Day Three SW at Ego Beach
Today the call was Ego Beach, and following an afternoon conference meeting, I was on the road headed south to Avon. This trip however, had my VW Jetta packed with gear. The 4runner remained in the driveway today for some repair work.
With my summer 4runner top tarp as a sand/saltwater liner, I loaded up the Jetta with the Quatro 76, 5.3m, 4.7m, and 4.2m Legends, along with booms, mast, wetsuit, etc...finally using a tiedown strap to secure the trunk with the board and a few other long items sticking out the back. Nice thing about the diesel Jetta is the great gas mileage; bad thing, no 4WD. I arrived at Canadian Hole around 5:00pm, and was welcomed with 28+ mph SW winds! Sailors on the sound were ripping on low 4.0m range! I decided to rig 4.2m for the ocean. Doh, bad move!!
This time of year, the ocean is cold and the lift of warm wind (70+ degree air today!) over the water causes gusty outside conditions, and with the swirling current on the inside (mini-diamond shoals effect), even less wind on the inside. I should have known better...always rig at least a half meter bigger for the ocean as compared to the sound. Since I usually drive out onto the sand, I did not consider the spring ocean factor. After hiking my rig across the road, over the dune, and out to the water line, I was not enticed to go back and rig bigger.
The 4.2m worked well on the outside, but was not quite enough for the inside. Ego today was more of a jump fest that pure wavesailing due to the double up wave action in the surf zone. A 4.7m would have been perfect for inside power to maximize air time. Unfortunately for me, it was a slog fest on the inside, and gust powered runs on the outside. Regardless, I sailed until sunset and enjoyed some fun wave hits, and a bunch of FWD loops! The sunset crowd included Andy (he gets kudos for sailing both the daytime and sunset sessions!), Jim M, Jim K, Olaf, and myself. There were also a number of spectators and photographers on the beach! All in all, another fun SW day; however, I should have rigged the 4.7m! Oh well, next time I will have the 4runner back on the sand, at least until April 4...when the OBX ORV decision is made?!
No photos/video today, since I arrived late and did not have the camera equipment out on the beach. Though, with all the photographers shooting the action, there will likely be some shots posted somewhere?! Hey, Andy's got some action posted on his blog!
Tomorrow looks like NE will be on tap, though with much cooler air temps. Plan to hit it again with the correct sail size!
