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After getting fully thrashed, the best thing to do is to jump right back on that horse. Luckily, Ramp 23 provided a nice, easy wave — a much less intimidating setup than the day before at Ramp 34. Bill, Stu, Olaf and I grabbed a sunset session in the chest-to-head high waves. By the end of the sesh, I was feeling solid again, going for the lip and making some halfway solid turns. The confidence has been rebuilt!

Lots of pictures have surfaced from this sesh. Check out the awesome shots that Yana took! My lovely fiance Anne was kind enough to snap a bunch of pictures with my little point -and-shoot camera, as well. Check ‘em out:

Bill and Olaf Share a Wave!

Mr Shorebreak in the Foreground, Stuart in the background

Stuart gets a front row seat for Bill's wave

Olaf!

Bill Found a Nice One...

...and smacked da lip!

There's the full moon rising in the background

Hack! That Pocket 85 Sure does hod it's rail well!

Looks like another great batch of SW winds are on the way this weekend! Weekend Warriors: Load Up! Hope to see y’all out there!

Last week ended up being pretty windless, but luckily there was gorgeous weather in the 70s with sunshine every day. There was a little knee-to-stomach-high wave pretty much every day as well, which led to an interesting dichotomy of visitors. The guys and gals who own or rented stand up paddleboards or took surfing lessons were super-stoked. They had giant smiles on their faces and were so exhausted by the week’s end that they could barely stand up straight!

I only got out on the water a handful of times last week, because I’ve been super-busy in the shop, but I did get a half-hour sunset stand up paddleboard sesh that reminded me a lot of a video I made last summer. I find it interesting that this video has a relatively low number of views, but probably the highest amount of feedback that I’ve received for anything I’ve ever posted. Check it out and picture yourself on the next light wind day out in the ocean or on your local lake having the time of your life!

Evening Surf from Andy McKinney on Vimeo.

It’s super-windy SW right now and the waves are filling in nicely. The wave-sailing crew was all over the place today, with Bill claiming good conditions up at Oregon Inlet, and highly variable conditions being reported down at Old Lifeguard. Stu, Ken and I stayed local and grabbed a sunset sesh at Ramp 34, just north of Avon. Howling winds, massive shore break, and a fair amount of current made for a pretty harrowing sesh. Check out the show:

Ken Gets on a Nice Line

Stuart Finds a Meaty One

…and makes some turns!

Go, Stu, Go!!

I was the first one in and the first one back out of the water. My sesh was ended early by a rogue chunk of massive shore break. Here’s Stu’s (paraphrased) description:

“Andy waited for the last wave of the set to roll through, jumped on his board, and started pumping. The backwash pulled out underneath him and caused the next chest-high shore break wave to suck out below sea level, double up, and turn into a rogue, logo-high chunk of gnarl 10 yards off the beach. He pumped straight up the face as it went past vertical and got to the top just as the barrel started to throw. He didn’t make it over the lip and got thrown back to the beach upside down, completely drilled.”

I’d say he caught the moment pretty well. That was pretty much the hardest I’ve ever been worked, comparable to the time Stu and I paddled out in Hurricane Bill’s waves. Except this time the water was only knee-deep! Man, I got crushed. It was just one of those things — a case of poor timing and some bad luck. If I had jumped on my board one second earlier, I probably would have made it. One second later and I would have immediately aborted the mission and still eaten a ton of sand but not as hard. As it was, I ended up in a suddenly very committed situation where there was nothing to do but try to make it. Oh well, all’s well that ends well. I’m just a bit bruised up and now my 3.7 has a new hole in the luff sleeve, my 340 is in three pieces, somehow my boom’s grip got super torn up, and my fin got completely destroyed! That’s a heck of a two seconds! Needless to say, I found gravel, shells, and sand everywhere. In my ears, eyes, mouth, hair, harness, even inside my wetsuit!

Looks like more wind this week. Hopefully I’ll have some more pleasant stories to tell! Hope to see y’all out there!

We are stoked down here, guys! Beautiful weather, nice winds, sunshine everyday! I’ve been super-busy at the shop but stoked to still be able to sneak out and catch dawn and sunset quickie sessions. All it takes is 20 minutes in the water and life is sweet! I’m sorry that I haven’t been reporting much, but the sessions have been so short that I haven’t had time to grab any pics or video or anything.

Just a head’s up: We’re holding a free windsurfing clinic here at Wind-NC on Thursday morning, at 9 a.m. It’s hosted by Pam Bailey, our local massage therapist and yoga instructor. The subject matter will be sports specific stretching, which is something I’m really excited to learn more about, because my current practice involves waving my arms around in a big circle, three jumping jacks and then hitting the water. Definitely slack!!

