A WSW Jibeathon

The wind yesterday north of Greensboro started SSW and was predicted to go NW by afternoon.  Luckily it clocked WSW and locked in for the duration!  For Belews lake this means a hike south in front of the plant to get out of the wind shadow of the 2 islands.  I took the hike and sailed 4 hours straight on the 106L/5.8 with a 32cm freewave fin (loose).  It was lake wind- gusty, some long lulls and squirrely at times but a fine time was had.  There was about a half hour, I'd estimate around 3 or so, where the wind picked up and filled in the entire span of the opening in front of the plant.  I made figure 8s with chop hops along the way with my heart rate pegging pretty high.  I wish we could get some of that on a weekend too.

Zoom in and you can see the white caps left and right of the island.

The Raleigh crew has their own forecaster so maybe their wind predictions and wind meters are solid.  The wind meters in the vicinity of Belews are not matching the lake much nowadays.  I know the leaves are still on the trees and that may be most of the issue but the low readings may be keeping folks away and missing some fun sailing.  The following are from Summerfield, Walnut Cove, Reidsville and the gso airport, resp.  It seems the airport matched the best yesterday.  Bottom line is DON'T MISS OUT! 

Our Last Windsurfing Sesh of the Trip

We were sweating last Friday. The forecast kept shifting & changing- then Mac made the anouncement around 4pm... Frisco is seeing > 15! We all jumped up and headed out to get the gear ready. I started on the 7.5/158L and after maybe 20 minutes grabbed the 5.8/106L. Mac, Rob, Mark & I were steadily getting more lit and as the sun set Donald, Andy and Anne joined us.

The moon was full so we just kept on. I wish I could have captured the scene under the full moon- fully lit and everyone blasting! It is an odd feeling pulling off a jibe when the moon is behind some clouds. Really we only stopped when the heavier clouds moved in and we had trouble seeing each other. After Andy and Anne joined us for drinks and grub. As Mark pointed out I typically eat for 2- you really spend some calories in sweet conditions! No breaks just stay steady at the wheel.

I took a little footage of the early action. Check out Mark handling that massive board like a champ!

full moon windsurfing, obx nc from r d moore on Vimeo.

SW, W, NW, N !!!! 4/22/09

Pick your direction. We had it all! Barry Stakely, Dave Crook, Don Wrenn and I took in an afternoon session at Belews and had a blast. The wind was up, down, shifting but the lake is warm and we got quite a few planning reaches.

Barry got comfortable enough to use harness too! When the wind backed off in the evening I worked on pivot jibes in the cove. I'll post some of this later.