Weed Antics

The weed this year has been on another level. I'm not talking about the grass-like stuff, I'm talking heavy duty seaweed. Thick carpets of it floating around the Gulf of Mexico en masse.

Wait. Wait. What? Du-ude is talking about seaweed? Wait. What. Oh!

So after seaweed ruined the best spring wave sailing sesh ever I quickly invested in a set of Makani weed fins for my Quad. Some time in June, weed fins packed and ready, we headed out targeting a late Packery session and arrived at the beach with wind and one hour of daylight remaining. First run out, I felt like a trawler, dragging large lumps behind me. Time for the weed fins!

Switching out the side fins first I couldn't get them in the mini-tuttlebox. Oh no! Precious minutes being lost. Digging around in my toolbox I found some sandpaper and got to work, finally getting them in with sunset approaching. I can still get 30 minutes in I thought.

Next the rear fins. And that is where it turned ugly. They didn't fit. The fin base was too long to actually fit inside the mini-US box. I was not a happy bunny.

The next day I trimmed as much excess material off the fin base ends as possible and using a shortened fin box nut managed to squeeze the fins in, just in time for a fun side-on Packery day. The moral of the story? Test your stuff well before you try to use in earnest on the beach and double check that the fin you are buying will fit your box before spending a bunch of money.

So, how do they ride? Really nice actually. Last time I sailed I switched between the 16cm weed fin and the 15cm regular fin and found the difference quite interesting. There are a number differences in the setup, the fins are different sizes obviously, the shape is different (but not that much actually) and due to the rake of the weed fin, I think it is a bit like moving the fin almost an inch further back in the box. Whilst I can comment on the change in feel from all these changes, the engineer in me would like to isolate each variable and figure out which makes the biggest difference. My guess is that the 'effective' fin positioning is the key driver in the differing feel.

One 16cm weed vs. one 15cm regular - note the perspective over-exaggerates the differences

Planing off the beach, I didn't see a big difference in the get up and go. I did however, have to be much more delicate with the 15cm fin. If I hoofed the back foot the nose of the board would head upwind and the tail would crab sideways with the smaller fin. After sailing the bigger weed fin set up for a while I had become used to pushing as hard as I liked. Readjusting to the front foot, I was up and away.

Gybing on outside swell I found it more difficult to maintain my speed with the smaller fins and stay with the wave. To be honest, I didn't expect to feel so much difference.

Onto the wave. The smaller fins felt free and loose, quick changes felt much easier. I'm liking this I thought but there was also a feeling that I was pushing the tail out in the bottom turn. And the real negative for side-on conditions was that I was loosing speed. So, whilst my turns were shorter and skatier, they felt slower with less power. In comparison, the bigger more rearward fins would drive me through the turn, keeping speed for the top turn. It would be really interesting to watch some video to see if there was a visual difference.Which is best and why? I'm honestly on the fence. For onshore conditions, I think the weed fin might have it. That said, I will probably ride the 15s unless the weeds come back but only because it's too much work to change them back and Texas side-off conditions are imminent!

September Waves

Regurgitating this clip from last September as I'm media-less. I love the chilled vibe and yesterday had similar conditions. After virtually nothing since June, this last session made my fifth good September wave sailing session.

As I was packing up a guy walked up to me. "I just wanted to tell you, I really enjoyed watching you. It looks like so much fun out there. You must be really good at it." Stoked!

Full power side-on 5.2 sailing for 3 hours made the day trip well worth it. With rain approaching I decided to get one last session in. As the rain hit, something magical happened. The wind switched from ENE to N, the stinging rain flattened any chop so that I could see the clean swell lines marching in, making it easy to pick off the best ones. I whooped in joy as I rode chest high smooth side off perfection. 5 or 6 waves down and the wind disappeared, necessitating a swim in. The drive home passed quickly in a haze of contentment.

Texas sunset

Mile 37.5

The radio crackled "You are not authorized to provide assistance. Advise them to do everything they can to save their vehicle."
"Roger that, 10-4."
Me - "Julie. We are fucked."(see footnote)

I have this vision in my mind. The forecast is calling for 20-25 knots from the SE, 6-8 ft waves. We jump in the truck and cruise 60 miles down the beach to the Mansfield Jettys for side shore wave sailing perfection. I have had this vision for quite some time now but it never quite worked out. This last weekend however was setting up perfectly.


