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SAS
Joined: 18 Feb 1997 Posts: 178 Location: planet earth
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Posted: Wed Jun 20, 2018 10:03 pm Post subject: |
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Regarding Maui, the best way to manage a trip with a non windsurfing significant other is to remember that typically there is wind from midday until early evening in the summer.
You don't have to be at Kanaha all day long. Spend the mornings and eat lunch with the family, hit the beach by 130 PM, and you can have a great windsurfing session and be back with the family for dinner.
You'll have your fun, and they won't feel neglected.
I also recommend Kanaha over Kihei since the wind doesn't push you out to sea.
Also, if you have time work on your waterstart ahead of time. I learned years ago at Larkspur Landing. On the far side it is shallow enough to stand, and I could deal with getting the board and sail into position while I was standing, and then lay on the water with my feet on the board and work on the waterstart. This enabled me to learn it without having to deal with positioning the sail in deeper water while the current was moving me away from where I wanted to be. It took just an afternoon or two to learn the basics in the shallows, and then I ventured to the deeper water to learn how to position the sail there and do the waterstart. For higher wind and chop sailing the waterstart is the most important skill to learn in my opinion.
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ERROR!!!
Joined: 26 Feb 1998 Posts: 170 Location: East Bay
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Posted: Wed Jun 20, 2018 10:30 pm Post subject: Can't Water Start or Use Foot Straps |
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It's understandable that you would wonder about the best place to take a vacation as an intermediate windsurfer because I don't think that the answer is obvious. I have decided to comment because I was very surprised that others suggested the north shore of Maui to you. The conditions there (especially on the north shore) sometimes might be beyond your skill level and that could spoil your experience. I think that other less windy places on Maui, in San Francisco, or at the Gorge would suit you better, but I would advise you to use caution until you learn to use foot straps and to water start. Do not get in over your head and and expect to retreat easily. I would also like to say that, while the SF Bay Area and the Delta have good options for intermediate sailing and touring, you should expect to do some driving to get to the optimal windsurfing site, so your sessions would be several hours away from the family. By the way, Rio (Sherman Island) would offer virtually nothing for your wife. Anything interesting is an hour drive away. There are lots of nice lakes and reservoirs in California, but they might not be very challenging for an intermediate windsurfer on an average afternoon in July. Examples would be Lake Tahoe or Lake Berryessa. Good luck in deciding and you are smart to listen to people's ideas here.
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capetonian
Joined: 11 Aug 2006 Posts: 1196 Location: Florida
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Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2018 11:03 am Post subject: |
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As an intermediate learning to waterstart I would guess lack of choppy conditions and shallow water combined with good wind (preferably onshore) would be #1 priority. So Bonaire sounds like a better fit than Maui. What about Corpus Christi as a cheaper alternative? Not sure how wife / baby friendly it is?
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airwave
Joined: 29 Jun 2000 Posts: 386
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Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2018 12:59 pm Post subject: Vacation |
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Vacation at home. You have a dozen good launch sites in the area, some great restaurants, nearby wine tasting, and lots of activities in the area.
Save the airfare and the hotel expense, hire a baby sitter and treat the non-windsurfing wife to a day or two at a spa, some dining out, maybe a hike in the redwoods or on some of the coastal trails. You'll also get more wind at home than you'll get at most any other place suggested.
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jse
Joined: 17 Apr 1995 Posts: 1460 Location: Maui
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Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2018 1:45 pm Post subject: |
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bowen1 wrote: | Bonaire. No waterstart, no problem. Take a look at Sorobon Beach Resort, you won't have to disappear at all. You can windsurf your brains out all day and be a stones throw from the wife and baby. Not cheap, but as pointed out earlier it is low season and you can self cater your meals in the cabins there.
Good luck! |
I second that! Sorobon rocks! Rent one of the Cabanas, they are roomy and private, a very short distance to the beach. Yoga on the beach in the morning, Sail all you want.
Steve
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jse
Joined: 17 Apr 1995 Posts: 1460 Location: Maui
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Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2018 1:52 pm Post subject: Re: Vacation |
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airwave wrote: | Vacation at home. You have a dozen good launch sites in the area, some great restaurants, nearby wine tasting, and lots of activities in the area.
