter wetsuit arms from the elbow down? Buy a new wetsuit? Forearm reduction surgery? Finally I decided to give this a shot:

Wearing the wetsuit arms on my legs whilst watching the Aloha Classic Livestream

Let's see how it works.

By the way. How good was this last week for the sport of windsurfing? Maybe it's just a coincidence but I haven't seen so many people at Port Aransas since I started sailing there almost 10 yrs back.

Bluffs Landing

Short session at Packery on Thursday but without Bird I have been struggling to find a family friendly spot for those 15 to 20 mph light wind freestyle days. So after missing yesterday, gave Bluffs Landing a shot and had a super fun time. Really clean wind, 6.0, 98L freestyle board with a 24cm pointer weed fin! But really, a weed fin is a must, I actually catapulted one time when I sailed into a pile of weeds. Another plus is you can bust the moves just feet from the launch:

 



Oh yeah! Cheers our Dad for taking more video!

Is America Closed?

No, but Bird Island is! Not good. Good old Port A sesh Sunday on 4.0 Riot and the custom. Probably should have gone to Packery though, the waves there were a bit more meaty but Port A really flatters especially when one hasn't sailed so much lately.

Daddykins took video from his iphone but it was too far away. Shame because Alexs board was working SOOO nice in the thigh high side off waves. If you relax your eyes and use your peripheral vision you might see a sick hit with tons of spray on the clip below. Then again, maybe not.

"The Last of the Mohicans"

Rigging at Quintana Saturday morning: "Hey, it's the last of the Mohicans!"
Huh?
"Yeah, you must be the last remaining wave sailor around here"
Ahhhh...smiling...you think?

I like to think of myself as the first... ;-)

Quintana was light, side off, clean chest high set waves. For a while I wallowed waist deep on the inside. Sometimes unable to waterstart. Finally it picked up a notch and I could work my way out the back and pick off the set waves.

Today, smaller waves but a little more wind at East Beach. And guess what? There was another wave sailor out!! Ripping it up and looking like he was having just as much fun as me!

Hurricane Ingrid

Two outstanding days of Port A wave sailing courtesy of Ingrid. Only two of us out the whole weekend!!

I wasn't motivated to blog as I didn't have any pics or video. Luckily, Corpus Christi's most hardcore windsurfer, Alisa, made a gopro clip from Saturday. It's a great clip - check out her back loop attempt. Sweet!



One Track Mind

Man, I haven't windsurfed in forever! Come on October!!

There has been a bunch of footage on facebook about flooding in my home town Saltburn (actually I'm a Brottoner, but that's a detail). I haven't seen anything like it in all my 39.7 years. This pic in particular was a good one, click on it:

When I saw it, I soaked in all the incredible details. The waterfalls coming off the cliffs in the distance, the floating car, submerged car park and flooded cottages. And my first thought?

"Nice waves."

Tiger Shark

Top notch session at South Packery. I did a really nice whippy forward and got applause from the beach! Yay! Afterwards one of the guys from this pic stopped by.

Fisherman "How much does one of those cost?"
I never know what to say to that one. If I tell the whole truth they might rob me? Plus I don't want to put them off the sport.
Me "Oh, about 1000 bucks if you buy used" (white lies are OK right?)
Fisherman "That would be perfect for shark baiting. It's a bit rough today, I couldn't get out on my kayak but you were getting out no problem"
So now I'm thinking. Is he really asking me to take shark bait out to where I would be gybing? To attract 11ft Tiger Sharks like the one above?!
Me "Yeah, but you would need to practice for a while before you could do it in conditions like this"
Clearly not taking his bait, he wandered off.

Apparently they tagged and released

Wrapped up and headed to Bird for another super fun session, where I could fall in without having a mini shark panic attack.

Home Time

It was supposed to be light today. Full power 4.0 is light? What a fun 3 days but I am worn out. It was great to catch up with The Millers and Bill. One more self indulgent clip of a back loop attempt from yesterday, you might need to squint to see it:

 

Mark - it's a Severne Blade. Felt nice.

