Deep Hole & Roger Wheeler State Park, Windsurfed, W,NW 5-32, 6.2,5.2,4.2/ Acid94, others

The best and worst of windsurfing in one day. The morning had just about perfect down the line conditions! I’ve never sailed in conditions like that. There was a nice left over south swell from the previous day’s strong south/southeast wind, (they were only listed as 2 to 3 ft but they were clean, well formed), moderate west wind, high tide,(dead high tide is great at Deep Hole- use the Ninigret tide chart on IWindsurf). The waves were in sets so it was easy to get out, by just waiting for a break, and the water outside wasn’t that choppy since it was 5.2 to 6.2 conditions- high teens/low 20’s mph. I was on the Acid94 with the 5.2 with just enough power. There actually seemed to be more power right in the waves, especially going down the line. I only got a few runs in before it switched to NW but I went completely down the line for the first time, feet in the straps. It seemed almost easy in these conditions!

Broken Board; There was a very good wave sailor there who was doing great bottom turns, cutbacks etc. He asked to borrow a bigger board just as I was going out. I let him use the RW 85, and we had a few nice runs together in the waves with the perfect conditions. I went back up to the launch to adjust harness lines just as he was walking out of the water with a broken board- the RW85. The nose of the board was smashed! He swore that he didn’t land on it, that it just got crunched by a big, heavy wave, and that the wave actually smashed the nose. He was very apologetic and offered to pay for it. My new beautiful board! I think I was in shock and denial. So I went back out sailing.

Nasty wind; After the nose smashing incident, the wind had shifted to WNW. It was really bad, offshore, light gusty, shifty wind. It seemed to fit my mood. I rigged a 6.2 but it just got lighter and shifted to NW sometimes, making it very hard just to get back to the launch. I had to uphaul and hold the sail up for as long as I could in the extreme lulls, then drop the sail, rest and uphaul again. I finally got back to the beach. After a few minutes of resting, the wind picked up a lot but with the offshore wind it was probably blowing from about 5 to 35. I went out and had a hard time getting back again but this time I was way over powered whenever I got a little offshore. I finally packed up and went over to Roger Wheeler for about ½ hour of very nice sailing on the 4.2 before it died again. What a crazy day!

Weather; I used the new O’Neill 7mm booties but my feet were still a little cold. My hands were also cold at times with my new glacier gloves. It was around 50 F. temp, sunny.

Picture; Dwight Lecomte at Deep Hole 12/24