Florida So Far

Y’all might have noticed that I haven’t produced any fresh blog posts in a few weeks. The reason for that is that I’ve been busy moving to Florida and starting my new job as a professor at Florida Gulf Coast University.


View Larger Map

So far, so good. The move was a logistical challenge, but with careful planning on the part of my fiancé Rhonda and help from our friends and families it went pretty smoothly.  We rented a 22’ Penske truck and towed my minivan behind it, while Rhonda and her mom drove behind in Rhonda’s car. Here’s the caravan crossing the Hudson River in NY.

We made two overnight stops; one at my sister’s house in North Carolina, and another at my cousin’s house in Daytona Beach. It was good getting to see the family.

Four days after we left Boston we arrived at our new home in Bonita Springs. It’s a cute little rental house with a screened-in porch and lanai, and a windsurf storage shed in the backyard. Rhonda’s mom stayed for a few days and was a huge help getting us unpacked and settled in.

The same day that she went home to New England we gained a new family member- a rescue part-bulldog mutt named Grace.

Grace is about 8 years old and has a very sweet and mellow personality. We still miss Buri, but it’s real nice to have a dog around again.

Getting started as a professor has been an exciting challenge. This is my new office at FGCU (now much more cluttered.) Check out the nice view from the window!

I feel like the job is a good fit for me. The other professors are helpful and sociable. It’s definitely what you would call a “collegial” work environment.  My first week of teaching went smoothly, although I’m learning as I go since I've never taught before. They gave me a pretty easy courseload to start with. I’m teaching one Marine Ecology class with 32 students, and two sections of a Seagrass Ecology discussion course- one with 2 graduate students and the other with 18 undergrads. The Marine Ecology class takes the most preparation time, because I have to plan about an hour of lecture, plus fill another hour and 15 minutes with other learning activities for the kids because I can’t lecture for more than an hour and they can’t pay attention for more than an hour. In both my classes we’re reading a lot of scientific articles, which is nice in a way because it keeps me up to date on the scientific literature that I should be following for my own research.

So far I haven’t done any new marine biology research in Florida (not counting wading around in some seagrass beds when fishing and paddleboarding), but I’m looking forward to starting seagrass monitoring soon. With that in mind, I’ve been sitting in on a GIS (Geographic Information Systems) class that meets on Thursday nights at FGCU. Seagrass ecologists often use the GIS mapping software to keep track of changes in seagrass coverage, which they can then relate to trends in water quality and stuff like that. I’m hoping to get government funding for my seagrass monitoring, so I want to be as GIS savvy as possible when I make my bid.

The wind and waves scene here on the Gulf Coast of Florida is VERY different than it was in New England. There’s less wind, and there are no real waves to speak of. More often than not, the Gulf of Mexico is flat as a lake. Literally. Riding waves there on a paddleboard is tough, because the only time the waves approach a rideable size is when it’s choppy with an onshore breeze. Rhonda and I HAVE had some fun SUP sessions, but only on flat water, like on the mangrove-lined Imperial River near our house.

We knew we were in tropical paradise when we saw red hibiscus blossoms drifting lazily along the smooth surface of the water.

I picked up a cheap old windsurfing longboard that we re-styled as a flat water SUP so we can both go at once. One of us uses that and the other uses the Angulo Surfa 10’4”. There are tons of SUP shops in the area, like CGT Kayaks and Paddleboards, so I didn’t have any trouble finding a store where I could buy a second paddle.

I think there’s a lot of potential for windsurfing around here, though I’m a long way from getting my launch sites and equipment dialed. The first time I put up a sail here was at Punta Rassa near the Sanibel causeway. I was out SUP-fishing the seagrass flats with some fellow new professors. (One math dude, and another theater dude.) At first we were catching lots of Speckled Seatrout- almost one on every cast. But then the fishing slowed down and some squally wind came up, so I rigged a 6.8 and put it on the old longboard. The thing was a beast, but it actually planed, in a loggish sort of way. I’m saving up now for an Exocet WindSUP, which I think is going to be the perfect board for around here.

Finding the best water access points for different wind directions and different wave / chop conditions has been challenging. Most of the beach parking areas also make you pay by the hour or day, which I find super annoying. So far our best windsurfing beach find has been “Dog Beach” between Bonita Beach and Lover’s Key State Park. There’s a short walk through the mangroves that gets you to a sandbar on the edge of a shallow lagoon.

It was the perfect spot for Rhonda to have her best windsurfing session ever, with a 4.2 sail on the Angulo SUP with a jury-rigged dagger-fin.