Save the airfare and the hotel expense, hire a baby sitter and treat the non-windsurfing wife to a day or two at a spa, some dining out, maybe a hike in the redwoods or on some of the coastal trails. You'll also get more wind at home than you'll get at most any other place suggested. |
Now that is the worst suggestion yet! If I ever suggested that as a vacation option to my wife (you know how sweet she is) she would divorce me. He's asking about a vacation not a way to justify more windsurfing at home. C'mon man, I know you, you've been everywhere. Surely you could come up with a better suggestion!
Steve
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airwave
Joined: 29 Jun 2000 Posts: 386
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Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2018 2:24 pm Post subject: Vacation |
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Better than a post session wine tasting at T.I. or oysters on Tomales Bay !
I think not !!!
Oh, yea, and your wife windsurfs as does mine. So our recommendations to exotic windy locations don't count.....
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greytwhyte
Joined: 02 May 1998 Posts: 21
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Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2018 4:05 pm Post subject: |
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Derek,
I'm going to agree with some of the others and suggest Maui. You will be traveling with a 6 month old so you are going to want a direct flight. That rules out the Caribbean destinations. I'm discounting the Gorge because you said you wanted somewhere warm which I am interpreting as tropical. Anyway, I would agree with others that you should get the waterstart lessons before you go or plan on taking lessons there. My non-windsurfing wife and I traveled to Maui with our 2 year old daughter and again when she was 5. We stayed in a VRBO condo in Ma'alaea. My daughter is now 13 and we are still together so it can be done as long as you don't listen to anything Airwave has to say!!!!! Ma'alaea is similarly priced to Kihei but less busy. You can walk to the aquarium and most of the sight seeing boats, snorkeling, sailing etc go out of the harbor there. It's 15-20 minute drive to Kanaha and most of the condos will have a pool, hot tub and kiddie pool. You are also a little closer to Lahaina for the restaurants, etc.
Get those lessons and have a great trip. Aloha.
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dglynn
Joined: 05 May 2016 Posts: 6
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Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2018 12:56 pm Post subject: |
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hi all,
Thanks so much for all the advice. You all mention very valuable tips and and each has its own pros and cons. Given its only a few weeks away when I was looking to do this ($$$), but more specifically my skill deficiencies, and not wanting to disappear for 3-4 hours each afternoon, I think combining windsurfing will be just too much. We've decided we might go to tahoe for a few days instead. We mountain bike and like some of you suggested, we can hire a friends babysitter up there and bike by ourselves for a few hours in the morning and then chill by the lake in the afternoon. Only other alternative we thought might be a driving somewhere but realistically anything more than 4/5 hrs is going to be unfair on the baby, and will just take forever having to stop for feeds.
The other alternative is maybe Santa Barbara, but are we're hoping to go there to a friend in August, so ruling that out for now.
What I will do also is go and get a couple of lessons and get my water start and straps learnt, maybe in Berkeley marina, lake shoreline or Alameda, and then spend some time in coyote point and then I'll have more options open once they're dialed in.
thanks again guys for all the advice.
derek
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airwave
Joined: 29 Jun 2000 Posts: 386
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Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2018 10:57 pm Post subject: |
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OK, If Santa Barbara is a possibility then consider this.
It's about 4 hours to Cambria. One of the best small wave sailing spots anywhere (anywhere) is 7 miles north of Cambria just above San Simeon.
Cambria has great restaurants, both dinner and breakfast, nice ocean front motels, a couple of SPA Hotels, and a lot of cute B&B's. Just 30 miles to the east is the very best of the Central Valley wine tastings, on the way to Paso Robles.
There are some beautiful parks with casual hiking/walking trails overlooking the coast.
There are several nice surf breaks too.
A day can also be spent at the Hearst Castle which is 3 miles north of Cambria.
The San Simeon Cove has SUP and Kayak rentals. The cove is a totally flat ocean paddle spot. Even the non-sailing wife could easily do it.
Biking is limited to road biking. But one of the backroads, Santa Rosa Creek Rd, is so rural it's pretty much like mountain biking.
So, windsurfing, biking, surfing, very fine dining, wine tasting, SUPs and
Kayaks, all while staying in a cute B&B, with a SPA just down the street......But it has been impossible to get GreyTWhyte to go there, though I have tried and tried.
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