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Affordable Windsurfing Cities on the Gulf & East Coasts
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rollerrider



Joined: 17 May 2003
Posts: 100

PostPosted: Sat Jul 30, 2016 10:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

My experiences from many visits to the east coast from Cape Cod to Florida have all been great. BUT mostly not easy water access and not really the most economical for family life except Florida. But Florida is WAY too hot and boring in the summer and crowded in the spring. Hatteras has lots of free access to all water sports but limited job opportunities. Norfolk area in my opinion is not that nice.
Believe it or not the suburbs of Buffalo New York is a great affordable place to live especially if you plan on a family. Schools are excellent. Lots of other stuff to do like skiing, road and mountain biking. No ocean but Lake Erie is probably one of the best fresh water spots in the US. Guaranteed at least one session a week for at least 6 months. Mostly 6.5 and 7.5 in the summer. Plenty of 5.0 days in the spring, early summer and fall with more like 2 sessions a week. Wave rides are great as Buffalo is at the end of the prevailing fetch. Nearby Canada beaches are epic with good waves. check out https://reefwarriors.wordpress.com/
We always took our summer vacations to Cape Cod to get our ocean fix but its a crowded place like most of the north east. Spring breaks were great at Hatteras.
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wdsurf



Joined: 22 May 1999
Posts: 335

PostPosted: Sat Jul 30, 2016 8:53 pm    Post subject: Eastern lake erie Reply with quote

Very windy spot buffalo is Exclamation had 9 4.5 days there this month alone on 80ltr. board with 4.0 sessions on two of those days.nice fun swell and waves with a handful of others.i don,t live there but I drive there to sail 180 miles round trip.i live right on Lake Erie in a less windy spot they use 6.5 and 7.0 at home on days sailed above Exclamation
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isobars



Joined: 12 Dec 1999
Posts: 20935

PostPosted: Sun Jul 31, 2016 7:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

rollerrider wrote:
Florida is WAY too hot and boring in the summer

On the heat, I hear ya. I've seen it drizzle all day with a high of 105. However, there is inland and coastal SCUBA and free diving, a huge variety of fishing, all kinds of boating from jet skis to fishing boats, cliff diving into air-clear sinkholes, mountain biking in forests and on dirt roads, loads of snow-white beaches, and I'm sure a great deal more. I even hear they now have spectator sporting events, an amusement park or two, and maybe even some windsurfing and kiting even in the summer (thunderstorms were our primary source of sustained strong wind in New Mexico, and Florida has its share and more of summer T-storms).

Now, would I ever MOVE there by choice? HELL, no, for reasons mentioned above. Been there, done that, learned my lesson. But it was a great place to visit (I grew up near the panhandle) and to play when I could take a few hours off classes and homework.

I also enjoyed living in upstate NY, but PERMANENTLY? No way in hell. Blizzards wear thin by May.
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rigitrite



Joined: 19 Sep 2007
Posts: 520
Location: Kansas City

PostPosted: Tue Aug 02, 2016 8:45 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hard to believe you wanna move out of Portland, especially being a civil. Ya know, we have a branch office in Portland that does power delivery and water projects (www.bv.com) . They use a bunch of civils and it’s probably better pay than most. I looked HARD at getting transferred out there, but they really don’t have any mechanicals or instrument guys (me), so no deal. If Portland is too expensive, and LA is out (also expensive, too many people, already done calif.), then maybe you consider the windy Midwest. Austin, TX is a fantastic place to live (but it’s also expensive and pretty crowded). Austin has decent wind, lots of lakes, and is only 3 hrs from Corpus. I sailed ~70 days/yr (6.0 or smaller) when I lived there. Dallas has good wind, tons of jobs, inexpensive, lots to do. OKC has even more wind, long season (very short winter), and is really cheap to live. Lastly, there’s KC, where I live, that has the 3rd highest concentration of engineering jobs in the country after Houston and LA, decent wind, and TONS of other stuff to do. Housing is cheap and plentiful as well. I sail ~25 days/year in a crappy year, and ~ 45 days/year in a good year. My biggest sail is a 6.2. If you don’t mind making the 3 hr drive out to central KS, you could easily sail 80+ days/year at Wilson lake.
East coast has some great places to live, but there’s just….so…..many…..people!!!!! It can also be expensive and jobs can be hit or miss.

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rhorton1



Joined: 19 Aug 2010
Posts: 88

PostPosted: Tue Aug 02, 2016 11:58 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks rigitrite! Growing up by the ocean has ingrained in me a certain aversion to living in the Midwest, but if there's windsurfing and affordable living, I could consider it Smile Thanks for all the good info!
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rhorton1



Joined: 19 Aug 2010
Posts: 88

PostPosted: Thu Feb 23, 2017 5:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Reviving this old thread as I get closer to graduation. Had a great interview for an engineering job with the Feds in Savannah, GA. Looks like Tybee Island is close enough to Savannah that I wouldn't need to drive hours and hours to get my windsurfing fix. Any reports of windsurfing in Savannah area? iwindsurf has a pro-forecast for coastal GA, so it must be at least a little windy....

