Swell Session

The big problem with windsurfing alone is that there's nobody around to photograph your (mis)adventures. I went out yesterday to Swamp Hole. Nobody was there, and no surprise. The forecast wasn't predicting much. There was some indication that winds might pick up later in the afternoon. but that was unclear.

I rigged my big 8.5 o the Kona and headed out into the river. It was misty out and there were surprisingly few boats. At a couple of moments I played chicken with some sailboats, both of us on opposite tacks. One had a huge, blue spinnaker.

As  sailed, the wind started to pick up. Within half a hour of launch I was almost on a plane. Ten minutes after that I was planing occasionally. Then I was planing almost continuously. It was fun to especially ride the swells on a plane.

This was a greats session for learning control while on a plane. I was also swinging around in the harness, getting a good feel for holding the sail, even taking a hand off the sail at times. (I know this is standard stuff for advanced sailors. I'm not one yet.)

Then I started to get overpowered. The nice thing about an 8.5 is that you can plane when the wind is about 10 mph. The bad thing about an 8.5 is that it's pretty damn heavy. About 100 yards from Swamp Hole I started to get knocked down a lot. That wasn't fun. But I eventually scudded in.

I'm sore. I'm also very clear about the advantages of a longboard. With my Kona I was able to go out in mediocre winds and enjoy it picking up. All the sailing was fun, even when I wasn't planing.

The breeze went from 4 mph to about 13. You can see the branches of the willow tree bend. Surprisingly, the water was very flat.

Swamp Hole is right next to the Croton Yacht Club.

There's a fair amount of debris in the water. I hit something big near where that floating barrel is.