jeff shuck

We had a pretty incredible windsurfing weekend this past weekend. Sunday was very mellow but Saturday presented conditions that I’ve seldom seen around here, at least in the summer time. We had sustained winds at over 20 knots for much of the day, and over 30 knots for quite some time.

The above graph shows the actual conditions, with time at the bottom and wind speed in mph on the left. My session out on the water is in light green. The wind was coming from the south, so we didn’t have the kind of 6? to 8? waves that we usually have in high wind — the shore break was actually very low, with waves breaking well inside the no-wake buoys. But further out the waves grew to four or five feet. It appeared as if the wave pattern was still coming from the northwest, but the south winds were actually pushing the waves down. In any case, the waves were not only white capping but foaming and spraying out from the shore.

I had trouble even rigging because the wind speed was so high — the beach was a sandstorm for much of the time between 12:15 and 12:45. My board flew away a few times; luckily the conditions meant there was literally no one down there to get struck with it! It was incredible and more than a bit intimidating, actually. I rigged up my 6.0 (my smallest sail) on the RRD 146 and after some fits and starts, and with a feeling of excitement and trepidation, I took the board into the water.

On the first run out I was just flying — too much actually, and instantly flew off downwind until I regained some control. As I went to turn in I encountered the first of what would be all-day problems tacking because of how high the waves were out to sea. I probably fell two dozen times during the day, and my shins were scraped raw from the surface of the board.

With my abysmal water-starting skills I finally had to clamber onto the board and uphaul, and turning in to shore I was absolutely burning it up on the 6.0. My Garmin Foretrex has once again gone into dry-dock, and so I didn’t have it working. I wish I did, because I’m sure I would have clocked my fastest time of the season. Despite the speed, the conditions were intense and I almost called it a day after the first in.

I decided to do one more out-and-back, and got stuck for a while out there when I fell after trying to tack. I’m glad I rigged the 6.0 — I can’t imagine how overpowered I would have been on the 7.0 Ezzy Freeride (definitely my favorite sail), which seems to just have absurd amounts of power in most conditions.

Again I flew in on the turn-around, and the ride with the waves was simply incredible. But because I couldn’t tack or jibe in the shore break, I had to ride the board all the way into the beach . At that point, I figured I shouldn’t tempt fate and was going to drag the board out — and of course I decided not to! I stayed in the shallows to practice water starts, never actually hitting one because the wind was starting to calm down.

With the wind leveling off I decided to go out some more, and even though I had problems tacking each time, it was great fun and great practice in learning better sail handling. By the time I finished I could have used the 7.0 because of the lower wind speed, but the wind was still great and coming in on the surf was incredible — truly surfing. Riding a 5′ wave in 25 knot wind is just an incredible feeling — on the front of the wave, with the water so far below you, it just feels like flying.

I left banged up, exhausted, and feeling great. With a day like Saturday you are so on edge and primed that you are more excited than having fun — it is only once you start to de-rig and go home that the exhaustion sets in and you realize how fun and incredible the day was. Like everything else about windsurfing, I think there’s an analogy somewhere…

A great day to be alive.