Saturday, October 25, 2008

10/25/08 Buckroe

Forecast was for SE increasing through the day, got there around noon, rigged 5.4 and Acid and sailed on and off gusty conditions for 3 hours. Big crowd showed up, just crap conditions. Some nice jumps and a few nice wave rides but hardly anything to shout about.

Monday, October 20, 2008

10/16/08-10/19/08 Avon

Simmer 4.4 and RW 74 in like about 35 gusting to 40 in the sound.



Rented a house in Island Creek behind Windsurfing Hatteras with Raav, Ted, Carl, Chris B, Dan. Contos came in for a night. Billy, George Lam, Wayne and Bob R, were renting a house 2 miles south. Thursday was dead with a slight 7.0 session in the evening. Went to visit Billy Thursday night and narrowly avoided getting a DUI thanks to Contos and his quick thinking (telling the officer where we were headed using street names.) Friday started off with 7.0 in the sound out of the northish. Raav was testing the Quatro 105 FSW then the JP FSW 101 then the Quatro Fast Wave 100. He ended up with the JP. Not a big surprise. Afternoon session was 6.0 at Ego beach and was fun. Some good jumps but the wind was marginal. Saturday was 5.0 and 6.0 all day and we stayed on the sound, sailed the reef and whatever. Sunday morning was 4.0 out of the North. The reef was pretty crazy, with Raav and Carl getting HUGE air and great wave riding and some big airs for me. Raav broke his boom so we cut the session off early only to be stuck in Rodanthe by water blasting through and flooding the road at S-Turns. Dan missed his flight out by like 4 minutes and the Sox lost the ALDS. Good trip, back to RRHF.

That house on the left as you ride into Rodanthe 10/19/08.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

9/20/08-Aydlett


N/NNE/NE 25-30. Flatish. Acid/5.4. Wound. Some decent jumps. Lauren, Hooper, Billy, Wayne, Steve, Contos, Barry, a few others. All sorts of jibes were working well, sailed fast. only a relative handful of decent jumps for a full day session. Checked out Steve and Barry's BMW GS 1100's. Totally kool. Ljm was taking pics today, this was the most exciting. Contos in the background with some dudes sail he just bought.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

9/14/08 Factory Point/Messick

SW 15-25, 102/7.2. Shot out to Factory on a Sunday afternoon. The place was deserted when I got there but field glasses revealed a few sailors off Messick. Walked my gear out 200 yards until the water was deep then ripped upwind to Messick in a few tacks. Contos and Billy were there so I sailed with them for 2 or 3 hours. Messick is a nice setup. Grassy bluff to rig, would be great for spectating. Also a cove across the water coupled with a venturi effect makes for an impressive jibe (or Vulcan) zone. The jumping would be good if on smaller sails. Definetely a place to think about when it blows SW and we can't make it south.

Saturday, September 6, 2008

TS HANNA Buckroe 9/6/08

At the garage at 7:30 AM, at Pilot Ave at 8:15, on the water shortly after. ESE/SE 30-35 sustained with gusts into the 40's. RW 74/4.5 Ezzy wave. 8.25" Wardog wave fin. $. Raav, Knight, Kashy, Derek, Uvee, and 1 other sailor. Shore break moderately challenging but nothing to sweat over, the wind was side-on from the right so plenty of pointing ability to get through the breakers which were all over the place and about 3-4'. Most of the challenge came from the fact that at the beginning of the sesh the inside had lulls and a 74 liter board does not float me at all. Outside was incredible. HUGE swells 8-10' tall and FAT. Plus the usual Buckroe chop in places. Saw Raav get into a few backs, and get some nice air. Port jumps were not everywhere but they reared up occasionally giving me a bunch of nice hits. It was windy enough that the landings were nice and soft, even on BIG airs. The swell riding and the swell jibing were simply intense. Cranking hard into a 10' face as it jacks and flying out at faster than full speed is what I do this stuff for. Sailed until noon and quit when the wind jacked up to 45 with gusts over 50. The beach at Buckroe looked like blowing snow. One down side to the EPIC session was that I got 2 blisters on my left hand (as seen below.) Not too sure why this happened. One final observation was that this type of sailing requires CONSTANT immense concentration in order to stay in control and this type of intensity is as tiring as the physical demands the conditions require. Can't wait for the next one.


