1988, yesterday, story and insight request

[Randy]

Well, they said it was 1988 the last time we had temps like yesterday. Seems we rode almost every day of the week in 100 plus furnace blast 5M conditions. Amazing to have no wetsuit this early in the year. There's got to be some pretty amazing accounts from the conditions yesterday. Some of the gusts were sick and seemed to carry an angry energy that wanted to buck me off my board....and they did a few times.

Anyway, if you've got an '88 story or a riding insight from yesterday to share, I for one am interested in hearing about it.

[Barry P]

It's been a long time since I've had to growl back at the wind to get enough animal going to match what it was dishing out.

Yesterday was one of those days and it was awesome. I was on a 7M and a 5-5 surfboard at Waco. Most fun day so far this year.

[matthewp]

I rode the French Park launch of Medicine Lake. I was on a 5.0 then a 6.5. Pretty good if a little gusty. I made the mistake of wearing a full wet suit. I was a tad warm.

The weeds were pretty intense, I spent a lot of the day battling them. They seemed to reach and try to pull you down during waterstarts!

[peterrib]

In 1988 I didn't know anything about kiting or windsurfing, though I had watched a couple pole boarders
and was keenly interested. I had 3 outdoor magic shows to do at River Fest one day that summer and my rabbits
died in the heat before the 1st show. We should have been on the water.
Peter

[JRN]

IN THE WINTER OF '87, Pam & I had returned from a Carrribean Cruise. We tried windsurfing near Barbados, getting frustrated, uphauling & falling off the skinny boards of that era. We vowed to take lessons that spring. Back then, the Hobie dealer, HiTempo, gave lessons. A skinny dude named Brian, got us started on land simulators. The board was mounted on a gimbal, so it moved in a circle according to the wind direction and position of the sail. I remember it was blazing hot that day, and was relieved to get on the water. We climbed aboard the cutting edge Klepper sailboards, and after many failed attempts, we were off. I thought something was wrong. The rest of the fleet of 12 foot tankers, were off in one direction, while mine was going another. For a rare instance in my windsport pursuits, I was the only one staying up wind! An issue that still haunts me to this day.

[Chris Lock]

Bummed that i missed it, cuz i have great memories of 88.
A gigantic bermuda high had parked itself over the southeast u.s causing the jetstream to roar right overhead minnesota almost every day that summer. We had something like 40 plus straight days of above 90 temps during one of those drought years. Incredible heat, it seemed that on those days when it got above 100, the harder the wind blew the hotter it got, like windchill in reverse.

I remember sailing a 5.7 several times a week - in july no less - on a nine foot hy-per tech that i had just bought. I had just discovered waconia after slogging around on calhoun for a couple years and thought i had died and gone to heaven.

Get up, go to the lake, sail yourself silly, chill out and have frosty one on the massive sand flats where the lake used be, sleep. Repeat. Like clockwork every day. Dang, good times.

Been chasing the dragon ever since.

[Paul F]

It is very fuzzy. Only a couple of things stand out. I remember the drought being so bad that we actually parked our cars on the dry lake bed of Waconia. I also remember when Bingen Bart had a shop in Bingen and Teran from the Sailboard Warehouse transferred there.