Back - sort of

After over 6 months of serious withdrawal, my surgeon just cleared me for windsurfing as of last week. And as if someone had flipped a switch, the very windsurfer-friendly El Nino winter we've had (mild temps, lots of breeze) turned into what feels like early spring with even milder temps and no breeze whatsoever.

Friday, I finally seemed to get a chance to go sailing, with gorgeous weather, temps in the mid-50's, and a nice southerly around 12-15 knots - perfect formula weather, basically, and about as perfect for a first session since that day in July as I could have asked for. But then this is windsurfing, not indoor soccer - a sport that depends very much on the favor of the wind, aka that most fickle of mistresses.

And so I made it out to the launch just in time for the breeze to back off mightily, and while I normally would have recognized the signs of convergence pretty much immediately, my optimism, fueled by over six month of dry spell, propelled me out (because surely, it will fill back in - there's still a southerly gradient here), only to then leave me stranded a few hundred yards out with glassy water and the occasional 2 knot ripping gust off-shore requiring me to swim/paddle back (you know it's pathetic when you can't slog home on formula gear).

I ended up getting a ride from our local SUP maven (thanks, Beau!), whose example inspired me to do what I should have done to begin with by taking out the Kona and getting a nice SUP workout. My coming to my sense was rewarded with a spectacular bald eagle flyby and some curious seals stopping by for a visit. Not a bad way to spend some time on the water. I guess it's a good sign that I'm back to living by the wind forecast, though - means I'm back to being a real windsurfer (rather than one sidelined by injury and working really hard on my zen skills...)