Friday, September 5, 2008

9/5/08 Buckroe

Day before Hanna. 7.2/102 E. Raav, Knight, Britt, Glen. Fun marginal then nicely powered. some nice jumps for 7.2, and nice turns. Back felt good, looking fwd to a BIG day tomorrow, we all hope it pans out.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

8/23/08 East Beach

Another 7.2/102 day. Longer and more consistent ENE wind. Me, Contos, Jack, the Aussie scientist and some odd bird from outside DC. Fun afternoon into evening sesh with some cold ones afterword.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

8/22/08 East Beach

After coming down from NJ, I met Contos and had a fun 7.2/102 session. Wind was ENE and had to use one of his booms because I FORGOT mine.

Monday, August 11, 2008

8/10/08 Corolla

Crowded beach and thunderstorms accompanied the first session on the new (yellow) Jed Noll. Knee high but nicely formed waves, with a few thigh highers which were actually pretty fun to ride. Surfed for a couple of hours out in front of our house, then the rain came forcing LJM, Hooper, and I off the beach. Lobsterfest 2008 this coming weekend, I wonder if it will be windy so I can shoehorn a session before dinner. Pat is bringing a date but will not commit to who it will be.

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Cape Cod 7/18-7/27/08


First session was 7.2/102 Eastham in front of house. Got into the straps after a low tide long walk. Nothing too spectacular. 2 More days of 6.2/102 at West Dennis SW. Swell riding fun very few ramps. Thursday it blew 25 SSE. 5.4/Acid then 6.2/Acid (first time, not a real great combo.) Overall session was fantastic, one of my best ever, and THE best ever on the Cape. Tons of 2-4' ramps which were lining up perfectly, lots and lots of BIG air and some fabulous wave riding. The change of direction makes West Dennis a completely different experience. It would be worth a trip up there for a weekend if we knew the direction it was going to blow. 4 sessions total, The Cape comes through again. Pictures above are 5.4/Acid in front of our house at Eastham, at the end of the big day. I had driven back from West Dennis exhausted but went back out for a short session anyway. 2 women driving a Subaru Outback (hint) watched me.

Monday, July 7, 2008

7/6/08 Rodanthe

Sailed on the ocean at the end of Bob Rowlands' street with Bob and Contos. 7.2/102 nicely powered. Some really good swells on the outside and some sporatic small rideable waves on the inside. Sound was 6.0, but with the occasional holes and houses the ocean was 7.0. Saw a huge turtle swimming towards the beach on one run and lots of skates and jellyfish as well. Sailed for 3-4 hours. Fun, Fun, Fun.

7/4/08 60thish Street, Va Beach

45 minute 7.2/102 ocean session. Very marginal, but worth it. Went to Scott's for fireworks.

Sunday, June 29, 2008

6/28-29/08 Avon

Left Norfolk around 9:30 AM Sat. with plans to stay until Sunday afternoon. Things worked out. Lauren and Hooper, Acid, Radical, 5.4/4.5/3.7. Sailed the hole for about an hour on 5.4/Acid (boring/zero ramps) then went over to Ego for a few hours of normal 5.0 ocean sailing. It was a nice reminder about how much better the ocean is than ANY other place to sail. Came in around 4 PM and Bill Bell asked if I wanted to be a judge in the Loopoff. 5 local sailors, 30 min heat, some nice loops, all fwds. Went back out for another 1/2 hour or so then went back and checked into the Avon Motel. Fun fact: There were 2 well used flyswatters on the bullitin board in our room. Lauren rallied MD Smith style and got on board.
As we were pulling into the parking lot of the hotel, we ran into Uvee and Dave the tree trimmer. We said a quick hello and made plans to catch a few beers at the Mad Crabber later. Later came and we did meet them and were thoroughly entertained for the rest of the evening.
Next AM after coffee and blueberry muffins we headed back to the Hole where I rigged a 4.5/RW and sailed the sound for an hour or so, again boring (ocean looked a little light and offshore when we arrived.) Went and checked the ocean again and swapped the RW for the Acid and had the best 2 hours of sailing of the year, real nice easy wave riding, wound 4.5, and some decent port ramps on the way in. Left for home around 2:30 PM. A great weekend with Lauren, Hooper, wind, a skeevy motel and a very interesting dinner conversation.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

