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War stories about the crazy day at 3rd. Ave

 
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windfind



Joined: 18 Mar 1997
Posts: 1899

PostPosted: Thu Jun 13, 2013 2:07 pm    Post subject: War stories about the crazy day at 3rd. Ave Reply with quote

New Blog about yesterday: War stories about the crazy day at 3rd. Ave: "the wind felt like Swiss Cheese!"

Use this link for the full story.....

http://blog.weatherflow.com/?p=14128
Mike Godsey



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airwave



Joined: 29 Jun 2000
Posts: 386

PostPosted: Thu Jun 13, 2013 3:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The carnage was at its peak when the winds at shore took a due west turn. So, it was gusting from 0 - 12 close to shore. The WNW was still raging from 5-30 outside. The gust and lulls were in 20-30 yard intervals

All I recall is that while spending most of the time waterstarting over and over the guy next to me spent most of his time cursing.

My wife sailed outside for a while and came in slogging the lulls on a firm ebb and claimed it was like one of those nightmares where you're in quicksand and can't move forward.

We slogged, butt dragged, swam, and walked our way in, thinking we were the last ones on the water. Only to watch two guys catch a late day puff and sail there way back to the launch, fully powered.

The water was warm and pleasant.
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dvCali



Joined: 23 Aug 2007
Posts: 1314

PostPosted: Thu Jun 13, 2013 11:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sometimes the Stick pays off. While 3rd and Coyote were having "crazy winds" on Wed, the Stick enjoyed a phenomenal day with steady 3.5-4.2 winds. It was on early around 4.7, lulled a bit, but than came back with a vengeance and lasted no stop from 3 to 5:30, decreased a bit and was back on when I left at 6:30. There was even a mini-swell, very enjoyable conditions for the 20+ sailors that showed up. Second day of the season with my 3.7 Very Happy Very Happy Very Happy
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TheItalianJobber



Joined: 09 Sep 2003
Posts: 120

PostPosted: Fri Jun 14, 2013 10:14 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

...very interesting reading!
I've experienced days like that at Crissy: since I enjoy gusty conditions (I know it's weird... it's my WS upbringing: we had nothing else than that), I usually stay on the inside (upwind by "the trees") balancing on my floaty board, and wait for the black gusty windline coming over me, not unlike a wavefront reaching a paddling SUP. Then I try to make the best of the acceleration and stay planning through the holes, maybe 200-300yards, until it lulls altogether and you go in a no-wind jibe, only with the speed of the board.

If it stays within my cursing-limit, I consider it a very intense, reaction and balancing session.
If instead it gets to the level experienced at 3rd, or -say- it starts flooding really hard, you feel like crying "Mommy!"...
Crying or Very sad
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poulton0



Joined: 21 Apr 2000
Posts: 9

PostPosted: Fri Jun 14, 2013 2:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Naturalists reported a mass stranding event in the Bay near San Mateo on Wednesday. Half a dozen windsurfers and over a dozen kitesurfers were reported to have stranded themselves in the Bay waters near 3rd Ave.

"It's a rare event," said naturalist and wildlife photographer Leonard Longlens. "The brightly colored kites lying on the glassy water have an eery beauty. But at the same time, it's terribly sad to see these creatures in distress. We don't know why they do this."

Kitesurfers and windsurfers are often sighted at this location, sometimes up to 100 at a time. "They come out when the wind is strongest," said Longlens. "They seem to have a sixth sense for the wind; you'll even see them congregating on the shore just before the wind rises. They usually have a good sense of when the wind is going to drop and most return safely to land.
A few miss the signs, but they are probably the old and sick, so maybe that serves to strengthen the herd."

Wednesday was a day with unusually strong, gusty winds. It was thought that the wind creatures were unprepared for the quickly changing wind conditions. Luckily, most of them were able to drag themselves back to land using an awkward form of locomotion called "swimming".

On Thursday, the wind was more steady and the herd was seen back on the waters, apparently unaware of the dire events of the day before.
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hemmy007



Joined: 10 May 2002
Posts: 101

PostPosted: Fri Jun 14, 2013 4:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

poulton0 wrote:
Naturalists reported a mass stranding event in the Bay near San Mateo on Wednesday. Half a dozen windsurfers and over a dozen kitesurfers were reported to have stranded themselves in the Bay waters near 3rd Ave.

"They come out when the wind is strongest," said Longlens. "They seem to have a sixth sense for the wind; you'll even see them congregating on the shore just before the wind rises. They usually have a good sense of when the wind is going to drop and most return safely to land.
A few miss the signs, but they are probably the old and sick, so maybe that serves to strengthen the herd."



Great 'summary' news story Ken.
I know, I was there. ;-O

Fortunately, I got there late,
rigged my four.seven
as the wind seemed to be somewhere between
three.seven & six.OH.

Thought that was a safe bet on my big board
& I might be happy about 1/3 of the time.

But watched it as people raced out to WS on three.nines,
then five mins later, ten kites in the water,
all other kites frantically pumping and many people swimming in.

Was funny to just watch the carnage
& listen to the talk in the rig area.

It was reading 250deg,
32kts gusting to 39kts @SFO,
35kts at the stick,
& 29kts in the channel.
but only 11 at CP.

Too much conflicting data for me
to waste the time even putting my wetsuit on.

After watching for about 45mins
& talking to the people that got the excellent early session
or were like me 'waiting' to go out,
I de rigged my dry sail and went home.

Happy not to have gotten wet. Wink

Went I looked at the graph later that night I thought
that was one UGLY afternoon of wind.
If I was trading it at work,
I would hit the 'sell' button. Wink

Hope for less of these type of afternoons this season,
but always watch for that ML south of the launch,
creeping over the hill.
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mogunn



Joined: 03 Apr 2006
Posts: 1307
Location: SF Bay

PostPosted: Fri Jun 14, 2013 9:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

3rd was back to normal today. I was beginning to wonder what normal is.
Very Happy

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mo
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BRIMAR



Joined: 03 May 2004
Posts: 115

PostPosted: Mon Jun 17, 2013 1:14 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I call it the "Evil Wind" and I'm pretty sure the cause is a cutoff low just south of Santa Cruz, (think Catalina Eddie) the telltale is anytime SFO is SouthWest (260-230* magnetic) I don't bother with 3rd. What I don't understand is why Palo Alto gets great wind on these days? But it does!
What's really frustrating is when you are out there and the wind shifts to "Evil"
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