Steve's Session Log 2000 |
Just got back from a week in Islamorada. Yes, it is eerie how many of the windsurfing places in the Upper Keys have been lost this year: Holiday Isle, Wind'N'Sport, and Plantation Yacht Harbor (on Plantation Key) all no longer rent windsurfing gear for one reason or another (fire, I dunno, and sale of land to the village, respectively).January 25, 2000: Found this quote. I think it is a better theme now for my sailing than the obsession theme that I started with. It's from a book about surfing, but that's not so far a stretch.I heard a rumour from a local that Holiday Isle may be renting equipment if you look into it, but I didn't confirm.
So I scouted out the rest of the local places I could find. Here are the results:
1) Hampton Inn and Suites, MM80, has a concession called Eco/Waterworld on their beach. They have eight boards (two HiFlys, two Bics, two Drops shortboards, and a couple others) and a modest but useful quiver of Aerotech and Gaastra sails of varying sizes. They have harnesses and even loaned me some booties on a day when I forgot mine. Mike, the manager, will cut you a multi-day all-you-can-sail-on-all-the-gear-you-can-use package, if you ask. Basic rates for "performance" equipment are $40/hr, $50/2hours, $70/half-day. Yes, this is where I sailed. There are some rocks to either side of the Hampton property and a large boat channel to avoid, but otherwise a fine place to sail around. But try to avoid low tide on the flats. One salutory feature of this location is the Billabong Tiki Bar in back of the Hampton. Even though it's really a part of the Outback Steak House, there's a nice island feel to it, and mostly locals at the bar. It's not Rum Runners, but it'll do!
2) Cheeca Lodge, MM82, has a Carribean Water Sports Concession on the property. They had about 8 boards also, mostly longboards. The gear wasn't in great shape, though definitely sailable. I only saw 4 sails, none bigger than 6.5, and there were a few harnesses around. $50/2 hours, $75/half day. Nice location, no obvious obstacles in the water (except for the Cheeca Lodge pier!).
3) Westin Resort, MM97.5, Rock Harbor/Key Largo, also has a Carribean Water Sports concession. I spoke to the woman there who told me they only have beginner equipment at this location now. I was interested in this location because it is on the bay side, and there are some nice bay-side sailing days in the Keys (that is, the heaviest days here are usually when the wind is from the north and around 20kn, and I'd rather not get blown out to sea). But the woman there said, Oh,
we moved most of our equipment over to the Cheeca since we rarely get wind over here(!). But, the beach there is small and overrun with jet skis, so no great loss.4) The Moorings, MM82, where the Islamorada Pro-Am is hosted and where American Windsurfer mag did some of their board tests this year (see http://www.americanwindsurfer.com/tests/1999tests/index.html), has the nicest and largest fleet of boards and equipment I saw in the Upper Keys. The owner is a windsurfer! But, and correct me if I'm wrong, I think you have to be staying there to use the gear, and it ain't a cheap place to stay.
If there are other places that rent gear, they need to advertise better, since I couldn't find them!
Anyway I had a great time sailing. Had days ranging from a low of 7 kn to a couple that hit 25kn, from all points of the compass. It's fun to be from the frigid north, out happily sailing with no wetsuit on days when the air and water are in the low 70s and the locals are standing around on shore in jackets, shivering. Sailed there enough that I now have a picture of the Alligator Reef Lighthouse tatooed on my retinas, sun sparkling off blue water.
-Steve B.
". . . the point being, I now know for certain, not at all the thrill of risk or the pride of achievement, but rather the dailiness of well-spent time, the accumulation of moments that will never translate into anything but a private sense of well-being." -Daniel Duane, Caught Inside, p. 211.I noticed when sailing in Islamorada last week that I spent three of my four sessions thinking about things like technique and equipment, but the fourth I simply thought about the whole experience and being on the water, and that is the one I remember.
Gorgeous setting, views across the bay to St. John and other islands (Jost Van Dyke?). Equipment was a HiFly 335 FunBoard and an Aerotech 5.4 Action sail. The sail was not rigged well; lots of play and boom too short, so the wind was somewhat wasted. But it was free to me as a resort guest, so I can't complain too much. A fair amount of parasail, jet ski, dive boat and fishing boat traffic gave me lots of practice planing through wakes. That was fun! A two-foot diameter sea turtle surfaced about ten yards off my port bow, and then dove down quickly. The water was real Caribbean blue, gradations of aqua the color of a million hopeful swimming pools. Beautiful day, spent the morning swimming at Magen's Bay before the cruise ship crowd took over.
The day before we tried and failed to locate Vessup Beach and US VI Windsurfing, though we were close. I think we really needed a four-wheel drive car. Winds were upwards of 20kn anyway, a bit of a challenge for me. From Bluebeard's Beach, parked on what looked like a tile floor from hurricane-flattened house, we saw one windsurfer sailing near the Ritz-Carlton, planing like a maniac.
Today there a couple dozen people sailing, at all levels. There were even two kiteboarders there! One was just beginning, but the other could sail in a nice straight line across and slightly downwind. The same local told me that even in summer there's always a place to park, and on northerlies to go sail at Short Beach on the north shore of Long Island instead. Definitely a site worth sailing if I ever get equipment out there. There's no rentals, however. The closest rentals are at Windsurfing Hamptons, another hour or so down the road. There's a shop that sells windsurfing gear in Huntington, called The Board Shop, which focuses more on surfing.
We checked out Gilgo Beach, said to be another Long Island windsurfing spot. Looks to me like it's more set up for ocean sailing. No one was sailing there, though; strange because there was plenty of wind and an onshore. Saw one board in the parking lot, but still on the truck. Great beach scene at Gilgo. Crowds of folks in early May! and a bunch of friendly bikers and random families at the Gilgo Inn on the bay side. Park in the bayside lot (pay in season), and walk through the highway underpass to get to the beach.
We had a good group of about 25 very psyched people, with a good half-dozen NYers. I still haven't figured out my logistical issues for Manhattan, but these folks had some good ideas. One person even keeps her board in her apartment stairwell! Where there's a will . . . . Everybody went to Joe Pop's Friday night to see Big Orange Cone, a local band fronted by a good local windsurfer. I missed this, of course, but reportedly it was great. ABK is still in good form; Andy Brandt was in town to give a freestyle clinic. Reporters from the SandPaper were there Saturday and Sunday. Petra Kanz came up for Andy's clinic.
For me, it was great to hear the tack, pivot gybe, and sail tuning lectures again because I was able to focus on the details at a much more subtle level than I did in '98. Then, I was just trying to learn the theory and memorize the gross movements to get the moves working at all; this time it was more about refining the moves so I get more precise to prepare for having to perform them in windier conditions or on shorter boards. There's always MORE to windsurfing.
The sailing itself? Oh yeah! Friday was nice, with about 10kn winds; good for working on tacks. Saturday was a bit stronger, which made it fun to work downwind drills and but not too strong to work the harness. Saturday afternoon the wind shifted around to the ENE and we have wisps of fog rolling off the ocean, low across the bay water and encircling the island off Sunset, which made being there and sailing ethereal and quite beautiful. Sunday was good for, uh, lectures.
Thanks to Derek for all the tips and for not getting annoyed with me when I wandered off to deal with equipment or my own issues like having to slather myself with sunscreen every hour. Thanks to Pete for the great tuning and sail chi lectures! And to Sarah James for holding it all together, and all the great lunches. Thanks to Jack, Todd, and Terry at Island Surf'n'Sail for being there and for all the help picking gear, explaining to me in great and patient detail how it all works, and for all the good local gossip, er, info. Also great to meet people like Mark, Jennifer, Kathy, Eldar, and Christina, all of whom just couldn't get enough.
(Pictures exist: Dad was there with video; SandPaper did a story that had photos of Petra Kanz and Jack Bushko; ABK group photo will be sent in a few months.)
Best moment was when I was done and I was feeling hot and tired. After de-rigging most everything I just stood on the grassy beach at Sunset and took the top of my wetsuit down. Ahhhhhhhhh. The chilled air whipped across my torso, immediately cooling and drying me, while I lifted my face and arms to the sun and felt the goosebumps swirl around me.
Afterwards, the traditional Coke and plain slice at the Surf City Panzone's, just to get the smell of the summertime seashore into me. Then I did a bit of shopping. An O'Neill wet/dry bag to consolidate my growing gear pile, and then on to Island Surf'n'Sail, where I retrieved the pads and straps brother Mike accidently left there, and scored some more downhaul line (can't ever have enough of that in your kit) and some Neil Pryde water shoes. Just got tired of having the inserts of my $7 K-Mart Water Mocs come floating past me in the murky bay, while my beach starting was totally hampered by the mucky mud pulling the mocs off my feet every time. The Prydes have straps that should help this, though I could lose 5 pair of the cheapo mocs in the muck and still be ahead financially.
So how come to have a two-hour session I have to start packing up at 8:30 am, and don't have everything torn down and washed until about 3?
(Pictures: A few snapshots of me by Mom, who came by with Laurie and David to play in the park while I was sailing, but David was sleeping in the car while Laurie sat by.)
Went out about 11 and had some lackadaisical reaches and then the wind died. All dressed up and no place to go. So I sat on the beach with Lisa the vet resident from Manayunk, and Jack, and 75-year old Sam from Ohio and waited for wind. The notorious noontime wind death. Jack told us how on a westerly the wind comes up nicely behind The Sedges, a set of flat islands off Harvey Cedars near the mainland side of the bay. We compared harnesses. We mocked the PWCs, and the lady being in pulled in a rubber raft by two guys in a kayak. We were killing time.
Around 12:45 the wind came up nicely. I toyed with the harness, and am starting to trust it more. I was able to fly the sail in the water while I messed about trying to at least do a set-up for a waterstart. Then around 1:15 it started to blow and blow. About 15-18, said Jack. Whitecaps in the cove. It's been a long time since I was out in a wind like that. The weird thing is that I could mostly handle it. Tacks were fine if I went slow, and gybes very stable. I had some reaches where I was really ripping it up, chop breaking across my board, making a big wake and really moving. Never did that before.
Then I felt my weak arm start twinging on me around 2 and I called it a day. A great day.
Took a Friday off work to have a two-hour sail handling lesson with Jack Bushko. Wind never got above 10 kn, but Jack drilled me on beach starts, tacks and jibes by decomposing them into their parts and forcing me to work over and over on the awkward parts. He taught me how to sail clew first much better than ABK did, and under his tutelage I did my first step jibes, even though I don't remember what they were or really have a clear conception of what they do.
Jack likes the boom lower than ABK or Calema, and is emphatic about keeping my arms straight on the reach.
He also taught me a couple tricks about tying off the outhaul, and loaned me a mast base when I found my U-joint was missing.
Didn't get wet.
Also scoped out First and Third Beaches. First for waves, Third for flat water. Island Sports rents and teaches at Third. Parking is $10, though. And the traffic to get from Newport to Second Beach on Sunday morning was rough; to get to Third Beach without hitting it go up 138A for a while and cut across the peninsula to the shore road, then back onto Third Beach Road.
A weird day. Hurricane Alberto is driving a nor'easter kind of storm to LBI. The winds have been really good for August, maybe 15-20 over three days. But there's lots of cold rain with them. Oh, well, that's why we have neoprene.
Got in two short sessions, from about 2-3 and 3:45-4:30. A couple of thunderclaps brought me in at three for a while. Waited it out and decided to pull on the shorty and say now or never. I knew it was getting good because the twenty-something locals were coming out on shortboards. I still struggled in these winds but was performing moves I never could do before above 10 knots -- gybes, clew first, fast powered tack, beach starts. Incredible fun, excellent planing.
Tried to get out earlier in the morning, but a torrential downpour encouraged me to wait to rig until after lunch. Bought some new line and handles for my stunt kite instead.
Having blown off yesterday to take boy to the bay beach, watching him splash happily while I stood behind him feeling a breeze in my face that while not quite fresh would have propelled me along, I figured the wind gods were punishing me for not grabbing the opportunity.
I stubbornly packed up the van anyway, and even scrubbed down the HiFly, which was getting grungy just sitting over the back toolsheed.
But, at 1pm I decided to pack up the family and head instead to the Surf City bay beach. Just not enough wind, and no reason to spend the wonderful but nonetheless not indefinite good will of my wife watching boy while I sat on beach at Sunset, slapping mosquitos or black heads off my sweating legs.
Crossing the causeway bridge, we spied a few sails on the bay. But the flags on the island were pretty tired looking. We got to the bay beach, and set up camp. During the hour we were there, lo, a breeze and then -- a bunch of Lasers whipped out of the Surf City Yacht Club (though they will go out in dead calm if someone's set out a racing buoy or two). Then, I saw a sailboat with a mulitcolored genoa reach past -- heeled over. Then the breeze hit the shore and Laurie said to me, "Steve, I think you should go, honey. We'll drop you off at Harvey Cedars, and pick you up later." I refused at first, but boy's lips were getting blue anyway, so off we went.
It was a frustrating set-up -- I twisted everything on the sail that could be twisted, and forgot all the tie-offs Jack taught me. But eventually I got out. The wind was steady from the southwest, but only about 7-8 knots in the cove. All the sail boats were on the other side of the bay. It was very high tide, so I was able to sail beyond the little island out toward the main bay channel (which is part of the ICW).
Far.
Good reaching.
Harmony moments.
Lots of wake -- bend the knees.
Fell twice -- overtaken by wake.
Thought I was tired, but when I fell, up to waist.
So, opportunity to beach start up to waist. Not elegant, but it worked.
Then went back and did it three more times, thigh high. Again, not
elegant but it worked.
That's it, stretching boundaries, improving a skill, some beautiful
balanced planing reaches.
Definitely a better day at the end than at the beginning.
Anyway, the Calema way of teaching is quite different from ABK. The emphasis is on performance, and Tinho takes all your windsurfing habits, tears them down, and then builds them up again. He's big on stance, and having a high boom (at least chin height), and hanging your weight from the boom. I used a Mistral Superlight II the whole time, with a Gaastra GTX 7.0 sail. It's a measure of how far I've come this year that I didn't notice the sail size at all. Last year I was struggling with a 6.5 in 10 kn winds; this year no problem with a 7.0 in 15 kn gusts and probably could have gone more.
The Calema clinic had 12 in it, taught by Tinho and Anne Adair. Tinho is the man, but Anne is great. She's more hands-on and approachable. We actually didn't spend enormous amounts of time on the water, only 2-3 hours per day. There was lots of theory and simulator work. I felt like I spent a lot of time waiting around for a short chance on the simulator. I think for 12 people, another instructor would be better, plus more simulators. Another criticism is that he tried to cover the curriculum even when it was clear we weren't going to have much time to work a topic. What good is a lecture on