Check out the set-up. Oh baby, it's gonna be the best day EVERRRR!!!

Last time we drove that way the tide was low and we cruised down on smooth hard packed sand. This time, we banked a quick insurance session at Bird and headed out around 3pm, expecting to be on the water by 5:30ish.

It didn't quite work out like that. The beach was a thick carpet of rotting seaweed and the water was higher than I had ever seen. Most of the time we had to stay up by the dunes bouncing along at 10-15 mph in the deep soft sand. When there was some beach showing, instead of cruising along in comfort, we would hit these soft patches that were really disconcerting. The 4WD pulled us out of a few tight spots. After an hour Julie suggested that we ask someone if the driving conditions improved further south...after a couple of hours Julie suggested that we turn back..."Once we are past this part, I'm sure it will get better" I responded, on a mission.

Finally a section of beach opened up and we started to make good time cruising along close to the waters edge. "This seems better." I said smiling and relaxing a little. The truck slewed to the left. I fought to keep it straight and maintain our momentum but we stopped dead. I put the truck in 4LO but we didn't move. Weird I thought. "Let me see what is going on." but there was something wrong with my door, it wouldn't open. "Can you check it out?" I asked Julie. She jumped out and with a look of horror cried out "Mike, we are sinking!" as she said this a wave washed up against the drivers side door of the truck.

There we were. In the middle of nowhere. No phone service. Not a soul in sight. With the sea washing up against the truck as it sank deeper and deeper into a bog of watery sand. We started to dig. We didn't have any tools so we used our hands. As we cleared the sand from around the truck it was replaced by water, then a wave would wash up, reversing any progress that we had made. The true meaning of being in deep shit starting to become clear.

Then, a ray of hope. Someone was approaching. "It's turtle patrol!"

"I can call you a tow truck" she said. "It's a thousand dollars and they won't come out until tomorrow."
"But, the truck will be submerged at high tide. Isn't there anything you can do?"

She called us in on the radio. "They are at mile 37.5. Is there anything we can do for them?"
The radio crackled "You are not authorized to provide assistance. Advise them to do everything they can to save their vehicle."
"Roger that, 10-4."


Turtle Patrol - aka: Our savior!

After a pause..."There were some people camped out a couple of miles north. I'm really not supposed to but let me go back and see if they can help." she said.
"Thank you!"

It seemed an age. We dug some more, searched for wood to put under the wheels, cleared the water from the exhaust. "She's coming back. Alone." Our hearts sank. As she got closer the ATV turned into a truck, fully decked out for off roading. Is this a mirage I wondered. In the distance a second truck followed, also pimped out for serious 4 wheeling. No, not a mirage. The most glorious of sights.

In minutes we were hooked up to the winches. It took both trucks to get any movement but slowly our truck lifted up and out. No apparent damage and with the engine still running. We were saved!!


The Rescue Crew and Their Toys

Our savior cautioned us on going further south and talked about it being impassable by ATV. We quickly reassured her of our intent to head home and followed her recommendation to stick to the high route. This meant 37.5 miles of soft but neck achingly bouncy sand, the last hour of it in the dark. When we finally reached it, solid road had never felt so good. Rolling into North Padre we called the gang and were just in time to join them for a couple of Peruvian Iced Teas at Costa Sur and a story to tell.

**Sorry for the use of bad language, especially on the blog, but I did use those words and they reflect the gravitas of our situation.

AWT Virgin

My heart beat was hammering. Sound muffled. My vision narrowed as though I were watching life though a long black tunnel. The green flag went up. I blew my outside gybe and found myself hyperventilating.

"Mike!! Get a grip!" I caught a wave, got a couple of weak turns. Sound slowly returned. I water started out of a back slapping forward. The tunnel vision started to recede. I got a good lip crack. I started to smile. A couple more fun backside/frontside combo wave rides and the red flag went up. "Already!!?"  The fastest and one of the most bizarre 12 minutes of my life.


