Windsurfing Magazine

Andy McKinney
2010-04-08 09:45:45 | 1814 views | 3 Comments

Lots of good stuff, folks! First off, the May edition of WINDSURFING magazine just rolled in, and Hatteras received some great exposure! Stuart wrote a pretty interesting article, accompanied by some of the best photographs I’ve ever seen. Of course, I’m biased, because I’m in a bunch of ‘em (haha), but Lane DuPont’s pics are truly astounding. There’s another little surprise in there, too. I think y’all will get a kick out of it! If you aren’t a subscriber, well, get yourself on the program or pick one up on your next trip to Hatteras!

Moving on to the action:

Stuart, Olaf (welcome back, Olaf!) and I grabbed a morning session at the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse the other day. It was pretty good — light power 4.2 from the northeast, head high-plus waves, and a boat ton of current ripping down the beach. Pretty classic Lighthouse, really! Some of the waves were lining up for a good three or four turns down the line. Combine that with all of the current, and we all took quite a few walks back up the beach. Good exercise!

So I have these new masts — NoLimitz Skinnies. If there’s a more confidence-instilling name, I don’t know what it is! On my last wave of the sesh, I saw this end section bowling up super-steep. I was really late but decided to go for the lip anyway, because, hey, Alex Mussolini would have crushed it, so why shouldn’t I? Haha, well, one second later I was reminded that I most certainly am not on the PWA Tour for a reason! Wow, was I in for a swim. My gear was just gone — nowhere in sight by the time I surfaced. I eventually caught up to it as it cycled through the shore pound — getting washed up on to the beach, pulled back out, washed back up again. Aye yae yae! But hey, the gear held up just fine. So, even though I personally have limits, it seems as though my new masts don’t! Stoked!

We also scored a ton of time testing out 2010 windsurfing gear, including a morning sesh at the Slick. It’s getting to be full on Spring now, so there were a bunch of people hanging out down there (instead of just me and Stu). It was really fun to share the spot with everyone, and see their smiles and hear the hoots when they carved into that butter-flat water or let it run up to top speed. My high school buddy Sasha showed up, which was pretty cool! Neither of us really sailed back in high school, so it was kinda random!  I wore the GoPro helmet cam. Check out the flick:

Otherwise, it’s really starting to feel like Spring down here! We’re in the middle of our first big batch of beloved SW wind right now — the last two days have been 70-plus degrees and 4.2 or 3.7 conditions by the afternoon. Solid! We even sailed in trunks last night, which was totally comfortable until the sun started to get low. Unreal. Sailing in shorts on April 6 is just nuts!

There’s a great crew of folks down from BABA, Long Island, and Cape Cod at the moment. We’ve been freestyling it up out at Island Creek. I’m amassing a bunch of footage, so keep your eyes out for another video soon, featuring Mike Burns, Chris Eldridge, Stuart, Ken, me, and some other rippers!

By the way- If you haven’t heard, I offer a free email weather alert service. You can find the details of how to sign up here. Basically, I just shoot out a note if it looks like it’s going to crank for a few days straight. Believe me, this is the kind of week that you want to know about so that you can experience it for yourself. So sign up for those alerts and keep yourself in the loop!

Hope to see y’all soon!

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