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!