It was a nice spot for me, too, since the lagoon opens up through an inlet to the Gulf of Mexico, where an outgoing tide can jack up the onshore-wind waves. I got some fun rides there on the old 80s longboard, though my fin hit a sandbar once or twice, so I’ll have to be careful if I’m ever riding there on a nicer board.

Today we’re starting to feel some breeze from the approach of Hurricane Issac. The wind is NE (side-offshore), so I’ve been scratching my head about where the best ocean-side launch might be. I’m going to give it a try at Wiggins Pass, a relatively short 8.1 mile drive from my house. There’s a point and an inlet at the N end of the park there, which I think will give me a bit better wind exposure and hopefully enable me to get out on my 106 liter shortboard. Tomorrow and Monday might be unsailably windy and rainy, but there’s a medium-sized lake on the N side of the FGCU campus where the kids do swimming, sailing, SUP, and wakeboarding. I think it might be a good, safe spot in an E or NE wind. As long as the alligators don’t get me.

FGCU Lake Launch.

Jibefest at Nahant

Woot! We finally had a big wind day in Massachusetts this summer, with 20 knots from the Southwest at Nahant. I got out after work and was joined by Scott from Michigan. I've never met anyone from Michigan who wasn't a delightful and genuine person, and Scott continues that streak. He sailed a 6.5 Sailworks Retro on a 108 liter RRD freeride board, and I sailed a 5.5 Aerotech Charge on a 106 liter Exocet Cross. I used a 22 cm weed-wave fin at first, but when I realized that the waves were mostly too small to ride I switched to a 32 cm MUfin "No Spin" to have better trim for flat water blasting and racing Scott.

I shot some boom-mounted GoPro camera video and edited it up with a Lou Reed song.


Nahant Waveless 7-17-12 from James Douglass on Vimeo.

Looking at the video, I notice my regular jibes are pretty good, but my duck jibes need work to be able to exit with speed.

Big Boards That Do it All

Like a lot of windsurfers I was baffled when the stand-up paddleboard (SUP) craze hit. My thinking was, “How is that even fun? It looks so slow and awkward.” Only after I tried it a few times did I start to see the appeal. SUP may not be the fastest way to navigate the water, but it’s pleasurable in its simplicity, and there’s something about standing on the surface that’s more fun than sitting in a kayak or sprawling on a surfboard. So I get it. SUP is legit.

What baffles me now is the unexploited potential in the design and marketing of multiple use windsurfer – SUP boards. Yes, there are SUPs with mast tracks that can be windsurfed, and yes, some windsurfing longboards can be paddled. But with few exceptions, the existing multiple-use boards are strongly biased towards either SUP or windsurfing, with limited capabilities for the other sport. I think that’s a shame, for two reasons:

1. There are a lot of things that a big board can potentially do well. Depending on its design, it can be a stable platform for beginner windsurfers, it can sail efficiently in light winds with the daggerboard down, it can carry a large sail for early planing, it can be paddled as a SUP in flat water or waves, or it can be used as a light-wind windsurfing waveboard.

2. Big boards cost a lot of money and take up a lot of space. So, it’s hard for most people to own a separate big board for every possible big-board use. Hence, the desirability of multiple-use big boards.

I’m not exactly sure why board manufacturers have been so half-assed about adding multi-usability to their big rides, but I have some theories that I won't get into here. For now, let’s review what types of big boards are out there, and what kind of multi-use potential they each have. As I’m prone to do, I made a chart for that, and I’ll say a little bit more about the categories in the chart:

The columns are grouped by three basic types of big boards.

On the left you’ve got typical big windsurfing boards, which are designed for flatwater sailing. They optimize non-planing glide, early planing ability, or some combination of the two. They are not designed to be paddled or wavesailed, but some work OK as flatwater SUPs. The picture below shows me riding a big beginner windsurfing board in planing conditions.

In the middle are windsurfable SUP boards. They are windsurfable because they have mast tracks, and occasionally a daggerboard or removable center fin, but they are otherwise shaped for uncompromised SUP performance. If they are intended for wave riding then they have soft rails and lots of rocker at the tail- features that facilitate catching waves with paddle power and longboard-style surfing but “stick” the board to the water and prevent it from reaching planing speed under normal sail power. See the figure below:

Given obscene amounts of sail power a surf-rockered SUP may be coaxed to plane, and in fact there is a video circulating around that shows a 12’6” SUP planing on flat water, but that’s with an expert speedsailor using a 6.6 sail in 30 knots of wind. With that much power even a bathtub would plane.

