2/23/09 Ghent

New JP FSW 101 Pro arrived a few days ago at the offices of Atlantic Charter Insurance and was entrusted into the capable hands of Robert "RAAV" Spurgeon. He, under extreme pressures mostly from his new puppy, was able to take delivery of the board and transport it from said insurance offices to my garage where it stayed, still wrapped up, until I was able to retreive it on Monday AM. As usual the fin looks like it sucks. Tom Britt bought the 2006 FSW 102 a few weeks ago.

2/1/09 Rodanthe

Warmish air. Cold water. Good forecast, dissapointing conditions. Billy, Mary, Glenn, Marcy, Bob. Marginal 6.0 to 7.5. Tested the 7.5 X-Type lent to me by Margaret. Much more powerful than the Crossover, not nearly as manueverable. Also rode Marcy's 118 JP SS. Fast, fast. Feet got cold, watched the Superbowl. Sick to my stomach. Too much junk. Basically a reminder that I hate the cold.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.