On to the goods. Here’s a video of a bump-and-jump session Stuart and I grabbed up at Ramp 34 during that last Bermuda High, followed by some clips of Olaf wave schlogging the Lighthouse during a moderate NE day last week. Enjoy!!

Windsurfing Ramp 34 and the Lighthouse from Andy McKinney on Vimeo.

You’ll all be happy to know that the water’s warming up and the winds have been great! Come on down and join us!

We’re all still buzzing from last week’s Bermuda High! June conditions during the first week of April?! Unheard of. Anyway, we shot some video. Here’s the first installment: Overpowered freestyle sessions on 3.7s and 4.2s:

April’s Bermuda High Windsurfing from Andy McKinney on Vimeo.

Sweet. More to come, so keep checking back! I’m getting the shop full of new goods, too, so swing on by and say hello! We’re holding a promotional event over the next few weeks. Check out the details here. We’ve already had a few submissions. More updates as events merit.

Lots of good stuff, folks! First off, the May edition of WINDSURFING magazine just rolled in, and Hatteras received some great exposure! Stuart wrote a pretty interesting article, accompanied by some of the best photographs I’ve ever seen. Of course, I’m biased, because I’m in a bunch of ‘em (haha), but Lane DuPont’s pics are truly astounding. There’s another little surprise in there, too. I think y’all will get a kick out of it! If you aren’t a subscriber, well, get yourself on the program or pick one up on your next trip to Hatteras!

Moving on to the action:

Stuart, Olaf (welcome back, Olaf!) and I grabbed a morning session at the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse the other day. It was pretty good — light power 4.2 from the northeast, head high-plus waves, and a boat ton of current ripping down the beach. Pretty classic Lighthouse, really! Some of the waves were lining up for a good three or four turns down the line. Combine that with all of the current, and we all took quite a few walks back up the beach. Good exercise!

So I have these new masts — NoLimitz Skinnies. If there’s a more confidence-instilling name, I don’t know what it is! On my last wave of the sesh, I saw this end section bowling up super-steep. I was really late but decided to go for the lip anyway, because, hey, Alex Mussolini would have crushed it, so why shouldn’t I? Haha, well, one second later I was reminded that I most certainly am not on the PWA Tour for a reason! Wow, was I in for a swim. My gear was just gone — nowhere in sight by the time I surfaced. I eventually caught up to it as it cycled through the shore pound — getting washed up on to the beach, pulled back out, washed back up again. Aye yae yae! But hey, the gear held up just fine. So, even though I personally have limits, it seems as though my new masts don’t! Stoked!

We also scored a ton of time testing out 2010 windsurfing gear, including a morning sesh at the Slick. It’s getting to be full on Spring now, so there were a bunch of people hanging out down there (instead of just me and Stu). It was really fun to share the spot with everyone, and see their smiles and hear the hoots when they carved into that butter-flat water or let it run up to top speed. My high school buddy Sasha showed up, which was pretty cool! Neither of us really sailed back in high school, so it was kinda random! I wore the GoPro helmet cam. Check out the flick:

Board Tests Day 37.5 from Andy McKinney on Vimeo.

Otherwise, it’s really starting to feel like Spring down here! We’re in the middle of our first big batch of beloved SW wind right now — the last two days have been 70-plus degrees and 4.2 or 3.7 conditions by the afternoon. Solid! We even sailed in trunks last night, which was totally comfortable until the sun started to get low. Unreal. Sailing in shorts on April 6 is just nuts!

There’s a great crew of folks down from BABA, Long Island, and Cape Cod at the moment. We’ve been freestyling it up out at Island Creek. I’m amassing a bunch of footage, so keep your eyes out for another video soon, featuring Mike Burns, Chris Eldridge, Stuart, Ken, me, and some other rippers!

By the way- If you haven’t heard, I offer a free email weather alert service. You can find the details of how to sign up here. Basically, I just shoot out a note if it looks like it’s going to crank for a few days straight. Believe me, this is the kind of week that you want to know about so that you can experience it for yourself. So sign up for those alerts and keep yourself in the loop!

Hope to see y’all soon!

Here’s a video that I shot with the GoPro camera while testing the 2010 Fanatic Skate 100 and JP Freestyle 98 during WINDSURFING’s 2010 windsurf board tests in Cape Hatteras.

Board Tests, Day 1 from Andy McKinney on Vimeo.

You’d better budget a few minutes for this one, folks! I have LOTS of cool stuff to tell you about!

