Update October 3, 2012 Had a few decent sailing sessions so far in 2012. 1 in Corolla 6.2/101 blowing NE 20-25. Week of McGowan Vacation. The inside was waist to chest and a washing machine. The outside was GIGANTIC. Easily the biggest I have ever been in. Was sailing alone and only stayed out for 30-45 minutes. NUTS. Second decent session was a Hatteras trip with Raav. Got permit for the truck and sailed the ocean 101. I hurt my hand by punching the mast on a whipeout and it still hurts 2+ months later. SUP sailing has been great. So has SUP surfing. Lots of sessions in Corolla and VB. AWT was fun nice SUP and surf sailing for most of it, it blew last half of last day. Loaned the ACID to KP and sailed at ramp 45 on 101. Dan, Carl, Raav, Chris B, Contos, Rowland at AWT. More posts to come.

Winter 2011-March 13, 2012

Had 1 decent session at Kashy's with a bunch of the regulars. 5.3 on the Acid. N wind, should have sailed at Chicks. Also 2 or 3 fun sessions on the SUP with Rob and or Billy. Season is starting up, hopefully this one will prove more fruitful.

Nags Head 9/14-9/18/11

Its been a horrible summer for water sports. Buying and moving into the 1901 has taken up a great deal of time, as well as being very busy at work. Hurricane Irene screwed us out of our wave sailing contest and cut a few new inlets so we rented a place in Nags Head. That's right, Nags Head. I know, I know, but whatever.

The major players were all there: RAAV, Crouching Tiger, Dan, Carl, Chris Burgess, Ben from back-in-the-day, and Chris Burgess' tramp stamp.

We picked up the tiger at the airport Wednesday AM and headed down, stopping at Southland so we could walk through the redneckly awesome, smoking allowed, disgusting electronic gambling area on the way to get our BBQ sandwiches. We walked out the same way.

Dan rode down with me and RAAV, proudly driving M.D. Smith's aging F-250 packed to the gills with windsurfing, surfing and SUP gear, rode with the Tiger. We got our key from Kitty Dunes and the Tiger received an anxious phone call from Vegas. He had forgotton to sign his own permission-to-go-on-a-windsurfing trip form, so he had to get it emailed to himself, sign it and get it back to his wife before we could really proceed with our trip.

We had tenative plans to meet Pat et-al and after getting more SUP gear from Bill Bell, we managed to meet at the house. Our next stop was a ponderous windsurfing rental situation (to be repeated over the next few days. RAAV really took the lead. If left to his own devices, the Tiger would still be there figuring out what to rent (not really, but you get the point.)

We finally got to the beach and met Pat, Chelsea, Dave, Jeremy, Jeremy's girlfriend. Surfed decent waves all afternoon, drank beers, no windsurfing. The Corolla set went back north before dinner and we hit Tortugas for sushi night, a real winner. Dan had some sushi and we don't know if he liked it or not.

More ponderous rental torture then an unbelievable day of SUPing and windsurfing. The videos below tell the tale.

The next day was spent drinving over to Stumpy point to sail onshore in muddy, ok 5.3 conditions. The last day was a decent session just north of the currituck bridge again on 5.3.

An OK trip, hopefully next year the contest will happen.

7/22-7/30/11 Cape Cod

Cape Cod comes through again. 1 nice day at West Dennis 6.2/101 South. I awesome day of SUP surfing at Coast Guard Beach. Waist to chest waves just kept rolling in. Clear water could see all the way to the bottom, just six miles away from where they were seeing Great Whites. Rented a second SUP from Nauset sports, a Hobie. LML liked it enough to get on it just about every day, starting in small lakes and progressing to the Cape Cod Bay. All the kids from the various families liked it. Oechler, Isaac, Fabbri.

7/3-7/4/2011 Corolla

2 Days of really the first SUP surfing sessions with enough success to report on. Thigh high and clean all day for both days. Especially Sunday AM. FUN. Hung out on beach all day with LJM, Agnes, Matt, and the girls. Several sessions per day.

