Exocet Finally Arrived

It was raining heavily all day, and that means my new Exocet Cruiser had to arrive today. Man, it comes with a lot of packaging. I wonder if there's any way to reduce some of this. The board and rigging came in one huge box, and the board itself was in a smaller box inside. Here the board is partially exposed -- I took off the bubble wrap.

First impressions:

The graphics are very pretty. I like the bright red/aqua motif and the dramatic contrast. (Note to self: blog entry on board color schemes.) It definitely feels and looks like a wideboard, although it's 15 liters less than my old Go. The rails feel thinner than the Go, and the whole thing seems a bit slimmer.

The daggerboard knob is a huge improvement over the Kona. First of all: it's padded. It won't shred your feet when you're trying to raise and lower the darn thing. Second: the knob is removable! This means no more having to remove the daggerboard when racking! Exocet, you did a nice job with this daggerboard; what gives with the Kona? Why is it so wonky compared to this? The daggerboard also has little locking mechanisms at the fully extended and retracted marks. My impression is that this daggerboard is only meant to be used in these positions.

The fin seems a little small compared to the size of the board, although I think it'll be fine for freeriding. It's clearly a shallow water fin. It's also kind of ugly, like a flat hunk of cheese: no sense of aquatic grace. My hand is there for scale.

The weed fin I have from the Go has more surface area than the standard fin. Notice that the weed fin is a Tuttle box but the factory fin is a Deep Tuttle.

Here's the fin on the board.

This is the famous Exocet Cruiser roller wheel. It seems like a pleasant invention. Note how Exocet has that arrow on the EVA deck pointing to the wheel, as if anybody would miss it. When I put the board on the wheel, my wife commented, “Hey, maybe you can mow the lawn with this thing?” Cute. The board did move quite well, and it solves the problem of how to carry a board this large. I just hope the roller doesn't get in the way of my feet. (I'm sure a purist would eschew such an invention because of the extra weight.)

I think I could have done a better job with the pictures, but it was raining pretty hard. No, I couldn't have waited because the stuff was completely taking over my porch.

About Mothers

Sometimes a mother can be an unsung hero. (Maybe that happens more than a little.) I have to say, during my trip to Florida, my mother fed and took care of myself, Kirsten and Shmoo (Gabriel) and the Squirmchiens (Miranda and Guinevere). We arrived in Jacksonville exhausted. Kirsten had an earache and the twins were getting sick. For the eleven days we were there, she made us feel more relaxed than we'd felt in a year. The vacation wouldn't have been the same without her.

Thanks Mom!

Kingston Beginners' Night

I was in Kingston last night for the River Rats beginners' night. I was going to bring my friend Jim, but he got pretty sick. I was ridiculously late because I took the quick road, 1-87, instead of the slow road, 9W. I was forced to make my way through Kingston and went in circles for a good hour or so. Sometimes the slow way is the fastest way. (Thank you, oh wise one.) I got there and had already missed a lot of the festivities.

The winds were lousy to crappy to nonexistent. Some beginners were actually getting towed by their instructors to get a sense of what a board feels like when its' moving. I broke out the Kona and SUP paddle and proceeded to paddle around and make wry comments to everybody. I didn't actually do anything helpful; I just amused myself, and said hello to everyone.

Notice the high winds and heavy chop! I could hardly stand on my board! Actually, the conditions were so calm I didn't even take off my glasses. I took some pictures of first-timer SUPer Sven Anderson. After some prodding he got on his Mistral longboard and scooted around.

An excellent windsurfer named Ben showed me a freestyle move on his Mistral One-Design, which he couldn't quite complete because of the lack of winds. Kudos for trying.

Ben and I later exchanged boards. I got to sail a famous Mistral One-Design for the first time which he tried paddling my Kona. It was a smooth board in the very low winds. Ben told me he used to sail competitively in the 1980s and was nationally ranked. He showed me how to rail the longboard, which was a great technique when your daggerboard is down. You push the leeward rail into the water, bringing the board to a 45º angle. During this time you lean heavily on the boom to apply mast-base pressure. You can even take the foot closest to the mast and put it underneath the board, lifting it up higher. I'm definitely going to practice this. It's a great technique for pointing high upwind.

I came home with a new River Rats tee-shirt and a smile. I really enjoy hanging out with them. I'm also impressed with the different type of teaching. I'm not a great teacher of physical skills, and I'm glad other people were in the water doing it. (Teaching literature is another story.)

Gorgeous Sail, but Little Excitement

Somehow I always feel like I'm not coming up to some windsurfing standard when I'm out in low winds. It's like I hear that voice inside my head saying: “You must be planing! You must be planing!” Is there some sort of Twelve Step group where windsurfers come and admit things like:

• “I sail in low winds!”
• “I use old equipment!”
• “My equipment is dirty!”
• “I use a daggerboard, and I can't help it!”
• “I've never been to Hatteras, or Maui, or even Corpus Christi! And I don't even care!”
• “I use a big sail all the time!”

I feel better now. So I had a low-wind, late-afternoon sail yesterday. Ran into Dave Rogers and his wife Sarah out by Annsville on kayaks. That was nice. We floated and chatted for a while, then went our separate ways. Dave was avoiding his board because of runoff from recent storms.

I was nice tacking my longboard without the daggerboard down. It's much looser without it. I probably could have planed if I was on the 8.5, but I didn't want to lug that huge sail around.

Evenings can be gorgeous.

I didn't even want to stop sailing, but family responsibilities beckoned. This is what summer's all about.

Tide was pretty high here.

Did I mention the launch site is really close to the train?

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.