Cold Front Windsurfing, New Beginner Board

It has been fairly breezy in Florida this fall and winter, but the breeze has mostly been from the East, meaning the Gulf of Mexico has been more like a flat lake than a wavy ocean. That changed for a while last weekend when a cold front passed through and the wind briefly came from the West and the North, providing pumping winds and bumpy water at my local windsurf spot, Wiggins Pass State Park. I got a good afternoon of sailing with a 4.7 and an 83 liter board, though I felt so rusty that I wasn't able to take full advantage of what the conditions offered.

Wiggins Cold Front 1-7-17 from James Douglass on Vimeo.

The next day the wind gradually clocked back around to it's usually easterly direction, but as it did I still squeezed in a pretty good session with a 6.4 sail and windsup board in the fading wind and waves.

My newest windsurf mission is going to be to teach some of my local paddleboard racing friends how to windsurf, using an excellent beginner/all-around board that I picked up for cheap at the thrift store. The board is a Mistral Prodigy, in nearly-new condition, complete with the sail and the racing fin and daggerboard. I already taught my pal Matt Kearney, and he learned real quick. I figure I'll teach some people for a while, and if somebody gets hooked I'll sell them the board.