Beach sport? Yachting? Both!

Windsurfing mag has a feature on power sails this month. Looks like the Hucker got some good press - for good reason, I'd say. Interesting to me, however, were some of the comments made by the sailmakers (this is only available in the print edition, not on the mag's web site). In his blurb, Dave Ezzy says something to the effect that Formula was this big diversion - huge sails for going upwind/downwind, and the average sailor, he contends, got 'reamed' by that development.

Which begs the question - how exactly does the average sailor get 'reamed' by a small segment of the market going off and doing its own thing? I race Formula and think it's awesome, but I don't have any illusions about this being something that's applicable to everyone. What's learned in the process can and does filter down to the rec market, though - you can't tell me that all the stuff sailmakers learned in making these huge sails rock solid didn't play into what they did to apply rig tension to smaller sails in ways that allowed more low-end combined with good stability at the hairy edge.

Instead, this to me looks like more of the old "that's not really windsurfing" attitude I see a lot. There's this apparent division between people who think windsurfing is a beach sport (something to be enjoyed only if planing on small gear, with an emphasis on waves and Bump & Jump), and those (a much smaller group, I admit) who think of windsurfing as sailing in the yachting sense (racing on upwind/downwind courses, sailing big gear in light winds, etc.)

To the beach sport crowd, sailing in 8 knots is a way station - something that needs to be done to learn how to windsurf in the first place. Later on, when skills have advanced, they'd consider 8 knots time to play volleyball on the beach, have a beer, and bitch about the lack of breeze.

To the sailing (yachting) crowd, 8 knots is an invitation to play - be it on longboards (for those who just want to cruise around and enjoy the gliding sensation), or be it on Formula gear (for those who have the racing and performance bug).

If you live on Maui, it's easy to see how you would fall exclusively into the beach sport camp. With ample breeze most of the year and tons of wave action, that seems natural. Dave Ezzy lives on Maui. He certainly has proven to be a very capable wave sailor, and he's passed on the stoke (those pics of his son Graham ripping it up with the pros are truly inspiring). Good on him! What he's apparently not getting, though, is that there's a world where reliable 20 knots and waves don't happen. In that world, you're dealing with 8 knots and flat water most of the time. And even in places where you do have lots of times with lots of wind (think San Francisco Bay or the Gorge - noone's ever complained about those not being B&J friendly...), there are lots of people who, because of work or familiy commitments, or traffic etc., can triple their time on the water easily (not to mention lengthen their season to year-round) by finding a way to enjoy 8 knots of breeze.

There are different ways to enjoy 8 knots. If you're on Maui, you get one of the new SUP-inspired long boards, slog out through the surf, and basically get to go surfing without needing to paddle. Cool. If you live near flat water, you can putter around on a longboard in sub-planing mode. Or, you can go for the high-performance option and sail Formula gear. If you're a competitive person, you know which one you're choosing.

So there's an option to have a rewarding, high-performance, exciting sailing experience in 8-12 knots. It's called Formula, and it works. I know, you can plane on big slalom gear in 10 knots these days - but nursing my plane in hours of ho-hum BAF sailing isn't really doing it for me, and I like to range around and go places - Formula will get me there in a way nothing else will (not even the highest-performance racing longboards).

So exactly how providing a high-performance option for those 8 knots and up means the average sailor gets 'reamed' is beyond me. Maybe the mag can get Dave Ezzy to clarify that - I simply don't get it. You could argue it's because everyone now thinks they have to have monster sails and boards and buy stuff that's not appropriate for them. Hmmm.... - coming from the wave-camp, I'd be careful with that one, lest someone might seek to place blame for the thousands of flat-water inland sailors getting skunked at their home spots every weekend because the conditions aren't right for their small wave or freestyle gear...

The cool thing about windsurfing is that it's not just a beach sport, and it's not just yachting. It's got the best of both worlds, and it spans a tremendous range. All of it's fun - as long as you're not hung up on what someone else tells you is proper windsurfing. There's lots to do in this sport, and lots of people get different kicks from all kinds of things. Racing (small gear or large; downwind or on UW/DW courses or long distance), wave sailing, freestyling, B&J sailing, longboard racing or cruising, tandem sailing - it's all good stuff. What the sport needs is stoke, and fortunatly there's lots of that around. What the sport doesn't need are judgmental attitudes. Nobody's getting reamed if we on the lunatic fringe go off and race formula gear UW/DW. Nobody's getting reamed just because magazines show inspirational (and aspirational) shots of sailors ripping it up on Maui. There's no need for that kind of rhetoric - just get over it.

