FUN Winter Wavesailing at Coquina Beach!
This afternoon, warm SSE winds blew across the OBX and the Oregon Inlet meter hovered in the mid-20s mph! I was psyched to catch a "local" wave session at Coquina Beach just south of Nags Head and about 10 min from my house. As compared to the typical 45 min drive to wavesail in Avon. Interestingly, Coquina was breaking chest high on the sets and set up for perfect side shore DTL wavesailing. The outer bar was firing about 100 yards offshore and made for plenty of space to gather jump/loop speed! I threw a FWD with every run out and worked on the delayed-type given airtime from the steep ramps.
The DTL waveriding was awesome, especially following low tide around 12:30 pm. I caught some of my best waves this year with lots of big lip hits and floaters. 3 to 4 bottom turns was the norm on the bigger set waves. Tons of fun!! Water temp was surprisingly warm and hovered in the upper 50s with air hitting near 70 degrees. I started my session around 2:00 pm and sailed until dark. Dano joined me about an hour before sunset, after I came in a few times to make calls to the crew reporting conditions.
No photos since there was nothing really spectacular to shoot as I was solo on the water. Skies were gray and it looked like typical overcast Hatteras conditions. However, the surf set up was very nice with waves breaking on the far outer bar.
If you are familiar with primo Hatteras wavesailing conditions, you can likely picture what it was like. Perfect chest+ high crumbly SE swell set waves on the outer bar, peeling right with steep sections for deep hits. Very easy to see the outside swells and turn into the set. Powered 5.3m wind kept the water relatively chop free, especially in the wave zone.
All in all, a great session for December!
6 Comments:
yeah man, i can picture what it was like! thats your first wave sailing session in quite a while right? when i get those primo conditions after missing it for a while, i have so much bottled up energy, i pretty much explode when i hit the water and sail really aggresively. sounds like thats what you had today. good for you Bill! jealous.
Yea, it was my first really good wave session in a while! The surf setup (not necessarily big size) was really fantastic today, and reminded me of the day before Loopfest with the setup at Old Road that day. Only difference was a I riding a 4.7m, trunks only, and bright sunshine back in June!
that does sounds awesome. how do you get there and where is the launch? Works best in SE winds?
Hey Mac,
I updated the post to include a link to Coquina Beach on the WindMap site. Coquina does work quite well on SSE or straight S wind. Often S wind is side-onshore from all points south of about 1/4 mile south of Oregon Inlet. The only place to find side to side-off is north of that bend in the island. Coquina is the nearest beach park and is located between Nags Head town limit and Oregon Inlet. In the past few years, the bars have been quite nice there, though wind with any west can produce a sizable shadow due to the high sand dunes and tree line near the Bodie Island Lighthouse.
However, SSE works great, and that was the formula yesterday. Along with the SE ground swell, the bars produced some really nice wavesailing conditions. I should have GoProed the ride, but the lighting was pretty bad, and I am awaiting the wide angle model to get some really nice Hatteras wave footage.
Also, here is a quick video of Coquina action last spring. This day it was SW, but still shows the bar out there as well as the wave. Along with the nasty skies! Note, I was pretty green for that wave ride!?!
I was down in Rodanthe soundside, no waves for me yet. The weather was awesome. No gloves, no hood, even the 5.3 suit was too warm.
On the way home about 2:30 I was driving past the Boiler the waves looked awesome but no one was on them. What a shame, I can't wait till I aquire the skill to sail them.
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