Stoked.... Going out tomorrow to Sandy Hook.

[Derikthin]

My Kiter friend is taking a half day and going out with me tomorrow for a few hours. I'm excited. I inherited a 6/5/3 full suit from my surfer brother in law who has... Well he's grown out of it haha.

So if anyone is gonna be out tomorrow and sees a crappy windsurfer with crappy gear and a kiteboarding friend don't be afraid to come up and say hi.

[Derikthin]

Got so excited the night before we were supposed to go. Friend said he was cutting out of work early and would meet me at my house. I dropped the kids off at school, scooted home and packed the truck. Got us some lunch for after our session and was as excited for windsurfing that day as I have been for skiing (which is special for me).

Then I go to sit in my house drink some more coffee and watch TV and I get a text that he saw the temperatures and figured his 3/2 suit wouldn't hold up.... Gah! I mean obviously it wouldn't. And I don't want my friend to freeze to death, but that information would have been awesome like 24 hours before!

So using my brain I decided that going it alone was not a good idea because I am still re-learning windsurfing, it's a new (to me) wet suit and I don't want something to happen and end up dead. Especially with the winds as strong as they were supposed to be.

I joined that LI windsurfing board but to go up there during the weekday then come home later in the afternoon I think he traffic will suck. I'll probably make it at some point but while I'm trying to get better sandy hook seems like a solid spot. Or I'll find some other spots around 1 hour and 30 minutes away.

Hope you all have a killer time.

[rswabsin]

Keep the faith - Sandy Hook should be good this weekend - especially Sunday with a northwest wind. Usually always someone their on the weekend if there is wind. Use the tide chart feature here on iwindsurf to check the tides - Sandy Hook can get too shallow to sail in at low tide but just before/after low, the water is mostly waist deep out to the sand bar you'll see just before the boating channel on the far side - the channel is deep. Near low tide you can basically walk back to the shore. Also, research Seaside, NJ sailing on the Barnegat Bay - nice shallow flat water sailing with deeper Bump & Jump conditions on the far side. There's launches in Seaside and Lavallette plus a few others. Here's a good link to multiple good sites in NJ and the northeast in general: http://www.windvisions.com/launches.html

Good Luck - Rob

[Derikthin]

Rob thanks for the heads up!

My schedule is crazy. I work most weekends and have a lot of weekdays off so it's weird.

Going to a birthday party for my niece Saturday and they right near toms river yacht club, so I'm gonna bring my suit and rig.

I'm optomistic that by the end of the summer/fall ill have a rhythm and some windy friends.

[scargo]

To add to what Rob said, the general rule around here is that the more westerly the direction, the gustier the conditions. For a recent example, look at the Trixies graph for last Sunday (4/3): wind from the NW lulls of 10, gusts to 50.

I sailed Allen Road on Thursday & Friday (4.7 and 5.5, respectively). For N & NW directions, I like Ocean Gate, but wasn't in the mood to mess with 10-50. But if it had been N or even NNW, the wind would have been much steadier, and I would have gone out.

I'm still in a drysuit, but on a sunny warm day like last Thursday, I probably could have been in a 3/2. Of course, there are few if any people out, so "dress for the swim" is certainly in order, as is wearing a helmet, pfd, and taking a phone in a waterproof pouch.

[Derikthin]

That's a good tip on the Westerly wind. I still have to get an idea which sites to check for wind reports and such. I've been using the windy app and I'm not sure how accurate it is. When I do look at it I make sure the constant and gusts are closer in speed. So just like you were saying 10-50 does not sound awesome at all.

I bought a helmet. Need to get life vest. Phone in the water-proof pouch sounds like a solid idea.

[scargo]

As far as checking the wind, what I always do is of course check iW's forecast, as well NOAA's forecast (link below). Then the day of, I monitor the local wind meters to see how things are trending. That normally allows you to hit the sweet spot.

You'll start to notice lots of similarities in the weather patterns and frontal behavior. The last couple of weeks have been typical. Riany conditions brought by E, NE, or SE winds, high pressure building behind with solid NW winds and cool temperatures for a couple of days, followed by clear SW conditions. Round and round again the cycle goes. (Note I'm talking about off-season sailing. In the summer, we all live for the Bermuda highs.)




http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/marine/zone/east/phimz.htm