Spring's here - sort of...

Got a nice session on the first day of spring - seemed appropriate. Of course, this being the Pacific Northwest, spring is a variable time of year for weather. After already having been spoiled with the occasional 60 degree days (both with warm rain and with sunshine), yesterday looked more like January with dark gray skies and 41 degree air temps. I held out for an hour way overpowered on the 10.8 and big fin before my hands and feet were just too numb. Looks like more of the same today.

Of chickens and little piggies...

Michael of the Peconic Puffin had this post on his astonishment upon seeing center straps on formula gear in a picture posted by Steve Bodner. The chicken strap has been a vital piece of equipment on formula gear since its inception - rather chicken out downwind and go a little slower (but at a deeper angle) instead of swimming (which, as Rob Hartman used to put it, is surely the slowest point of sail). Of course, there's that point where even that won't do - that's when you start straddling the board and use the leeward strap (which Hartman used to call the little piggy strap - since when you're ready to use that, you're surely frightened to the point of squealing - cue theme from Deliverance here...)

Of course, real racers don't use these, right? In 2004, on the day before racing started at the US Open in Corpus, I was out sailing with Dale. He was on 9.8 (the smallest he brought), I ran a 9.1. The chop in the bay there gets really nasty - there's swell pitching up very steeply, then refracting off a number of seawalls, so by the time you get close to where the leeward marks and start/finish line were going to be off McGee Beach, you found yourself in a landscape of VW Bug sized moguls. On one run, we came downwind behind Micah Buzianis and Jimmy Diaz. I distinctly remember actually catching up to Jimmy (a feat never to be repeated), as he was alternating between the windward rear strap, holding that for a few seconds, then scrambling over to the leeward strap, then looking for middle ground. An hour later, he was seen on shore mounting a chicken strap...

And at the 2004 US Nationals in SF, Phil McGain (who had often announced that chicken straps were unnecessary) found that racing in the voodoo chop created by the ebb, tankers, container ships, ferries, and fishing vessels off Crissy Field could benefit from a chicken strap as well. He was asked about this by someone and replied: "I may be a proud man, but I'm not a stupid man."

Of course, speaking of downwind speed - Hartman used to credit his uncanny ability to hold the hammer down off the breeze in even the roughest water to his ability to simply turn off the frontal lobes...

March madness weekend in Bellingham

This is the wind graph from the north end of the bay on Saturday. Temps were in the high fifties. I got to Post Pt. when it looked like powered 7.2 slalom sailing in the morning. As soon as I had rigged, it had picked up a few notches, so I switched to the 6.0. Then it really picked up a went more East than I really wanted to deal with at Post (huge wind shadow off shore, and lots of swirly gusts coming down and around the Chuckanuts), so I moved up north to Little Squalicum Beach, next to the Plywood plant. Things were kind of light on the beach, so I stuck with my 100 liter slalom board and the 6.0. Cleared the pier in two tacks, then found myself in head-high swell with the spray getting blown off the top. Hung on going out against the swell on port tack (which was hugely lifted due to the Easterly component), trying to keep from getting launched into the stratosphere on that big board. Had some really exciting rides back in on starboard, shooting at warp speed along the troughs. Would invariably get myself tripped up over stray chop coming the other way and had some big spills. Reason prevailed, and I packed it in.

Sunday was windy again. I didn't get out until later afternoon; most of the locals had already bagged it after hours spent on very flattened 4.2's. Since it was due South now (around 4:30), and the tide was way low, I could use my smaller slalom board and the 5.0 and launch from Post Pt. The tide was so low, in fact, that I could walk right out to the windline - no swimming required. Spray was still flying, and it was all I could do to keep the board on the water going out on port into the swell bending around the point (roughly shoulder high, with lots of freaky chop mixed in). The rides through the troughs on starboard were amazing. Bailed just in time before the big rain squall killed the wind (that's the sharp dropoff around 5:30). Not sure if that's the end of winter storm season or not - we sure had a lot of them this year, including the epic one on November 15 that gusted up to 82mph at the Cold Storage (I sat that one out...) Maybe it's time to reconsider the notion that a small B&J board doesn't pay since we only have a handful of really windy days each year anyway...

