2012 review

98 sessions (including a few SUP cruising sessions), 3700 km sailed - a pretty good year, but a noticeable drop from last year's 124 sessions. The big difference was how we spent our summers: in 2011, we lived on Maui for 6 weeks, sailing almost every day; in 2012, we moved from the Boston suburbs to Cape Cod, and spend many days with preparing the house for sale, moving, unpacking, etc. But now, we live within 45 minutes of dozens of great windsurfing spots! Since we downsized the house and were lucky with our timing, we were able to finally get a windsurfing van and a bunch of new (or at least new-to-us) windsurfing gear. So 2013 should be a great year for windsurfing, and we hope to start the season tomorrow on New Year's Day.

The wind this year has been a bit disappointing. Even the fall season, usually the best season for windsurfing here in the Northeast, brought very few really windy days. It's not all bad, though - our light wind freestyle skills have improved significantly due to lots of practice, and we have started SUP wave sailing in light winds. Our new freestyle tricks are pretty much limited to light wind tricks, but things like duck tacks, back-to-back, boomerang heli tacks, and ankle biters are not too shabby, and plenty of fun to practice. For our planned 2-week winter vacation in Bonaire, we actually hope for light wind days! Although we probably won't complain too much if we get 14 days of planing conditions...

Here are a few highlights of the year:

• Great ABK camps in Bonaire, Long Island, Cape Cod, and Hatteras
• Picking up three trophies between the two of us at the East Coast Windsurfing Festival, including Nina's 1st place in women's freestyle
• Warming up after chilly fall sessions in our jacuzzi and sauna
• Discovering two new speed spots (we now know WSW-SW, NNE-E, and NNW-NW speed spots)
• Sailing Harding's Beach for the first time - a place perfect for learning the forward loop, with steep ramps coming at a right angle to the wind
• Discovering a wetsuit with an "integrated hand warming system" that allows us to enjoy places like Harding's even when temperatures are near freezing
• Going for distance - sailing 473 km (294 miles) between the two of us in one day, which earned Nina the world record for women's distance on the GPS Team Challenge for a couple of months (she still has the #2 spot)

While we're at the topic of distance: I have wanted to include the video below in my blog ever since Brendon brought it to my attention a few months ago - so here it is, for all the distance speedsurfers out there:

With that, I wish you all a great and windy 2013. But prepare for the worst - maybe 2012 was a sign of things to come, so get a big board and brush up on your light wind freestyle ;-)