Brainless Windsurfing

It was a nice day at Chapin! At least I think it was. I had new seals put in my drysuit and I didn't prestretch the neck seal enough. It was cutting off the flow of blood to my brain. It's interesting that I could still sail like that. I guess you don't need a brain to windsurf. You just need a functioning lower brain stem and a little animal instinct. Brains get in the way anyway. They worry about everything. This may be the real benefit of wearing a drysuit for Winter sailing. Once the drysuit is on and the blood supply to the brain is squeezed off, it's easy to jump in near freezing water and sail blissfully away. After the the tide let out and the wind dropped to 10-20, I put up my 3.6 trainer kite and let it drag me around the beach a little. It was good brainless fun, but I don't think I was having as much fun as Tim. Chapin, Windsurfed, 10-32, NNW, N, 5.2/RW85, With Windsurfers- Igor, Juan, Mike, Kiters- Tim, Jamie, others. Photo- Tim hams it up for the camera.

Deep Hole Wavesailing Video from 11/16/08

Here's a wavesailing video from Nate, hot off the press. It was taken at Deep Hole/ Matunuck R.I. on 11/16/08, just edited down now apparently. Thanks Nate! I'm the guy, near the end of the video, getting stuffed by a wave on the way out.

The Call of the Slopes

Due to the plummetting economy, we decided to reduce our entire ski season to 1 weekend this year. At least we picked a great weekend. We had good snow, good company, and serious hot tubbing. Ben said that he missed going to Vail but he loved skiing with his buds, Mitchell and Will. 3 Generations of hot tubbers- Grandma J, Uncle Al, Ben Lee was missed, Josh skiied for 1 half day, Barbara pulled a muscle after 1 half day. Thanks to Al for hosting! Sunday River, Skiied, with Barbara, Ben, Josh, Al, Brian, Also- Ken, Elaine, Mitchell, Ali, and- Kate, Will.

Corporate Meeting

I packed my lunch, laid out my clothes, and went to bed early. I had an important meeting in the morning. I wanted to get a good night sleep so I would be at my best. The topic of the meeting? Windsurfing. It took place on the water, Corporation Beach. I think it was very productive. There was a nice group of guys attending. We had 5 on the water at one time. That's considered a massive crowd for Mid February sailing/kiting around here. Jerry gets the award for the move of the day. How can you possibly sail on the leeside of the sail on an 85 liter board, in waves, (alright tiny waves)? I saw him happily motoring upwind, back to the launch that way. Someone should tell him that it's impossible and that he should stop doing it! Note- Chapin meter read W but the wind seemed more WNW at Corporation. Picture- Igor, the Corporate man. Corporation Beach, Windsurfed, WNW 15-27, 5.7 & 6.2/ Acid 94, Air Temp upper 30's, With Igor, Juan, Jerry, Barry on kite.

Sparkling Winter Day

Nothing makes this messed up world seem beautiful again like a warm, windy, sunny day in the middle of Winter. How warm was it? High of 52 F! Igor sailed yesterday because he thought it was going to be unbearably hot today. Igor is from Siberia. For me it was just right. Not too hot. Not too cold. It was so nice to wear 2mm gloves again, and to have a few extra seconds after peeling off my drysuit before I had to jump in the truck or risk becoming a frozen windsurfer popsicle. 2 sessions. I didn't let any of this day go to waste. A front went through, late morning, and killed the wind for awhile, then it came back from a different direction. Early morning session- Deep Hole, Windsurfed, WSW, 17-22, 6.2/ Acid 94 & Carve 123, Solo. Afternoon Session- Camp Cronin, Windsurfed, WNW, 18-38, 4.2/ Acid 94 & RealWind 85, with Dan & King. Picture- King at Camp Cronin

De-ice Before Take Off

Juan, jibing on a smooth spot at Corporation Beach The temp was a little borderline for me today, it never got above freezing, but I'm a sucker for wind and waves and that's what we got at Corporation. I was plenty warm, except for: the occasional numb hand that I had to shake down, some wind chill on my face, my right big toe was cold for about 10 minutes, no problem. Near the end of the day my boom was getting a little slippery from freezing and I noticed some ice spray forming on my rig. I guess that explains why my sail felt heavy when waterstarting. The wind quality wasn't the best but it was a beautiful sunny day, great to share it with Igor and Juan. Just as I was getting into my truck to leave, 2 elderly ladies, who had been watching me derig, came over to say that they loved watching me sail and that all the kids that are sitting inside watching T.V. should get off they're couches and come out and watch. That made my day! I had expected to hear the usual refrain: "you are sick and should be locked up so you can't influence others". Ya never know. where's my de-icing agent? Windsurfed, Corporation Beach, WNW, W, NW, 10-29, 5.7/Acid94 & RW 85, with Igor, Juan, I used Josh's Drysuit(new, no leaks), 5mm gloves, Air Temp 27-31 F.