Sure nice to be sailing in warmer air temps again - no need for gloves.

New home for the blog - where have all the comments gone?

A while back, I realized that my blog has become invaded by spambots spewing comments all over the place. Since I really didn't care too much for hosting all kinds questionable offers, I went through the database and deleted all the spam, then disabled posting of comments until I could figure out how to use some sort of 'living human' test. In the meantime, I discovered blogspot, which is a service provided by google. Lots of nice functionality, very easy to use. So I moved all my archived posts over here. I may at some point move it into my own domain (that's actually supported - all it takes is forwarding a subdomain); in the meantime, though, this will be my blog's home. The link from my website now leads here, and if I do choose to move the blog back into my domain, I'll keep that link updated as well.

Unfortunately, moving comments over (i.e., the legitimate ones left after I deleted the garbage) hasn't worked out yet. I'll see if I can figure that out at some point. In the meantime, commenting is enabled again, using one of those little 'type the text in the picture' tests to make sure the commenter is a human being. I'd rather not have to worry about moderating comments, but the software offers that option in case the spammers have found a way to defeat that mechanism.

One of those sessions...

So today I had one of those sessions. Last time I went sailing (last week), it was sunny, low-to-mid 50's, and nice steady breeze. Mt. Baker loomed in the distance, the bay was sparkling, and I was perfectly powered on my 9.9 and FW board. Today, it was raining hard, the wind was a bit on the gusty side, and with all the snowmelt that's been coming down the rivers, the water was downright nippy even though the air was close to 50. Wind readings were all over the place - all I could tell from shore was that out in the channel, it was windy and there was some big swell.

I rigged my 6.0 and my slalom board, slogged out through the wind shadow (only two short swims until I reached the wind line - not too bad), and found myself massively overpowered. Spent an hour on the water doing survival sailing - a 4.8 or even a 4.2, and a smaller freeride board would have been the call, as things were getting furry and there was the occasional hint of liquid smoke. Held on for an hour, and when my hallpass was about to expire, I came back in on a long broad reach taking advantage of some rare smooth swell - until the off-shore gust from inside the Chuckanuts hit me head on, so I got to swim in the last 300 yards through the icy Padden Creek outflow. Brrr...

As I carried my stuff up on the beach, this guy on the beach asked me how it was out there. And reflexively, I said 'great.' After all, I'd just successfully ditched work for a couple of hours to log some TOW, so yes, it was great. Not sure if it was a whole lot of fun, though - between the numb toes and the hanging-on-for-dear-life bit, I'd describe it more as character-building. Or maybe life-affirmingly stupid... ;)

All that's missing is a bow...

Not only did Santa come early with a nice session on 12/23, but I even got a hall pass on Christmas Day. Perfect 9.9 conditions (roughly 15-18 knots out on the Bay, with occasionally brilliant sunshine and reasonable temps around 48F). Not quite Baja, but great stuff nonetheless. The coolest thing was how it came about, as my wife and daughter looked out the window as I was taking out the who-knows-how-manieth load of paper recycling that comes with having Christmas with two kids and visiting grandparents, determined it was windy, and told me that they had another present for me ;)

Another good one...

Yes, it really is storm season now. Had another windy day today; while not as epic as last week's storm (and not packing as much moisture, hopefully sparing the region from more flooding), there was plenty of breeze. Sailed Post Pt.; found Glenn there, who had driven up from the South Sound. He started on a 4.8 Hucker and his 80 liter board; I started on my 24" wide Roberts slalom with a 6.0. It quickly became apparent that it was windy (it's hard to tell sometimes from shore, since it's a wee bit offshore, and visibility isn't that great). I found out later that the sensor at the cold storage at the north end of the bay was registering gusts into the 40's, with one spike up to 50. I'd say we probably had (once outside in the channel) about 30-35 mph as a base, with frequent puffs that took the spray off the waves.

I came back to shore after a few reaches to rig down. Decided to try something truly stupid - a 5.0 on my big slalom board, offset with a 32cm fin (I usually run a 34 with my 6.0). Surely, this couldn't work, but the small board wasn't really an option (it's got all of 70 liters, I weight 210#, and there was a big hole to about 1/4 plus from shore). Lo and behold, the combo actually felt pretty good. Sure, it was hard to keep the board down at times, but the monster puffs weren't quite as daunting since with that big a board there are no holes so when the gust hits you're already going fast. In a way, it seems that it's easier to hold a big sail on a bigger board, with more leverage and all (funny, actually, since a 5.0 is not a big sail, but today it sure felt like it). As I went out, Glenn came in for his 4.2 Hucker, which he then used to good effect for the rest of the session.

