Sunday, October 18, 2009

Every good session deserves a bad techno song

I had a good time this weekend using my smaller windsurfing boards in the W / NW winds from a cold front.

Saturday was sort-of the "warm up", with just a dying-light flat water session with 6.6 / 106 liter board. I was proud of my one completed duck jibe until I watched it on this video and realized it was the weirdest, wrongest duck jibe ever. Oh, well. My friend Marc was messing with his new kite and got a 10 second ride. Woo hoo!



Sunday was the glory day, with fun ocean sailing at the Fort Pierce Jetty. The wind was about 30 degrees offshore, and very gusty and shifty, which made it challenging. Yet, when a gust coincided with a jumpable or rideable wave, it was perfect. There were some clean swells coming through occasionally, and because of the wind angle, it was easy to do "front side" turns on the wave. That's where instead of just sliding down the face of the wave, you turn downwind and ride partway back up the face before redirecting and skootching down again. You can feel the "Gs" when you do it, and it's really fun. I started out on my smallest board, the Evo 83, but I switched to the bigger Exocet Cross 106 to better deal with the flukey conditions. The sail I'm using in the video is a 5.5 Aerotech Charge. Later in the afternoon I switched to the blue 6.6 sail and got some even funner wave rides, but the video of that didn't turn out because my batteries were dead.



There were several kiters rigged at the beach, but only one of them went out, and only for a little while before ending up way downwind, because the shifty conditions were bad for kiting.

2 comments:

JSW225 said...

I can only think about how weird or awkward it will be 30 years from now when we turn on the "Oldies" station to hear the "Blue Song", or "Gangsta Paradise", or "Pretty Fly for a White Guy".

And we'll think back, "God damn. Those were the days."

PeconicPuffin said...

A bad duck jibe is a great set up for a good freestyle move, so practice them! Though there's nothing so sweet (in my book) as planing through a smooth duck jibe...that's always tasty.

Glad to hear your windy season has kicked in!