Front coming through Thursday. Action possible Wed through Saturday with Friday looking like another off the chains day.
Slight chance of a sneaker session today with a south wind. Euro says no, HRRR says yes. It'll be interesting to see who wins this one.
—
Last I checked the Gilmer web page was still down. However, the weather talker is still working. 770-532-4687
What happens in a black hole stays in a black hole.
webguy
I hope to sail Friday afternoon.
Barrett
FoilDodo
BoardMaverick
still getting a feel for these models - the new HRRR in particular. Any verdict regarding this past Monday battle? Any feelings overall on how it's performing with it's wind predictions?
(and....is it just me, or have the NOAA wind forecasts in general gotten more . . . "optimistic" in recent years (since incorporating HRRR?) ? I used to regard their wind forecasts as being on the conservative side. Seems a bit opposite now (to me).
PLUS.... ( holy cow. trying to remain calm so as not to jinx friday . . . . )
Planing on putting to the test the new futura and myself Thursday early afternoon at Vanns Tavern. Who's with me?
FWIW (if, by chance, anyone were contemplating Hartwell for Friday) . . . here's a glimpse of the launch and conditions at Singing Pines Rec Area (on the SC side, down by the dam) from late last week. Tomorrow's (Friday) forecast is shaping up to look almost identical to this day, and I expect there will be at least two of us fin surfers at this same location.
(let it blow, let it blow, let it blow . . . )
~ safe, happy windsporting - wherever folks end up!
channeysurfer
webguy
Edit: Tomorrow looks a lot less insane. No need to reload the fin gear at this point.
zzholt
16:20 leaving Vanns, because I have to go to work, but did have a good day. 12 to 25mph wind, somewhat unidirectional. The gear was the new 24 Starboard Futura 120, paired with a 7.8 Severne Mach 4. Tomorrow is a full day work, so today was a must!
webguy
Looking at 12:30/1pm arrival, for me, at van pugh. What's the water temperature, btw? My last sail was March 18th. Is it warm enough for a 3:2 and bare hands?
I didn't measure the water temp today, but I felt the need to cool off in it, the 5/3 I was wearing. I wouldn't go for a 3/2 yet. Its almost there, but no!
Who’s going today, Friday afternoon???
Update William & Stewart plan to sail. ETOA at VP about 2PM.
Barrett
Old Fed 2:00
Gene Mathis
Barrett and I ended up going out. Stuart had just come in with 5.5.
Barrett rigged 5.2. I considered finding with 4.7 but there was a big wind shadow and I didn't feel like doing the hula with my 91 l. board so rigged postage stamp and foil. We were both lit. I was fully powered in the lulls. The gusts were yanking the sail out of my hands.
Zee wisely chose to stay dry. Probably the wettest uvd been in a while
Edit: Gilmer clocked a few gusts in the 40s today. I feel better about myself now
edit edit: crappy cell phone video
BoardMaverick
I went ahead and did the wind-shadow hula on my small board. The water temp. has stubbornly stayed at 54ºF, so swimming my gear out to the wind line was chilly. Once out on main body of the Lake, my 5.2m sail was a handful in gusts topping 40mph. I decided to avoid injury and cut my session short. I'd already started to de-rig when the wind shifted NW, eliminating the wind shadow along shore, and the speed dropped a few knots.
Barrett
channeysurfer
‘Twas tempting but looked SO gusty in town. I went to PDK airport to watch them try to land their planes. Saw a jet do a go-around ( blow off their landing approach due to a gusty cross-wind). You almost never see that.
Hoping for a late afternoon sesh Saturday.
My daughter said it was so windy on her apartment balcony that dirt was blowing out of her planters. She did not report seeing these folks, though. However, her bulldog (below) did try to eat the dirt...
channeysurfer
Session report:
I was most definitely blown off the water while wing-foiling this past Friday April 12th, and I’m glad.
58L board
925cm2 foil/ 232cm2 stab
5.5m2 wing
5:4 wetsuit
wraparound sunglasses
I sailed from roughly 1:30pm to 2:45pm. Ironically, struggling to get on foil initially from the lee in front of Van Pugh, I thought that all the forecasts could’ve been wrong. Next thing I knew, I was flying along with steady 20-25kts and gusts above that. Lanier cooks-up a good squall - yeehaw! And, without any boat traffic, there were beautiful stacks of rolling waves in all of the predictable places. Zee? was on the water for 1-2 runs on his windsurfer. We had a wild ride!
The predictability of the waves and power in hand was great for practicing jumps. More complex than windsurfing, jumping waves on a foil requires careful coordination of the foil to achieve sufficient compression for lift-off without breaching. And, I’m starting to get it dialed Interestingly, while just learning to do this on foil, I’m only able to jump comfortably when riding regular-foot heel side, and when approaching waves at about 45 degrees instead of head on. Switch (or goofy-foot) heel side does not feel natural at all, and the waves are more head-on and daunting when I’m riding goofy on NW days; so I’ve got something to work on for sure. Although, I did try one regular-foot toe side jump into the same head-on waves and it felt pretty awesome. Who’d of thunk all this surf would come to Lanier!?
The wind was building and my wing was becoming jittery and unstable. There was so much energy in the wind and waves that I was able to surf and pump downwind without using the wing. Following advice for riding swell that I read on seabreeze, I tried to keep my foil close to the top of the rollers by pointing diagonally instead of straight down the face. I could see myself doing this for miles if I had a way to get home, although for a novice like myself, pumping was quite physically taxing.
Gradually, the wind built up to 30-35kts and I struggled to get home. My wing and foil being too big, I couldn’t find an angle of attack and sliver of wind that would keep me trudging along at a speed somewhere between stalling and catapulting. I missed the boat ramp, almost missed the beach, and resigned for the day. Now I know my limits ... at least until I get more gear
Good seeing the gang including the brave ones who similarly communed with Poseidon.
-Stuart
webguy
Dammit - knew I forgot something....
Yeah, nice rollers for sure. Even when I was getting hammered out there, I was learning things. But definitely not a day to mess around as things can go sideways pretty quickly. I bought the sail I used almost on a whim but I've used it surprisingly often and more in late spring than I would have thought.
It helps to be able to see !
Silly me. I thought it was to go faster. No. 43 always comes to mind when I think of that kind of "eye protection". Trying to find pics of him to post and saw a couple of him without sunglasses and it was bizarre - like seeing a poodle that's had all it's fur shaved off.
Smaller wing and smaller foil would be nice, but summer is coming ...