Bank'n and Crank'n - 11/9/08


Joe: So the wind gods have given us a gift today. Who wants to bank and crank with this old man and discover the meaning of life? - Joe


Gabor: After an hour and a half on the water searching for some lesser wind than 30 mph I crawled back to the beach begging the families flying toy kites to give me one.... It was an amazing sight: sand was blowing so hard that the only comfy place there was is next to the beach bums, behind the bathrooms....
   Ah yes! I knew I was missing something: the surfers! Where were the wimps? We owned the River! Nice smooth bottoms (far) between swells, great jumps! So after the lunch break I shlogged back to the beach parking lot to realize how tired I was and after a short PR visit I called the day.


Chris: I had an appointment at "Shear Pleasure" for a hair cut at 11:30 and when I walked into the shop it was already averaging 21 at Seal and I was vibrating. At 11:40 the girl was still cutting the hair of her previous client and the receptionist had bailed to get a latte or some bullshit like that and I just cold walked out--turned on my heel, got in the car, and drove to Seal.
    Seal was nuking brutally, 16-28 WNW on the pager although that didn't really cover the real conditions. There was a strong band of wind in the low 20s along the beach, followed by a lull of 16-18 caused by the river jetties, and then a huge area of 30+ outside all the jetties.
    When I got there at 11:30 sailors were on 5.5 to 6.0 and there were a lot of kiters out. But I could see that the high wind was spreading south fast--it was already 34 at LAX and 22 gusting 28 at Pier J.
    I rigged my 5.2 Nalu. downhauled and outhauled it so it looked like a (very flat) race sail, and stuck it on my new 84 liter JP FSW with a 28 centimeter Tomahawk.
    While I was rigging the kiters started getting lofted uncontrollably and those that didn't get dragged down the beach came limping back to the rig area, hyperventilating and calling their mamas on their cell phone.
    By the time I launched at 12:45 there were no kiters out and only 2-3 other sailors.
    On that wind direction (WNW) you are strongly powered going out, as you sail directly into peeling chop of 3-5 feet. You can point towards the river jetty from the beach, then ride the swell back in. Jumps were a little hectic because the waves were so stacked--if you weren't careful you bashed the next wave flat-on. A few times I misjudged the approach and shot straight up in the air 10+ feet. Any good jumper could have gotten 20 feet, easy. On the inside you could go right on the wave and sail powered, down the line, which is rare for Seal.
    I sailed for two hours without ever touching anything on the kit except boom height. At the peak of the wind, 2-2:45, I could easily have been on a 4.7 and a 75 liter board. That, and a helmet, would have been a lot more sensible. Oh well.
   In the end, it was sheer pleasure.


Dave W: Damn I'm old and sore!
    I got down to Sunset Beach around 10:00am and saw one guy walking down the street with his gear in his hands and a broken mast. Not a good sign and I had not even seen the water yet. I checked the conditions and saw that there was a ton of current moving North to South and overhead waves tightly bunched together. Capt Rob was out and one other Asian girl was out but I forget her name. Both were staying outside the surfline to keep from getting worked. I decided to go check out Seal because I'm a wimp. I arrived at Seal and there were a couple kiters out, one or two sailors out, and Dereck Ho was headed out on a 6.2. It did not look that apppealing yet and I thought I would wait for the winds to pickup some more. I went back and re-looked at Sunset Beach, same situation, same scared Dave, same drive back to Seal. I rigged a 5.8 Ezzy and a 91 liter JP Freestyle wave with a little to large 32cm Tomahawk fin. There were tiny little waves breaking inside the channel but if you were lucky you could score a knee high peeler wave and get a couple bottom turn off the top combo's before jibing and heading back out.
    It was really windy on the outside so by the time I got to the end of the jetty it was time to jibe and try and head back to the inside and get in a wave ride. I never get a chance to ride waves down the line so it was really fun even though it was super small. I sailed for a couple hours before taking a rest on the beach. I saw this one guy out making some good jibes and realized it was Knap. It looked like he was struggling a bit, his hair must have been getting in his eyes. Greg and Kay showed up and went out and ripped but by then I was already worked from a long session and went in. It was a really challenging day. I wonder if Knap meant "Shear" pleasure instead of "sheer" pleasure. You know those editors, they like to twist words around...
    This weekend may be Santa Ana winds, what a change. See you on the water - Dave