First: I am now the proud owner of my very own windsurfing shop: Wind North Carolina! Sailworld’s owner Brett decided to close his shop over the winter so that he could move on to a more traditional lifestyle in the mid-west. This created an opportunity for me to open my very own shop! I’ve stayed in the same location — in the back of Hatteras Island Boardsports and Village Video, right in the middle of Avon. I’m also sticking with most of the same brands and adding a few more, so don’t worry you’ll still be able to get your RRDs, Tabous, Starboards, World Sails, Gaastras, Sailworks, Chinook, Dakine, NoLimitz Masts, Gath Helmets, etc. Here’s all the contact info:

The website (wind-nc.com) is still a work in progress, so please have patience while I get it up and running. I’m trying to put together a Hatteras Windsurfing Guide for you guys to help you choose where to launch from, based on the conditions of the day. Right now, it’s searchable based on sound or ocean launches and wind directions. I hope to incorporate swell direction and size, too, but I’m not a web designer so all of the programing stuff is Greek to me. But I’m trying! The guide also has some helpful local hints and general seasonal weather trends. I plan on incorporating a lot of technique and gear-rigging articles as well, but all in due time. You’ll also find searchable archives of this blog, and a new shop blog to keep you updated on new gear arrivals, sales, clinics, events, etc. Oh, and an online store. Anything else that I forgot? Aye yae yae! Anyway, check it out, and feel free to make suggestions!

Moving on. Second: Congrats to Anne, Laura, Bobby and the other few thousand people who ran in the Virginia Beach Shamrock Marathon last weekend! It was beautiful spectating weather, but a little hot for the runners. As the sun got higher, there were people dropping left and right, but Anne pushed on and finished with a respectable 4:24. That was a bit behind her goal, but just finishing was challenging enough in the heat! I’m very proud of her Here she is after the finish:

Third: It has been HOWLING out here! WINDSURFING mag editor Josh Sampiero showed up the other day with a box truck full of 2010 boards and sails to test. Man, have we been putting them through the paces! The first day of testing was absolutely perfect: Gusty 20-30-something WSW in the Buxton Slick. That place is awesome for testing — the wind is a little gusty so you can get a great feel for the planing ability of the boards, both getting up onto a plane and gliding through lulls. You can also figure out how well the board handles chop when you go blasting out from behind the island into the open water of the sound. Then you get the choppy-water jibe, the butter-flat-water jibe, the jumping, the freestyling, the speed, the comfort level — all in two tacks back and forth! Unbelievable!

I can’t really tell you anything about the specific boards yet, but the quality and standards of performance of the gear is just completely unbelievable. Every board I tested outperformed its 2008 or 2009 predecessor, hands down. I have no idea how the designers keep coming up with a better product, but they do! The wave boards had better early planing and a tighter carving radius, the all-rounders did EVERYTHING well, and the dedicated freestyle boards were faster and carved and slid better. I am really very impressed with all of the gear! Obviously, there are lots of specific quirks and characteristics, and you’ll learn about those in due time, but as a whole, the gear is just incredible these days. Check out some pics:

Josh looks on, while everyone else does all the setup work

Choppy water spock on the JP // Photo: Josh Sampiero

George tests the top speed of the Kode 104. // Photo: Drew Scalia)

Stuart Spins the Skate // Photo: Drew Scalia)

Drag Race! // Photo: Drew Scalia)

Plenty of space for everyone! // Photo: Drew Scalia

After three-plus hours of testing and a lunch break, we took the wave boards out to Old Lifeguard Beach and met up with Bill and Keith for an off-side-off wind, chest-high wave, evening sesh. It was pretty fun, but we were all pretty spent by that point and the super-gusty wind was challenging to deal with. Regardless, everyone caught a few great waves, and no one got blown out to sea or anything, so it was a great sesh! Bill has a report with a few pictures posted here.

The wind died the next day, so we snagged a sunset SUP sesh in Avon. Knee to waist high, pretty clean, very fun conditions. Josh gets the award of the day for going out in baggies and a rash guard and somehow not getting hypothermia! Meanwhile, I ditched the gloves and hood for the first time since December and was rewarded with an ice cream headache after every dunking!

The Charlotte Crew showed up yesterday, and we scored another great day of testing. This time we sailed at The Hole and went through everything from 7.5s down to 4.7s and 135 liters down to 95 liters. There was so much gear on the beach, and so many testers, that it was like a free for all.vGrab whatever you can and hit the water!vIn all the mayhem, Ken noticed that his super-beat-up, five-year-old JP was missing. We couldn’t find it anywhere, so we started to think that maybe someone had stolen it, but we couldn’t figure out why someone would grab such a beat-up old board when there were all of these beautiful 2010s lying around on the beach! Eventually, we found it — when Ralph came back to the beach after sailing it! Turns out, Ralph was so stoked on testing all of the gear that he grabbed Ken’s ding stick and duct tape special and tried to test that, too! Ha! All’s well that ends well!

Looking ahead, it seems like we’re in for another rowdy day of testing. What d’ya think of this forecast?! Yikes!

Source: windguru.com

One more thing before I let you go: The water’s warming up very quickly this year! Check out this infrared map. That’s about 60 degrees in The Sound and on the Southside and more than 50 degrees on the east beaches! Amazing, considering it’s not even April yet! Come on down and get some of this weather for yourselves, folks! Spring is here and the wind is cranking! Yeeee haw!

Source: marine.rutgers.edu

Wow, it is going crazy out here on Hatteras Island. The first thing of note is the water temp in the sound — it warmed up really quickly at the end of last week. Don’t expect board shorts weather or anything, but there’s a big difference between today’s 53-degree water and last week’s 39-degree water. BIG difference!

It all started with the arrival of the St. Mary’s College of Maryland Windsurfing Club. They rolled in, the skies cleared, it warmed up to 60 degrees, and it cranked out of the southwest for the first time in AGES. Juiced 4.7 sunset session. It was rad. Grubbies, spocks, loops — it was all flowing and feeling good! That probably instilled a little too much confidence, because I got into a bit of a pickle the very next day.

Picture an incredibly beautiful, peaky, logo-to-mast-high occasional outside set, infrequent enough that you’d have to try to get tagged by one. Add in warm air, sunshine, off-side-off winds and spray blowing off the tops. It was just too darned appealing not to try! So I rigged up my 4.7 again, plugged it in to the Tabou Pocket 80, and dove right in up at Ramp 34. The shorebreak was ridiculously easy to deal with, considering how big the sets were, so getting off the beach was no problem at all There didn’t even seem to be too much current over the bar. The wind felt light, but it’s pretty easy to schlog out when it’s side off.

A medium size wave stands up on the horizon

I got denied on my first attempt through the impact zone, and the shock of hitting that cold water took the breath right out of me. I was all geared up in my winter suit but it didn’t seem to matter. As soon as I got dunked, I couldn’t seem to catch my breath. My heart rate skyrocketed, my forearms cramped, I was stuck taking these shallow breaths of air. I just couldn’t relax. So I regathered my gear, flipped my sail over, caught a puff to water start and began to head back in.

The act of safely getting back home always instills confidence. It’s like you have a safety line that you keep stretching and testing further and further, seeing if you can snap it. Well, I schlogged right back to where I started from, no problem. So what the heck — all’s well — why not give it another try? After all, those outside bombs are just immaculate!

So out I went. This time, no problem. Caught a lull in the sets and a puff of wind just perfectly — I couldn’t have been luckier. Now that I’m on the outside, there’s still no wind. Well, that’s not true. It’s blowing 8-20 mph and shifting 15 degrees every 30 seconds. It was pretty much impossible to relax in the harness lines with such shifty winds, so my forearms were getting pounded by the combo of having to grip the booms and deal with the cold.

I schlogged around for a few minutes, with my eye on the horizon, and dropped in to a medium-sized wave. The wind coming up the face and the speed of the wave made it feel like it was blowing 35. My sail was a bucking bronco. I kicked out super-early just to get back to the relatively comfortable schlog and come up with a plan.

The wind was definitely getting lighter and shifting progressively more and more offshore. I’m positioned way outside, because I want to catch one of those beautiful bombs (and more importantly not get caught inside on one). I can tell that getting back to the beach is going to be, ahem, challenging. It’s so offshore that I’m basically schlogging back and forth, parallel to the beach. Swimming back in through the impact zone is a recipe for broken gear and a ice-cream headache disaster. The only way to get in is to schlog, position and catch a wave all the way in to the inside.

So I schlogged. And schlogged. And schlogged. And couldn’t freaking line up a wave to save my freaking life. Literally! The wind was super-light at this point, and I’m sunk up to my shins and teeter-tottering around out there, hoping to catch a wave, any wave, back in to the beach. Forearms are toast by this point, but I did get my heart rate to calm down, so I had that going for me. And then I saw my set: three waves, standing up on the horizon. There was a little spray starting to drift off the top of the second one, and they were positioned just perfectly down the beach from where I was drifting around.

