Where We Sailed Today

[dllee]

bito history......
We were sailing Oyster Point in '83, and John Childs decided he'd had enough, reached out into the bay downwind, and disappeared. His sailing bud Colin Gift decided to look for him, while Glen Shot (Harbormaster at Oyster), and I stayed inside Oyster working on our duck jibes.
Glen was ahead of me, maybe 10 in 70, while I was 5 for 70, and Ross and Eddy Conroy somewhere in between. We were novices, of course, in '83. I was into windsurfing for 3 weeks then, the other guys starting in '82.
John came back alone and super excited....always when a surfer discover's a new spot. Colin is 190 lbs., so didn't make it back for quite a while, and barely.
John told us to start looking for Flying Tiger's Freight, which was upwind of the cove he named...Flying Tigers.
We all sailed there the next day, 4 times longer runs, steadier wind, and it was a mainstay on flood tides for a couple of years.

[bert]

zirtaeb,

Thanks for the tidbit..kinda wondered how the name came about..,it's a cool name for a sailing spot.

bert

[ERROR!!!]

Pro Windsurfer Derek Rijff practices freestyle in the early evening, nailing this forward loop in the low chop at the end of the ebb tide. The last two weeks have brought some good wind to the Delta.

[summertime]

great story about discovering flying tigers way back when zirtab. wait- so you were doing duck jibes after 3 weeks of sailing!? and... sharks go all the way to Larkspur?!

[summertime]

great day at Berkeley today - wind was the best I've been able to be out on for a long time. Average 25, gusts to 29. I was on my open ocean 75 liter with a 4.5 sail and it was perfect from 1-3:30. Trying to get use to this new board in preparation for going to gorge. Wind backed down and went out another hour on my 85 liter FSW which was perfect as well.

[dvCali]

[dllee]

I don't think 5 out of 70 attempts qualifies me as proficient on duck jibes.
Was it Richard Whyte who started doing them in Hawaii at the end of '83?
We all came from a boating background, so the natural jibe was the duck jibe, even on my 2nd day ever windsurfing, at Lake Merced, on a Dufour Wing during my beginner lesson.
Couple kids who are now adults, 20 year's ago, who live near Paradise Marina, said whites have been spotted around the SF State Research Facility in Tiburon, where the land faces the Richmond oil tanks.

[SPQR]

Bought my original gear from Glen Taylor and his wife who owned/ran Bay Windsurfing in '78. My brother and I sailed Crissy to the North Tower and back without straps and harness on standard windsurfers. Glen organized a sail where we sailed from Foster City to Coyote Pt. and back on standard windsurfers, that was a lot of work. Glen sailed all over the place and was a good influence. When we asked about places to sail he said take your boards and try them out. In the fall of '78 when the wind stated to lighten up my brother and I sailed Oyster Pt. on our standard windsurfers one weekend. It was okay until a bit of fog filled the gap and the wind picked up, sailing back on a port tack we took a beating. The next weekend we drove around and sailed at Tigers, we had heard from Glen Taylor that there was sailing there and decided to check it out. In '83 sailing short boards from Oyster Pt. to Tigers we were sailing on the outside when Tim Hickey and friends sailed out of Tigers down to Coyote Pt. That sort set a light bulb off, then we tried Coyote to 3rd Ave., the little sandy beach on the berm right before the trail takes a 90 degree turn and heads under the bridge. It was neat because back then you could park right behind the berm (leave a vehicle) and it was good on westerly or southwest days as well. But in '85 the CHP shut down the parking there and the land was developed for bio tech. When I think of where we sailed with the gear we had I have to laugh, my gear is so much better today! But the sense of adventure was awesome back then. We did our first session at Waddell in '84 and I will never forget when Miles Nakamura sailed out, got pounded by a wave so hard the sail went flat against his head and left a huge indentation on his sail and left him with a really sore neck. We were laughing so hard we couldn't even sail. Le Chapeau to Glen Taylor and his wife for encouraging so many of us to go out and explore, even when we didn't have a clue to what we were doing!

[dllee]

Good stuff, too bad we didn't see you at Tiger's in the '84-88 era when Tiger's would normally get a crew of over 10 windsurfer's out on weekdays, a few more on weekends.
Glen always pushed Candlestick to us, which we thought was too gusty and holey, compared to Oyster and Tigers. We actually sailed a few very steady lighter wind days in the lagoon W of the the freeway, but that was more like late fall, when the winds bounced along San Bruno Mountain and focused there and Sierra Point.
Teddy Huang was the first we saw who sailed up from Coyote, probably '86 or so, on his North TCC/Prisma sails. The surfer crew wasn't interested in long distance sailing, as our focus was to sail Ocean Beach San Francisco, where making jibes is more important than going far.
I wonder if we've met. I'm the Asian dude who worked at Wises, Sausalito Sailboards, Windsports, and back to Boardsports Berkeley.

[MULLDE102f]

There was a dude who wrote a story long ago for, I think, Windrider about sailing out and back to the Farallons (in fading wind and light)
Was that any of you guys?