January _____________________________________________ _2003
http://www.triadwindsurfing.com
What’s
Going On:
1)
A Big Congratulations to club member Jim Drake –
Jim was voted into the PWA Hall of Fame for 2002. Jim was inducted into the Hall of Fame for inventing the first windsurfer in 1967. See last month’s newsletter for a new member profile on Jim. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame along with Robby Naish and Hoyle Schweitzer.
Also, check out the most recent issue of Windsurfing Magazine. Jim is featured in a couple of articles related to the origin of windsurfing and the new Starboard Hypersonic board which he helped design. The Hypersonic is generating a great deal of buzz for its revolutionary design and performance. Jim’s take on the Hypersonic board technology is also featured on Windsurfing Magazine’s web site: http://www.windsurfingmag.com/WR_Main/1,2230,8-1-1-7195-531-101,00.html
2) A big thank you to Karol and Val Wolicki for hosting the
club Christmas party at their house on Friday, December 6th.
Unfortunately, the ice storm affected attendance. But those that were able to
make it had a great time. Karol and Val’s always warm hospitality was greatly
appreciated.
3) Attached is the latest club member list. Please send your 2003 club dues to Keny Kirschstein, our club Treasurer. Keny’s contact info is 854-9057 keny@elsouth.com . You can mail your check to Keny, made out to Triad Windsurfing, at 3102 Ardoch Court, Greensboro, NC 27410. Please don’t delay.
4) 2003 Club Trip Dates – Emerald Isle, NC
Spring – May 2-4
Fall – September 26-28
5) The club web site is being updated with a fresh cover page, complete with a link to the newsletter section and equipment for sale. Tell your friends about our site. If you have some good windsurfing photos for the web site, please send them in “jpeg” format to Jason Wohlgemuth, Club WebMaster, at jason@wohlgem.com , or to Mac Barnhardt at mbarnhardt@triad.rr.com. Feel free to send us suggestions for the site.
Club President – Don Wrenn 869-6256 iidbis@mindspring.com
Club Vice-President – Karol Wolicki 545-8391 ktwdoctor@aol.com
Newsletter Editor – Mac
Barnhardt 545-6355
Send all stories, reports,
pictures, and whatever to: mbarnhardt@triad.rr.com.
Club Treasurer/Secretary –
Keny Kirschtein 854-9057 keny@elsouth.com
Trip Coordinator – Debbie
Wrenn 869-6256 iidbis@mindspring.com
- Equipment For Sale -
1) NEW
DaKine XL Waist Harness (black) with back support straps & Reactor bar: $80
Used once: 2000 North Volcano 5.8 sail, no
cams.....$250
Used once: North mast 430/21, 30% carbon....$150
1996 Powerex Constant curve mast
460/25........$50
1996 World 5.5 Slalom Sail........$95
Contact Doug Kon
- work 774-1767, home 768-8568, email: dougkon@triad.rr.com
2) 2000
7.5 Neil Pryde V-8 / Excellent condition / paid $640 new / selling for $320
Contact Jeff Shanklin 887-4928
3) All
gear fits in a durable padded canvas bag designed for two boards and
gear. Willing to sell all at once for $1400, or in pieces which leave
compatible sets intact.
Inventory
Description
Specs
Condition
Masts
1.ART Wave Pro Carbon Custom Curve
410CM,IMCS21 ex
2.Fiber Spar Tidal Wave Carbon 430CM,IMCS
25/21 w/case ex
3.Neilpryde Carbon Kevlar CK95 490CM,IMCS
28 w/case ex
Sails
1.Neilpride
Combat
3.3
new
2.Neilpride Combat
Wave
3.7 ex
3.Neilpride
VX2
6.8
ex
4.Ezzy
Transformer
5.3
good
5.Ezzy
Transformer
4.2
ex
6.Ezzy
Transformer
4.7
ex
Booms
1.Neilpride
200-240
good
2.Neilpride
180-220
good
3.Neilpride
160-200
good
Boards
1.F2
255c good
2.HiFly
RC 274L
54w good
No fins or boots Contact Bob Kober Wk
336.812.8801 HM
336.665.0770
bkober@bizlife.com
4) Mistral
Explosion 288, 130 lts., Good Condition, $200.00
Includes fin and footstraps.
Contact David Lee at
336-662-9646 or email dlee@compuconusa.com
5) 1990 Fanatic Ultracat (According to Jim, you won’t believe the
price! It comes with it’s own board bag, cool graphics, great shape with no
dings, and you’ll get a free beer!)