6/14/08 Corolla

7.2/102 SE ocean North Beach. Sailed for about 30 minutes and the wind backed off. Nice. Also got a new Jed Noll longboard. Leo ate LJM's bra and spread around $1500.00. Sold the Explorer to Dave.

Avon 6/4-6/8/08

Windsurfing weekend, if you want to call it that. Tango and I drove into wound 5.0 conditions Wednesday PM. Sailed Acid until dark, Ted sailed his 5.4 and the AHD. Fun, the sound was better out in front of the really cool rental house than at any other place in Avon other than the reef. Sailed the next morning with the guys on 6.2 and cracked the nose of my 102. Ding sticked it and went back out on the 7.2 Crossover maiden session. Nice. Wind then died for the rest of the weekend. We rented Kona's which were not too fun.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

5/20/08 Rodanthe

SW 25-30. 4.5/RW74. Very little loop progress, ramps not lining up, balls not lining up either. First session on the Sumo 400. Good combination, way better for me than the old 370. Billy, Bob.

Monday, May 19, 2008

5/19/08 ODU

W 20-30 5.4/Acid. Decent but gusty session with Billy. Some decent jumps, tried throwing myself over the front of the board a-la fwd loop with some success, trip to Hatteras tomorrow could see more progress.

Saturday, May 10, 2008

5/9/08 Anderson Point

The first session here. SW/ 20-25 6.2/102. Really good session, a place we will definitely frequent more often. Nice starboard ramps, really big port ramps way out by the markers, it is big water, and to get to the nice swells you have to really go far out. The wind died and I swam for a while until Contos rescued me with the Cat and an Exocet Cross. Knight, Billy as well.

Friday, May 9, 2008

5/8/08 Avon

Well I invited Billy to come with Raav and I on a planned trip to Avon. While everyone is friends it is always an adventure to bring someone new with us. You just never know...
No problems, the ride down was full of tech talk, chick talk, food talk, nothing reallt important. We went directly to Avon Sailhouse and got our 2 NL mast plugged by Margaret. Olaf was his usual off-putting self. Raav got 12 footstraps, Billy and I got some downhaul line. Went and got Contos' useless brand new 5.5 Warp from sailworld. Tried to get out of there as fast as possible. Hit the turnout with solid 5.4/Acid. Raav on 5.0 Ice/FSW 85, Billy on Hucker 4.8/Seatrend ATV. Weeds negligible, reef was decent, not great. We all had some nice moves and jumps, some real high. Stayed out there for 2-3 hours, came in for Chicken Parm subs, and then back out for 6.0 sailing until dusk. Ride home was full of pot, beer, and going over every single sailing event over the past 6 hours. Nice. Got home after 10PM. Nicer.

Sunday, May 4, 2008

5/3/08 Rodanthe

Flat water. SSW 6.2/102, then winding up to Acid/5.4. Sailed all day fast, and turned great, including some fast tacks. Getting on the Acid was so nice compard to the 102. Just so easy to pop out of the water, and the jibing was just unreal. Rowland, Mckendree(s), Perkins, Marcy, a few others. Only a handful of decent airs, really only 1 or 2 that I got excited about, the ramps were just not lining up. Transformers will be fun if I can ever get anyone down there to sail.

