Monday, June 15, 2020

Windsurfing at Coyote Point

After many months of closure due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the Coyote Point Park in San Mateo (my default windsurfing destination) re-opened on June 15th.

As Coyote Point is much closer to my home (usually a 45-minute car ride vs a 90-minute ride to Sherman Island), I was eager to reclaim at least a small part of my rapidly fading windsurfing season.

With iwindsurf.com predicting heavy winds on June 15th, I drove to Coyote Point in the late afternoon and rigged an Ezzy Elite 5.0 sail for my Fanatic 105-liter Freewave Stubby (using the smaller 30-cm single fin). Other sailors were already out there, some on 4.5m sails and others on larger sails. From short discussions, the wind in the channel was much more robust, with large ramps, but weak on the inside (near the shore).


I headed out for my first session and encountered strong, gusty NW winds after slogging to the channel. I rapidly started planning, experiencing huge ramps. I proceeded to have a series of unending jumps until I figured out how to avoid the large ramps (by quick turns).

I captured some of the finer moments in my GoPro Hero7 Black video:



I had a fantastic, exhilarating day of windsurfing! It was so much fun. Best of all, I was not even slightly tired after an hour of sailing.

I attempted one jibe but failed in the heavy wind and swell. 

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