Windsurfing Magazine

iberger
2010-07-20 07:12:43 | 111 views | 1 Comments

One of the toughest things to balance sometimes is windsurfing with the rest of your family life. After all, windsurfing is a pretty time-demanding, but so is your family, especially when there are kids involved. In my case, I have three, a six year-old boy and two year-old twin girls.

We’ve gone on vacation to Cape Cod. Getting there required some determined packing on my end: I own neither a minivan nor a large SUV, but needed to get all my windsurfing gear to the Cape along with all my family’s luggage. In the end, I had half a roof. So I packed almost everything into my trusty sail bag and loaded it on top of my Kona board and my wife’s Amundsen SUP board, with everything snuggly sitting next to our Thule box. Since all this luggage was pushing the weight maximum for the roof rack, I left my big sail (8.5) and 490 mast at home. An 8.5 sail is a pretty big beast to take into the swells anyway.

We like to rent a cabin in Truro, which is pretty far up the Cape. Most days my wife Kirsten and I schlep the family to Corn Hill Beach, a beach not known for its windsurfing but a great place for a family. It’s on Cape Cod Bay, so the waves are tiny and when the tide is out, the shallows go on forever. Unfortunately my camera went kaput at the beginning of this vacation, so this entry will be more word essay than photo essay.

I usually windsurfed around my family’s needs. Some days I’d hit the water at 7:30 AM, before the family was ready to do anything. Other times I’d sail in the late afternoon and arrive back at the cabin with something yummy waiting on the table. Unfortunately, my good digital camera broke the first day we arrived, so we had to make due with my wife Kirsten’s manual film camera. (Pictures coming when the film is developed: how quaint!)

Unfortunately the winds were never very remarkable. Most of the time they ranged from 5–15 mph, which meant my biggest sail, a Neil Pryde V8 7.0, was pretty underpowered. That said, I had some great sailing. I love salt-water sailing: the board floats higher, the waves and swell are fun to sail over and the water just a has a different feel to it. It feels more alive than the Hudson River I know so well. Plus, there’s always the chance of meeting a critter out there, like a seal, sea turtle, dolphin, or shark. (I like sharks.) Low winds also gave me the change to practice more jibes and beach starts. The jibes I’m doing a better with, but beach starting is still confounding me. I can do a shallow-water one, but I’m still struggling to do one in deeper water, especially when the winds are light.

Most of my runs worked this way: on the way out I’d pop down the daggerboard and ride out about ½ a mile into the bay. Then, I’d retract the daggerboard, jibe, then ride the swells back to the beach. Yes, the winds were light and I rarely planed, but this was still great fun.

My best sail was probably a Monday evening after a day at the beach. The winds were about a steady 15 mph all day, but I only had our standup paddleboard. The winds were too heavy for much for any serious paddling. I returned later in the day for a sunset sail on my 7.0 sail. My Kona was bouncing up and down on the swells, sometimes planing, often not. I tried to avoid using the daggerboard as much as possible during my runs out and back and only used it at the end when I needed to get back upwind to my launch point.

One highlight of the beach sailing was a sail with my son Gabriel. During some light winds I put him onto the middle of the board. He then straddled the mast, facing backwards. We sailed out and back a few times in light winds. Tacking meant gingerly stepping around the boy as I turned my big board. Gabriel was pretty scared, but when he got to shore he shouted he loved it.

Unfortunately the tide was so low that I had to walk my board out about 150 yards from the shoreline to get water deep enough to sink the 46 cm fin. I worked on my beach starts, and even did one from navel-deep water without too much trouble. The bottom at this beach, especially the deeper water, is infested with crabs and the occasional lobster. So all the time I was wrestling with the beach start I was nervous that an aggressive crustacean might chose that moment to start nibbling at my toes.

I took a trip down to the upper Cape one day and stopped in at Inland Sea in Dennis. Phil, the proprietor, is a welcoming owner. He always remembers me, even though I come to the shop maybe once a year. The shop doesn’t have a fancy interior, but it shouldn’t. The space is dedicated to kiting, standup paddling and windsurfing gear. It was great for me to actually walk through the space of a real store and look at the boards and sails instead of just browsing a website. We chatted for a while and complained about the beach parking fees at Dennis ($20) but then realized at Truro it wasn’t much cheaper without a weekly sticker.

I bagged a session when the wind was good (10-17) for two reasons. The wind was offshore and there was an outgoing spring tide. Yeah, there were people on the shore, but the beach was crowded and there were no craft in the water. So I spent the afternoon on the SUP board, paddling and goofing off with Gabriel. He enjoyed a game where I’d push the board with him on top out into the water, then I’d deliberately fall when the board leash pulled my ankle. For some reason this was extremely funny.

On our final day I got a great session in the morning. I met a windsurfer named Dave from West Virginia in the parking lot. He was a really friendly guy and he helped me carry my sail to the beach, which was a big help. He was thinking about launching too and made up his mid to do so after seeing me. The winds were running about 15-20 mph when I launched, still with the 7.0. I had a great run in the swells. I’m still getting knocked down more than I like, but it was great going on and off a plane. Dave launched later with a 6.2 and a 140 liter AHD board and I joined him for a second session, but the wind had died down by then and his sail was definitely too small. Dave said afterwards, “It’s better we rigged and did something than standing around and talking about it.” I agree.

Here are something I learned with a family windsurfing vacation:

1. Make sure your wife gets time in the water; that way she won’t begrudge your time in the water. This also means don’t complain about spending time alone with the kids.
2. Don’t search for perfect conditions. Be flexible with your time and just get out there and deal with what you’ve got. Consider early morning sails. Remember, time on water is better than no time on water. (This is why I bring my Kona longboard.)
3. Get your kids involved in watersports. Kirsten and I regularly take Gabriel on SUP trips. I even did a small session with him standing on the board in surfer mode while I sat, paddled, and maintained balance. Even really little kids can sit on a floating board in six inches of water. Don’t neglect a PFD for the little ones.