: What the ocean temperature has been running lately
here on the south Oregon coast.
13c / 55° +-
... a good solid sailing hangover. Especially this time of year. And it really does “hurt so good.” Yeah, the top of my off the lip foot is bruised and my other ankle is back in the brace. Wetsuit rash on my throat and I even have sun on my face as it’s been blue sky north winds for the most part. Sure the wind was a little chilly but the ocean’s still running so warm I’ve been saving my good suit and wearing out my wholly rubba instead -- a practice which has been previously unheard of this time of year. Or most any time of year really.
Yeah, this anomaly, the excessively warm temperatures in the NE Pacific, while alarming on so many levels, is certainly making for far more comfortable wavesailing conditions. The word from the weather gurus is this anomaly won’t be going away anytime soon either.
So believe me when I promise that any complaints about the deficiencies of the perceived conditions out here, or the rain, will be met with even more of my sarcastic derision than usual.
Ahhhhhhhhh, you have to love ...
4/9/15
In defense of the locals that have been taking a pass on some or all of the recent windsurfing conditions, there has been a lot of suffering and a lot of walking the beach, due largely to the current and the streaky, fitful winds. But it’s the dojo. We have to love every step, every schlog out through the zone, every hold-down, every rejection, ....
“Hey, even the very crappiest windsurfing beats not going.”
-max shredroom
I hope you’ll forgive me for not hucking one off this lip, but I have to plead trying to go easy on a minor ankle sprain from last weekend. And I am embarrassed to feel like I didn’t give Nancy much to shoot this trip. In my defense, I really was fairly wrecked at this point and just trying to sail clean and stay out of trouble. Especially after wasting so much energy and sesh just trying to get around the damn rocks and back into play. Yeah, what a kook move it was to miss the point on that outside run. Especially when the voice was screaming don’t do it before I went out there.
Yeah, one of the crew, and let’s not mention who, but one of the crew was complaining about how bad the conditions were looking as an excuse not to go windsurfing at the Cape the other day. (This was by the way, right after Nancy was shooting us the photos that open this blog.) And while sure, the wind was kind of streaky and the waves weren’t very good (at least by local standards), he got me thinking how habituated we have become. For while it was truly a rather hateful day at the Cape, with a mixed looking short period swell along with various other perceived deficiencies, the sesh was in my eyes and for my experience, still more rewarding and filled with opportunities to do things on the face of a wave and off a lip than a good day at all but the very best of spots I know on the planet. And I’m betting some of the guys I know from up around Portland and the Gorge would have been out there with me.
So in spite of how worked my body was feeling and at the certain risk of a really brutal sailing hangover, I downloaded these photos, said goodbye to and thanked our esteemed staff photographer for taking the time to shoot my admittedly lame performance, woofed a bar, drank water and got back out there.
And I was so thankful to be reminded how lucky I am to be living here. With the freedom and stoke to sail even the “crappy” days. Much gratitude and respect is due. ______\_
Much gratitude to Nancy for making it in time to also shoot the bonus section for us as I was closing down the jetty the night before. 5.0 on a 92. Sure it was light on the inside but I’m claiming it as good solid fun. And a large Mahalo out to Roger for the report that convinced me to derig my 5.0 and bail the Cape in favor of this challenging but occasionally large and smooth jetty sesh. I was so stoked to not only see him out making it look good as I pulled up and rigged -- but that he left me some wind too.
Just in case you’re wondering why I was checking out the wrong side of the watch-rocks at the Cape so intently, I was actually considering shooting the gap on the downwind side of them after so foolishly trusting a puff to get me upwind far enough to have room to get by them upwind. Ahhhh but the gap wasn’t looking good. So I took a pass on that and turned to schlog across the island’s wind hole four times and do a couple extended whale watching sessions before finally making it far enough to windward to sneak across the wind hole with room to make the point.
I could only blame myself for flaunting the never sail out past the watch-rocks when the wind is so sketchy rule. And laugh. And be grateful I made it on my second attempt and didn’t have to reconsider the gap, do another whale watching expedition or resort to a sail/schlog to the Rock -- thus completely missing my rest of my photo opportunity.
- Graph compliments of Steve DiCicco.
Photos thanks to Nancy Pruitt
Yeah wow. Spring seems to be the new summer out here and we’re just coming off a nice early season throw down. Which does by the way, bump me up to 26 days on the water already with another 28 skate or sandsailing (and another dozen or so that I’ve missed working, making bad decisions or both).
And I’m so pleased Clayton caught it sweet down in Santa Cruz because he did after all, leave both wind and water temps you’d more expect in central California. (I’m convinced we are getting their weather these days.)
But I should confess it hasn’t been all fun, games and a relatively tropical ocean out here. We’ve endured some mixed swells of some size with all the accompanying current. And yes, it was a little mean on the inside and the air temps were a little cooler than the water but hey. It was well over the 100 degree rule and not even raining.
