TS Barry Equals Waves!
Tropical Storm Barry visited the OBX today and brought along some fun wind and waves! The session I sailed was at the first soundside parking area along the washout south of Oregon Inlet Bridge. Winds ranged 25+mph and blew from the south. Early, it was SSE with a switch to SSW late in the day. Waves hovered in the head to overhead high range. The setup was a clean bump free break on the mid and outer bars. Plenty of spacing between the waves provided room for jump speed and down-the-line (DTL) wave rides! The current was ripping and if you did go down inside, the water directed you towards the actual inlet quite quickly. All in all though, it was quite a fun time in conditions produced by the first tropical system to impact the OBX for 2007! 
Dan, Caleb, Dana, and I enjoyed time on the water, though some of the crew preferred roadsailing nearby breaks looking for a better spot. However, the location we sailed was quite good given the wind direction. I started off the day on my 4.2m since the winds were near gale force though late morning; however, after a few runs, the wind backed down and I decided to rig 5.3m for the remainder of the day. Intermittent rain squalls rolled though, but nothing extreme. The sun shined often and it set up quite a nice day for wavesailing. Water temps hovered in the low 70s therefore swimming for gear in the zone felt quite refreshing! Looks like the forecast is calling for continued SW winds though Tuesday, and with Barry set to merge into a northern low pressure system, a healthy north swell may be in store. Stay tuned!
More photos from today:
Arrival on Pea Island with lots of blowing sand!
The flags are flying! Nice markers when viewing the launch from the outside
Caleb finishing up the day with a gear hike over the dune line
Dana M heading out though the break
One kiteboarder, Billy M visiting us after completing an ocean downwinder from S-Turns...about 15 miles!
3 Comments:
Sorry to call B.S. on the SW as i left the island at 8pm and passed the spot sailed today, it was still blowing South.... Iwindsurf meter for Oregon Inlet shows S-SW all day but really that thing needs to be calibrated...
However, how do you know Boiler didn't go off later that afternoon?
Only way to find out .....
Boiler never happened. The wind died around 4:00pm and never returned for Pea Island. Dana and I waited until about 5:30pm for the winds to return, but the IWS Radar/Sat imaging showed an large swath of rain approaching from the south on the 5:00pm return; therefore, I packed up and headed north.
You should have rigged up and sailed when we were there. I am still not sure why you did not come out. You would have had a excellent time. It was fun, not too crazy, and a perfect first "big wave" day of the summer!
Note too that the swell did drop later in the afternoon as well. Hopefully there will be something today to ride, or if not, it will be a loop festival. Perhaps Salvo this afternoon.
Nope, sorry, don't ride crap conditions anymore, its too easy to get hurt.... Plus the walk you guys did sucked and the wind was fluky....
Too bad it didn't switch SW in the am, then we would have had epic conditions like that one day @ Boilers in April....
Baja baby, that's what i'm saving and getting in shape for. Then September if mother nature blesses us with good condition and no direct hits !
have a good wknd!
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