Fall Fun!

Ramp 49 Relaxation!

Friday (11/11/11)

Arrived about 1 am driving straight from work.  Sailed the Hole in the morning on powered 4.6.  I tried about 20 loops with little results except a smashed nose on my JP 93 liter board.  I later had a noonish session on a 5.3 but the wind was backing off quickly by then.  The ocean was pretty huge and nasty.

Nice wave, bad position!

Saturday

Ralph came to visit around noon.  We went straight to the Avon pier for some head high SUP action in a fairly strong side off SW breeze.

With the breeze picking up we headed to Ramp 34 and sailed our SUPs at a little cove with two point breaks and a healthy rip inbetween.  You could catch a wave and sail down the line towards the little cove and when the wave ended you were in a friendly calm patch to do your jibe and head out for more.  The wind started geting unreliable so we tried a little paddling in the same spot but the wind picked back up and the waves were pretty elusive.  Ralph treated me to a pizza dinner to wrap up a pretty fun day.

Ralph coming in after a great session

Sunday

Warm and sunny and small surf.  Ralph and I surfed a beach break at Ramp 49.  In the afternoon we surfed Ramp 34 on the east side about a mile north of Avon pier at a little cove/chanel set up.  Chest high smooth rights.  Excellent session!

Monday

SUP sailing at Ramp 27 in the afternoon.

Ralph's perfect breakfast

Tuesday

A warm sunny SW wind came up. We headed to Ramp 34 and launched short boards in a gusty winds.  Too many lulls made it hard to stay upwind.  Eventually we figured we needed our SUPs about the time Bill Bell and Chad showed up.  SUPs turned frustrating gusty conditions into great wave riding in waste to chest high waves.

Wednesday

Ralph packed it up and left earlier than planned with a hurt shoulder.  Not clear on what caused it.

I scoped out sites with Ramp 34 looking good but the wind hadn't built yet. I had a noonish 5.3 session at the hole to warm up for the ocean.  I returned to 34 to find Keith and Chad schlogging after a half hour or so of short boarding in moderate waves.  The wind never returned so I went back to the hole to salvage the day with a nice 5.8 sunset session.

Thursday

Cold north wind blowing in. Packed up and headed out around 10:30 after arranging some work from the builders.

After Irene

Authorities allowed property owners onto the island starting September 10th.  Remember the storm hit around August 28th.  Access was via an emergency ferry from Stumpy Point, a 2  hour ride.  I headed down on September 11th and arrived at the ferry just after sunset.  My ride experience to the island was great. Only an 8 minute wait and then a beautiful ferry ride across Pamlico Sound.  There was a full moon shining off of the undulating water driven by a balmy breeze.

Once on the island I delivered some tools to my neighbor who owns a house in Rodanthe.  After a soda and some chatting I headed down to Avon.  The house looked great. Just a little muddy residue on the concrete.  The interior was perfect.

On Monday I picked up my new SUP from Wind -NC.  It was a free replacement of my broken board.I took it to Avon pier and although choppy in-shore breeze I caught a wave on my first try.  Out the back again I saw a weird patch of water on the outside and realized it was water churning due to a school of fish being agitated.  Not wanting to meet the agitator I took the next wave into the beach and headed to Frisco after visiting Andy and getting some loop tips.  At Frisco I caught one wave paddling but it was choppy and surf was poor.  I put up a sail and had a fun hour sailing back and forth.  Then headed up to Rodanthe near sunset to check out damage.  Visited Rod, who invited me to dinner.

Pretty empty beaches

Tuesday
A pretty fun southside SUP session.  Moderate surf with some fun rides.  Dave joined me to try his first ocean SUP session.  With a huge "lounge" and mostly waist high surf, I thought it would be a good first day.  However when Dave showed up some larger sets started coming in increasing the shore break.  There was also an onshore breeze making the water slightly choppy and making it harder to get out.  Unfortunately Dave didn't make it out.  It was a pretty rough day to start ocean SUPing.  SUPs are pretty hard to handle in shore break.  I recommend getting very deep, holding the board near the nose with it trailing behind you before climbing on.  Then get to your knees and give several strong strokes to get past that impact zone near the shore.

Wednesday
Surfed the cove with a local fellow.  The cove has a really unique wave wrap and from the perspective of standing near the point, the waves go down the beach rather than into it.  Saw a couple dolphins and a big game fish jumping.  That one kind of creeped me out as I wondered what may have been chasing it.  The waves looked beautiful, peeling lefts.  Catching them was much harder tha I thought it would be.  Although some were head high when jacked up, they broke very gently.  I found myself stepping on the tail too early or too agressively to avoid a pearl and then losing the wave.  I finally figured that out and stayed forward on the board longer which resulted in some successful rides.

Driving to the cove

Thursday
Awesome cove surfing and then I saw at the same time: the rising sun, the setting full moon, a water spout, a double rainbow, and dolphins jumping out of the swells!

Heading back home!

Spring Fun

I just finished a quick trip to Hatteras. I spent a couple days with friends in a huge sound-front house and then finished the stay at Relaxation Station after the most recent guests checked out.

I had two days of high wind sailing on the sound during which I took a forward loop lesson from Andy, owner of Wind-NC. I made about 30 attemps in about 90 minutes with two complete rotations. I haven't sailed away from one yet but I'm getting there, and I have the bruises to show it!

The next two days were spent stand up paddling and surf-sailing a stand up paddle board. I got caught inside by a big set in light wind and the photo shows the results. A real bummer to break all that gear but what an awesome session! Read more at my friend's site: http://ncboardrider.blogspot.com/

Update, Starboard will honor my warranty claim for the broken board. The sail was already held together with tape and I intentionally used it only with my paddle board because I figured such a big board could be rough on a sail in the surf.