Sunday SE to W

[Alton]

Maybe 7m at Ambleside

[shmish]

Well 4.6 isn’t going to work. Either 4.2, 3.3 or watch the wind and waves.

[Alton]

Yet another morning of survival kiting on 7m+surfboard in SSE 35g40. What a waste of smooth waist to chest high waves. After an hour got way overpowered so had to make an emergency landing near Centennial - thanks Mike for landing my kite.

Ambleside was a disaster for me. Wind ramped up to an crazy WSW 20-40. When it finally stabilized to WSW 20, I attempted to head out on 9m+surfboard but the shore break was too challenging for me on a strapless surfboard. Gave up after my surfboard smacked me in the nose .... but then a yappy small dog bit my leg on the beach - which hurt more than my bleeding nose.

Hoping for better luck on Tuesday.

BoundaryBay_Sun_Dec_5.gif (26.14 KiB) Viewed 15977 times

[C36]

Centennial


Our little secret. I woke up to the sound of the alarm at 6:15 and was secretly hoping it was going to be too old and/or not enough wind. Temp 7 degrees - crap! Wind speed gusting to 30 - crap! At Centennial by 7:37 am. I knew something was up when I could barely push the van door open (parked nose into the wind in the second row at Centennial). Checked the graph and it was gusting 40 mph. Funny OSR by Tsawwassen, Local said, "walking is pretty tough one way and really easy the other!" My smallest gear was getting pressed to the beach as I tried to carry it to the water. On the water just after Mike, Gebb, and Tsawwassen. 3.4/74 felt comfy at first them the funk started - tombstoned in lulls and spooled up in gusts - Tsawwassen later said, "That was a lot of work!" Flat and choppy for a long way out at first then waves seemed to grow and organize on the flooding tide - sort of. There were some rides and some ramps but you had to hunt for both today. Broke down and dawned gloves mid-session. Played follow-the-leader with Johnny on one sequence of backside rides on the way out and thought it ended with Johnny's rig may have separated from his board out past the second bank, but it had just "disappeared" below the murky water thankfully. Saw Alton tip-toeing down the beach toward the breakwall and houses below 4th with the kite at 12 o'clock. Thankfully Mike lend a hand. Forecast was pretty much spot on and wind went south just before noon.

Next stop sushi then White Rock East Beach for the look-see.

Gallery (click on the "screen" icon to view as a slideshow)

White Rock East Beach


Tweaker. I think I have a problem - solo session out tweaking my body further on the long way home. Fun little cool-down session in side-on fun knee-high pushy waves. Slight side-on WSW favoured starboard jumps and there was the odd set that felt almost coastal.

Pre-Session OSR
Gallery (click the screen icon to view as a slideshow)

[johnny2]

Ouch Alton! What a bummer. Hope your 5mm neoprene offered enough protection from the yapper so that you can hit the water again Tuesday. My shoulders were so sore yesterday after that Centennial session. With the gusts, it felt like my arms were being ripped out of the socket. Anyways good way to start 2020! Happy new year!

[Slappy]

From 35 knots to 15 knots I was just behind on kite size yesterday.

[Slappy]

I hope you talked to the owner of the dog Alton and get them to pay for your wetsuit repair and any other medical costs.

People need to know if their dogs can't behave off leash, biting people is 100% not okay. Vancouver has a bite reporting system, not sure if it's different in North Van though.

Hope your leg and nose are okay.

You should consider getting a Wave Bandit Performer 4-10 for your strapless sessions. Best board there is IMO and it's soft on the face and only costs $150 USD. If you feel like 4-10 isn't going to cut it for you (I'm 165 lbs) then give the Performer 5-6 a shot (Disclaimer: I've never ridden then 5-6) it does cost $200 USD though. Another big plus with these boards is coming in to the beach. If you watch my above video you can see I just ride the thing right up on to the sand and let it wash around in the surf while making sure my kite is under control.

If you want to try before you buy just flag me down next time you see me and we can board swap. Mine has pretty bad heel dents though after 40+ sessions.

[LeopardSkin]

Did you bite the doggie?

[Brian C]

Weird wind at Ambleside yesterday too. Just after lunch the sky cleared and the westerly kicked in. Within about 45 minutes a 40-knot wind bomb landed! Everyone was on the shore waiting for sanity to prevail; when it backed off a bit and people tried kiting or windsurfing, the wind became 10-20 knots, which was challenging for launching through the shore break. AJ and a couple other kiters got some good rides but most of us gave up. I was happy that I decided to stay dry!
(Sorry, I loaded the photos in backwards order)

[cwincald]

I just checked out the White Rock gallery posted by C36. I guess that's me on the green Ozone having one of the best, albeit short, sessions I have ever had. Thanks for capturing it.I've taken the liberty of downloading the album

Chalmers