Greetings from Amelia Island. Last time I surfed the ocean was inside the sandbar at St. Simons and I could do it without worrying about breaking my equipment. Now, faced with a nice, mild surf break, does anyone have any advice as to how not to break my stuff? I think I'll head up straight up into the wave face and not at an angle to avoid a wipeout. My plan is to get out beyond the surf. Tomorrow the forecast for this area is 10-20 from the East.
Thanks for any comments...
Mimi
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Mimi
Drive the 15 minutes south to Hugenot Park. If the tide is right the whole family can have a blast in the pond learning new stuff. If they want surf just walk out to the beach. The jetties are fun as well as the sights of the ships leaving.
The tides look like you will have water from about noon until 3. It will drop fast and you will be amazed at how fast the pond can go from full to almost empty. If you get a north or south wind you can still sail if it is empty.
If you are tempted to get in the river be careful. It can get nasty with the swells and boat traffic.
If you are determined to sail Fernandina you can go north slightly to the park and the long jetty may cut down some waves if the wind is slightly north.
Advice on surf? I don't do it. I always break stuff. It is that simple for me. If it is windy enough to sail the chop is big enough to break my stuff. I just don't do it.
Have fun and find some sharks teeth.
Alan
Ditto Alan's comments re: surf. I broke a mast and trashed a favorite sail on that beach. Straight on shore makes it tough since you can't make a very good angle to get out. If the tide (low-ish) and beach profile (sandbar) are right, you might be able to sneak out in a straight on-shore breeze. Keep the nose up through the white water. Side-on is a lot easier. Don't go in any kind of off-shore (but you already knew that, right)... next stop Africa.
Ditto also on the shark's teeth. Once you get the knack for it, you'll find hundreds of 'em at Amelia. Christopher is an expert. Cheers...
cv
Hey Alan and Chris,
Thanks for the info! Just checked the forum after a delicious night walk on the beach complete with an almost full moon on the water and salt spray...
Well, we already got into finding the sharks teeth, makes me nervous to know they are out there (sharks), but we only have been seeing dolphins so far. Well, today I finally made it to windsurf from a nearby park, I don't think it was Hugenot. We will check that out tomorrow and will bring boards for everyone on Alan's advice. There's a huge sandbar according to what I saw on Google earth. Well guess what. I was determined to make it out so, I rigged my 5.8 Ezzy Waveand put masking tape on the seams where the mast parts come together (glad I did that!). Well, since the wind was straight on shore, it helped flatten the surf a bit. After a few attempts I kept the nose up on the board and made it out beyond the shore break. A little tricky as it was straight on shore. By that time it was rumbling thunder so I sailed parallel to the beach a few times and it was a blast. Really hard to tack, though because it was choppy. I didn't even want to attempt a jibe of any sort... Man I was beat quite fast, probably because I was worried about falling while tacking and timing the approaching thunderstorm. Didn't have a helmet on and don't like sailing alone. I fell a few times and couldn't water start because the chop kept digging into the clew side of the sail. I love that MADD 138. Climbed up on it and uphauled. The best part was surfing back in thru the waves! So cool. There were 2 women on the beach that greeted me with applause:) They thought it was so cool. So did Francisco and the kids... Got to surf (surfboard only) later and that was really fun too. Let's see how it goes tomorrow. Wish you were all here to sail with me.
Mimi
Mimi
Hey Mimi - interesting to read your report. Sounds like a pretty fun experience for you. Makes me think of some of my initial experiences sailing in a surf environment. It's fortunate that you have good skills at tacking and uphauling, as both of these especially the latter can be super difficult in ocean chop and swell. Still, if you want to avoid getting trashed, you need to be able to waterstart quickly and consistently and also have a reliable pivot jibe. Nuff said. Kudos - CP.
