Winter Windsurfing - Local Update

The locals had been getting restless. Between November and January, we had a streak of about six weekends in a row of windsurfing. Then the wind disappeared for a while, until recently. The local crew has been busy, along with the wind, taking advantage and sailing multiple times the last two weeks in primarily south and west winds.

On one day, some of the crew made the road trip down to Lake Monticello in South Carolina to take advantage of a long fetch for the west winds. Lake Monticello is a local reservoir that sits northwest of Columbia, SC and not too far from Charlotte. The report back from Dimitri and Donald was a great day on 5 meter sails that saw 15 sailors and 1 kiter (Dave) on the water. I missed this one but here are some pictures....special thanks goes to Donald Obst who took these pictures and was kind enough to share them...



Dimitri



Chuck



Jose in mid duck gybe



Dimitri in the chop trough


On another day that capped off three in a row of good wind, it provided 20-30mph WSW winds that had folks hitting the water again on 5 meter sails. I made it out late....rigged bigger (6.5) since I was getting out there late....figuring the wind was going to die down a little towards sunset. I maxed the downhaul and flattened out the sail a bit, and was still pretty overpowered at first. But then the wind started to lighten up just a bit as I thought it would and then I got dialed in. Big rollers came through the open channel that were almost waist high. Yes, I was "wave sailing" on the lake, riding and carving the waves downwind....big fun. It's been a great start to 2008 and hopefully many more windy days to come.

Great Freestyle Video

This is a great freestyle video of Andre Paskowski/pro windsurfer, training in Jericoacoara, Brazil. It will blow your mind what he can do in small waves and flat water. Check out the other "acrobatics" too. Thanks to Continent Seven online windsurfing magazine for this one.

New OBX blog

Aahhh....to live on the Outer Banks. I can't do it so I just do the next best thing...go when I can and stay in touch with those that live, work, and play there. There is a new blog to join the ranks of OBX Bill's web site. It's from Andy, who works at the Sailworld shop in Avon. Andy's site is awesome and really reflects a waterman's life at one of the best beaches in the world. And I love the name "Lost in Hatteras".

And OBX Bill has something really unique this week. If you're a fan of flying and airplanes, check this out.

The great thing about all these blogs from Andy, Bill, Peconic Puffin/Michael, Kevin Pritchard, my good friend Rob, etc (and they're growing like crazy)....is this....think about how you subscribe to magazines. With blogs, we're subscribing to people....and it's interactive. It's also close to real-time, compared with seeing words and pictures in a magazine that were created months ago before going to print. Don't get me wrong, windsurfing magazines are great too and I think still play an important role. However, blogging is such a great complement, fills the void between issues, and connects you with real people and their real experiences.