Joe: Soooooooooo there I was standing on Steve's beach in LB looking at the dogs pinned up against the Life Guard towers by the wind, choking on the sand and my ego decides to rig a 2008 6.3 North Full race sail complete with 4 cams and 8 batten, attach it to Nelson 8.8 cuuustom 12 lb race board, aka "The Black Kittie", jam a 28 cm Dugie race fin in the box and attempt to broach the plasma barrier. First on the water piece of business it to get out to the LB break wall for some flat water, not an easy task in big snarly gusts.
    Hung out there for an hour or so bank'n and crank'n. Needed a G suit for some of the corners and a GPS for the straights. Then it got really windy and my life was starting to flash before my eyes. Geeez, I hope I can get back to the beach and hang with the dogs. Survival time, something about 30kt+ gusts that makes you understand the meaning of life. - Joe


Kay: As we settled in after a good day of mountain bike riding on Saturday, we checked the forecast and it appeared a wind event was possible on Sunday. We were already set up to meet Steve and Stephan for some trail riding in P.V. and decided to toss in ALL the windsurfing gear just in case there was some wind after our ride. BTW: Kudos to Steve and Stephan for being trail leaders and showing us some of P.V.'s finest dirt; I promise to keep up better next time!
    While riding and overlooking the ocean, the white caps and swell was incredible. Do you know that feeling you get when you are on your way to Kanaha and see the water calling your name? But we knew it was way more windy than we are accustom to here in SoCal so we continued on our ride and took it all in. After the ride, Greg and I thanked the boys for the guided tour and set off for Cabrillo with promises of condition updates. Cabrillo was honking with the water churned up and mushy rollers coming in one after another. Julio and Ronnie were on 4.7-ish; Julio was wearing a helmet - if Julio is wearing a helmet, I probably need to be in the cantina. We decide to keep driving South and see what Seal had to offer.
    We get to Seal and Gabor has just finished a kite session, Bill is feeding the pigeons, and I need a nap. Sand is blowing, people are walking around in a daze, I still need a nap. 20-30 minutes later it's still blowing and we're ready to rig. I talk to Pam and another lady sailor and ask them, who the guy on the water is with the WILD hair and what size sail is he on. They didn't know but tell me they are on 5.0 and 5.5 respectively. Out come the Real Wind and 5.6 Switch and the Chili Board and 5.2 Switch.
    Suited up we begin the trek to the water …. almost there … finally we arrive. Greg tells me adios and launches, and I do my pre-launch ritual of checking my gear - DOH! No vent plug. What to do? I remember seeing Super Dave use a stick (like MacGyver) to fix a separated universal perhaps that would work for my plug. Damn! No sticks on the beach. I look for used bubble gum, hard bird poop, anything, but my sense of reason sends me ALL THE WAY back to get a screwdriver. Fast forward, I'm back ready to launch.
    WEEEE! Plenty of wind and lots of ramps. Swells outside were fun to turn on with the small waves on the inside exciting to play on. Bump n Jump in November after a couple great mountain bike rides - what more can you ask for?
   Hope our friends had it good too. -Kay


Mark: I am an idiot. I have not been home for two weeks straight and email Greg to see if we are Mtn Bike riding. He said it's suppose to be windy - he's heading to Seal. Lori doesn't do clearing winds, so I am on my own. Paul Gaudett text me that it's gusting to 30 at Doheny. Holy crap that's close to home, I can sail and spend a little time with the wife! What Paul failed to say was that the lulls were to ZERO. Maybe the sensor is wrong. IT WAS NOT. Rigged my 5.6 switch and shlogged out to the wind line through knee high waves. Once in the wind, fully wound, chest to head high swells, but just like Dave Freeman, my full wetsuit sucks and after 30 to 45 minutes my Popeye arms couldn't hang on. It makes it really fun coming back in with no wind to help your arms out. The next time I see a wind graph that looks like Doheny on 11/9, I will not be an idiot. Lori had the right idea, she got a pedicure and went shopping!