So today, I probably would have been happier on a 4.2 or 4.8 Hucker, using something like a fast freeride board around 85-90 liters or so. But the 100 liter slalom did pretty well. It was a little too big to safely go for air, but I had a pretty damn nice session. One of the surf-ski paddlers who were out in force to surf the swells (which got to well over 4 feet; the paddlers kept talking about 6 feet plus, but given their lower vantage point I'm not surprised by that) came up to me afterwards and told me that he used to sail (even has some 15 year-old gear in the garage) but had had no idea you could go that fast on a windsurfer. In between the big swells, there was the occasional stretch of smooth water allowing me to hold the hammer down for short stretches - sure was fun. Wish I'd had the GPS.

Lots of debris in the water though - the flooding rivers are depositing a fair amount of floatsam in the bay. After seeing what all floated down the Skagit this past week from my office window, I imagine it's worth down south though.

Tomorrow and Sunday promise either very powered Formula sailing or even a chance for slalom sessions. And it's not even that cold - air temp today was 47 degrees, and I was able to sail with bare feet and hands. I'd call that a good day ;)

Winter storm season has started...

Started with 6.0 on my 24" Roberts slalom. Had a great time, then got blown off the water. Switched to 5.0 and my 20.5" Roberts slalom. Had a great time, then got blown off the water. Watched the liquid smoke for a while, then went home to get some work done. Nice day ;)

We get quite a few storms blowing through here fall through spring. This one was a notch up from the normal fare, but I've been thinking about getting something besides my small slalom board for when it's blowing smoke. It's not so much pure size (it's at most 75 liters, I guess), as it's the on-off sensation. If you're going, you're going so fast you're almost losing bladder control. And if you're not going, you're swimming. Given the big wind shadow on the inside when it gets a bit Easterly, and the very rough terrain out in the channel, this is not quite the right stick (it works great in powered Gorge conditions, though, where you have nice orderly swell).

Stupid? Maybe, but worth it...

I was out of town for work, then flying solo with the kids for three days while my wife was out of town. Wouldn't you know it - it blew almost every day. Yesterday morning even started out sunny, with nice, steady 25-30 knots out of the Northwest, which makes for great Gorge-like sailing with big swells in the passage between the mainland and Lummi island (a friend of mine called me from the ferry to tell me the waves were running over the deck...).

Today, I finally got a window of opportunity. Sunny, but really cold (below 40F). Got to the bay, and it was way-powered 9.9. Could have sailed slalom but didn't trust the Northerly to stick around too long. Had a great session for about 40 minutes, then the wind died and I slogged back (glad I didn't take the slalom board, as that would have been a very cold swim).

So you'd think that it's kind of stupid to pursue a sport where you're that dependent on fickle conditions. And maybe you'd be right. After all, this kind of stuff doesn't happen in competitive knitting (is there such a thing?), and even kayak racers can pretty much schedule their workouts (plus there are very few kayak races that are canceled for insufficient conditions).

But then again - those 40 minutes made it very clear why I'm passionate about this thing. There's just nothing like that sensation of flying over the water, being the crucial link between your gear and the energy of the wind, balancing all three foils. It's something I haven't been able to explain to people who haven't experienced it.

Windsurfing is a fickle mistress... She demands a fair amount of commitment at the start - think of all the folks who've never really gotten past advanced beginner or intermediate status before giving up, since it just didn't seem worth the hassle (those are the people who think that the thrills you can get on a Hobie Cat are anywhere near the same; trust me, they're not...) And then, she continues to take her toll as the relationship continues; you get skunked after chasing wind for hours, you have dry spells without a session, etc. Yet still, the thrill is unique.

I guess that's why it's a passion - it's not for everyone, and it's not 'convenient', but man is it worth it. As I was slogging back to shore this morning, it just seemed like the person coming in was very different from the person who'd gone out just a short time before. Freer, more alive, more lit-up about life.

I don't know if you have something in your life that does this for you. If not, though, I'd recommend you start looking - it's too good to pass it up.