Increasing Addiction

2013 ended the same way it began: with a lovely session at Skaket Beach. The first session last year was on January 1st with Nina, the last session on December 30th with Hardie. The wind did not come in quite as strong promised on the 30th, but we got enough for an hour of flat water fun. Hardie was flying on his new Exocet WindSUP 10.2, at times keeping up with me on my Skate. That board certainly planes! A great ending to a great year of windsurfing.

2013 was the first year where we lived the entire year on Cape Cod, and that had a noticeable effect on sessions sailed:

I had a total of 145 windsurf session, with more than 5260 km (3270 miles) sailed. That's 21 sessions more than in 2011, when we had lived on Maui for almost seven weeks, sailing there 37 times. It's 40 sessions more than in 2010, when we traveled all over the US to check out potential areas to move to, and sailed in the Gorge, Maui, Corpus, SPI, Cape Hatteras, and Bonaire.

Many of last year's sessions were short - an hour after work, or sometimes during the middle of the day, when the wind picked up. With three great sailing spots just a 15 minute drive away (and many others within 40 minutes), I caught many sessions on days where the forecast had not predicted anything planeable. Moving to Cape Cod was definitely one of the best decisions we ever made. Not just for windsurfing - the beauty of the Cape is much better for the soul than the hectic of Boston! Around here, very few people here regard making it to the next red light before you as of utmost importance.

Despite scoring an average of almost three sessions per week for the entire year, I cannot claim any big progress in skills. The loop is still a dream, and Vulcans and Flakas remain untried. My speed has only improved marginally. Perhaps the one thing that has changed is that I am more comfortable in voodoo chop now - no big surprise, since Kalmus is now my home beach. I also sailed for the first time in wind averages above 40 mph, which was not really a big deal once I switched down to the 3.7 m sail from the 4.5.

Mostly, I have been just mowing the law - back and forth, back and forth. After three and a half decades of windsurfing, I am still fascinated by the just planing, and could do it for hours, without feeling any need to work on new tricks. Although it probably helps that the water conditions are different almost every time I sail - even the same spot (like Skaket or Kalmus) will have very different swell and chop levels if the wind direction or tide levels change. That keeps things interesting, and was one of the reasons why we chose Cape Cod over Maui.

A few new things, however, did happen in 2013 that also kept things exiting. One was getting certified as a US Sailing Windsurf Instructor, and teaching my first "official" windsurf lesson. The other one was organizing the East Coast Windsurfing Festival Cape Cod, which was a big success. In 2014, we will try to get a windsurfing organization going that will make it easier to hold similar events on Cape Cod and other places. The hope to participate again at the ECWF in Long Island is definitely a big motivator to work on light wind and planing freestyle moves; I can't wait to fly to Tobago in a few weeks to practice!

Triple Jinx

I jinxed Martin three times yesterday. He ended up with 10 minutes of good wind, instead of 3 hours if he had just ignored me. I had explained it all in much detail ... but the jinxing still seems to be going on, and I lost everything I had written. So if you want to know, you'll have to ask me. But a GoPro video apparently survived:

With just a few barely planing runs, the movie may give a wrong impression about Martin, so here's another one with a couple of tricks he did during the Cape Cod ABK camp last September:

Must work on timing

Timing is important for windsurfers. Good freestylers work on timing in their tricks. Bad timing gives good crashes. I work about 1000-fold slower: I try to time the wind. Bad timing leads to short sessions and good schlogging. I am good at bad timing.

The forecast for today predicted good wind at 10 am, then a significant drop at 1 pm. At 10 am, the wind was good. 10 minutes later, it dropped a bit. Hardie called. I told him that I thought the wind would drop more, and that I did not want to go. So what if it was low tide, and the wind direction (SSE) was great for West Dennis?

Hardie is smarter than I am. He decided to ignore me and go. He called me up and told me so. So I had to go to. The wind was still around when I arrived at WD around 11 am. It actually was pretty strong - averages around 23. Nice!

Of course, this could not last, so I rigged the 6.5, Hardie his 6.3. It did not last. But instead of looking at the water to see that the wind had gone down, I remembered that it had been good 10 minutes earlier, and took my 96 l wave board out. Too small. Back in, get the 110 l freestyle board. Then, 40 minutes of planing on flat water, with only minimal pumping and a few small waits. Nice. Today is still officially Christmas in Germany. I like Christmas windsurfing.

More and more kiters showed up. They don't need much wind, so the wind went down a bit, and we ended our short session.

Had I believed the forecast, I could have had 3 hours of nice wind. The same was true for perhaps 3 out of 4 other windy days recently. But today, perhaps it was good that I arrived late - my back is still bothering me a bit after longer sessions. Maybe my back has fallen in love with the jacuzzi and wants to see it every day. Who am I to argue? But an earlier start would also have meant sailing and de-rigging while it was dry, instead of in light rain. So yes, I should work on my timing.