SUP boards intended for flatwater cruising are rarely equipped with mast tracks (with some exceptions). That's too bad because a flatwater cruising SUP could really cut through the water fast in light winds. It also seems like it might be easier to design a “planeable” flatwater cruiser SUP than a planeable surfing SUP, because the former could have a flat rocker and hard rails. Still waiting to see someone make that board.

An unusual type of windsurfable SUP board is wide but very compact, often with a “fish” style tail and multiple fins. Some of these boards are able to plane, but awkwardly and with no footstraps. They also don’t paddle in a straight line or catch gentle waves very well, making them most useful for specialist light-wind wavesailors who have sideshore wind and good waves and favor a certain shortboard surfing feel. The most famous example of that type of board is the much-hyped AHD SeaLion.

Image of the AHD SeaLion from Bill's OBX Beach Life.

On the far end of the table are step-tail windsurf / SUP boards, the original and most popular of which is the Kona ONE, which was introduced by Exocet in 2005 then became it’s own brand with an associated one-design racing class. The Kona does a bit of everything, but it’s too heavy and boxy to windsurf great in the waves, and it’s too narrow with too abrupt a step-tail to SUP well in the waves- I’ve tried.

Exocet later made some other Kona boards (now called the Curve 11’5”, 10’5”, etc.) with less volume and no daggerboards. The Curves have unequaled light-wind wavesailing performance  but are less appropriate as all-around windsurfing boards because they have no daggerboards and their “US Box” fin slots can’t support large fins. Some people SUP them, but they’re too narrow for most and the abrupt step-tail impedes their wave catching ability. Below, Florida's John Ingebritsen shreds a wave on a Curve 11'5".

The most recent step-tail offering from Exocet is the WindSUP 11’8”, which looks like a Kona ONE with a wider, thinner shape and a more refined step-tail design, as seen in the picture from Chuck's blog.

Supposedly it has improved light wind planing ability and SUP ability compared to the Kona ONE. It’s considerably larger than I would ideally want, but I’m encouraged by the mere fact that it exists, proving that it IS possible to have a fully-planing windsurfing board that SUPs well in waves. I really need to test one for myself, I mean, uh, for my fiancé.

Most SUPs and windsurfs on the market are good for their own sport but have very limited utility for the other sport. Fortunately, recent designs like Exocet’s WindSUP show that it's not impossible to have a board that SUPs well in waves AND planes well as a windsurf. Hopefully continued evolution will refine and diversify those designs, and maybe come up with some as-yet-unseen designs like a flatwater racing SUP that’s also an efficient planing and displacement windsurfer.

PS- Late breaking news- Exocet just introduced a 10’0” WindSUP for 2013! They must have read my mind.

So Long Little Buddy :'(

Rhonda cuddling Buri while he noms her ear.

This 4th of July was a very sad day for Rhonda and me, and for anyone who knew Buri, Rhonda's irresistibly lovable English Bulldog. If you don't want to get sentimental, don't read the rest of this post.

Buri started out the morning at my apartment on Nahant, enjoying lots of petting and attention from his mumma and me, per his customary routine. Then I took him down to Nahant's "dog beach" where we waded and played fetch in the water to stay cool.

Buri didn't want to leave, but I was getting sunburned, so I took him back to the house for a fresh water bath and shampoo. After that he was content to lounge around the house and charm guests arriving for our beach day and BBQ. We kept him inside in the afternoon, but let him out on the porch again in the evening while we were grilling. He seemed to be fine temperature-wise, but when fireworks started going off in the neighborhood he got riled up with barking, panting and pulling on the leash.

Tragically, we were slow to realize that Buri's agitation could bring on heatstroke- even in the temperatures he had been OK in before the fireworks. If we had realized the imminent danger we would have cooled him down in a drastic way, like dunking him in the ocean or a cold shower, but instead we figured he would chill out sufficiently in the air conditioning of Rhonda's car when she drove him home. The little trooper hopped right up in the backseat like usual, but when he fell asleep on the drive he wasn't able to wake up. Rhonda rushed her baby to the closest emergency veterinarian but, heartbreakingly, it was too late. He had died of heatstroke. I met Rhonda and her mother at the vet in the middle of the night and joined them in bawling my eyes out while petting and hugging poor peaceful Buri one last time.

I'm not real religious or anything, but I have to believe that Buri's loving spirit endures, perhaps waiting and watching with other loved ones from a place of timeless transcendence.

