I'm having a great time by myself while all my friends are in Hatteras. Yep, great time.

It's been relatively quiet around the scene here in the last few weeks. It's not that no one is windsurfing. They are just windsurfing elsewhere with a large local contingent up at Hatteras. From their reports [1],[2],[3], it's been a windy spring and they've been able to break out gear - small stuff - not often used in Atlanta.

To the uninitiated, Cape Hatteras is our sport's equivalent to skiing in Colorado. While Maui and the Gorge offer better known and more consistent advanced conditions, Hatteras provides a more accessible all-round experience for the intermediate windsurfer and kiter. Most visitors share large homes on the Sound which not only shares the cost but makes water access a matter of picking up your gear off the grass and jumping in the water. The water itself is usually shallow for quite some distance and smooth. If you want more "shape" to your water, you can venture further out or explore the ocean side.

Back home, a few new faces are popping up as well, people who've recently moved to Atlanta. A shout out to all of you - welcome to Atlanta: Where Wind Goes to Die™ (our advertising slogan to attract new windsurfers.)

Usually, a visit to Hatteras is not a risky affair. But, occasionally, things do go wrong. In the long history of Atlanta windsurfers, perhaps the most notorious incident occurred back in the '90s when Gregg Cattanach was impaled by a needlefish. He was windsurfing from (as we recall) Frisco Woods Camp Ground when the fish leapt from the water and into his foot. The fish's sharp snout broke off in Gregg's foot. Gregg was able to sail on one foot back to shore but had to be helped off the beach. It took a visit to the hospital to remove the embedded fish snout. We might not have believed his story had Gregg not showed us the convincing X-ray.

Needlefish

Since we don't have Gregg's original X-ray, imagine that the nail is actually the nose of a needlefish

This year's unlucky Hatteras visitor was Randy Falkenberg. Statistically, Randy has a higher chance of getting hurt because he windsurfs more than most of us but he tends to avoid more aggressive moves and head high surf and is safety conscious. Randy, unfortunately, twisted his knee in a dismount worth of an Olympic gymnast. More unfortunately, Randy did not receive a good score from the Bulgarian judge. He'll be off the water for a while but he's using his time wisely by frequently commenting on the forums and tormenting us with trailers who can't find a parking spot. We wish him a speedy recovery.

But what separates a good story from a great story is a dark twist and Randy's has one. I'd noticed some weeks before an odd ad on Craigslist. Someone was wanting to buy a Starboard Serenity. If you aren't familiar with this specific board, the Serenity is a very special design - like the needlefish (we assure you, we didn't plan this simile) long and slender. Unlike most modern windsurfing boards designed to plane, the Serenity is designed for cutting through the water like a rowing shell. It's a marvelous design but, in our neighborhood where there aren't that many windsurfers to begin with, it's as rare as hen's teeth.

wanted to buy starboard serenity.

keyword: windsurfing, windsurfer, sailboard, wind surf, surfer, sail board, starboard d2 sporttech

Advertising to sell or buy any decently modern windsurfing gear on Craigslist is unusual. Mostly, you see some crap that's been dragged out of basement after years of storage. Advertising to buy a Serenity so unusual, you'd have to think it's more likely a coded spy message than a real advertisement. Yet, there it was.

We had been meaning to write about the Serenity ad for sometime and then it happened: Randy got hurt. The dark twist? Randy is the only person in Georgia we know of that owns a Serenity and he sails it enough that we doubt that he would have parted with it. (Plus it's a bit weird which makes it doubly attractive to Randy). No, he would never part with it as long as he could .... windsurf. Now, suddenly, he's hurt, out of commission. Does that mean the Serenity is for sale? Hmmm...

Evil Plotting Raccoon is getting his board after all

A crazy good, hummable song for your summer windsurfing