Exciting Days

[Tighe]

Wow, what an alive world! Love the energy in the air. The surface of the earth is just roaring.

Anyone been getting out in these winds? Share some stories.

What a great closure to one of the longest warm weather riding seasons. March thru October. wow.

ride on

[JRN]

I agree! Did anyone try to ride in that stuff? I have to confess to being intimidated by the potential gusts of 55+! The yard lights revealed wind blown snow flakes this morning. That Texas trip is looking better than ever.

[Barry P]

Yes. All I can say is WOW! Impressive power.

Swells over 20 feet out on Lake Superior and Michigan.

Yesterday WCCO reported:

According to the Minnesota State Climatology Office, the lowest pressure found so far was at 3 p.m. at Big Fork and other locations with 28.24 inches and still falling. This shatters the old Minnesota lowest pressure record of 28.43 that was set in the November 10, 1998 storm at both Austin and Albert Lea.

The MSCO said the lowest pressure on record is 28.05 inches for the Great Ohio Blizzard of January 26, 1978. That is for a for a non-tropical weather system.

I'm still planing on some scoring some sweet November sessions, it's not over yet. It's been awesome season. My water session count stands at 61. Can't complain

I'll be in SPI on 11/17-28. Oh that warm water will feel good!

[John Rangel]

Yeah I made it out yesterday. Wow is a good word. Foolish is also a good word. Pumped up my 7m had a buddy give me a launch on Lake Washington, DRAG. Immediately I was overpowered and began getting dragged down wind. After making little headway, I put my kite right next to the water on the edge of the window and got some leverage to dig in and pull against the kite. I was making progress upwind this way, but as soon as I would put my kite any higher than a few feet off of the water, I would loose my edge, and when a hard gust hit, I was still unable to fight against the power of the kite. I rode for about 10 or 15 minutes until I got lofted and lost my board. No way to body drag upwind with so much power, I body dragged back to shore. My buddy went out after I came in, I launched him. That ended with a snapped front line, a long swim in, and someone calling the rescue squad. I really could have used a 5 meter out there. Found my board washed up on the east shoreline.

[peterrib]

I got down to the lake in time to shoot some video of the carnage but my camcorder was dead and I tried the GoPro. Most of the shots were too far away. Got Rick's line break on film but it is hard to see. Trying to figure out how to convert the MP4 files to an editable file format. When I can grab some stills off the video I'll post 'em. Glad I stayed on shore. Can't imagine what the Mother was like.
Peter

[tom_latcham]

My 7 gets spooky when it blows over 45. I don't even know if a 5 would have been small enough for the biggest gusts. Two houses to the west. A boat lift designed to hold a 4 thousand pound boat. Took off and flew 2 houses to the east of me before coming down, hitting a dock and flipping one more house down the shore and crashing upside down on a boat. The canapy and boat look very damaged, the dock has a damaged section also. It would be fun to watch someone that had the correct equipment and skills to ride that much wind. Bad things can happen real fast in those conditions. Windsurfing would be safer. Did anyone sucessfully kite those 50 mph gusts.

[bscheig]

I'm on the shore of lake Michigan, north of Sturgeon Bay. The wind and the water have been crazy here. I've never (49 years) seen bigger waves here. At one point, I counted the breakers 10 deep. Our bay is almost completely full of white water. The wind is blowing the tops off the waves. Impressively powerful storm! Even if I'd brought my gear, I wouldn't think about trying these conditions.

Bill

[Professor Robae']

It was incredible. Definitely the biggest waves I have ever seen on Waconia and I have been going there for over 30 years to windsurf. The walls of liquid smoke roaring down the lake were awesome. I would say the max gust was 55mph. My rarely used 3.7M came in handy that day!

[Rick R]

It was a interesting day. I have to say that while things didnt go perfect, they failed about as good as could have been. After launching John I was really wondering how I was going to self launch my kite in that stuff. when I was just about to give it a go, John lost his board close to the landing area and was able to give me a quick launch, good for me , bummer for him. It was very narly riding, I kept thinking man, the lake seems angry! It was fun, a diffent kind of fun. I did ride for a fair amount of time. The waves were huge. I dont know what it was gusting, but it was blowing. then a big gust came, and in the middle of that a bigger one. Then my line snapped, not a good feeling in mach winds. I got lucky with that also. I was just able to touch. It was a heck of a battle but I hauled my kite in and hooked my leash on it. I was able to tippy toe in for a while til the waves blew me off and into deeper water. I felt safe with a drysuit, life jacket and having a secure hold on the kite. I had to swim, body drag a little. It also helped knowing that others were around, and I was glad to see that Peter was in the area, (thank you). so all in all it was a exciting day.
Bularoo 7 , 132 LF board, ,