Getting the hang of it!

Marlon was on fire today!!!

He's standing up on his board and paddling around, even in choppy conditions. The wind picked up today so choppy conditions was what we had, but if it was too much to stand, he'd drop to his knees and kept on going!!!

Big M is awesome!!!

He would paddle out straight up wind and then turn the board around, wait for some swell to peak and then he was catching legitimate swell and running DDW! His DNA is finally showing!

Oh - and I got to windsurf too - at the midpoint of the session, I'd have been in the footstraps (if I had them).

La did make a declaration that the stretch of beach we have been going to (across from a pink house in Long Beach along Hwy 90) is now "Our Beach". The last time we made that declaration was in the Outer Banks (mile marker 11 had a nice cutout before Hurricane Isabel rearranged the dunes).

Nice day!

Thursday Kiting Session

It's rare that I get to punch out of work AND there just happens to be a nice South-Easterly breeze. Well I got to and with higher wind speeds on the anemometer, I got compelled to kite.

Brought out the trusty old Naish V4 16 m^2 and ripped it up!!!

Talk about stress relief - there are other ways to kill stress, but besides tearing up a rippable wave, this is one of the better, more efficient ways of doing it.

With the pace of work these days, sometimes I feel old, worn down and generally numb. But I didn't today ;)

Pitch Pole

This is Chris Kitchen - one of the designers of the Weta Trimaran - putting the boat through its paces.

I can't get the boat to do this (yet) - he is really pushing it to the limit. I've had the boat up on one ama (broad reach in a gust), but never on a bow down orientation.

When the North winds start up this Fall-Winter, I'll see if I can pitch pole the HOOYAH!!!

My review of "The Windsurfing Movie II"

This movie is rated "FREAKIN AWESOME" by me.

The Mark Angulo segment made me cry (in a great way, not a sissy way).

The Kai Lenny part gave me tremendous hope that windsurfing will make a come back.

The Gorge part made me want to move to the Gorge right now.

This movie took three years to make and it is head and shoulders above the original movie. I preordered it and finally got my copy two days ago and it came with a poster and a tshirt. This is the BEST surfing related movie I've bought in a very long time (and I have plenty - especially since I'm on a non-voluntary wave sabbatical).

Do yourself a favor and order this movie. You will make your life simple again because you will just want to windsurf and hang with the fam. "Screw work" and "I need to win the lottery" were some of the non-windsurfing thoughts that were bouncing around in my mind while I was watching this. I will probably watch it every night for the next year (until we move to a more wave rich environment, then I'll switch to surfing movies again).

And the strongest reason for watching this movie - windsurfing is so zen (more so than any other watersport out there). Go out there and windsurf!!!

Another SUP Weekend

We did the same old routine again this weekend -

SUP, SUP-Sailed, Play in the sand, Hang out at the bookstore.

Eat out at Shaggy's, SUP, SUP-Sailed, Played in the sand, cleaned up.

Sounds routine, but we still had tons of fun.

The normal weather pattern has re-established itself. Calm in the morning with building SE winds 5-10 from about 1300 to 1900. Yup - same old, same old.

Something happened yesterday that made me laugh at life -
We were hanging out when a man jogging on the beach with two big dogs (one of the dogs had a missing leg) stopped to take a look at what we were doing. La ended up talking to him a bit and by the end of the conversation, we were accused of "being too sophisticated for being around here..." because we windsurf. We laughed about that the whole way home.

And yeah - that's my hot wife on the board!!!

Busy at Work

Sorry for not posting lately...

Been busy with work.

Put on a large Change of Command Ceremony last Friday.

Went sailing with Roger and Michelle on Saturday to Cat Island (yes there is still oil out there).

Took the kids to the pool on Sunday.

And have been putting in some hours this week (even though the wind has been blowing nicely in the afternoons).

I was going to do the YOLO Race out in Seaside this weekend, but there is a Mud Run here on base this weekend that I'll do instead.

Hopefully there'll be some wind over the weekend...

Aloha cuz's!

Holding on to Labor Day Weekend

Did the lawn, checked on the neighbor's car, cleaned the bathroom, checked up on some stuff at work and then...

spent the rest of the day at the BEACH!!!

The wind spiked higher a few hours before we went, but being baked as well as we had been throughout the weekend, it was better that we went later.

I still got some decent runs in (REMEMBER - I AM TRYING TO REALLY LIKE WHERE I AM AT - SO THIS IS A RELATIVE ISSUE). And I nailed some great pivot jibes. This old school trip I'm on is actually fun (TRUTH, NOT REVERSE PSYCHOLOGY).

The kids and I also found an alternate use for a boogie board when there is no surf.

We topped it all off with some sushi and that's it - the weekend is done!

Deer Island Dawn Patrol

And just to completely throw you off on this series of posts, I'll throw in a Saturday after Sunday and Friday.

No pictures this post.

I went paddling with Stan Wiles (XO of the Base) on Saturday morning.

We put in at Biloxi Harbor and went out to the Eastern tip of Deer Island (on the Southern shore).

As soon as the sun came out, a North wind filled in and the rest of the paddle became a pain in the @ss.

9.33 miles on this run.

Stan was in a German expeditionary kayak - the thing looked like a tank on the water (think 'Monitor'). I had the Naish 14' - good paddle! Although it wasn't a dawn patrol as I remembered them (Pupukea Beach, 10' faces, Cholo's Omelettes for breakfast and strolling around the surf shops afterwards to checkout the boards - ahhh life in Hawaii...), you still have to appreciate where you are!

Date Paddling

I took a half day off on Friday to go SUPing with La.

We put in at the Pass Christian side of the entrance of Bay St. Louis and paddled across to Bay St. Louis (just by the Catholic School). La was on the 12'6" Infinity and I was on the 11'2" Starboard.

We saw a pod of dolphins working the center of the channel (didn't get a picture this time).

The water was nasty - really brown - but when you're paddling with your sweetie, things like that don't matter.

6.1 miles (La thought it was going to be 2).

After the paddle, we stopped in at Shaggy's in Pass Christian - the grilled Mahi sandwich and the Pulled Pork sandwich were awesome (maybe more so because of the 6 miles???).

It has been a while since La and I had a few hours just to ourselves (it's actually hard for us to drop our kidoroosters off at a babysitters), nice day!

Oh - and I had the board fishing rig bungeed on - I trolled a Krocodile spoon but didn't get a single hit. Cross another 'to do' off the list.

Sunburnt

We spent the majority of yesterday at the beach (no surprise huh).

Tandem paddling, tandem windsurfing (in nearly zero wind - 5-8 mph on the Gulfport Harbor anemometer) and digging holes at the beach.

I nailed every jibe and made my tacks with the kids on board. I don't remember being able to do that when I was windsurfing back in Kailua. The Starboard Blend - a magic board!

Elemental

Work has been brutal and so has the weather. Finally got to take a break today.

Had a bunch of stuff to do this morning - work, laundry, cleaning up, groceries - oh, and Noe went horsing around and fell backwards from the couch. After a stint at the local hospital (just to make sure everything was fine), we went back to the house and all breathed a sigh of relief.

Then I got a call from Roger - he was fixing the weight bearing bunkers on his trailer for the F28. The wind was howling and he needed a third pair of hands on the boat to get the boat back on the trailer and put away again.

Well, since we were heading to the beach AND the wind happened to be howling, we might as well PUT A SAIL UP!

We broke out the Element for the first time - La got the board in the water first and paddled it around (despite the wind) - SHE-RA!!!

Then I took it out for a sail - NICE!!! Having multipurpose boards is a wonderful thing!!!

I nailed about half my jibes (way better than I ever did before) and got several tacks in as well. Having been kiting all these years and only dabbling back in windsurfing, it actually feels fun to get the basics back (kinda like riding a bike, kinda - jibes ain't that easy...)

Did I say I love these multipurpose boards?

Oh, and Noe is fine - bouncing around again like nothing even happened.

Paddle Covers

La made this one for my Methane last night.

$4 towel from Target, an hour for measuring and getting in the mood, and Viola!!!

Custom Paddle Cover to keep the sharp nailed gremlins away from the epoxied paddle (bad gremlins!!!).

I put the Shaka Pu'u next to it for a comparison (so you wouldn't be asking "what is that?").

Versatility

I am on a mission to make this board do everything.

Sailing - done.

Paddling flats - done.

Surfing - to do.

Surf Sailing - to do.

Fishing platform - to do (check pictures).

Trolling - to do, soon (check pictures).

Tandem with the kids - to do.

Tandem sailing with the kids - done.

Racing - to do (maybe soon).

Kite - to do.

Roundhouse Cutback (that doesn't take out my back) - to do (it's going to take a while).

I don't regret selling my 11'6" Naish - as a single fin and as thick as it was, it would not do what I wanted it to do. This 11'2" just feels better. Stay tuned for the anti-skunking efforts of this board.

First mod - install tie down points for VERSATILITY!!!

Swing Weight

Here's an older Naish Boxer rigged and working. I used this yesterday. It's a 5.8 and it is well balanced. By today's standards, a lot more monofilm.

Short luff, fathead for power - nice sail for SUP Sailing.

Today, I rigged up a older Gaastra Poison - dedicated wave sail. This is a 5.4 and granted, today's wind sucked, but the sail seemed to want a bunch more wind to deliver the goods. I'll have to try it again in stringer winds (5-12 mph - ha! I never thought I'd be windsurfing in that low a breeze. Technically its SUP Sailing...)

The forums and blogs also state the Hot Sails Maui Super Freak is a great sail - dacron so it has a steadier, less abrupt onset of power (maybe better for my elbows and shoulders, oh and my knees).

The sails don't look that different. The wind sure did laid out a 'bait and switch' - oh well, Fall is coming and so are the winds...

Today was not the same as yesterday...

Less clouds.

Wind shift (from the WNW).

Much hotter (our SUV thermometer read 112 at one point!!!).

Jellyfish everywhere (damn b@st@rds even got me).

We completely got this one wrong.

But even though there were negatives, it was still fun!