Annapo Hinckley Flybridge picnic boat headed out for duty
with rescued fin
decent lefty forming
Only going to take "On The Water" credit for 3 days, as conditions were too crappy to do much with a board the first few days. But on Weds the breeze switched to offshore and things got lovely. Caught a few lefties and exhausted myself...have to keep reminding the dim brain I am not 25 anymore.
Example: first time out, I had paddled past the break zone and thought I was well outside. While trying to put on my 2nd fin, I didn't notice that Bombora, the 9th Wave, was setting up outside. It was too late to duck-dive it and I got completely clobbered and lost one of my fins! Looked around in the wash for 10 minutes, came in completely bummed (I love this set of fins) and then went back out to look past the break zone. Nothin. Zilch. Nada. Then, walking back to our spot on the beach, I glanced at few folks from the surf school waiting for waves outside, and one guy all of a sudden pulled a fin out of the water and held it up!
A freakin' miracle!
Completely unexpected was the fact that the Opti Nationals were being hosted 2.5 blocks away from our beach house by Little Egg Harbor YC and there were over 300 boats registered and competing. I had nothing to do with the event other than being a curious onlooker and tourist. But it was very cool to see so many kids and so many boats, especially in the morning when they launched and went out to their respective circles. Stuff like this makes me think, hmmm...maybe sailing is NOT dead!