Sunday, April 27, 2008

4/24/08 Corolla

Surfed with Pat and Josh at the lighthouse ramp. 3/2 and booties. Some OK knee to waist high waves. Used Pat's Jed Noll board, liked it but not as much as my last board. Also looked at the CSS at some of Mike Cherry's new Jed Noll's and unfortunately found nothing I liked.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

4/22/08 Buckroe, Raav in Rare Form

So Raav began texting me last night about sailing today. His "idea" was to go to East beach at 6AM and sail until 9AM. The funny part about this was that Spurgeon family NEVER sees 6AM under any circumstances. Having said that he did call around 6:30AM and started his "sell." Usually I am the one trying to get him out from in front of the TV and into the water but today it was him trying to get my ass out of bed and on to a board. So we agree to meet at East Beach at like 7:30.
I load the truck and begin the grim trek down Hampton Blvd, stopping at the newish 7-11 to get some "coffee" and a "sausage and egg" sandwich. A knucklehead woman was blocking me in as I was trying to back out of the parking spot but eventually I made my way out of the parking lot. As this was occurring, Raav was arriving at East Beach and was discovering that there was no wind. He called and I headed back to my apartment, he was headed home. I called him from in front of IWindsurf to tell him that it was blowing at Buckroe and that we should go. To my happy astonishment he made the turn onto the interstate and drove to Buckroe. When I eventually met him there, the wind had died, but he had rigged his 5.8/100. So we bullshitted for an hour, looking up IWindsurf on his phone every 4 minutes and reassuring eachother that it would eventually blow. George Lam showed up and Billy M shortly thereafter. The two of them threatened to go to Factory but relented after Raav and I promised not to sail naked.
After a while it picked up. I was on 6.2/102, Raav on the 5.8/100, Lam on 6.8/117, Billy M was riding a 5.6 Hucker and his new Seatrend which, in a stroke of pure genius, he was able to procure from Hatteras Island Sail shop using hardball negotiating tactics and the Jedi Mind trick. Knight was getting his teeth cleaned.
The wind was ENE at 20 gusting to 25ish. Nice. Very nice jumps. Some beautiful ducks by Raav, some nice wave riding on the inside by everyone. Wind strengthened, my jumps got bigger and more frequent, Billy got faster, George got overpowered, and Raav's board got smaller. We sailed like this for about an hour, jibing close, off the lipping and generally impressing all the chicks who had been lining up on the Buckroe pier as soon as word got out that Raav and I were on the Peninsula.
After the wind let up we were all commiserating on the beach when Knight showed up. We knew it was him because his teeth gleemed through the windshield of his van as he pulled into the parking lot. Mr. Contos had a wrestling match with the high rise bridge on 64 and looked pretty beat up when he showed. He unloaded an Ultra Cat, and wondered if he should rig his 9.0. All in all a really fun session.

We all jetted around lunch, each with different thoughts on his mind, and in a different car.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

4/20/08 Willoughby

6.2/102. Billy, Contos. Afternoon to eve session, gusty but fun. Sailed on their boards a little, the new supercross boards are very fast and EASY to really get moving. Much better than older gear. Small jumps, nice jibes, tighties and ducks. Dinner at Fellinis w/ LJM.

Monday, April 7, 2008

4/7/08 East Beach

Afternoon/After work session. Nice. A whole different ball game. Wound up 6.2/FSW 102 with more east so not directly onshore. Made for pretty good conditions. Cold, boots and cap. Can't wait for the warm. Not too many ramps setting up but some good backside wave riding, some chest high waves. Raav, Contos, Billy.

Sunday, April 6, 2008

4/6/08 East Beach

Raav, Billy, Britt, Contos and some others. Marginal 6.0 for the AM. Frustrating morning session. Wind picked up nicely around 2pm but by then I was very tired from sailing underpowered. Sailed for 30 minutes of wound 6.2/FSW102 and then packed it in. 1st week of every other starts tomorrow. We will see how it goes.

Saturday, March 22, 2008

3/22/08 Rodanthe

Sailed at Bob Rowlands' house with Knight, Contos, Perkins, and others. 6.2/102. Flat. WSW 20. Some nice jibes, small jumps, warmish 3/2 no boots.