Almost time to get on the Red Eye flight. Tomorrow is going to be tough.

THE GORGE!!

In case you were wondering where I was...

 

More of that 3.3 action at the Hatchery. 3.3!! Can you believe that! Brian took some video with his smartiepantsphone and he got me looping on video. Yay! Shame it's kind of lame, but it's tough to do them on command in 30+ winds, on the inside, with no ramps, between 10am and lunch. OK enough of the excuses.

 

Did you see the guy launching on the right? Funny.

Headed East to the Wall after that. The swell and ramps were awesome but the wind was a bit light for my 3.7. This place is nice.

windy

"windy". That was Brians email subject. A quick call to Julie and 20 minutes later I had a flight booked on air miles and I was good to go!

Errrr. So guess what? Today was WINDY!!! I sailed 3.3 pretty much for 3 hours straight. That's right. 3 point 3. Teeny tiny. Had a blast. Took some video from the late session. Here is Brian doing his thang:

The Spockmeister kindly lent me his 82L on account of there being NO available rental gear anywhere in Hood River. Shortly after doing an endo forward over the top of him. I asked if I could take his 74L. "No way are you going to break 2 of my boards!". Not a lot I could say to that.

Pack-tastic!

Warmed up at Bird. Then gave Packery a shot. The 5.6/84L twin combo worked a treat. I really wish it blew at the beach more often - I'm sure I would have those backies nailed... I didn't get any action footage, too busy having fun. I did however discover a good use for a weed fin:

Beer lime slicer upper!

Bonus Weekend

Headed to Corpus with the in-laws for a relaxing weekend at the beach. There was no wind in the forecast. Arriving at Bird late Saturday, Randy was like "what are you doing here?!".

As I have no video or pics I shall speak using the power of graphs (I'm an engineer).

 



Woke up to thunder and lightning Sunday morning. Zero wind forecast.

 

Bonus!!

Brian Clip

It doesn't look like I'm going to get out this weekend. Last Sunday was pretty good at Bird. Solid 5.2. Conditions were a bit like those in this clip of Brian Miller getting awfully close to a couple of clew first spocks. Brian is planning to compete in the Masters division of the AWT Freestyle event in the Gorge. They should check his ID. He sails like someone half his age.

I had a 6.0 sesh at Toxic City on Wednesday. Apparently Enterococcus bacteria levels are high and swimming is not recommended. Phew!! Lucky I was windsurfing.

I found a kite board and brought it home thinking I would find the owner. No luck yet. It could always make a nice coffee table if the owner doesn't turn up.

Harness Review

I bought a ProLimit harness recently from worldwinds for various reasons. OK - The Dakine green didn't match my new blue wetsuit...

Proud owner

And I love it! There I was thinking all waist harnesses ride up and pinch your ribs, have a hook that pulls way out, give you a sore back and wear out really quick. But no. The ProLimit does none of these things. The only negative is that my 28 inch lines are now too short on account of the fact that it doesn't ride up, the hook doesn't pull way out etc...

Yesterday at Bird, fun 5.6 sesh. Julie went for a sail and I made her try the harness. She proceeded to make 5 gybes in a row and declared the harness "hers". I don't think so.

Punta San Carlos

Last year I hit PSC on a 20 second South Swell Alert. The conditions were amazing with close to mast high waves at the Point and solid logo at the Chili Bowl. The problem was, I was a tad scared. Scared to push it. Scared to hit the lip. I realized that what are best ever conditions for one person, may not be so great for another.

This year, we got a gang together. The Millers, Mark, the Mejas and I. We booked well in advance based on everyones availability so avoided looking at the forecast figuring we would get what we got. And what we got was, for me, windsurfing perfection! 5 days of sailing, the first four in head high, smackable, superbness. Stuff like this sequence courtesy of Clark: 

BAM!!! Foamburger hit! Click on it.

