Nice shots Ryan!
Block party. I think it was Richi that mentioned he had never seen so many people at 'the boat ramp' before. Sailors, residents, families and tourists all down to check out the wind! And there was a lot of it today!
Little bit of everything today - sun, bullet-rain, wind, waves, weeds, pain and pleasure.
The day started out with watching graphs light up in Whidbey Island, Locust and north straight over breakfast. Then rushed down to Centennial to try and catch the last of the outgoing tide only to get the worst possible text from RyanCR500 - "26 onshore". Ugh! East!?*&! It wasn't supposed to be east! Got there and saw it was east and FLAT too ~ just about left for Point Roberts about three or four times, but each time the pulses of wind would keep me watching until the real deal came rolling in the sunshine! Yup, that's right, SUNSHINE!
Those there started frantically rigging mid-4's and took to the water. Was glad I took the 4.5 out to start (needed the power).
Started the session sailing with Ryan, Brad and M. Waves built quickly on the edge of the second bank, but the 'islands' of weeds right in the waves was more than a little annoying. Even with weed fins in the quad I was 'dragging' matts of weeds at times that resulted in wicked forearm cramping. Then sailed up toward the mile marker to get into the deeper water to try and get away from the weeds, which seemed to help. The wind kept building and turned the session into survival sailing of sorts. Passed the mile marker carefully to windward only to be hammered into the water in its wind shadow after gybing (silly me, I thought I could punch through its wind shadow cleanly - it and its’ wind shadow were both bigger than I thought). Glad to see Daniel was able get out using his 4.2 and working the swell (saw a few back loops thrown), took a few runs out through the waves with Lubo (some tandem jumping) - very fun! Amazed to see Ryan riding his Skate (no weed fins for his quad) and AG sailed up to join the party!
Finally after more than a few one-more-ride out through the waves I decided enough was enough and went in for some smaller gear. By the time I got the beach through the shallow water I was immobilized by the wind. Thankfully Nicolas gave me a hand to secure my gear on the beach. Grabbed a drink, left and OSR rerigged out on the bank just in time for the wind lighten. Oh well gave it a shot (3.6/74) and was rewarded with a few just powered planning rides, a few lofted jumps and a nice little frontside warp following Jen's lead one wave back)! Felt nice to be sailing within the 'comfort' zone of just powered!
Then went in to grab some 'big gear' in the backing wind, but saw M doing well again in the rain squall so just grabbed the 4.5/92 off the beach again. Some more playtime and then it shut down for good.
M was all smiles after a day well spent. Welcome home M!
Pre-Session OSRMid-Session OSRGallery (better for mobile devices)
Slideshow
