Tuesday, September 7, 2010

The End of The Endless Summer

I may have mentioned at some point that my two-year marine biology research fellowship in Florida was ending and that I would be moving to Boston Massachusetts soon to start another research job. Well, if I failed to say it earlier, at least now you know. I no longer live in Florida.

Yep, 24 hours driving a 16' Penske truck with my minivan towed behind it, broken up by an overnight at my sister's house in Cary, NC and another at a La Quinta hotel in Stamford CT, and I arrived at the stoop of my new home: 42 W Baltimore Street, Lynn MA. The place is smaller than where I lived in Florida, and I had a heck of a time fitting in my fabulous windsurfing board rack. The neighbors probably thought I was nuts, sawing the excess length off the 2 x 4s of the rack in the middle of the shared hallway at 9pm, shirtless and stinky with sweat and with the zipper busted off my shorts from where I tried to support the corner of a dresser with my johnson while shlepping it out of the truck. Anyway, right now I'm sitting in the computer lab at Northeastern University's Marine Science Center in Nahant, decompressing after a busy day of just-moved-to-a-new-place type work tasks and errands. Ahh.

My last week in Florida was pretty fantastic in terms of windsurfing, with a couple days of big waves and decent onshore winds related to Hurricane Earl. On the very last watersports day both the wind and the waves were nice and there were actually 5 windsurfers at the Fort Pierce South Jetty. Woo hoo! I took a few pictures from that day, presented in the slideshow below. One of the windsurfers was John Campbell, aka "floridawavesailor", who is a real good rider. He does lots of backwinded moves, like, carving 360's.



The video below is from an earlier day in the week, when the waves were good but the wind was not quite strong enough for the shortboard and 6.8 msq sail I was using. The session was saved by the "gorge effect"; the fact that the current and the wind were going in opposite directions in Fort Pierce inlet, which increased the apparent wind speed and the steepness of the waves enough to get planing and have a good time. The song in the video is one my friend Emily Westermeier sings. I think it's good but she's not so sure, so if you like it leave a nice comment or something.

Windsurfing, Special Soundtrack from James Douglass on Vimeo.


I have some video from a windier session, too, that I'll edit up later if I have more time.

PS- Got my first session in Massachusetts after work today. It was a kiteboarding session in up and down SW winds at "Dog Beach" in Nahant. Pretty fun, and the air and water were warm enough that I could get away with a shorty wetsuit. Don't expect those mild conditions will last, though!

6 comments:

Johnny Douglass said...

I like the music. Where do I click "Like". Oh, that's in Facebook.

Andy said...

Good tune!

Dude, Boston and the Cape are super windy! You are going to love it up there (as soon as you dig your wetsuit/boots/hood/mittens out of storage).

cammar said...

good luck in your new enviroment!

Scott; Karin said...

We'll miss you, man!! Glad you got one good session in before you left. I'll be reading your blog and we'll see you on down the road.

Boris T said...

Bummer about not being in Florida, good luck in Boston.

Scott said...

Welcome to Boston!

We just had seven sailable days (ranging from 3.7 to 5.9 conditions) in a row on the Cape. I only managed to get three of them, but I have a friend who got all seven. Heh, but did he look wrecked yesterday! From now til Thanksgiving is totally the best sailing of the year around here.

Nahant can have some fun wave sailing, but sometimes the shore break will deny even the best sailors (the breaks can be simply endless, with no well-defined sets). Ditto, Revere Beach in the right conditions (outgoing tide, NNW to NE or WSW to SE winds).

Then there's Chapin and Bayview/Mayflower (NE) or Corporation (which can get epic in NW, logo to mast high waves). And, of course, Kalmus and West Dennis (SE, SW, WSW). And Chatham and the outer Cape for hard-core sessions (i.e., sharks). Or Waquoit Bay for great flat water kiting.

Then there's wave sailing in Newport RI, or at Deep Hole...

Or sunset sailing at Pleasure Bay right in Boston, or down a Squantum, with the planes in and out of Logan going right over your head.

Dude, get a good wetsuit!