Yesterday and today we had pretty nasty surf with red flags and all with 10-25 mph winds and some rain on and off. Today I made it out to Hugenot. It was a zoo with 4th of July crowds not unlike Galts when full but the people are twice as large for some reason... Some kiters and windsurfers were out there. I rigged up and ripped up the place but we were with another family and everyone didn't like it there except me, obviously. I was content not to sail alone. So after a few runs, I had to go. Too bad, since I had planned on working on my jibes since the wind was strong. Oh well. Later on we walked to the north end of the island (Amelia) and just at the pier, there was an area of beach that didn't get the huge surf. Maybe that would be a good place to sail these next days if it doesn't calm down. It's in Fort Clinch, a pretty big state park right next to where we are staying. Will let you know about it if all goes well. Chris P., I saw a guy that had just started windsurfing again after many years and he had an E Rock that looks just like yours (...and mine except for the graphics). Later, Mimi
Mimi
try big talbot state park
not little talbot state park
I'd be interestested in any scoop on surfsailing @ Fort Clinch, since I have often thought that might be a pretty good spot. Phillip - are you talking about that spot on the south side of the inlet? Big jetty coming off the island just to the north?
Hey Chris,
Had a great day today at Ft Clinch. You go into the park for $5 a car and drive up close to the north end of Amelia Island to the pier. It's quite a haul to carry your board over the boardwalk (npi). I had to make a second trip with mast, boom and sail. You end up at the beach and go under the pier. There's a jetty that runs along the pier so you don't get the surf bashing so it's like a semi protected bay. I rigged up my 5.8 again on a bed of dried up sea grass and it was easy to get out and fun to sail in the swells. I was sailing closer to shore since I was alone and there were signs all over the beach warning of strong currents. Not too far off the very long pier were channel markers and further in the background is Cumberland Island. A friend of mine said that he saw windsurfers at my spot earlier that day. There was a guy that came in on a jet ski and I saw a smaller sailboat, perhaps a Cat but it was out in the channel. So I sailed quite a bit, practicing jibes in the swells, tacks are fine. I'm stoked.
Mimi
Mimi - Wasn't it a great 3 days !!! I was north of you by a few hours but much the same conditions except I was plenty powered on a 5.3. for you next adventure into the shore break - - - once you beach start, bear off to build speed. plant your front foot firmly against the back of the mast and place the back foot just in front of the back strap(s). again, bear off and go fast. as the white water approaches, weight the back foot and turn the nose of the board into the wave. if it's a big chunk of shore break, you'll need to weight the front foot and lighten up on the back foot immediately after the nose clears the leading edge of the wave. bear off some more to regain speed and keep repeating until you punch through. if you keep the back foot over-weighted, you'll start to plow and can't build speed and will set yourself up for nasty backwards activity. also, keeping the nose up too high presents too much of the board's underside to the more powerful part of the wave and invites a tail stand and fall off the back side. the white water is 50% air so you don't need to worry too much about it - just use that front leg to level out quickly after passing the lip. (lots of sharks last week just before the front got here - i counted 18 in 3 days. we be happy they don't have an appetite for windsurfers. those small kite boards - that's another story . . .)
one more thing - it also helps to stay low when punching thru the shorebreak. when i hit the wave i'm usually below the boom then stand up somewhat when i clear and bear off. hardly ever get into an erect sailing stance until clear of the breaking stuff.
Not that it will help you for your trip, but Peter Hart has a wave video that is good for developing techniques in the surf. I can loan it to you if interested. Its in the Windsurf library. pk
Hey TC is that you Tim? Where are you sailing, St. Simons? Thank you soooooo much for the tips. Your advice is perfect for this shore break and you bet I'll apply everything you mentioned next time out. Chris P., I got some good pics of me sailing at Ft. Clinch to give you an idea of what it's like there. I hope the wind picks up today since tomorrow we have to leave...
Mimi
It is Tim. Sailing in Hilton Head mostly since that's the 'home court' for the past couple of years. Also sailing at Tybee some - especially when the O'Leary clan is there. Ocean sailing has been a real tonic with new challenges and experiences to keep me humble and entertained. Be careful getting into the ocean sailing - it's addictive !!! Have funs...