6/25/11 Avon

Picked up Rob at 11ish AM and headed into OBX traffic. After checking the wind every 15 minutes for 3 hours we arrived in Avon around 3pm. It was SSW at around 20. We decided to check the waves at ramp 30. Not much. Almost got stuck but careful driving and 10lbs of tire pressure won out and we made it off the beach. Swung into the turnout and after making fun of the people who were there (kiters,) we rigged our 6.0's and 100 liter boards.

It was flat as hell for the first 1/2 hour or so as we stayed close, getting our timing back and making sure there really was wind. Rob tried a few vulcans, I slammed into as many laydowns as I could and then we went to the Reef. The REEF is VERY close to the turnout, like a mile straight out, in case anyone was wondering. Rob mooned me on the way out, he's got great tan lines.

For the next couple hours we hit every possible wave getting as much air as possible off the port ramps (or as much as one can with a 6.0 off a 3 or 4 foot semi steep wave.) The jibing on the outside was nice and there was even some decent wave rides on the way in.

We then took a break, drank 2 liters of water each, checked in with almost all of the Tidewater windsurfing crowd at the HOLE, left 2 or 3 messages for Contos (or so we thought) and then jammed our 7 boards and gear back onto the truck and headed out to Ramp 34 for an ocean session.

By this time it was pushing 5.0 on the sound and was solid 6.0 on the ocean SSW. There were waist high peelers coming in and we drove north of the ramp a mile or so and found a nice bar that looked like it was working. Rerigged the 6.0's and 100l boards (our idea of strapping them rigged on top of our other gear for the ride to the ocean didn't really pan out) and hit it. The sailing was fantastic. Solid 6.0 with BEAUTIFUL swells on which to jibe. Saw Rob hit many a sweet duck before picking a nice swell to ride back to the break. The wave riding was F-U-N. EASY. Classic down-the-line wave sailing, but on small waves with little or no impact zone. We each had many great rides. Just pulled into one after another.

Then the wind started getting questionable. Normally this would have been the end of the session, but thanks to Kung Fu Jack and Billy, Rob and I now own SUP's. Popped those 6.0's onto the big boards and wave sailed till dark. For those of you who have never considered getting an SUP, get one for times like this: ocean sailing when there is wind less than 18. Nothing but fun. These boards are so at home in the waves. Very relaxing to sail, easy to turn, and hard to fall off of (at least when sailing them.)

After a few cold ones on the beach we re packed the truck (this took like 45 minutes), and headed up to Nags Head to get dinner at Tortuga's. I was thinking about ordering a nice piece of grilled Mahi with a side of rice and beans and a little salad. Maybe some steamed shrimp as an appetizer. I think Rob was thinking Tuna, but whatever, Mahi's better. We passed Tortugas by mistake, so we pulled into Goombays. Kitchen closed. Lame. Ended up at what used to be Hooters eating a cruddy sandwhich after an even cruddier app of crabmeat over french fries (Rob's idea.) Rob had fish tacos which he complained about. I had a beer and a coke to drink and Rob had-get this: a diet Red Bull and vodka. He actually asked the bartender if they had the diet Red Bull. And they HAD it. Weird. Made it back to ORF without incident. Parked the car at Rob's for unloading in the AM.

Moral of this story?

Go to Hatteras whenever possible.

CRL

4/16/11 Buckroe

Forecast was for SE 25/Big rain in the afternoon. The air temp was high 60's-low 70's. Me, Raav, Kung Fu, Knight, Derek, Carl. Launched from playground at Buckroe, north of pier. First went out on Acid w/ 5.3. Got blown off the water so switched to 74/4.4. This was the wrong thing to do. I did need a smaller sail, but the wind was unbelievably gusty. It would blow 35 for 10 minutes, then 20. Towards the end of the day I put the 4.4 on the acid and had a decent end of session-session. When the wind was up, we had some decent wave riding and some decent port jumps. Raav and Carl getting nice jumps on starboard. I really only had an OK session. Need to get back on the water and get my timing back.