Duluth... all week

[Stroh]

Eopen, most of the kiters will go to 22nd st on parkpoint.

[Chip]

Just a reminder to all you would be adventurers today, that today the lake is a dangerous place. Do not take venturing out there lightly. If you are having second thoughts about attempting the lake, you do have the option of driving down to the park at the end of the point or stopping at 39th street and launching in the bay; Same great wind but flat water. Also, as Randy discovered yesterday, the waves have gotten large enough to pull debris off the beach. Watch out for Logs!

[cdelp]

WOW! Yesterday was great. Randy, I'm sorry I didn't get to say hi as I was blown from the water. Good to see you, even if it was at Mach 2 with your wetsuit on fire. The side-on conditions early were a little unusual before it swung around. Today looks epic. Chip, I called your work yesterday and they said you were gone. I am going out this morning (gotta work later today). Gonna join me? I'll be down by 10:00. Looks like things are gonna be hairier than a santa clause on rogaine.
Turn and Burn, Mav! There will be the sound of equipment and bones breaking today!

[coastie young gun]

It is currently blowing 45 with gusts reading as high as 56 kts at the tot lot! I agree with Chip as far as if you are in doubt, stay inside! The current conditions exceed the limitations of any rescuing unit in our area, so sail with caution. Have a plan incase something goes wrong.

With that said, I get off at 12:00. Can’t wait to get out there

[dave12341234]

I think ill be right in the canal where the boats pass through theres a beach down there and there should be flatwater. anyone else?

[Chip]

To sail the bay, you can sail (windsurf) at the little bay near sky harbor. It is posted no sailing because of float planes, but you won't have to worry today - or, any place on the outsie of the ball field - next to the boat ramp on the outside, or at the peninsula at 39th street (all on Park Point) - these are all off shore wind locations. If you prefer you could go to Superior WI and launch at Barker's Island - (on shore location)

Chris is rigging at the Tot Lot, I'm about to rig and Jon from Duluth is also planning on sailing today. If you sail, stay withing walking distance from shore. Do not go outside - there is no "outside" today anyway. I do not kite, but as gusty as it is I dobt it would be a good idea..

[dave12341234]

yah thats what im talking about is kiting, i guess ill just watch from 22nd street. any kiters out there?

[Stroh]

dave, brian jeff and myself will be there this afternoon. im not 100% sure we will go out... I draw the line around 45-50 mph for myself.

[Stroh]

waves have reached 10.5 feet in the middle of the lake (still about 80 more miles for development)

[dave12341234]

tot lot or 22nd?

[Stroh]

22nd st.

[cdelp]

Wow. I went out today and got blown away on my 4 meter sail. I would like to say I went out for bragging rights but there is no bragging with the great humbler called Gitche Gumee. Maybe if I had a few more years on the lake like Chip or Randy I could have done more than screaming on the inside lanes trying to hold on. Hit an underwater tree at full speed and cartwheeled so fast I skipped twice before inhaling a venti-sized bit of Lake Superior. I delaminated my board out there, probably from the acid fear running out of my drysuit. I'll try and post a few of the pictures of what it was like out there
- Chris

[Chip]

Chris – I was wondering where you went? I was a little slow getting rigged, but by the time I sailed the 2 miles from my house down to the Tot Lot, you were gone.. Pete from Rochester had just pulled in to the Tot Lot and was rigging up when I arrived. I think it was “coastie young gun” that was also rigging up.

I don’t know what I was thinking, but I rigged a 4.7m; probably because there was a momentary lull in the wind at my house. I got out on the water and found the wind blowing from about 70 degrees instead of 45 and blowing at about 45 mph with higher gusts. I discovered it is REALLY HARD to sail off the wind when you are REALLY over powered. I managed to limp (at sub mach speed) down to the Tot Lot to see what was going on. I only got wrapped around the handlebars 3 times on the downwind trek. One time, I simply got launched at mach speed and just had to throw my rig away, gritting my teeth as I came down to earth, skipping a few times on the surface of the lake. Once at the Tot Lot, I tried another tack but found conditions equally as insane, had to throw my rig away again and thought this time it was going to take off and sail over the dunes.

If I had actually rigged the right sail in the first place I might have tried to stay out, but the trip to the Tot Lot and back to my house drained all my energy.