Waiting for the green flag - pic off facebook American Windsurfing Tour

I have wanted to do the AWT for a while but there was always an excuse. Getting the season pass 'for Christmas' I found myself committed. With no wind in Santa Cruz I headed straight to Pistol River for some top notch sailing and then the competition.

 

So, how was the competition? It was a pretty awesome experience. The AWT team are all friendly and welcoming. I met lots of like minded wave sailors and got to see the pros ripping it up.

Should you do it? If you have a passion for wave sailing and want to improve, then it is definitely for you. I occassionally forward in starboard tack waves, when the moon is aligned, the ramp is steep but not too steep, I'm perfectly powered, the water is blue etc. And yet I busted a bunch in the competition. I don't recall the last time I took a hand off or tried a table top but there I was! Throwing one handed jumps and table top attempts.

Would I do it again? For sure. A combo family trip to Peru would be amazing and I have always wanted to check out Hatteras. Unfortunately, unless I can work some magic it doesn't too look good for the rest of this year. So, roll on 2015!

The Jetty, Gold Beach

Me: Are there dolphins here? I saw one just floating 50 feet upwind of me
Steve: Not that I know of, it must have been a sea lion
Me: Weird, do sea lions have dorsal fins?
Steve: Sure don't...

This website link shows the spot. Page down to the fifth map for some info. Oh my...!

Road Trip

Three days of overpowered 4.0. Side-on winds. Solid waves. Ultra cold water. Stuff like this:



Jeff Albright, I took this off facebook

'The Rock' Pistol River. Hardcore. Ass kickingly wild windsurfing conditions. I was meant to stop at Santa Cruz in advance of the AWT, but there was no wind. So I just kept driving. Some interesting facts:

• The speed limit between San Antonio and El Paso is 80 mph! Who said Texans drive slow
• Gas went from $3.35 to $4.42 per gallon just by crossing the Arizona/California border
• The truck doesn't do much better than 17mpg unless I drive 60 mph. Ouch! But I can sleep in it in relative comfort, carry all my gear including 3 boards and drive on the beach without getting stuck.

Aside from the humbling sailing conditions. The view from my room is pretty good, you can see whales swimming by.

The attempted solution to my neck rash.

That is one big tuba lube!

Up to now I have been seriously impressed with the sailing level and motivation of the local sailors. It's great to watch them ride the outside set waves. So much to learn.

Ticket to Ride

The Golden Ticket. A week in Punta San Carlos whenever you choose. No restrictions. Absolute genius. The only thing better would be life time membership. Imagine that!

It sat there on my mantlepiece. Beckoning. "Ride me" it said "Quick!".

A two week window in May opened up. Exercise it! Week #1 didn't look too good for swell so I plumbed for week #2 and booked the flight. Fingers crossed!! As it got closer the forecast degenerated. Wednesday night as I moped around the house Julie casually commented "My work trip is cancelled, why don't you go the week after?".

"Wha....???? Really? Really?! Really!!!!!"

A few emails to the campo. Rescheduled flight to San Diego and week #3 was ON! Surfline called for a week of 3 to 4ft SW swell at 15second. Oh baby. The beauty of the Golden Ticket.

So, windsurfer magazine style, here is my Top Ten, both good and bad:

1. The people. Staff, clientelle and especially the Afficionados

Human Baja Fog Table

2. The proper good conditions. 8 days out of 8 in head high plus waves. Wind every day, albeit some days were lighter than others. Conditions like this:

Love this pic. Think I made it?

3. The kiters advantage. On the lighter days they were all over it. Catching all the set waves at the Bombora. Ripping the waves. Compared to wave sailing, so much easier...

4. SUPing. So much fun! It doesn't get much better than the beach break for long easy rides. I decided to buy one.

5. One aerial. I can still feel it. The ease, the power, the float, the projection. All in slow motion. A moment to cherish.

6. Injury. Day 2 I got rolled in the footstraps. Wearing booties because of my foot issues I couldn't get out. Something popped. Pain and nausea. Distraught.

7. Medical care. Within minutes I had ice packs, a compression bandage, copious ibuprofen and a Baja Fog. A remarkable recovery followed.