Alex: I knew it was going to blow hard on November 9th (my birthday) so I planned my birthday celebration with friends for the night before so I could go sailing on Sunday :)

My family and I drove up to C-Street and got there around 10:15, and it was blowing hard already. Rigged a 4.7 and went out and got wayyy overpowered, nearly impossible to ride waves. Dave (Jalama Local) let me borrow his North 4.0 which I went out on and got KILLED on!

Sat around for an hour or so watching Spencer get flooded downwind on his 4.0/70 liter board (too small!) and Kevin MacGillivray ripping it up along with all the C-Street locals.

The wind finally came down a bit so I took out my rig and had one of my best Southern California sessions ever. Big air, nice wave rides, and perfectly powered 4.0. The best thing was that my dad brought the camera and was taking pictures of me constantly so I have photographic evidence! Fun day, and I can't wait to do it again! Might need a 3.5 meter sail next time though!

Dave Freeman:
For the Windjunkie in all of us.

Destination C Street —
Woke up Sunday in the OC without any equipment so we had to say goodbye after a quick breakfast with Frank and Debby and head back home for the toys. After a quick turn around at home we headed to C Street with the pager showing 13 to 40. About the time we arrived about 12:30pm, the gusts were showing 45+ and the average was 30 so it was decision time on what to rig.

The consensus was around 4.0 so I rigged my 4.2 Revo with a 26 Tomahawk on my Turtle board (maybe 75L tops). For a non-wave sailor, C Street can be a bit interesting with a strong current heading toward the pier and well... waves. This time, the wind was strong enough to eliminate the current as a factor so I just had to learn to deal with ramp after ramp of crumbling faces from 3-5'+. The really nice part was long smooth troughs between the waves for great outside and inside jibes so the sailing was actually pretty easy for 4.0 conditions. I did manage my share of floggings as the wind seemed to settle into sub 40 gusts and average 25+. Why do the gusts always hit at the top of the ramps?

Didn't sail too long as my forearms cramped (probably too tight of a full suit) and I just could not hold on to the boom. This was probably the first November SoCal sailing session I have had in 10 or more years and will be hard to duplicate the conditions any time soon. I will attach a
video (give a few seconds to load) Shawn shot to give you an idea of the conditions. If you all want to leave the "big" sails in the car and rig some small sails...head on up to Ventura County! -Dave


Spennie: Been having more back problems lately, but when I heard the wind coming up on Saturday night / Sunday morning, I knew I had to go. I was pretty sure it was going to be an all-day blow, so we took our time getting up, having breakfast, etc., and headed up to C-St. about 11:00 or so.

It was positively frothing when we arrived, blowing 27 or 28 mph, sand sailing across the parking lot, and only one guy left out -- everyone else was on shore, either rigging down or giving up. Alex Koutzoukis is in the latter category, blown off the water on his 4.0 with nothing smaller to rig. I've got 50 lbs. on Alex, so I rig my 4.0, giving it extra downhaul because the wind is picking up every minute.

Kevin MacGillivray shows up with Paul Gardner in tow, and starts to rig his 4.0 "Smallest sail I have" he says. At this point it's 29 gusting to 45, so I choose Debi's board, a 73 liter Exocet WaveX with a 9 inch fin. This is tiny gear for a 205 lb. guy like me, but I was afraid to take anything bigger with the wind that strong. I've made that mistake before!

As I start walking upwind to launch, it seems like the wind is backing off. Paul has his tripod set up on the edge of the bike path, and as I'm walking past him I ask "Has the wind backed off just now?" "Yeah" he replies, which should have been a red flag for me, but as I'm sure you know there's no one more optimistic than a windsurfer who's already rigged. Over the rocks and into the water I go, a little nervous on TWO counts, "Am I going to die?" and "Hope it doesn't back off more!". Of course it does (see chart again, it's about 12:30 now), so I'm having trouble keeping a plane, and can't go upwind at all, especially with the viscious cross-current generated by all the waves. Regular readers of the Haul-Ass Hotline will know this has happened to me before, so this time I head in before I get too far downwind, only about 1/4 mile this time.

Tired, disgusted, frustrated & pissed off, I de-rig my gear and walk back upwind to the van. I briefly consider re-rigging, but don't want to "chase the wind down" as Debi wisely pointed out, so I threw my stuff in the van and drove home in my wetsuit.