Almost 3 days

The wind forecast: 28 mph at 10, balmy 52ºF rising.

The smart plan: sail early, before the front is crosses overhead at 1 pm.

The meter readings for Kalmus:

Apparently, I needed my entire smartness to put both boots and the wetsuit in the car. Arriving at Kalmus, we saw Greg going out on a 4.7. Hardie and I started with a nice long walk along  the beach. We wanted to check how much time we'd have to spot the stone wall in the dense fog. Result: at least 3 seconds - plenty of time! Then, we looked at the merits of sailing a new spot (for Hardie) in dense fog with very limited visibility, and a ferry lane close by. Did not find any. Hardie is hardie-core, but not stupid. He bailed. But by then, Martin had arrived. More checking and walking.

Finally, we rigged. Meter readings were still around 30. By the time we hit the water, they had dropped to 26. 5 minutes later, they had dropped to 15. Our 4.7 and 5.5 meter sails and 96-99 l boards were not cutting it anymore. Visibility was perhaps 50 meters, so who knew where we were sailing? We did not. But we have fast reactions times. Turned around as soon as we saw the stone wall. Well done!

Then, a multiple choice question:

1. Try to schlog upwind with small gear in big chop and little wind, or
2. Carry the gear back.

We picked #2. Yes, #2. At least it was exercise.

It probably was my fault. I think the front was supposed to stay far away, which would have given us wind all day. But I had to give Martin the boom cam. Every time I give someone else one of my electronic gadgets, something bad happens. Usually, that involves the wind going away. Today, I think the front wanted to check out what Martin had at the end of his boom, and came by to check. That was the end of the wind.

But I am not complaining - at least I got wet. Nicely so, when I got stuffed head over heals into the water. But it was all good - I was getting hot, anyway. And after 10 minutes of windsurfing, 20 minutes of carrying gear, and 30 minutes of rigging and de-rigging, we had earned our beers. Off to the BBC!

Martin was thirsty. The bartender was very attentive. When Marty smiled at the thought of a 3rd beer, it materialized in front of him the moment he looked away. It was good beer - Cape Cod Weizenbock. It would have been a sin to send it back! Martin had to drink it. So what it the alcohol content is 7.8%? That's one of the reasons it was so good!

After that, I could not let Martin drive all the way home through the fog. We decided to put him into the jacuzzi the leach the alcohol out of his pores. It was a very slow process, but Martin was brave, despite the 103ºF hot water. I had to sit outside a few times to cool down, but he hung in there. After a couple of hours, I gave up.

We went inside and looked at movies from the last ABK camp in Hyannis to see why Marty can't loop.  In my case, the answer is easy: lack of cojones and trying. Not so for Martin - he tried, and tried, and tried. In the movie, his takeoff is perfect: the board vertical, the sail luffed and to windward, then turning downwind. But comparing stills with Josh Angulo loop pictures revealed what was missing: getting the body over the boom by pushing down with the front arm. Even if that does not lead to completed loops, at least the crashes are much nicer, a soft float under the sail. Although if Martin really pushes himself up and the nose down, I think he'll have to be more concerned about over-rotating. Especially if the is 6 or 8 feet above the water, as he often is.

Doing loop analysis with me will sober anyone up. Just ask Andy or Brendon! So Martin was finally ready to drive home. He only turned the GoPro on for one run, but of course, he showed a couple of nice chop hops and a sweet duck jibe in that minute. Here's a picture of one of the hops - you can't really tell how high off the water he is because it's too foggy:

Some might say the camera angle is less than perfect, but I think Martin wanted to show off his Skate.

Funny - not much sailing today, but still a great windsurfing day. Apparently, drinking beer and spending hours in the jacuzzi talking about windsurfing counts.

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Today was the third day I sailed this week - not bad for mid-December. Yesterday was almost as warm, but not as windy, which meant the wind decoupled everywhere on the south side of Cape Cod. Hardie and I sailed in Skaket, where SW winds are side-shore, and side-off a bit upwind. I got a bunch of planing runs on my 7.0; Hardie planed a bit on his 6.3 on his WindSUP first, and later on his FSW board when the wind picked up. Warm and sunny, a nice day.

But the winner of the week was a short session last Thursday at the Kennedy Slicks. That also was a warm day; after a few days with below-freezing temps and snow, the warmup to 42ºF felt great. Once again it was 7.0 time, but the wind picked up for a while to let me sail my 90 l slalom board:

Nice and flat! I love slicks. Even when the wind drops..

Three days. Three spots. Three very different sets of conditions. Windsurfing on Cape Cod does not get boring. And for those of you who wonder: I was warm or hot the entire time, all three days.