8. The Pilot. He joked that he hadn't flown in 20 yrs and couldn't find the on/off switch. Uh-oh! 30 minutes into the return journey. "He pulled out his wang" (Jasons words from the copilot seat) and proceeded to fill a ziplock bag.

9. The Bar Man. He mixed a mean margarita, ripped in the waves and took great pics. All blog pics courtesy of Mark the barman. Rumour has it, that he is payed in scotch.

10. Next Time. I already started saving for another ticket to ride!

Love this sequence. Click it to see better. Can't wait for the next trip!

Alligator Encounter

Last week at Xmas bay the kids were playing in the long grass next to the launch. "They really shouldn't be doing that" I thought, "there could be all sorts of things in there". Lo and behold, we pulled up yesterday at the same spot and there were three large brown snakes sunning themselves on the edge of the grass.

It got me thinking about the numerous run-ins with nature from the last few years. There was the 9ft tiger shark caught at Packery Channel, or the creature that grabbed and sucked on Julies leg at Cole Park, or the thousands of stinging jellyfish at Port Aransas that I fell in to the middle of one time, or the girl who got stung by a scorpion whilst windsurfing at Bird. It seems it had hitched a lift on the boom.

But probably the wildest was Noels alligator encounter. Noel was sailing at the Levee on a sunny spring day. Not a popular hang out for alligators as it is sandy beach and salty water. Plenty of people were on the water having fun. Windsurfers, kiters, fishermen and swimmers.

Noel was blasting out when he hit something hard. The impact catapulted him over the front of his board into the water. Thinking that he had hit a piece of floating debris he collected himself, he reorganized his kit, finally waterstarted and started heading back towards the launch. However, in the back of his mind there was a nagging feeling that something was wrong. As he started to pump the sail to get planing he glanced backwards to see an 8ft alligator swimming right behind him just inches from his board. It was glaring at Noel, straight in the eye. Noel had never got planing faster in his life and quickly put a safe distance between him and the angry alligator, luckily injury free with quite a tale to tell.

Ribbit, ribbit

That's the sound a toad makes. After three weekends of Bird Island sailing in a row my desire for waves got the better of me. I couldn't face another session at Bird so a wild goose chase ensued looking for wind waves and no weeds! Alas it was not meant to be. We finally ended up at xmas bay and it was awesome. Ultra flat water, shallow but not too shallow and nice steady wind. Freestyle heaven!

I tried a bunch of toads and my wonderful wife took video. Here are some of the attempts:

This is how you are supposed to do it:

They...ahem...cough...do look a little different! It is however really helpful to compare them. My key take away is that I need to pop after initiating the sail rotation, not before. I'm sure there are lot's of other things I could work on (speed, power, age) but let's try that and see how it goes. Tips and comments welcome!

4.0 was too big!

It was super duper windy today at the Levee. Like, proper windy. So my vision of busting planing Toads didn't quite work out - I was barely able to gybe. The weekend was good. Seems like a long time since we had two days in a row. My foot was bothering me so didn't do too well but Brian was goin awwwffff!! Check him out:

Booty II

I should listen to my own booty tips. I couldn't stop sailing yesterday at Quintana on 5.6, Goya 84 and waist high waves. It was super fun and I would love to have some footage but forgot to charge the camcorder. This was the price I paid, looks I will have to dig out the booties again:

It stings! Ewww, I have hairs on my toes.

It was good to see Clarence out in the waves and there was a really good crowd hanging on the beach, Julie and the kids had fun too.

I also sailed the Levee last Sunday on 6.0. No evidence of the recent oil spill which is good. I once sailed there after a benzene leak and came out in a full body rash. Sometimes after sailing there my hair is super silky like I've been using hair conditioner. Weird huh?

How fast do you fail?

Fun Packery sesh on 4.0 then 4.8 with the custom. It sure was windy:

It was perfect conditions for trying Goiters. I considered trying a few, but didn't. It made me think of an email I got last week titled "How fast do you fail". This is what it said.

A 12-month-old baby knows a lot about failure. Every time she lets go of the coffee table to attempt a step or two – thump! Failed again. Of course the easiest way for our cute little one to avoid failure is to give up on the idea of walking. It would be so much easier to just sit and let Mom bring the bottle.

There are a couple of reasons why that toddler keeps trying. First, the world looks pretty big and exciting and you can cover a lot more ground on two feet than on all fours, so it’s worth the effort. But more importantly, she hasn’t yet got the memo that failure is a bad thing. There’s no shame in falling on your butt when you’re 12 months old. In fact we grown-ups think it’s pretty darn cute.
But by the time we’ve grown up, been formally educated and got a job, they’ve managed to thoroughly convince us that failure is the worst possible option, to be avoided at all costs. And that’s when most growth and learning stops.

When was the last time I tried a grubby? Or a starboard tack vulcan? Or a taka or goiter? I don't actually recall. Maybe I'm too scared of breaking a hip?! I think it's time to start acting like a teenager again!

It's awfully cold in Texas, don't you think?

Port A was a big slogging failure this morning. Hardly any wind, too offshore, small waves. I was like "What a failure!!!". This didn't help my mood:

Yay for spring breakers...

So on the way home, I stopped at Packery. It looked a little better. I rigged the 5.6 and Goya 84 and sat in the truck unable to pluck up the courage to put on my moist, cold wetsuit. Plus there were half a dozen surfers on 'my' break down by El Constante. Finally, I got out there and slowly but surely the day got better and better. The surfers disappeared, the wind picked up a tad, the waves were all in the right place. Fun! Cold...but fun.

Didn't get any video or anything but last week, when I found my first loop attempt from 9 yrs ago I also found another clip named 'sexymike'. I thought it was funny but I guess I made it, best with sound.

It's the Oscars!

And my money is on Matthew McConaughey on account of his movie being set in Texas. Go Texas Windsurfing! Yee haww!!! Really fun session today at Bird on 5.6 with Brian. It was good to see Philip back in Corpus, he rips. And also to see Alissa at Bird. She recently ran 50 miles in 8 hours, which is insane.

I made quite a few spocks today, time to start trying other stuff?! Probably...

I'm media-less from the weekend and Wednesdays Port A sesh on 4.4 and my pretty new Goya. However, I was trawling through my computer and found a clip of a loop attempt at East Beach from 9 years ago!! Might as well stick it up:

Goya 84 Quad

After 4 years of joy with my 84 twin and ridiculous amounts of soul searching and deliberation. I have decided it is time for a new wave board. And...drum roll please....the decision went to the Goya 84 Quad!

Believe you me, choosing this board was not an easy decision. Considering my mild obsession with the KT83, the new (and I would hope better) Quatro Pyramid could easily have taken it. But when I wrote down my criteria the Goya bubbled to the top. I wanted something that would plane early and work with 5.6 for Packery days. Something that would be as good as the Mistral for 4.7/4.2 bump and jump. And something that would rip in waist to head high Texas waves. For waves bigger and faster than that I have the custom.

I also wanted to consolidate and replace the 84 twin and Julies 95 freewave with one board. For a good while I thought I wanted something around 90 litres but having demoed a couple of boards in that size in Brazil and Maui it became clear that 80 to 84L was the perfect size range for me.

Here it is standing between my trusty twin fin and custom:

Looks pretty huh? Dimensionally it is very similar to the Mistral. Whilst quoted as longer and narrower, it is actually a tiny bit shorter than the Mistral.

 Coincidentally, they are both Brawzinho models. Cool huh? But it looks to me like Goya played it smart and used a removable sticker for theirs. You never know when a better deal might come along.

I found the positioning of the footstraps and mast track quite interesting and drew some horizontal lines to highlight the differences. Everything is so much further forward on the Mistral. No wonder the nose would dive faster than an Italian footballer. I'm hoping the rearward position of the straps on the Goya will make landing back loops easier.

 

The leading edge of the rear fins is in the middle of the back strap, which is pretty standard I think.

Unless you have a custom...

I am desperate to take it for a spin but aside from one weekend in January, I have barely sailed in months. Come on wind! Right now all I can do is admire the boards design features and wait for some decent wind.

My wife Julie thinks I get too 'into' my windsurfing equipment. I told her she was being ridiculous, but she claimed to have photographic evidence. The photos don't show anything. I'm perfectly normal...