Sunset Sailboards San Francisco

Well, that was weird.  The NW wind that we normally get in May (but didn't get this year) decided to visit us in mid-June.  The 3rd Ave Channel sensor was reading in the 30's by 1pm, and it was ebbing, so my decision was easy:  go to 3rd and hope that my 4.2 was going to be small enough.  

I got there, and it was nuking... the kind of day where everybody is on a 4.2, or whatever their small sail is.  Some were lucky enough to have 3.5's and 3.7's.  I had emptied out some of the gear from my van to make room for deliveries, and so I didn't have my small wave board, and I had just sold my 3.7 the day before, so 4.2 and 81l New Wave it was for me.

Of course, the wind all but crapped out by the time I hit the water.  I slogged all the way to the channel, slowly bobbing over the transition between the brown water of the shallows and the green water of the deep water channel.  I finally got on a plane once in the channel, and it was solid 4.2  The water was pretty confused... some good hucking ramps on port, but it was nice and smooth and swelly on starboard.  I sailed out in the channel for about 30 minutes, but I didn't want to get stuck out there, so I did a test run back to the launch and planed about 3/4 of the way back.  I decided to call it a day and not risk getting stranded out in the channel.

Some more familiar faces showed up, and it looked like the wind had filled in again, so I went back out.  This time, the wind had guts.  The water got that fuzzy texture, and it felt like sailing on granola... totally OP'd and hanging on.  I stayed on the inside, and there were some good hucking ramps, but after awhile I called it a day so as to save my bad elbow.

Here's a little vid of Arnout Ter Schure before I went out: