Huguenot Park

I was at Huguenot Park with the family on Monday. It's a lovely park, as long as you're into beaches with cars driving on them. I don't mind as long as it's limited, but my wife doesn't like it at all. We parked by the tidal lagoon along the southern edge which is apparently a local mecca for windsurfers..

This is the park and tidal lagoon at low tide. The lagoon is deeper at high tide. To access it, one drives along the southern edge of the land, right alongside the Saint Johns River. You can park on the beach. There is a naval base directly across the river. If you look at the bottom of the picture, you can see an aircraft carrier.

The tide was pretty high when we arrived. It prevented local windsurfer Vincent Barré from joining us, which was too bad. Winds were about 8 mph but variable, and there were several storms on the horizon. After doing some standup paddling with the Kona, I rigged 7.0: a conservative choice, but the storms on the horizon concerned me.

The sailing was a lot of fun. Did a bunch of beach starts. The water was pretty shallow. I was often in the middle of the lagoon and felt my daggerboard drag along the sand. By early afternoon some other windsurfers had joined us, including John Ingram (Hope I got the name right!), who is a Kona racer. It was the first time I was with another Kona sailor.

I loved sailing in salt water. I also liked sailing without booties or my PFD. I felt a little naked without them, but it was freeing. There were some other sailors. As we left I saw someone show up with an Exocet Cruiser on his roof. I wanted to chat with him about it, but we were all packed up and driving away.

We took a bunch of pictures with a film camera, we unfortunately left the digital at home, so I'll post those when the film is developed.

Adventure on the Saint Johns

The weather down here in Jacksonville has been odd, to say the least. I know it rains a lot down here, but lately we've been getting storms 2-4 times a day! Often they come with the added bonus of thunder.

With that said, I sailed off of County Dock in what looked like excellent weather. I rigged my Retro 8.5 for the light winds. I had been told by my friend Vincent Barre that the winds pick up in the middle of the channel. This was true. After heading out about 1/3 of a mile, the winds picked up and got to about 8-10 mph by the middle of the channel: perfect winds for the 8.5.

It was a gorgeous sail just below the Buckman Bridge, about three miles. I was going on and off a plane as I got towards the other shore. I turned around near the opposite side and headed back.

About half way back it started drizzling and I noticed grey clouds to my west. I headed upwind to get to my launch site, but then looked south in the direction of the wind. What I thought were light grey clouds were a heavy, low rainstorm. I raced back as quickly as I could but the winds died down as the storm picked up. I was worried intensely about lightning but hadn't heard any thunder, yet. I decided not to tack to the launch site but instead headed for the closest land, which was the edge of some rich guy's property. I figured if I sat casually, clearly looking like an idiot windsurfer taking shelter from the weather, nobody would get upset if I were discovered. This was embarrassing but definitely better than sailing with a five meter lightning rod in a rainstorm. There was no thunder, but that was little comfort.

The rain lasted about ten minutes. I was I headed back to the launch point, which was easy because the wind had shifted to the east a bit. Once I got back I packed it in. The wind was good but I could see three rainstorms at various points on the compass. No sense pressing my luck.

Here's my route. The red section was when I was in the storm.

Jacksonville Waterspout

On June 26th a waterspout appeared on the Saint Johns River. Check out the story here. My brother Max snapped some pictures of it on his mobile phone. They're pretty impressive.

Wow! Here's a good argument for camera phones. Sometimes the phone you use the most is the one you have with you.

High Wind Longboard Maniacs

For all of you who think that longboards are only for low winds and beginners, I present this video. Keep your jaws from hitting your keyboards, please.

These are two sailors from Poland on Mistral One Designs. Wow! I want me a Mistral One Design.

Sailing on the Saint Johns

I got in the water today. The winds were about 10 mph when I checked out the site. I rigged my new cammed Neil Pryde V8 7.0. It wasn't the best sail for the winds, but I really wanted to try it out. The wide Saint Johns River beckoned me.

View of the Saint Johns from downtown Jacksonville, looking downstream and roughly west. I took this picture from the new Riverside Artists' Market.

View looking east and a little south. The Saint Johns is one of the only rivers in the US which flows in a northerly direction. I set sail a little around the bend of the land sticking out from the left.

The winds predictably died just as I set out. They were pushing me into a long dock that extended out into the river just to the right of the launch site. After about ten tacks, I got out. Making the tacking more difficult was a catamaran moored nearby.

Did I bother to check the tide tables before I set out? NO! The rest of the sail was me sailing the board upwind against the triple threat of current, tide and wind. I had to be very careful not to get blown towards downtown Jacksonville.

My stepfather Sam took a series of pictures of me coming back towards the launch site. I made another of my slide shows. Things to note: my gaudy pink-and-yellow sail, the tea-colored water, the occasional puff of wind giving me something like a wake, the cool trees and Spanish moss, and Gabriel at the end throwing stones into the water. (There's something awesome about coming in from some sailing and having your kid run to you, yelling, “Daddy!” I recommend it to everybody -- Mommies change the parameters of this slightly.)

Minimalist Rig

I'm in Jacksonville Florida for about ten days. I brought my Kona with a minimal rig: two masts, two booms, a 5.3, a cammed 7.0 and an 8.5. Vincent Barre is threatening to take me out ocean sailing, something I haven't done yet. It scares me, but sometimes you get your best experiences from doing things that frighten you. I'm very comfortable in the waves with a boogie board or just body-surfing, but a windsurfer is a completely different animal.

The Kona One is supposed to be a fairly good ocean board, kind of keeping with the board's “jack-of-all-trades-master-of none” philosophy. I'll have a good story, I hope, out of all this. Even if my butt just gets kicked, that'll be a good story too.

Vincent Barre was one of the stars of my “Windy Rivers” article. He also lives quite close to my mother in Jacksonville. I'm sure, as an experienced windsurfer, he'll have lots of things to teach me.

I'll finish this post with a video of a young man named Daniel Ruskin doing freestyle on a Kona Board off Merrit Island, Florida. I hope some day to be this good.

New Online Adventure Magazine

I've been subscribing to Wide World Magazine lately. This is an outdoor adventure magazine out of the UK. They have a pretty cool e-mail newsletter that I recommend. It doesn't have much windsurfing on it, but there's a good spread of outdoor activities.

Wide World Magazine did have one page on Windsurfing. They didn't say much new except to comment that it's not the best all-body exerise. It doesn't condition the lower body that well; it's better for the core and upper body.

Got to agree on that. All that uphauling (I'm so ashamed!) definitely exercises the core and lower back. The arms get a serious workout from holding the boom.

I got out a couple of days ago but the winds were lousy. (Does that mean the winds were covered in lice?) I spent the time mostly practicing jibes and tacks.

Since I'm still practicing some basic moves, I'm going to post this YouTube video of learning to windsurf. It comes originally from the Starboard website, but it has a good demonstration of the basic skills. Windsurfing isn't that hard if you start with good basic equipment: a wideboard of sufficient flotation with a daggerboard.

Oh, that reminds me. Speaking of wideboards: my Exocet Cruiser was lost in transit while being shipped to me. The-House customer service told me that this was only the second time this has ever happened. It will arrive too late for my Florida trip, so I'll have to have them send it when I return.

Yeah, I ordered that Exocet Cruiser The-House has been advertising like crazy. What can I tell you? It was was exactly the size board I wanted, and the price was right. I even bought the 6.5 rig too. Since my trusty 6.5 tore at Windfest, I wanted to replace it. It's also good to have a spare rig for teaching.