the Atlanta Boardsailing Club
windsurfing, kiteboarding and wingsurfing in the Southeast

What better way than to get ready for the coming winds of fall than a good movie? The Windsurfing Movie II takes Levi Siver and Kai Lenny on a windsurfing odyssey. It came out in 2010 but it's now available on Red Bull TV.

The Windsurfing Movie II on Redbull.tv
Tech note: The movie didn't play well with Firefox but was fine with Chrome.

Fall Classic and Nags Head

Any local windsurfer knows that we spend August mostly waiting for September. Unless you are lucky enough to travel someplace windy, the most windsurfing-ish activity you can do is repair those nicks in your fins and dings in your boards.Since I've got plenty of my own to work on (nicks and dings), I should be busy for another couple of weeks. Labor Day is always a decent rough guide to the windy season. The days will cool. The weather patterns will slowly change. Before we know it, we'll be cursing the cold and enjoying the wind.

Each fall there are some important events and happenings to keep in mind.

or how I took a left turn at Albuquerque on the way to the Gorge

"Wind and water," Marek said more than once. "The Gorge is all wind and water." When he'd found out that I was planning to spend a week in the Portland/Gorge area in early June, he was kind enough to reach out to me more than a few times with invitations, advice and encouragement. Marek, being smarter than me, doesn't spend all summer whining about the wind but actually spends time in a place where 3 meter sails and 70 liter boards are not only used but used frequently. As Marek predicted, I would find plenty of wind and water on my trip.

Back last fall, a good friend from college had come to Atlanta and met me for breakfast. We began talking and before I realized it, I'd been talked into climbing a really big hill. "It'll be fun," he said. "And, at our age we won't have that many more opportunities to do something like this." This hill is near another hill he'd climbed the previous summer with another close friend of mine. Together with some other friends, they decided it was so much fun, they'd do it again and wanted me to come along.

Summer is upon us. There's a lot less wind and more idle time. It's a dangerous and expensive time.

Summer is when you will make you most optimistic purchases: the gear you use once a decade. With light winds are you looking for a 9.5 sail? Are you bringing the old Mistral One Design out from the piles of stuff in the garage and sailing around in light air? Are you studying the latest trends in light air weapons - foils and super wide boards?

Optimism isn't always a good idea.