Windsurfing, sailing, surfsailing, sailboarding... lots of different names to describe the thing we love. Europeans often refer to it as surfing, which I've never quite understood, especially when done on lakes. Hailing from California, surfing to me has always been about the ocean and waves. I guess when you don't live near the ocean, surfing might take on a different meaning. While winter in California produces lots of waves, it also produdes little or no sailable wind, so The Human Catapult and I decided to venture east away from the waves and windlessness of California to do some real lake surfing.
Lake Mojave (Mohave), part of the Colorado River, lies just south of Lake Mead and the Hoover dam and makes up the border between Nevada and Arizona. Cabinsite Point on the Arizona side seems to be the preferred launch spot on a north wind, although you can also sail the lake on a south. Cabinsite Cove is also known for other reasons.
This place is so cool! I don't know if it's the craggy red rocks that make up the hillside, the crystal clear water, the flat water inside the cove, or the fact that there's actually wind in the winter... this place is just beautiful and so different than what I'm used to and a real treat. A weekly pass to the park costs just $10, and you can find a hotel in town for $25 if you don't feel like camping.
Although the awesome forecast never came to fruition, we did get some wind and met up with an old friend and met some new ones as well. We'll be back.
Fun little day enjoying the wind at Ocean Beach. The wind was light onshore at about 10 knots, and I used a Simmer Blacktip 4.8 on an excellent board that I won at a raffle at the US Windsurfing National Championship in 2010. A negative tide works best as the wind is a little bit cross-onshore, so you need a little bit more hardpack sand beach to get going and give you more angles to work with. This day was about a +1ft tide, and the hardpack was pretty narrow... starboard tack was a few degrees off the wind and you could go as fast as you wanted (a few speed wobbles at times), but coming back up the beach on port was a little more difficult with an angle into the wind. Waiting for the next low tide day with some wind!
US Windsurfing National Championship kicked off today in Berkeley with three Formula races in 25 knots of breeze. Tomorrow sees the possible start of slalom racing with freestyle slated for a Thursday start.
Above picture taken with my iPhone through one lens of the CSC binoculars.
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US Windsurfing National Championship kicked off today in Berkeley with three Formula races in 25 knots of breeze. Tomorrow sees the possible start of slalom racing with freestyle slated for a Thursday start.
Above picture taken with my iPhone through one lens of the CSC binoculars. 