Clark also took some video one day, all part of the top notch Solosports package. Testing the 2013 Quatro LS 84, seems to turn OK:

 

After 5 days the wind backed off. So we hiked up the Mesa then mountain biked and SUP'd for the last 3 days. So much fun. Just need a week or two now for the muscles and liver to recover.

SW at Surfside

It's usually pretty light after a strong NW front. So Saturday morning (4th May), hanging at the park with the kids, I hadn't even thought about windsurfing. Then I noticed the trees swaying in the wind a little. A quick check of my phone revealed it was forecast to blow SW 20 to 25. What! Sideshore starboard tack just never happens.

The mental calculations commenced. Kids party 12 till 2...Julie wants a facial...Barbeque at our place at 7pm. I saw a window of opportunity. Negotiations commenced and at 3:10pm I was on the road. Twin fin, 3 sails and a banana.

Am I the only person that gets STRESSED driving to the beach? The anticipation is intense. I get this knot in my chest, my legs tingle, I can't help but look at the wind signs, check my phone every 30 seconds and drive a little bit crazy. It's probably not healthy.

I rolled up at the beach and it was flat. Flatter than flat. Nooooooooo!!!!!

What the heck, might as well sail now I'm here, and it was a blast. I threw some speed loops off the inside chop and got a cheer from some spectators. "Do it again!" they shouted. So I did! 

The Kids

6.0 action at Bird on Saturday and I finally splashed out on a kids board. I promise I'm not going to be a pushy parent, but if they ask to sail, I want to have the kit there for them! Here is a short clip, super cute:

Today was windless so we headed home after lunch. Passing the Bay it looked windy. We pulled up at North Beach, rigged the 5.2 and 30 minutes of unexpected fun followed. Talk about timing! Check it out:

Maui Recap

It has been a week now since getting back from maui and the memories are already getting cloudy. Another great trip with Guillame. He is always full power 110%. We stayed at Alexs place over Haiku way (cheers Alex! You da man). At one point there were 5 of us in his little one bedroom apartment. We actually slept with a guy called Si for 3 nights before finally meeting him. Turns out we were sleeping with a famous windsurfing photographer, who was doing the Simmer shoot. It was interesting to hear his insights into the myriad of challenges of maui photoshoots. Looking forward to seeing some of his material in future Boards or windsurf mags.

We were having too much fun to get any media. This was my best pic, Ho'okipa rainbow:

It's amazing just how many windsurfing heros and world champions you bump into on maui. They're practically on every street corner. We borrowed a couple of SUPs off Damian and I almost snapped one. I genuinely don't know how, except that the last wave was barelling and I took off too late. "Dude! That was a knarly toob!". Anyway, I dropped the board off for repair, and whilst waiting Victor Fernandez turned up too. I'm thinking - "Quick, sound interesting!". "So, looks good pretty for Thursday". When in doubt talk conditions...

The sailing? The forecast looked a little bleak but we still sailed 5 days out of 8 and could have got a 6th kona session in if we had been on it. Enough sailing for Gui to get alien hands like this:

Thursday was the standout day. Ho'okipa was mayhem with a gazillion people out and 3 different photo shoots. We got out early, and I sailed up at green trees where there were plenty of waves going spare. Then we headed to Lower Kanaha for the late session which was THE BEST! Hardly anyone out (by Kanaha standards), the inside wave was super clean and fun and I finally started to push Alexs board.

Top trip. Need to start planning the next one! Maybe.... Punta San Carlos in May!

JumpFest

Wow! Josh Stone and Kauli were ripping yesterday. Really really entertaining to watch. I feel like a total punter in comparison. Here is a Jimmy Hepp pic of Kauli doing a Toad:

And some passion fruit margaritas:

Yum. Supposed to be real waves and wind today. Ho'okipa here we come!

