Monday, March 29, 2010

Yes, I still windsurf

And as a matter of fact I got a cool session after work today at my secret sandbar break at the south end of Fort Pierce. It was fun because the ocean was smooth and the waves were clean, but it was also challenging because the wind was light and gusty near shore and overpowering offshore. Also, the due-offshore wind angle made it kind of tricky to ride the waves into the wind. I got a few, but spent most of the session just putting the pedal to the metal (petal to the medal?) and zooming up and down the coast.

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I don't usually take sneaky pictures of strangers, but this fisherman dude just happened to be there when I was taking pictures of the wave break and I think he makes the shot more interesting.

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After I got out of the water, miraculously escaping cleanly from the shorebreak, it started to really nuke. I packed up hurriedly and drove by "Chucks", our name for the kite launch inside Fort Pierce Inlet, to see if any of my pals were still out. Only Crazy Doug was on the water. He was massively overpowered on a 12 msq kite, but holding it together because he's a good kiter, the kite was a brand new 2010 model with lots of depower control, and he was riding a tiny 125 cm board. One of the things he was doing to stay in control was burying the board deep in the water and throwing tons of spray to slow himself down and force his kite to the edge of the wind window. It looked pretty cool.

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He also was doing his trademark show-off tweaked jumps. Doug turned 52 today.

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Some of the jumps were kinda high.

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I reckon it's a good thing I showed up to help land his kite at sunset, because I don't know how the heck he could have landed it safely without assistance.

3 comments:

Catapulting Aaron said...

That wave in the first pic looks like it would be a lot of fun to surf (laying on stomach)...

Unknown said...

James,
I just stumbled upon this blog as well as the treasure cost windsurfers blog. Pretty cool stuff, I love your videos, really helps advertise and advance the sport.

Your pictures of the "secret spot" don't look all that windy, what sort of setup were you riding to get the pedal to the metal?

I'm on S. Hutchinson Island and I'd be interested in hooking up sometime when it's windy (I get tired of driving all the way down to Stuart just to sail socially). Hopefully I'll see you out on the water.

Brandon Rouse

James Douglass said...

Aaron- Definitely. I don't know why I never see surfers at that spot. Maybe they're creeped out by having to swim through over-your-head water to get to the shallow break. Fair numbers of spinner sharks there.

Brandon- It was blowing about 5-20 knots near shore at the secret spot, and 20-25 knots offshore. I used a 5.5 Aerotech Charge on a 106 liter Exocet Cross. Having a board big enough to tack and uphaul is pretty essential for dealing with the lulls and the offshore wind. Send me an email or a facebook friend request or something and we'll try to meet on the water next time it's sailable.