Monday, February 28, 2011

Florida Keys Snorkeling and Watersports

I had a great preview of summer last weekend in the Florida Keys. Muchas gracias are owed to my buddy Raphael, who snagged a great cabin for a group of us at Bahia Honda State Park.


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The cabin was on the edge of an old, flooded quarry, which was a uniquely interesting place for snorkeling and watersports. Muchas gracias are also owed to my friends Brandon and Lisa, who drove me down there and brought along all their watertoys for everyone to use. Brandon is the guy to whom I sold my Kona longboard when I left Florida. We sailed it with a 9.8 sail and managed to get planing in the gusts.

Bahia Honda February 2011 from James Douglass on Vimeo.


Later in the day (when I was tired of filming) I got the notion to try to circumnavigate the island on the windsurf. It took me 1 hour and 17 minutes if anyone wants to challenge. The trickiest part was going under the short, low bridge on the East side of the key, where I had to get off the board and wade in deep mud. A smarter circumnavigator would have made that part of the passage with the wind and the tide and saved the wind- and current-opposed bridge crossing for the bigger bridge on the West side of the key.

4 comments:

Morley said...

The kona looks pretty impressive with the big cammed sail in next to no wind (I guess its offshore in the planing sequences? Even so, it still looks like no more than 10 knots though!).

Anonymous said...

That place looks pretty sweet and would be a good place to visit and have fun.

Brian said...

James,

I'm sure it felt good to do some warm windsurfing after the winter you/we've had.

Mahalo for the stoke!
Brian

James Douglass said...

Morley- Yeah, the planing threshold for me on the Kona is about 12 knots with a big sail like that. Not so great compared to a wide shortboard or formula board, but made up for by still being fun in non-planing and semi-planing mode.

Kevin- It was awesome.

Brian- Yep! Next does of stoke will be the windsurfing magazine board tests at the end of March in NC.