Last edited by rhorton1 on Thu Feb 23, 2017 10:03 pm; edited 1 time in total
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windward1



Joined: 18 Jun 2000
Posts: 1400

PostPosted: Thu Feb 23, 2017 9:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi rhorton1,

Yeah, Tybee Island and Hilton Head Island would be the spots. I lived in Savannah, Georgia for two years. Bought the first windsurfer (the Original) from a dealer on Hilton Head. Sailed Tybee and once when pulling up my sail had a net load of fish. For the most part you cannot see into the water. Not very clear. Sailed over to Dafuski (sp?) Island from Tybee once. You can explore the coast a bit.

Sailed in a pond at a park a time or two and wondered why everyone seemed to be looking at me strange. May have been the first windsurfer they ever saw or may have been that they were natives and knew about the alligators in just about every puddle of water that is larger. I did not know this at the time. Was still learning the area.

By the way, Alligators are sometimes in the ocean as well. And definitely in the rivers.

We had a regatta on Hilton Head once. Blew like crazy! Came up all of a sudden and wiped out over half the fleet. The current was strong outbound and the rescue boat was kept extraordinarily busy. I was down, but was missed. Was floating out to sea, pushed by current and the strong offshore wind. The standard windsurfing sail of the time was very unforgiving. No leech twist and a hellaciously long boom. Paddling was not helping and I was loath to ditch the rig that I had just bought as part of the board and kit. Of course the farther out I got the more I contemplated it. And the rescue boat had completely missed me and was still busy with others.

Luckily, the wind died a bit and I uphauled and sailed back to the harbor at Hilton Head.

Overall, the winds are usually light, so larger gear would be the most used unless you opt for something like the AHD Sealion.

Regards,

W1
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isobars



Joined: 12 Dec 1999
Posts: 20935

PostPosted: Fri Feb 24, 2017 12:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

rhorton1 wrote:
Had a great interview for an engineering job with the Feds in Savannah, GA..

I grew up in Alabama near the Gulf Coast, went to school in Tallahassee for 6 years, had a great job interview in Houston, have camped scores of nights at Corpus Christi/Bird Island, visit my brother in Dallas. I thought I knew heat ... (e.g., Dallas 100 degrees and pea soup fog at midnight, Tallahassee 105 and drizzling all day, Corpus had to run my bedding through a commercial dryer every second day ... in March, the heart of the Gorge 114 degrees, spit shine polish melting and running off my ROTC uniform shoes in Tallahassee), Phoenix 438 degrees ... CENTIGRADE ... in JANUARY ... (only one of those is an exaggeration) but I've heard from locals in those places that Savannah is the only hotter place they've ever seen. Portland feels like Point Barrow by comparison.

Enjoy!
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mrgybe



Joined: 01 Jul 2008
Posts: 5180

PostPosted: Sat Feb 25, 2017 12:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Don't let's get carried away here. Savannah is a lovely town with easy access to lots of water. The weather is good in the winter, nice in spring and Fall, hot in summer.....but nowhere near as hot as has been portrayed. Water is warm for a good chunk of the year. You would be swapping a depressing Portland winter for a hot summer. For me, life in warm, humid air is much more palatable than life under an umbrella.
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DanWeiss



Joined: 24 Jun 2008
Posts: 2296
Location: Connecticut, USA

PostPosted: Sat Feb 25, 2017 11:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've lived in MA, CT, PA, NY, KY, OR, HI and CA as a windsurfer, all but OR and HI while a working professional, now with kids.

Engineering jobs in general are available based on the type of engineering and the degree of investment in that particular area. You remain the only judge of what position you want and with whom.

The only comment I will make with respect to location and engineering is that a ton of all types of engineering positions exist in New England -especially within an hour of the coast. You might never consider CT a hotbed for engineering but with Electric Boat, Pratt & Whitney and United Technologies alone the options are many. The CT coast isn't what it used to be as the summer thermal on Long Island Sound is only a shadow of its former self, but it blows like stink in the fall and spring.

Rhode Island remains a hotbed for all sorts of sailing, including windsurfing. You can get flat to bump and jump at Fogland (Tiverton) and true DTL waves in Newport. The summer thermal does continue in Newport.

Massachusetts like CT employs hundreds of thousands of engineers and offers some of the best windsurfing in the country based on the number of days above 12 knots. It's really remarkable.

Crowds in New England will present nothing new to you after living in Portland and SoCal. Nor will the traffic be any surprise.

If you like 4 seasons and having snowy mountains within a two hour drive, New England might be the ticket.

However, for year-round sailing on the mainland where you likely can find an engineering position on the coast, Florida wins. The more I travel there the more I understand the appeal -even for families who could live anywhere else. Florida is dirt cheap compared to many places in New England or along the Pacific Coast. Traffic is better except the nightmare that is Miami and the fruit, veggies and fish are always freshly available.

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