Contact Jim at
336-969-6141 to check out the board
6) 98
Pro Tech Convertible 273 93 lts. Good
Condition
board, board bag, & fin $400
94 Mistral Shredder 298 128 lts VGC
board, board bag,
fin, & mast foot $400
Contact Don Wrenn 869-6256 iidbis@mindspring.com
7) Fanatic Mega-Cat board; 250 litres flotation, in great shape, $350.00
North Sail; Infinity, 6.0 meters, good shape,
$55.00
North Sail; Spectro, 7.0 meters, good shape,
$75.00
Gastra Sail; 8.0 meters, like new, $50.00
Contact David Johnson, xantos@ols.net
, 727-5174 (day), 983-3606 (night)
8)1999 Neil Pryde Sails-
4.7NR (Like New)
$250
5.3MPR (Like New) $250
5.7MPR (Great Condition)
$225
6.5V8 (Good Condition)
$200
7.0V8 (Like New) $300
7.5V8 (Fair Condition)
$150
1999 Neil Pryde Masts
(Fiberspar)…
430CM (55% carbon) $125
490CM (55% carbon) $150
Call Keny Kirschtein
854-9057 or email keny@elsouth.net
9) F2 Ride 282 – great slalom free ride shortboard in
excellent condition, early planer, and very fast. Volume is 115 liters. Board,
Board Bag, straps & fin - $600
F2 Phoenix 340 – great lake
& coastal sound longboard, can pull up centerboard to sail like a
shortboard in heavier winds. Excellent condition – Board, Board Bag, straps,
and fin - $600
World Sails 5.6 sail $200 –
This is a great sail for slalom, bump & jump, or waves. It has an optional
camber for those gusty days, has a lot of range, and is in excellent condition.
Call Mac Barnhardt at
545-6355 or email mbarnhardt@triad.rr.com.
If you have equipment for sale that you want listed in the newsletter, send Mac Barnhardt the details via email mbarnhardt@triad.rr.com.
- Web Site Profile -
Major news alert!!!! - I
finally got a trip report about one of Keny’s trips.
For those of you who don’t
know who or what I’m talking about, Keny Kirschstein is the one club member who
has been to the most interesting places to sail. Maui, Aruba, Margarita,
Australia, and Cabarete are just a few places Keny has gone to windsurf. I
always try to get Keny to send me a write-up for the newsletter about his
trips, but to no avail. Keny likes to brag about his trips. I know he really
does it all in the spirit of good fun, but his last email to all the club
members sent some folks over the edge. It went something like this:
“Just wanted to take a moment to complain to
some people that would understand. I just finished my ninth day of windsurfing
in Brazil, and I am so tired I can't go on.
I knew you all would understand because I am sure you have been in the
same situation. Today it was about 90 degrees, clear blue skies, water
temperature in the 80's. I was on a 4.2
all day long in mast high waves. The
waves were slow so it was easy to get 6 to 10 bottom turns on every wave. It was just too much for 9 days in a row.
I can't wait to
get home to Belews Creek and 7.5 sails
Best Regards,
Keny...”
There were some good
natured replies, such as this one from David Brown:
“Dear Keny:
You poor suffering bastard! I really feel for you and I'm
sure so do the other members of Club Belews. If you are really lucky, you'll
hit your head on a rock while crawling home from some all-night drinking binge
and forget this ever happened to you.
Meanwhile those of us who know you here will never bring it up in an effort
to help you along.”
You tell him, Dave!
After all, Keny was getting
to sail in Brazil and we weren’t. It was that plain and simple. My thought
process is if you’re going to brag about it, at least give us the gory details.
If you’re the masochist type, that just makes it all better. Are we jealous?
Absolutely! But somebody has to do it, it might as well be Keny.
Before you get too excited,
Keny didn’t actually send me a trip report. Since I can’t seem to finagle a
trip write-up from Keny’s permanently boom-curled hands, I had to go to other
sources. Keny’s trip was organized by Eric Sanford, a former WINDSURFING
MAGAZINE editor. Eric is known as “Dr. Fun” after his many extreme sports
exploits and quests for adrenaline fun. He is now organizing several awesome
group windsurfing trips each year to Brazil, Margarita, Hood River, Baja, Costa
Rica, St Lucia/Grenadines, and Belize. You can get more details on these trips
at:
For a detailed day-by-day
report (with photos) on Keny’s trip, go to:
http://www.docfuntrips.com/Brazil-2002/brazil-2002-2-day-1.html
On a trip down to Florida before Christmas to visit my parents, I decided to bring my gear with the hope that it might blow a day or two for me. I was down around the Ft Myers Beach area, and I had heard about the Sanibel causeway as a place that a lot of people sail. The weather was great (in the 70’s), but unfortunately for windsurfing, there was not much wind the whole week. The good news was that I had a great week of fishing in Port Charlotte and the Gulf, and on the last day I was there, a very nice NW front decided to blow through.
