Friday, March 6, 2009

Side Off At Assateague!

Ken and I scored some really fun wavesailing today in Assateague.

5.8 and floaty boards in marginal sideoff conditions.

All Photography by: Janis Markopoulos




Ken Kellar


Scoring side off conditions is pretty rare at Assateague. Blessed!


Full post and lots more pics coming, so check back!
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****UPDATE****
Man, I was so amped Friday night, I couldn’t sleep. Around 1am, I woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep. I was just laying in bed thinking about those wave rides. There was no way I could get back to sleep. So I got up and worked on completing this post. Windsurfing is such an awesome sport. It just keeps getting better and better!


Bought my annual pass to Assateague today. $30 for unlimited use of the National Park.

Marginal wind today, with serious decoupling issues. BUT FUN!





Time to rock n roll!




One of my better waves




Check that, this was my best wave of the day!

I know I should be up higher on that wave face. I'm a little green having not wave sailed since early December.




Course I got smacked before I could kick out

A lot of the time, the water was glassy on the inside, a function of the side off wind. It was a balancing game to get out thru the break, often out of the straps.

I literally did not hit a single jump heading out all day. We rarely had the power, and coming in, all power was derived from the wave itself.






Ken, makin good work of it!



Ken was killing it today. He definately got the best wave rides



Ken and I owe so much to Bill, Andy, Keith, and the rest of the Hatteras crew. Wavefest really gave us the confidence to go out and attack waves in marginal conditions that we never would have considered sailing before. I mean, we mostly slogged today. We’d get out past the sand bar, gybe, and only got into the straps once on a wave. Really, so long as you can slog out to a wave, you can wavesail!

Early in the morning, Ken caught this one:




Me again




For those sailors out there that have hit a plateau with their sailing, and are ready to shake things up a bit, I HIGHLY suggest you register for the upcoming OBX windsurfing festival. Stay tuned to Bill’s site for the latest news on that. Loopfest got me looping, and Wavefest gave me the confidence to get more aggressive in the waves, so trust me when I tell you that you’ll be taking your sailing to another level after participating. And except for a nominal registration fee (last year that was about $20), its free!! How can you beat that.

If you have any questions about the 2009 OBX windsurfing festival, leave a comment or email me, and I'll try and steer you in the right direction. Or better yet, contact Bill Bell directly thru his blog.

I shouldn't have tried to ham it too much with this one cuz...

it was shorebreak!


So Ken gets over this one

In short order

Where did that one come from!

Good work

Man I got tagged by this one!

Ken makin due with the sloppy conditions




Gybing on the out side





Its all good!

I went for a few elevator rides today, and LOVED IT!!!! Just hang on and enjoy the ride!!

Some more cool shots


This is such a cool shot. Sheet out and let that sucker break out in front





Ken again



All of that practice sailing out of my gybe clew first up at Tower Road pays dividends in the waves

Pretty strong current + marginal wind = lots of walks. The price to willingly pay for down the line rides!




The blog administrator and his most awesome wife Janis, out for a late evening stroll in our Delaware neighborhood, where everyone is nice and everyone waves! Ahhhhhh..... life is good :)

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Great photos ,great job guys from brian in ct.

Anonymous said...

Awesome pics! Like we talked on the beach, a year ago we probably wouldn't have even rigged due to the light side-off wind. Wavefest made a big difference! Thanks again to Janis for braving the chilly beach and taking those great shots.

Ken K

Bill said...

Great stuff George! Glad to hear you guys scored up there for some fun side-off wave sailing.

Thx for the kudos too, from all of us here in Hatteras who were integral to LoopFest/WaveFest 2008!

2009 is ramping up and there will be more festive action to come!

Bill said...

PS: I hit Coquina yesterday and tried a tailgate video; however, with side-off wind, the waves crapped out as high tide killed it on the outside sandbar. Alas, the video was pretty lame... Likely there was better surf in Avon, as the wind would have been side-shore down there. Perhaps sloppy surf as compared to north of Oregon Inlet, but at least some whitewater to perhaps play in?!

Andy said...

Good to see you guys out there!!!! Schlog away!! i had a schlog sesh, too, this afternoon in Maui... Well, that's not completely true, it was actually pretty windy... but hey, there was SOME schlogging, so I was at Assategue in spirit, right next to you guys. See ya soon!

Tormod said...

Wooow! The surf looks very nice, you lucky one! And thanks for lot of nice pictures.