Windsurfing Magazine

Andy McKinney
2010-04-26 09:24:46 | 1057 views | 13 Comments

Last week ended up being pretty windless, but luckily there was gorgeous weather in the 70s with sunshine every day. There was a little knee-to-stomach-high wave pretty much every day as well, which led to an interesting dichotomy of visitors. The guys and gals who own or rented stand up paddleboards or took surfing lessons were super-stoked. They had giant smiles on their faces and were so exhausted by the week’s end that they could barely stand up straight!

I only got out on the water a handful of times last week, because I’ve been super-busy in the shop, but I did get a half-hour sunset stand up paddleboard sesh that reminded me a lot of a video I made last summer. I find it interesting that this video has a relatively low number of views, but probably the highest amount of feedback that I’ve received for anything I’ve ever posted. Check it out and picture yourself on the next light wind day out in the ocean or on your local lake having the time of your life!

It’s super-windy SW right now and the waves are filling in nicely. The wave-sailing crew was all over the place today, with Bill claiming good conditions up at Oregon Inlet, and highly variable conditions being reported down at Old Lifeguard. Stu, Ken and I stayed local and grabbed a sunset sesh at Ramp 34, just north of Avon. Howling winds, massive shore break, and a fair amount of current made for a pretty harrowing sesh. Check out the show:

I was the first one in and the first one back out of the water. My sesh was ended early by a rogue chunk of massive shore break. Here’s Stu’s (paraphrased) description:

“Andy waited for the last wave of the set to roll through, jumped on his board, and started pumping. The backwash pulled out underneath him and caused the next chest-high shore break wave to suck out below sea level, double up, and turn into a rogue, logo-high chunk of gnarl 10 yards off the beach. He pumped straight up the face as it went past vertical and got to the top just as the barrel started to throw. He didn’t make it over the lip and got thrown back to the beach upside down, completely drilled.”

I’d say he caught the moment pretty well. That was pretty much the hardest I’ve ever been worked, comparable to the time Stu and I paddled out in Hurricane Bill’s waves. Except this time the water was only knee-deep! Man, I got crushed. It was just one of those things — a case of poor timing and some bad luck. If I had jumped on my board one second earlier, I probably would have made it. One second later and I would have immediately aborted the mission and still eaten a ton of sand but not as hard. As it was, I ended up in a suddenly very committed situation where there was nothing to do but try to make it. Oh well, all’s well that ends well. I’m just a bit bruised up and now my 3.7 has a new hole in the luff sleeve, my 340 is in three pieces, somehow my boom’s grip got super torn up, and my fin got completely destroyed! That’s a heck of a two seconds! Needless to say, I found gravel, shells, and sand everywhere. In my ears, eyes, mouth, hair, harness, even inside my wetsuit!

Looks like more wind this week. Hopefully I’ll have some more pleasant stories to tell! Hope to see y’all out there!

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