English People are Tougher

Last week, I visited some friends in the UK who live in a place called Tynemouth which is just outside Newcastle. Northeast England is not exactly known as a windsurfing destination per se, but everything we had heard is that April is a pretty good month there and there are tons of spots with varying conditions. I figure what the hell, it's an excuse to check out a country I hadn't been to and visit some really cool people who I had met in Maui last October.

So the trip was booked. I would join Dave from Epic Sessions on a trip to visit our friend Chris Peacock. We would indulge in local food and drink (or at least I would, ha!) and try our hand at windsurfing in the North Sea (I can't think of a colder sounding body of water).

Perhaps I should write a culture piece about my experiences with the local Jordy culture and the ominous food choices including pickled eggs and "BEASTY HAGGIS", but for now I'll stick to the windsurfing.

The North Sea is cold. True story. While I had some really nice beach weather it seems that most of the good windsurfing comes along with some pretty bitter weather. I might be off here, but I can't remember a photo shoot in the UK with really sunny weather. Can someone correct me?

The good news? The features of England's coastline create a HUGE variety of incredible windsurfing conditions. When you look at an aerial map, you can see that the coastline has limitless variation to it. It looks like a fractal diagram from advanced algebra. There are tons of tidal inlets/wave setups, and places where you can get in behind the chompy zones of beautifully breaking waves.

Did I mention the incredible scenery? You find yourself windsurfing in front of rolling bright green hills and beautiful castles. You almost feel like some modern day viking battling the cold seas with ancient architecture right before your eyes. I managed to neither rape nor pillage, as I'm sure my readers will be glad to hear.

I certainly could not claim that I caught extremely epic conditions, but we did get one day of powered 6.3 (easily could have been 5.5) on some tasty sets of crumbling windswell in a spot called Beadnell Bay. Since we were sharing gear, we also pulled out a Naish SUP board with a 4.5 and split time riding that as well. It was unbelievably fun. We didn't have harness lines on that kit, so that was definitely robbing me of hand energy.

So now for my editorial regarding the title. Maybe I'm soft (ok, I'm definitely soft), but given the toughness of the weather, I have to tip my hat to those folks that live in cold places and windsurf. Canadians, Englishmen, Norwegians, heck, even those clowns from New York and the Great Lakes. I'm originally from Florida and I gotta say I don't think I ever would have gotten into windsurfing if I had lived in one of these colder locations.

Now that I've caught the bug, it all makes more sense. That said, I can't imagine having spent time putting on a dry suit or 5mm wetsuit to uphaul a windsurfer unsuccessfully over and over. I always tell people that the most important quality for learning windsurfing is persistence. If someone from a place like Northeastern England wants to windsurf, it's gonna take even more persistence... and a pair of weatherproof brass balls.

I'll tip back a terrible American ale for that bloke tonight!





I'll try to post up a few pics this weekend... off to Vegas!

SF Windsurfing + Blogging + City Life = FAIL

When I moved to SF, I thought to myself "why are there not many blogs about windsurfing in the bay area?".

There is tons of wind out here. There are tons of windsurfers out here. There are lots of creative/internetty types out here.

Then after about 10 months, I figured out why. People here windsurf a lot. They also work a lot. Then they have lots of friends too. All of these adds up to not a lot of free time for things like blogging.

I've taken some pictures and video lately, but just haven't had time to sit down and post any of it up. There was an amazing day at Crissy a couple Tuesday's ago where I sailed on my 3.8 fully powered. Pictures can be found here (and HEY! I'm in a few of them). I was on an eight-of-ten day streak and the wind died last weekend. It's finally picking up again. I learned how to duck-jibe. They aren't pretty, but they are mostly dry.

So yeah. Sorry for the lack of content. When I get injured or have some time, I'll just upload a bunch of crap and put it on here...

Finally back on schedule...

April is considered by many bay area windsurfers to be the best time of year. The wind is typically very consistent and fairly strong. This April has been a little ... strange I guess. We had a whole week with very light breeze that finally ended last Friday.

This weekend was a full on delivery though. I sailed Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Crissy. Friday was 4.7, Saturday and Sunday I sailed 5.3, but could have gotten away with 4.7. It was pretty windy on the inside too, so no 45 minute slogs to the wind line. I was sailing pretty juiced up on the 5.3 at times which I gotta admit was fun!

I'm pretty beat up now... All kinds of body parts hurt, but I'm sporting the perma-grin in the office today for sure.

Not only is Andy from Lost in Hatteras funny...

...he also lives in the outer banks of North Carolina, which means he has a lot of time on his hands.

I just realized that in response to my April Fools joke, he created a new blog for me, "The Human Teabag". Check it out!


It's been unusually not windy here for the last 5 days or so, especially considering it's April. The forecast is starting to look better... wish us luck!

Looks like the guys in FL and NC have been scoring big. Stop stealing our wind!

What a fun stick day looks like...

From 2:30 to 5:30 I was sailing a 4.7 and having a lot of fun. I was planing about 85% of the time and this is what the wind graph looked like. The water was pure flat butter as the tide had a little ebb going.

Kinda hard to believe, huh? Rich and Arnie from Pappas Rock were there with me working on freestyle. We were all getting very wet and having a lot of fun. I could have been on a bigger sail, but was having a lot of fun using a 4.7, working on efficiency and using a sail I could really toss around.

I'm not sure if it's meter accuracy or the big board effect. Maybe I'm even getting slightly more efficient... *gasp*

The Flood Doesn't Matter at Crissy Field

Subtitle: as long as it's blowing 30+



Today was one of the windier days at Crissy Field, even some of the die hard Crissy folks were shaking their heads and getting blown off the water. The regulars seemed to think wind like this was a once or twice a year type of thing. I started on 4.2 and 86L and lasted about 30 minutes before I decided I would be having more fun on my 3.8. The 3.8 felt better but then again Kevin speculated that it wasn't so much the strong breeze as the chop making it difficult to go, especially on port tack. The chop was steep and really tight together. Definitely one of my more challenging days on the water. It actually reminded me a lot of the gorge, only less forgiving in terms of the water surface conditions.

April Fools!!!

Thanks to all the suckers...err friends who showed their support yesterday. If I ever switch to kiting, please get me institutionalized.

In any case, I got a session in at Candlestick yesterday on a 4.7, either overpowered or bobbing. Super gusty conditions, but still fun. A few of the guys from Berkeley came over which was great. Any time my buddies show up, I push myself harder and try new things. It's really easy to sail by yourself and be satisfied doing the same kind of jibes you do all the time... which is actually kinda lame, right?