Honomanu

No wind for a few days. So we took a trip along Hana Highway to Honomanu. Honomanu is a small but beautiful black sand bay. A river runs into the bay and a nice little left breaks across it. Here it is:

Yo Bro-Brah!

Paddling out the water was kinda murky and it felt a little sharky. "Hey, it feels a little sharky".

"Oh yeah, I didn't tell you? Honomanu means SharkBait!"

Gulp! No wonder no-one is here!

Saturday

Fun sesh at Days Inn. Hurt my buttock looping. Here is another use for an ezzy mast and mast extension. Pinata birthday bashing!

Easter Weekend

Great weekend with friends and family at Bird Island Basin  or 'Bird' as we like to call it. Better than forecast innate windsurfing funness. Absolutely everyone was shredding, smiling and eating chocolate eggs on Sunday. Took some video on Sunday too during the lull of the day. Here it is raw and unedited:

Laura! Was that a Toad attempt at the end!? Nice.

Spot X

"Hey Mike, I was thinking we should head south tomorrow. We can find sideshore wind and the waves will be bigger." Guillaume is always super motivated.
8:45am: Stocked up with Red Bulls, a full tank of gas, La Palma breakfast tacos and 96.5 The Beach we were set. Stopping off at Bob Hall, it was 30mph, side off and ankle high. Time to head south!

Any trip like this you can't help but second guess your choices. Should we have sailed Packery or Port A? Does it look windy? Do you think the current will be too strong? Is that a shark fin? The further south we went, the bigger the waves and as the sun came out the wind started to crank. Finally we turned up at Spot X. Here it is (give or take 5 miles. A to B is 15 miles):

 
Guillaume was rigged and ready first on 4.5. I joined him on 4.8. As I launched I looked up to see him boost a super nice backie attempt. "Yes. Its ON!!!". I didn't last long on 4.8, and quickly rigged down to 4.4. The waves were solid head high. Brown and meaty. The current was also ripping, the only real negative. I spent a little time getting worked after trying to hit one of those lips and quickly found myself quite a ways downwind.

Towards the end of the session Gui got out the camcorder. I really wanted to get a big forward on camera, so proceeded to crash horribly for the camera. It's interesting to watch as it shows exactly how not to loop. Maybe I will blog about that sometime.

So yeah. Awesome day. Awesome call. To make it all the better we stopped off at Port A on the way home and it was totally flat. Next time a front rolls through with no real waves to speak of, I know where to go. And if it's too offshore or the waves are too small for you, just drive another 10 to 15 miles.

Butt You Missed It!

Fun weekend at Bird. Tried more Toads and Brian got in on the action too. A bunch of attempts were caught on camera which is awesome, butt for one problem. Here is Brians best attempt:

 

And mine:

 



 

Of all the luck! Thankfully there was this one:

 



 

Errrr. Thank you Jack (my 2-1/2 yr old). Did I mention we had fajitas for dinner Saturday? Beautifully cooked on the grill. I love grilling on the beach. Now I'm not so sure:

 

 



 

Murphy's Law!!

Be Careful What You Wish For

Port A was EVEN bigger today than last Tuesday. Coupled with the lighter wind, it was purty challenging out there.

Towards the end of the session I managed to get way out past the breaking waves and was slogging my way upwind. "Finally I can relax" I thought. Next second I hear the sound of a breaking wave and look around my sail to find a monster wave breaking top to bottom right in front of me. The 10ft high lip swatted me and my sail flat and I held on to the boom for dear life as I bounced and body surfed for what seemed an eternity. Finally I surfaced. Checked my kit was still intact. And decided to call it a day.

The Toad

Great wind Saturday at Bird with lots of people. I tried some Toads!!! Here is how you are supposed to do the move:

Given enough wind, it seems like a very doable move. My first attempt was pretty decent. After that one they slowly looked more and more like clew first spock attempts, which isn't all that bad either considering I was trying on starboard tack!

