What do you do if you've got a new board but it's not windy in Corpus Christi?
You drive to South Padre Island! Well, at least that's what we did last Sunday, when the wind forecast for SPI was about 5 knots better than for Corpus Christi. Nina really wanted to try her brand-new Skate 86! As you may have guessed from Nina's expression, the trip was a big success - two days of wind, flat and shallow water, and even a freestyler showing Spocks, Funnels, and Switch Konos to keep Nina motivated (perhaps I should rather say "even more motivated").
Our first stop was at a kite boarding shop to get a pass for the SPI North Flats - an area a couple of miles from town that the local windsurf and kiteboard association has leased. Here's a picture:
It looks flat because it is
flat - the water is about hip-deep for at least 3 miles out (and probably also three miles or more to the left and right). A perfect training ground for the
OBX-Wind long distance race! On Sunday, Nina took out her Skate, but on Monday morning, she joined for a bit of slalom practice, and to improve our monthly numbers on the GPS Team Challenge. I had already tried to improve my personal best in the 1 hour category on Sunday, but a broken harness line after 55 minutes stopped that (neither did it help that I got a bit disoriented and ended up a mile
upwind of where I had started). But on Monday, things went smoothly, and we ended the session with
three personal bests - 1 hour for both of us, and nautical mile for Nina. The session also got our team into the top-10
rankings for the month of January in the 1 hour and distance categories. Nice!
After finishing the 1 hour, I tried to go out on my 72 l speed board, but just then, the wind took a little break: meter readings dropped from 18 mph averages down to 15. Even considering that the meter reads low, that was too little for the small board, and I switched to using my freestyle gear for the first time here in Texas. Using a light 5.6 m freestyle sail after the 7.8 m 3-cam freerace sail felt
so easy!
After a much-needed break day, we were back on the water yesterday. I rented a Goya Bolt 115 (nice board!), Nina had a tuning and jibe practice session on the Falcon 99 / Racing Blade 7.0 combo. Perhaps I'm biased, but I think she looked good on the water:
There are a couple more things I want to talk about, including the new
"Do it yourself" kit from Ianovated that lets you convert any wetsuit into a "heated tubes" wetsuit for cold weather windsurfing - but the forecast for tomorrow predicts great NE wind in the morning, so I'll leave you with one more picture of Nina - this time from the "
I got my Skate!" celebration at a local brewery:
