First Downwinder on island

After running errands, cooking and even stopping into work for a bit, I packed up my windsurfing harness and biked to the Marina. I bumped into George (Gesner), Jasper, Bob (Merton) and a few of the regulars. I talked about the kiting conditions yesterday, how strong the wind was early this morning (too strong for kiting - my opinion; by this time it had backed off a hair) and was going to rent a board and sail to practice windsurfing (another race in two weeks).

That's when George asked if I had done downwinders on SUPs before. Of course I said 'yes' and then he asked if I wanted to go today. Of course I said 'yes!' He let me use his Starboard Blend (and it was as comfortable as mine back home).

We launched from the base of the POL Pier and started paddling out towards the wind line. This is actually near the place I saw those two Tigers - but that's old news.

The wind was strong enough to keep us around 4.5 mph average. We paddled exactly 3.0 miles. I got a peak speed of 9.3 mph on an early runner. From that point forward, the swells were too close together and a hair small to be able to ride for long. I did get a few more runners, but not many.

Checkout the color of the water and the clouds in the sky - pretty awesome!!!

From discussing SUPing on island with George, this sounds like it was one of the first (if not THE first) downwinder.