I have a little bit of video, but no good attempts so didn't put anything up. It's motivating to be trying something new.

Oh! That reminds me. I have had feedback that the blog takes too long to load. Personally I like that you can page down and read lots of stuff. But I'm going to adjust it so it just loads up a few posts. If you liked it better before, let me know!

For KiteBoy

I'm suffering severely from 4 fun fueled days of windsurfing. Each day better than the last.

Saturday - light 5.2 session with 84 twin at South Packery, small waves, some jumping.

Sunday - 5.2 then 4.8 at Bird. I got my Bird freestyle mojo back! Tried clew first spocks because I was way too powered for anything else. Also thought about trying Toads on my 'can only gybe or tack' side.

Monday at work. Decided it was time to utilize some of those vacation days -  rolled up to Packery at 5pm with the sensor showing 30mph average from the South and Olivier and Enes ripping it up. First run out a nice wave kicked up in front of me and BAMM I boosted a backie. I got the usual lift but then seemed to get another boost. WOO HOO!! No way was I gonna hold that one. Bail!!!

Some random person took some video and sent me this clip via e-mail. Thought that was rather nice.

Tuesday - one word. Amazing. To be honest it was a little bitter sweet... Port Aransas. Perfect over head set waves and side off winds. The exact conditions for which I bought Alexs board. Unfortunately, my body wasn't cooperating. It was easily the best day I have ever seen at Port A but 40 minutes in I could barely hang on to the boom. Noooo! If only it could have lasted for longer.

Santa Came Late

Woah!!! I thought, after seeing this forecast yesterday morning:

In my mind, I left work a little early, the West wind slowly switched SouthWest and I rolled up to Surfside to find perfectly groomed head high waves and side off wind. Unfortunately, as with most fantasies, the reality was somewhat different. The head high waves were ankle high at best and the wind was cranking offshore. Disaster!!!

With an hour of daylight left I decided to check out xmas bay. And what a gift!!

Low expectations, super flat water, 30 mph winds, 4.4 and 84L twin = OVERPOWERED FUN!!!

I had a blast sailing until the sun went down. Thanks to Gary Cobbs and co. for hanging around and the pic above (off facebook). Merry xmas!

5.2 Sesh

I just checked my diary and it looks like the last time I may have tried a grubby was June last year. So much for the Grubby Quest. I guess I've been on a Grubbattical. Anyway, tried a bunch today at Bird and got some tips off Randy. Randy, Brian and Laura were all ripping. Super day.

Port A Unedited...

Let me relay a conversation, after the last Port A session.

Me - "Thanks for filming this morning Brian at Port A. Did you get any decent footage?"
Brian - "Yeah, I got all your rides. There are even some funny parts and an accompanying sound track so you won't even need to edit it."

Awesome I thought. All I have to do is download it onto my laptop and it will be good to go. Finally, I got round to doing it this morning (best with sound). To be honest, it's a little disconcerting... :-)

 

Day trip to Corpus tomorrow? Decisions, decisions.

The Weekend

Great weekend with the gang. Bird was good on Saturday but I was rusty and overpowered. I finally switched down to 4.8 and then had a blast. Sundays forecast was top notch but the front came through earlier, colder and with more West than forecast. It was super hard to get on the wave. Brian selflessly took video instead of slogging in the 46 degree temperature. Here is one wave:

 The new board seems to be working out. It looks pretty fast in the video. Feels loose. Nice.

Bob Hall Wind Sensor

Slog n ride dawn session, Saturday at Port A on 5.6 and 84 Twin. Got six turns on one long clean chest high wave, then it got so light I couldn't waterstart. Glug glug.

I think the direction of the Bob Hall wind sensor is off by 10 degrees or so. I'm not sure how to describe the direction. It's 10 degrees too anti-clockwise if that makes sense. You might think 10 degrees is irrelevant, but it can make a big difference between the decision to sail at Packery or Port A in a Northerly, or whether Packery will be too on-shore in a SE.