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Lost In Hatteras: An Island On Fire!

Andy McKinney
2010-02-05 12:27:16 | 464 views | 3 Comments

Wow, Hatteras has been on fire recently! It seems like there are crazy conditions every single day. She is working her magic, that’s for sure! The only sail that I’ve rigged for my last few sessions is my 4.2, and I got blown out of the water on it the other night. We’re talking about hanging on for dear life — completely out of control. Fun!

I came across a situation that doesn’t happen too often — being so ridiculously overpowered that it’s hard to do anything but creep along almost straight upwind. Before I knew it, I was a good half-mile above where I wanted to be. The solution?  I started sailing along on a broad reach, with my back hand off the boom swinging around like I was riding a rodeo bull! My front hand was constantly pulling in as hard as it could (effectively sheeting out), and I had the rest of my weight in the harness. From there, it was pretty easy to initiate long, sweeping, broad arc jibes, so it was a pretty quick, scary, bucking bronco downwind ride back to the truck. Yeeee haw!! Sorry, it was a late evening solo sesh, so no pics or vids.

This morning, I got a wake-up call from Speedy, which can only mean one thing — the surf is firing! The wind had finally backed off, and we were left with a 6-foot-at-11s swell and light offshore breeze. I was all fired up after watching Brett Barley at Pipeline, so I only snapped off one picture before jumping into an instant ice cream headache from the now frigid water. Here’s Chad’s head peeking out from behind the peak:

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Drew snapped off a few more pictures. You can find them here.

One more thing: It was OBXBill’s birthday last Wednesday, so Stuart “Blue Steel” Brian and I headed up north to the big city to help celebrate! Here’s Bill with the best b-day gift a windsurfer could ever ever get:

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Happy Birthday Bill! And here’s a random sunset from last week:

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Ain’t Hatteras just beautiful?  Come on down and join us for some fun! It looks like this weekend is going to be INSANE. Like road-washed-out, stuck-on-the-island-for-a-week insane. Oh, yeah…

Andy McKinney Rides:

Read more of Andy’s blogs at lostinhatteras.blogspot.com.


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3 Responses to “Lost In Hatteras: An Island On Fire!”

  1. hotmach says:
    February 9, 2010 at 2:10 pm

    Nice description of being over powered. That sensation for me is as extreme as any in windsurfing. I can count back years recalling every vivid detail each time i couldn't get back to the beach cus i needed to bleed off power into the wind. It's extreme.

    Yeah i love it !

    Reply
  2. brixhe says:
    February 15, 2010 at 5:04 pm

    love the photos. grate blog. Missing Hatt.

    Reply
  3. Andy says:
    February 17, 2010 at 3:02 pm

    Thanks Brixhe, come back soon!

    Agreed, Hotmach! I think it has to do with being out in Mother Nature's fury and trying to have some semblance of control… She usually wins :)

    Reply

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