I was able to pump into the shoulder of the first one and get some speed up, but I couldn’t get into the meat of the wave and had to kick out. The second wave of the set was looming behind me, so I steered back out a bit and was able to break the board back up on to a plane as I schlogged sideways and up the face of the wave. Down the face, there was so much speed and all of this apparent wind! It might as well have been blowing 40! Forearms are toast, I’m just trying to hang on at this point. I get a little distance down the line and the shoulder fizzles, leaving me deep inside for the third wave of the set, whose peak is looking menacing, to say the least.

Teeter-totter, DO NOT FALL, deal with the swirly wind on the backside of the second wave of the set, and try not to get crushed by the third wave, but you HAVE to catch it and take it all the way in. There is no other option. So I pumped and positioned and ignored my burning forearms. I snuck under the lip of the THIRD wave of the set and got the board to drop in. I rode the sucker straight upwind, straight in towards the beach, standing straight up over the board and hanging down through the mast base so hard that I thought the UJ would break right through the deck. The whitewater exploded and tried to envelope me but I stayed upright, somehow, through all of the bumps and moguls and headwind.

The last little chunk of current threw me off just as I reached the trough inside the impact zone. Wow, did that instant cold-water headache feel good! I had completed my goal of making it to the inside without getting crushed. Swimming the rest of the way in for the next five minutes, dealing with the shorebreak, and then walking the 1/4 mile back up the beach to my truck, well, it pretty much sucked, but I was stoked to be back on dry land! And to top it all off, I didn’t break a thing — not even a batten. So the session was somewhat of a success — I made it out, caught a few waves (in rapid succession), made it back in, and didn’t break anything. Sweet!

Two days later, my forearms and wrists still feel fried, my hamstrings are cramping, even my dang pecs are sore. Who gets sore pecs from windsurfing? What in the world? How does that happen?

Anyway, today’s 3.7 sunset session with the St Mary’s crew more than made up for the immense amount of effort with little return experienced two days prior. I’m claiming the sunset sesh as epic. Beautiful light, great wind, lots of stoked sailors. Yup, epic. One moment of note: Stuart was 20 feet upwind of me, and I threw a perfect loop. Then he threw a perfect loop an instant later, and I watched the spray blast forward off the nose of his board as he touched down, in this epic sunset light. The spray went straight forward, then the wind caught it and it came careening over the chops towards me, settling in a broad arc of white on the dark water. Yup. Good stuff.

The St Mary’s crew- all geared up and ready to rock and roll!

Sorry, no action pics, no GoPro video, no nothing from any of these sessions, except my description. Take it or leave it, but it’d be better if you came to Cape Hatteras and wrote your own stories! This place has been firing — the windsurfing has been exceptional, the crowds are stoked, and SPRING IS HERE. Come get some.

The winter westerlies in Cape Hatteras have been so strong, steady and non-stop that my house seems to have taken a cant to the east, like the leaning tower of Pisa. The west-facing bedroom windows have been ceaselessly rattling and interrupting my sleep, while the rest of the house sat in a silent east-facing protected vacuum.

This morning, the first thing that I heard was a low rustle and whistle of breeze through the thin gap beneath my kitchen door. “Haven’t heard that in awhile,” I thought to myself. And then: Crack! The house flexed and popped under the mild strain of a 12-knot gust from the south. It was the gentle chiropractor’s touch, adjusting the weary, winter-wind-strained spine of the roof line.

So I smiled, for at that moment, I learned that spring is finally upon us!

Which means it’s a good time to do some maintenance. One thing that I’ve made a habit of regularly checking is the tendon in my universal joint. Compared to the hassle of breaking down, swimming in, potentially losing a board and/or rig, etc etc, taking five minutes to pull the UJ apart and inspect it seems well worth the effort! Here’s my THREE-PLUS-YEAR-OLD Chinook stainless steel Euro-Pin. Sorry for yelling, but this thing has well over 400 sessions on it, and it looks brand new. If that’s not worth yelling about, I don’t know what is! As long as I don’t lose this UJ, I don’t think I’ll ever need to replace it. Ever.

The tendon in the middle, on the other hand, is a totally different story. These things definitely have a lifespan. I like to make an inspection every few months, or if I notice that it’s starting to look “pregnant.” If you look closely, you’ll see that the middle is starting to bow out a little bit, which is the first sign of wear and tear. So it’s time to pull it apart and inspect the screw holes, because that’s generally where it’ll break on you. Use a number 4 allen key to pull those screws out.

Turns out, this one is still fine, so I’ll keep using it for awhile with confidence. I can tell it’s OK because there aren’t any little cracks forming at the edges of the screw holes.

Alright, now you’re one step closer to being ready to charge it this spring! Yeeehaw!