Spring update:
Spring update:
(And it’s about time, ...)
... the first weekend in April with five days of north wind, the forth of which brought some of the most intense conditions I’ve seen since last years “Stormchase”. Rivaling some of those days even with 30+ faces, 3.5 winds and beyond. It was pure sickness out there. At times. Then it would lie down and suggest that oh yeah, you could make it right out, no problem. But I could see and feel the tide rushing in and out of the bay like a tsunami. And then the next set would come sneaking up, at times closing out beyond the island, even at what was a rather high tide that afternoon. I’ve had some cruel misses this season but this one is both haunting me and driving me to be a lot better prepared if I get another shot at a setup like that.
Other than that, it’s been kind of coolish with a lot of rain, even by local standards. Yeah, and after thinking around the time of my last post that the sailing couldn’t get any worse, it did. Most the rest of February turned out to be fairly cruel with fitfully gusty offshore patterns and lots of hail and thunder.
I was struggling with an injury too so I’ve been grateful just to be getting out there at all. Especially for what was a bit of a gift the second week of February with some 5.0 north winds in the Cape. Even a nice photo by Trina to remind me it actually happened.
The Cape awakened ...
5/23/17
Thankfully, it has been blowing more the last couple months. But I think it’s still fair to say you haven’t been missing it so badly yet. The Kona sessions have been hard to catch and the early season high pressures are notoriously gusty and cool. And this year, they’ve been living up to that in spades. And it seems to have been doing all too much of the blowing on unfortunate tides, in darkness and while conspiring with heavy current to deny access on anything you might hope to ride a wave with.
It’s still a bit of a joke around the parking lot when anyone asks me how hard it’s blowing. Because I’m probably going to say 5.0. Pretty much no matter what. Because it’s all I want to sail right now. And I’m not just saying that because it’s so pretty. Two fingered waterstarts, effortless handling on the face and in the air, and sure, it doesn’t hurt that it’s pretty too.
These photos come thanks to Nancy Pruitt on the first day of April, on what else and where else but the 5.0 in the Cape.
I was standing in the parking lot with Les Stansell and James Lundin as this set filled the place with it’s influence.
But with less sailing comes more time for projects. Some van love for sure. Mostly maintenance. But I did install carbon tubes in place of the old steel ones on the interior ceiling rack. And the bins. It’s funny how something as mundane as new bins made me feel better about driving around in a van that is older than I am (in van years). I’ve been looking at the storage thing for awhile too. These are called Brute Boxes -- a commercial product from Rubbermaid I found online. White or gray. 20 gal. Made in the USA out of Polyethylene. I’d never actually seen or touched one but ordered three on faith they were burly enough to stack heavy znc sit on when I’m trying to crawl into my wetsuit in the back of the ban when it’s pouring rain. And they are.
Speaking of the ban, it’s almost ready for the other season. Though I still need to do a rust treatment, rewrite some of the isms and perhaps throw down one or two more. And get my paint work done. OK, so I need to bear down, but I’m on that along with my submission to the design competition for the judging platform at the Wave Bash this year. More on that soon along with a progress report on the recycled windsurf gear projects. WInd chimes and a board chair mostly right now but I have a shower curtain in the works too.
Parting shot:
“Ahhhhh but did he land it?” Well, sort of. I rode down the back of the wave for what I could claim as an aerial kickout with jibe. Yeah, confidence has been at an all time low due to injury and this isn’t the only thing I’ve chickened out on lately. So I’m totally keeping on the safe side with the big hucks, going up and out of anything that looks like it might usher me back onto injured reserve.
March teased as if it might turn around and be more civilized but I barely made what has been my average over these last ten years with nine days on the water. We got off to a pretty good start in April before falling into a pattern of somewhat unruly Kona flow until the end of the month when another gusty high pressure settled in. While I posted another nine days in April, I missed five more. So in spite of my rather dismal performance, it turned out to be a rather windy April, which seems to support my emerging theory that Spring is the new Summer around here when it comes to wind.
Photo thanks to Nancy Pruitt at the Cape end of March. (That’s 5.0 on the 92 Pyramid and sure I could have been on a 4.2 but it looked like it was 5.0 out there to me when I pulled up so I rigged it. And in my further defense, it did get light on the inside at times.)
Mega photo at Pipe 4/7
Photo thanks to Trina second week of February.
Tigi shot these at the Coquille jetty end of April. It was so another one of those I wanted it to be 5.0 kind of days, but it wasn’t. Not out past the jetty anyway. While almost survivable down the line, I came in after a couple waves and put up a tight 4.5. Even that was still pretty scary on the outside. Nice direction though. And some of the best Kona of my winter for rideability.
Wowzah.