Chris is right, there is a lot of CRAP in the lake. The big waves have pulled all the driftwood off the beach and laid out nicely in front of you about every 200 yards at each rip zone. I hit a few good chunks but no fin grabbing stuff. It might help that my fin is about 3 inches shorter than new from all that sailing over sandbars. With waves and current as chaotic as they are I spent most of my time sailing on the last wave next to the beach – as in within 30 feet of dry land most of the time. The only risk there is you can’t run down and around a wave or you end up on dry land. All in all, an interesting adventure.

[cdelp]

Posted a few pics in the gallery, doesnt do it justice

[Geo]

Wow!
I guess that I am glad that I was stuck here. Wouldn't get much sympathy from anyone for getting out there and whining about eh "too windy to sail" bit. Thanks for the stories / updates - was reading it out loud to the others in the office - and they don't even sail.

Geoff.

[dave12341234]

WOW! when i arrived at the tot lot there were 2 guys sailing. someone from rochester and someone from white bear lake. noaa completly undershot the wind speed, it was more like 50 gusting to 60, fricken insane! kudos to anyone who went windsurfing, i im now waiting for the snow to fly!

[Chip]

Just bumped into Jon (local Jon) coming of the water at dusk. He said he started with his 3.5m but quickly rigged down to his 3.0 and still had it ripped out of his hands a few times. He's the man - out until dark, by himself with 3.0... nice way to wrap up the wet season..

[Stroh]

it was so windy out there it was hard to stand. I took a crapload of pics and posted some good ones in the gallery... just waves from a few different locations
What was left of our launch at 22nd st,

PA023156-3.JPG (57.97 KiB) Viewed 6773 times

Brighton beach and lester didn't have any big waves comming you coud see some monsters in the futher out

PA023069-2.JPG (80.32 KiB) Viewed 6773 times

this is about the best display of the power those waves had... that I could come up with

PA023143-5.JPG (59.98 KiB) Viewed 6773 times

wish it would have been a little lighter. It doesn't look good for tomorow... but I have my fingers crossed

[John Rangel]

There were very interesting conditions today. Like someone else said. The forecast undershot the wind speed quite a bit. Anyways. I rigged my 7 Meter Best yarga, luckily Seth and erik swung by and offered to give me a launch. Thanks Dude. But, after launching I was over powered right off the bat. had my depower pulled in all the way and my bar pushed all the way forward and slowly kept tiptoe ing towards the dunes down wind. So, I waved and Braught it down, Seth landed it for me. Thanks Dude. I could have almost rode but, couldn't quite keep my feet on the ground. Now If I had a 5 meter, I would have been golden. I guess next time I'll have to come more prepared....

[Pete]

Here's my take on the day. F'n cHaLeNgInG to say the least. Mike Jurney, seasoned sailor from White Bear and myself gave it our best, battleing the shore break. I believe we each spent as much time sailing as we did struggling with our gear in the shore break. Exahusting!!! I've only been up to Superior a handfull of times and have made it to the outside a couple of times. Certainly had no intention of getting to the outside on Friday. Anyway, the backwash from the beach was heavy and loved to get a hold of, and pull my sail under. In those conditions you really need to keep alert to keepiing your sail out of the water. Anyway, you can only take so much and we decided to head somewhere else in search of easier sailing. A local guy, Dan, suggested Barker's Island, about 5 miles away in Superior, WI. We took his advice and headed over there to discover howling conditions in the bay without the battle of the break. Ok sailing there, lots of disorganized chop but at least we were sailing. Any gear failure meant we were going to get back to shore no problem. Mike was on 3.7 and I was on 3.5. We were both grossly overpowered and certainly would have enjoyed smaller sails. When we first got to Barker's I had rigged my 4.0. I hit a nice little ramp expecting about 4 feet of air but instead, literally got lofted straight up. It was really cool as I hung on, drifting backward to a nice soft tail landing. I suspect I may have been boosted by the wind about an extra 10 feet. The wind was so heavy I avoided any further jumping after that. So, if you find yourself up in Duluth in conditions that are beating the shit out of you and you feel you have had enough, head over to Barker's Island and you'll be able to at least sail after a long trip to Superior.