Sunday, March 9, 2008

2/23-3/1/08 Ecuador




















Surf trip with Francis, Pat, Dan, Jeremy. Waves, Waves, Waves. Trip started trecherous for me with an icy midnight drive out to JFK. Got there early enough to wait for 6 hours at the airport. After a couple of beers I dozed on my board bag and played the Ace Combat X on the PSP (a recurring theme all week.) Flight to Panama was mostly spent dozing, I watched half of knocked up. Met Francis and Dan in Panama for out flight to Guayaquil, Ecuador.Our trip started off on the right foot when all of our luggage and boards made it to GYE. After Pat and Jeremy (who had both been there for a week) met us at the airport and loaded up the rental van we promptly ran into our first snag. The van caught on fire. We ended up on the side of the road in GYE drinking beer and waiting for an exchange from Hertz, which ended up with us having 2 vehicles instead of one. Some Dihatsu SUV and a Hyundai sedan.The first night Pat had us booked into some eco-lodge where all we did was crash, get up the next morning and leave, back to where Pat and Jeremy had been staying and had reserved us a "room." A cabina in a town called Las Tunas, on a desolate old promenade in front of a beach break with great head high waves.The next few days consisted of surfing in the AM, Jeremy documenting every move we made, lunch at some hole in the wall, chicken and rice or pizza, reading (The Time Travelers Wife) or PSP, and then surfing in the evening. The swell was increasing through the week with double overhead sets. We found a point break in a town called Las Entradas which could handle the swell size better than Las Tunas and where I caught the biggest waves of my life. One in particular had a face 4-6ft over my head.Bad news the next day, a clean up set broke my Jed Noll Beauty in half, never to be ridden again. Luckily Francis had an extra board that Pat had brought him from the dude in Norfolk, which I rode and then switched off with Dan. I loved Dan's 8' Rusty large short board. Might have to have a 2 board quiver now.The rest of the week was more of the same with extra beer drinking, custom board shorts, jewelry shopping, and more surfing. Nights were spent sweating under the mosquito netting with my first shower of the week being taken in the rain on the last night. I had caked on sun tan lotion on my face and head and my hair was matted down with whatever.The trip home was long but uneventful. Next surf trip will have more frills, some more creature comforts. But I say that every trip.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

2/10/08 Factory Point

WSW to W 35-45. Air temp high 50's, water temp low 50's. 4/3 w/ booties and cap, no gloves. Raav, Billy, Bob, Contos, Knight, Britt, Kashy. Knight was 1st on the water Raav and I were close behind. 4.5/RW. WOUND, overpowered in the gusts, but didn't want the 3.7. Great session for the first 2 1/2 hours. High tide and great port ramps out by the island, small waves and small but ridable swells on the outside. RW with the 4.5 and the 8.25 Wardog wave fin is $. So controllable yet loose, big jumps, a couple that were close to mast high. Jibing was fast and mostly easy with the right gear, the thin rails of the RW cut through the hectic chop on the inside jibe areas, the outside transitions were mostly on the faces of swells. Went to Billy's for a few apre windsurfing beers. Nice.
Sold my 370 to John Quinn. Will get a 400 Sumo to replace it. The 4.5 Ezzy was decent on the 430 Sumo today. Really didn't have the option to go smaller. Looking fwd to warmer sailing although I know it is months away.

Saturday, February 2, 2008

2/1/08 Rodanthe

First session of the year. First 2008 Hatteras trip for Raav and I. Loaded up the Tacoma. 6 boards etc. Rowlands' house. Me, Raav, Billy, Bob R. Wind SSW 30-35, water temp high 40's/low50's. Air temp low to mid 60's. Sailed JPRW 74 with Ezzy 4.5 w/ booties and 3/2 full. Great combination, the board is so responsive, it demands quicker reaction time and needs to be fully powered before it does anything. Not very good ramps. No surprise. We would have been in the ocean, boilers looked great but the water was too friggin cold. Good location for S wind. The 370 mast on the 4.5 is too soft for me. I need to sell it and get a 400. Last 1/2 hour of the session the wind really came up and the 74 shone. I doubt it will ever be too big for anything. Will be excited when I get a chance to use it in warmer weather, and in some waves.