Rhonda and I are still having a tough time getting through feelings of heartache, regret, and plain old missin' the Buri, but we take comfort in each other, and we have been moved by some nice things that friends and family have said or shared with us since Buri's passing. I'll end this post with two of those.

Lubec: Worth The Drive

As my remaining time in New England dwindles I'm taking bittersweet note of certain things that I might be doing for the last time. This week it was my work trip to Lubec, Maine for a final round of seaweed experiment maintenance.

Lubec is rugged, remote, and chilly- as far North and East as you can get on the US Atlantic Coast. It reminds me more of Washington State than of anywhere else on the East Coast, with rocky cliffs, spruce trees, moss, and kelp.

The place we stay there is an old restored Coast Guard Station near the lighthouse at Quoddy Head State Park. Our first day had pouring rain and temperatures in the 50s, but that made the next days' mix of cool sun, mist, and clouds seem delightful by comparison. The work that we do on the rocks is always a race against time, because our plots are only exposed for four hours per tidal cycle. Between tides, however, we have some unstructured time to catch up on email, hike, etc. On this trip up I brought windsurfing and snorkeling gear and had some good sessions.

The first spot I snorkeled was at the base of a cliff chasm near one of our seaweed experiment sites. I didn't stay there long because I got spooked by the deep dark water.

The next snorkeling spot was more sheltered, near the Coast Guard boathouse.

At high tide the Fucus and Ascophyllum rockweeds were floating at full vertical extension, making spooky green curtains and corridors that you could swim through.

It's quite a contrast with their "piles of old laundry" appearance at low tide. Seeing my study organisms underwater like that gave me a better appreciation for their true seaweed selves, if you will.

I'm not quite sure what you call the body of water I windsurf on in Lubec- maybe Quoddy Channel? It's a broad inlet between the town of Lubec and the Bay of Fundy, bisected by the US - Canadian border. The launch point is a pull-off of South Lubec Road.

It had been blowing about 20 knots on the Bay of Fundy when we were at our experiment site on Wednesday, but it was more sheltered at the windsurfing launch, and there was a strong tidal current going in the same direction as the wind, so I rigged big - 6.8 on a 106 liter board. I had some good overpowered runs, buzzing by the mid-channel lighthouse and flirting with the Canadian border, until I thought I saw lighting and beat it back to the US shore.

ECWF Race Video

This post is part two of my account of last weekend's East Coast Windsurfing Festival. A more complete description with pictures and a list of winners is on The Peconic Puffin. The racing winners were riding round-bottomed "Division II" boards, but standard flat-bottomed raceboards were close behind. I had a chance to try Pete Roesch' D2 board on Saturday and found it fast but very tricky to tack and jibe. My own board, a 10'4" Angulo paddleboard with the addition of a small center fin, was better around the course than the paddleboards without daggerboards, but couldn't hold its ground against the real windsurfing longboards. Below is some video I edited up of two races on Sunday.

East Coast Windsurfing Fest 2012 - 2 Races from James Douglass on Vimeo.

A nice windsurfer / sculptor named Mike brought this Buddah creation to the beach in the back of his pickup truck. I think it helped bring a ZEN vibe to the event.

New Windsurfing Video + ECWF

I'm at the Holiday Inn in Ronkonkoma, NY, lying on the bed in my salty swimsuit and wondering if the sun I got today is going to turn to tan or burn. It was Day 1 of the East Coast Windsurfing Festival at Hecksher State Park. Despite paltry winds and some sprinkles, we had a ton of fun and held multiple rounds of windsurf racing and freestyle, plus SUP racing and a board toss. I used my Angulo 10'4" Surfa SUP for everything (except the board toss- everyone used New England Windsurfing Journal editor Peter's old Tiga for that). For the windsurfing parts I used an 8.0 sail and put a center fin on the SUP in the extra finbox that Josh Angulo helped me install this spring. I also removed the SUP's thruster fins to reduce drag. It seemed to work OK, because I was able to keep up with the real racing longboards on the downwind parts, and at at least keep up with the slower beginner boards upwind and reaching.

It was the first windsurf race ever for my travel buddy, Cambridge windsurfer Jonas Shoor. He did alright for his first time, and said he learned a lot. This is Jonas by my van on the Connecticut - Long Island ferry this morning.

The forecast for tomorrow is for more light winds, but we're holding out hope for at least enough to plane a little on our big gear. If conditions are good I'll take some GoPro helmet camera video. In the meantime, here's a video I shot last week of some wavesailing in Nahant. It's not my best work ever, but I think it fits well with the Pixes song I chose.


June 2012 Windsurfing in Nahant from James Douglass on Vimeo.