Where We Sailed Today

[LUCARO]

Short clip of a beautiful sail at TI on sat

https://www.instagram.com/p/Ci8K4lYNknS/

[windward1]

Well the Marine Surge surged up the coast making a mockery of the wind prediction models for the ocean. Foggy and calm everywhere except for a corner of Monterey Bay down by Monterey. So I went there. Wind was light offshore puffs. but I could get up on foil on the stronger puffs. All was well until my mast (the one underneath), fuselage, front wing and stabilizer somehow got all balled up in the biggest kelp head in all of the Monterey coast. I pulled this way and that on it. Try to untangle it many different ways. All seemed to no avail. Pulled and bit strands with my teeth and tried to separate it all. Nothing worked until I dove down and did all of the above underwater, selecting strands that seemed the most critical first. Took over 22 minutes of this kind of work to free the foils. By that time the wind was on its last legs and fog was streaming overhead. So I got an hour and a half session of which a significant portion of it was getting untangled. Still fun in the sun and good to be out on the water.

Pic below:

[dllee]

Getting tougher to find wind as fall sets in.
Past 3 days, needing 6.0 wing and 1572 foil to play at Berkeley, with one guy on 8 meter F-1 wing in 8-16 mph breeze.
I thought Berkeley season is supposed to last to near Hallowen, but maybe my memory is slipping.
Gonna have to look at winter travel soon......

[dllee]

Oh, always wanted to wing/windfoil/windsurf at Del Monte and Marina beaches, but always down there without gear.
Did get good sessions at Asilomar and Spanish Bay back in the '90's windsurfing, and one kelp filled attempt at Main Beach Carmel.
Could have used weed fins.

[windward1]

dlee,

Have you ever windsurfed Fanshell Beach on the Monterey Peninsula? I have not, but it looks interesting and per the wind meter there, it seems to have wind sometimes when there is none anywhere else.

I know a windsurfer who lives in Marina, but says he never windsurfs Marina State Beach. Says the conditions are never right. Always onshore winds if I remember correctly.

When I was sailing Monterey, I was at what surfers call "The Wall" right next to the Municipal Pier. No wave break the days I was trying to windfoil.

Foiling this time of year on the ocean is difficult as the kelp has a lot of floating strands and clumps and even the 'rooted' ones have their tops just below the surface like they are waterlogged compared to summertime. Difficult to see if the sun is not out or not high in the sky. And in red tide areas it is really invisible. But definitely there when one runs in to it.

For me, learning to windfoil is taking some effort. I windfoiled the previous three days and crashed and uphauled a lot. Today I just windsurfed on a freeride board and when I was near shore in a wind shadow and tried to uphaul it, I could not. Maybe I have used my quota of uphauls for the week.

[LUCARO]

Windward going foil! Thats news

[dllee]

Hi..."Fanshell" ? I have no idea where it is.
Marina looks good when the strong springtime NW winds get inland, side/on shore wind, fully white capped, port wave riding backside. But I haven't done it. Saw it in S wind storm....port jumps going out and starboard Front side wave riding.....again with no windsurf gear.
Spanish Bay with 75 liter wave board and 5.2, but a long scary slog to the outside rocky reef on the S side of the cove. Scary due to light slog breeze and lots rocks if we didn't stay upwind. Sad to say, no waves ridden worth anything, as leftover reforms was all we got and exposed rocks right where we wanted to go.
Asilomar was early daze, maybe 1985, learned to avoid exposed rocks while slogging my 8'10" Loco Motion. Rocks were all around as swirls were even near the center of the bay, indicating shallow spots waiting to eat fins.
Friend of mine, Greg Raymond, has a picture of himself on a 3rd Reef Steamer Lane wave, just starting to bottom turn..easy 20'+, from the early '90's. Launched and landed at It's. Face was easy triple mast, but height is what we judge.

[dllee]

Windsurf foil us great to explore with, as upwind and downwind is attainable. Kelp always a problem, but better early spring higher tides.
I can windfoil with a 4.2 / 1150 foil in 12-15 mph breeze...need a 6.0 wing and 1572 foil to wing it.
Big boards rule for windfoil, as board speed determines foil lift.

[windward1]

Fanshell Beach is about 3 kilometers south of Spanish Bay, just north of Cypress Point. I guess one would have to pay the 17 Mile Drive fee to get into it.

[LUCARO]

Fun session at the delta sunday. At one point we had 5 windfoilers out at the same time. All were ripping

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKq_QwSL3u4

Lots of wingers of course, footage on FB bayarea wingboarding page, but make sure you watch in HD

https://www.facebook.com/784048864/videos/1518351225273107/