Before heading out to sail, I stopped at the one sail shop nearby, Ace Performer. The shop does not carry a wide variety of new equipment (as compared to a Hatteras shop), but did have most anything you might need. The shop also has sit on tops and ocean kayaks, and provides rentals for windsurfing, kite boarding and kayaking. I found out that around 2:00 on windy days the shop closes down if there is wind, and the owner has a van full of equipment that he can set you up with if you do not have your own stuff.
When I arrived at the Causeway around 11:00 the front was coming through and some good rain was coming down. The wind was blowing a good 6.1m sail and I quickly rigged to get about 30 minutes on the water. Although the water was a little cold, I only needed a shorty. Once the rain stopped the wind calmed to a 7.5-8.0 for the next hour and half. I was powered on my 8.0, 140 liter board. The water on the North side of the first island (where most people sail on a NW) was shallow in spots, but not to the point where I was concerned about a fin crash. Between the shallow areas, the water at high tide was above my head in many places. Of course I only know this after attempting a few triple loops and falling in the water, not being able to hit every one of them. The wind kicked back up and I was back to sailing the 6.1m on my 100 liter board. There was a point where I was a little over powered but I stayed with the sail, and it ended up being the right sail for the rest of the day until about 30 minutes before sunset.
On this day there were about 25 people sailing at the causeway, and I would say that around 10 were kite surfing. The causeway is a pretty open area and makes a pretty good area to kite. This time of year is not the best for predictable wind, and most of the sailors will tell you that the wind is mostly driven by fronts and a little luck. However, February and March are said to be very good months to sail at Sanibel, and there appears to be a group that is big into racing on the weekends. Although I only ended up with one day of sailing, it was well worth the drive and being able to sail somewhere new. It does not come close to beating Hatteras, but it is a fun place to sail and the people I met were very friendly.
Anatomy of a Road Trip
By Mac Barnhardt
It starts with an email to
a few folks. From there, the anticipation builds. The whole week, there are ups
and downs as the forecast continually changes. Will it blow on Saturday or
Sunday? It all starts because of a forecast that says something about the high
pressure currently sitting over the area all week will move offshore by the
weekend. I’m no weather expert, but I learned a while back that a high pressure
that sits offshore of the Carolinas can produce some warm southwest winds.
Imagine a November day with 70 degree sunny weather and warm wind in the 20mph
range. That’s what gets the anticipation building.
By Friday night, it
appeared that Sunday would be the best day as the moving high pressure had
slowed down a bit. The club members break up into contenders or pretenders when
they realize the conditions will be best on the Outer Banks. Things are said
like, “You guys are crazy” or “I’m not feeling too good”. My favorite is “My
mommy won’t let me go”. A day trip to the Wilmington area has never really been
a big deal. Neither has the Emerald Isle area. The Outer Banks takes a little
longer to get to and that makes a day trip a bit tougher to do. Well let me
tell you – if you have 24 hours, a day trip to the Outer Banks is no big deal.
As it turns out, Rob
Cornwell and myself were the final ones to go. We left on Saturday night from
my house after I helped put the kids to bed. We drove 3 ½ hours to Plymouth and
spent the night in a cheap motel. We found a $40 room at the Pine Tree Motel.
It was no Ritz Carlton, but provided the only necessity needed – a bed. We were
up at 7am and out the door for the remaining 1 ½ hour drive to Waves, where we
were the first to arrive at Hatteras Island Sail Shop’s parking lot. As it
turns out, we didn’t get the forecasted 20-25 kts. We got more like 15-20 kts,
but we still sailed all afternoon and had a great time. It was November 10, it
was in the low 70s, we were wearing our shorties, and we were sailing in the
Outer Banks. There were no complaints. We started our way home at sunset, made
a couple of pit stops, drank some caffeine, and were home in no time. The
sunset on the way out was spectacular. There is no sunset like an Outer Banks
sunset. Big kudos to Rob, for driving from Charlotte to meet me in Greensboro,
then drove back to Charlotte the next day!
There will be more day
trips to come. If anyone is up for a day trip or knows of an upcoming weekend
where they’re open to going sailing (whether it’s at Belews Lake or at the
coast), post a message on our web site’s forum page. Then more folks will know
when others are going. It’s definitely more fun to sail with your friends.