Wednesday, September 10, 2008

North vs. South

I'm realizing more and more that Fort Pierce is awesome for watersports. Here's a picture of some kiters Tuesday at Jetty Park on the S side of the inlet near my apartment.

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Today the wind direction was different (SE instead of E) so I took the opportunity to grab an a.m. session at the State Park on the N side of the inlet. The rangers there have a flag system to warn people about aquatic dangers. This morning two reds and a purple were flying.

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The reds mean you're not supposed to go swimming, and the purple means watch out for "dangerous marine life"; i.e. the Portugese Man-O-War jellies that wash inshore when there are strong E winds.

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Well, I didn't see any PMOW's, but I did see some surfers and a kiteboarder out there, so I took the flags to be just a "guidelines". There was plenty of breeze, so I used my 5.2 sail and 87 liter board. Getting out wasn't too hard since the gently sloping beach broke the waves gradually, and the jetty smoothed out the chop.

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It was the funnest Florida windsurfing session yet. I even saw some smallish sea turtles and a mediumish shark rise up out of the face of a wave. I think the turtles were green sea turtles. Seeing them in the water this morning made reading about them during my research at work today really cool.

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2 comments:

John said...

your crazy man what are you windsurfing with sharks for!

Andy said...

What's the difference between a fairy tale told in the north, and one told in the south??

North: "Once upon a time..."

South: "Y'all ain't gonna believe this sh@t! ..."