Saturday, March 12, 2011

Nice Session at Nahant

It was "nice" in New England today, with sunny skies and a high around 50. The surf was waist to head high at Nahant Beach, and the 38 degree water was full of surfers, paddleboarders, kayakers, and a windsurf or two if you count me. The wind was flukey and offshore, but strong enough on average that a 5.5 and 106 liter board worked OK for me. I spent a fair amount of time getting rolled by the waves and swimming after my gear, but the drysuit stayed watertight, thank goodness. I had one or two memorable rides where I felt like I really carved deep furrows in a big wave. Heh heh heh.

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There were also several kite-powered buggies buzzing around. It's amazing how fast those guys can get going with a kite much smaller than an on-the-water kiteboarder would use in the same winds strength. I guess it takes less force to keep wheels rolling than it does to plow a board through the water.

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2 comments:

  1. JSW225March 13, 2011 at 8:23 PM

    "I guess it takes less force to keep wheels rolling than it does to plow a board through the water. "

    Yup, and a bit of an understatement, too. As fast as Windsurfers and Kitesurfers can go on the water, there is a ton of drag. On a buggy or skateboard, there is very little drag. Add in some high speed apparent wind, and they can easily go 3-4 times the wind speed in the right point of sail.

    I took my smallest sail (4.9), put it on a long skateboard, and went out in about 10 knots of wind in a parking lot. Very quickly and with little effort, I was cruising at 20 knots of speed over the pavement, and accelerating. I stopped going out until I was better armored with pads and helmets.

    And a week later my sphincter unpuckered.

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  2. James DouglassMarch 13, 2011 at 9:37 PM

    That must have been a tough week. ;)

    I scared myself so much on the "turfdog" land windsurfer that I bought in Florida that I turned around and sold it within about a month.

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